Folio, Folio, wherefore art thou Folio? Shakespeare set to be auctioned by Sotheby's

Imagine a world without swagger. An arrogant man would walk confidently and without shame and he would simply… walk. Or without blushing. When your office crush complimented you on a particularly chic outfit, what would you do then? Now, picture a world without courtship. Yes. It is almost too frightful to imagine.

Luckily, you don’t have to live like this — you can swagger around courting whoever you fancy while blushing to your heart's content. But only because the First Folio was published. Without this, arguably the most significant publication in the history of the literary canon, up to half of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost, and with it many of the remarkable words he is credited with inventing, including: swagger, blushing and courtship. They also include: outbreak, addiction, gossip, torture and puking, so arguably we could have had a much more pleasant world without it too.

Nevertheless, the First Folio, published in 1623, less than a decade after its author's death, is invaluable in what it has given both English language and literature. And now, all four Shakespeare Folios will be up for auction courtesy of Sotheby's in London on May 23, with an estimate of £3.5-£4.5 million — made the year the set was brought together.

Before that, the First, Third and Fourth Folios had been together, having been purchased separately by Sir George Augustus William Shuckburgh-Evelyn. A man who, you’d be forgiven for thinking, couldn’t possibly have had a longer and more complex job description than his name. But you'd be wrong. He was a bibliophilic polymath who pioneered the barometric measurements of altitude and invented a new way of calculating the standard length of a yard. In short he loved two things – books and measuring things — and he loved them a lot.

In fact, I bet, if he were alive today, he would be chomping at the bit at the concept of owning a set of all four of the Folios. The last time this was offered was at Sotheby's in New York in 1989 and — after this year's auction — I imagine it is unlikely that the lucky winner will wish to part with their collection for a while to come. Needless to say, it’s an opportunity that does not come round very often.

The combined works were published between 1623-1685. Around 750 copies of the First Folio were published, and these were exhausted within 10 years, leading to the publication of — you’ve guessed it — the Second Folio in 1632. The two decades that came next saw most of the theatres shut for many years due to a series of unfortunate events that included the civil war, the plague and the opinions of Puritans.

However, this did not dent the mass appeal of Shakespeare’s works. Thus, the Third Folio appeared in 1664 with the addition of seven further plays (although one of them was Pericles, which, personally, I could have lived without) and a fourth followed in 1685.

The Folios, in their physical manifestation, are the bulky proof that Shakespeare was not a poet writing for an aristocratic elite, but a commercial playwright whose work was published in bulk and enjoyed by the masses.

The First Folio contains 36 plays, 18 of them printed for the very first time. Without it, we may not have many of his beloved plays today, including: Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, As You Like It, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night. Iconic lines could have been lost forever. ‘Et tu, Brute?’ (Julius Caesar) would remain a line un-uttered. ‘Out damn spot’ (Macbeth) would be lost to the past. ‘Your bum is the greatest thing about you’ (Measure for Measure) also forgotten. And wouldn’t that have been a shame.

The Sotheby’s auction will take place on 23 May. Visit their website for more information.