For what it's worth

It's been 400 years since Shakespeare's First Folio was published, and unbeknown to many, a copy lies in Auckland's main public library

- PAUL LITTLE

THE BOOK OF HIS GOOD ACTS
Coriolanus 5.2.20

Take the escalator to the second floor of Auckland Central Library, turn left and you'll probably walk right past one of the world's most valuable and important books. Displayed inconspicuously in a glass case is a copy of the 1623 Shakespeare First Folio, containing pretty much all his plays. Shakespeare was seven years dead when Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. "Folio" refers to the size of the book, roughly 31cm x 21cm.

Its presence here raises questions about matters that might seem as far from Shakespeare as the book is from its place and time of origin - about how we treat artefacts, how we assign value to culture, a possibly dark imperialist purpose, the role of libraries, and indeed whether a public institution should own an item worth up to $16 million when so many people - at least half of those spoken to in the course of writing this - don't even know it's there.

The Auckland library's folio was the gift in 1894 of former governor and prime minister Sir George Grey, who paid £85 for his copy.

The initial project was driven by John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors from Shakespeare's company who would have known the writer and appeared in his plays. We have no Shakespeare manuscripts of any kind. And at that time, plays were seldom published.

That this occurred in Shakespeare's case is testament not just to the esteem in which his work was held, but also to its perceived commercial potential. The close connection between poetry and profit was important to Shakespeare, a famously shrewd businessman who invested energetically and died wealthy.