The New Hudson Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
FOLIOS
On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard obtained formal license to print "Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes, soe many of the said copies as are not formerly entered to other men." This is the description-entry in _The Stationers' Registers_ of what is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the textual notes of this edition F1. _Julius Cæsar_ is one of the plays "not formerly entered,"[1] and it was first printed, so far as is known, in this famous volume. It is more correctly printed than perhaps any other play in the First Folio and, as the editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare suggest, "may perhaps have been (as the preface falsely implied that all were[2]) printed from the original manuscript of the author."[3] It stands between _Timon of Athens_ and _Macbeth_, two very badly printed plays. The running title is _The Tragedie of Julius Cæsar_, but in the "Catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies contained in this Volume," the title is given as _The Life and Death of Julius Cæsar_. The Second Folio, F2 (1632), the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), and the Fourth Folio, F4 (1685), show few variants in the text of _Julius Cæsar_ and none of importance. In 1691 _Julius Cæsar_ appeared in quarto form. This Quarto contained one famous text variant, 'hath' for 'path' in II, i, 83. Though the Folio text here offers difficulties, and modern editors have suggested many emendations, no one has been inclined to accept the commonplace reading of the Quarto.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.