School pupils view Shakespeare's First Folio at Wadham

Wadham's Librarian, Tim Kirtley, and Dr Tom Sinclair, our Philosophy Tutor, hosted the session at our College in June. It took place shortly before the 'Spires Speaks Shakespeare' reading competition at Oxford Spires Academy, so was excellent preparation for the children who were taking part.

Tim spoke to the pupils about how and when the First Folio came about; how it was put together, and by whom. He also told them about the book's significance and even its worth, ('...you would need to save your pocket money for a long time if you wanted to buy it!') Tim talked about some of the unique features of Wadham's particular copy of the First Folio. He said a few words too about the theatre of the time, showing the children the contemporary (1596) drawing of the Swan Theatre by the Dutch tourist visiting London, Johannes de Witt.

The group did a practical exercise where they had to come prepared with an 8-word sentence already in their minds: they each had an A3 sheet of paper which Tim asked them to fold once to create a 4-page folio-sized book, and then to fold again to make an 8-page quarto sized book. He asked them to write the eight words of their sentence in sequence, one word per page. They then had to tear along the folds, almost but not quite to the spine. When the pupils unfolded the paper back to a single A3 sheet, they saw that the words were aligned differently, some upside down, in each 'page area' of the unfolded paper - thus giving them an idea as to how the printers of the First Folio had to align the text so that it all came together when printed, folded and cut.

Some examples of some of the 8-word sentences are:

• There once was a golden goose named Gerald
• I ate a slimy donkey for breakfast today
• Strange pickle wrapped up in a warm blanket
• I like giant pigs that have giant piglets
• The silhouette of a stag is very beautiful

The children were able to come up and look closely at our First Folio. Some looked at the particular soliloquy that they would be reading in the competition the following day. Tim printed out photographs of each soliloquy so that the pupils could handle them and look very closely at an image of the text.

Tim took questions throughout the session as they came up. There were so many that he found it hard to get through the session because there were almost constant hand-ups for questions! Tim designed a bookmark that each child could take away as a keepsake with a few facts about Shakespeare on the back. Thank you to our Assistant Librarian, Ikhlas Osman, for this excellent idea. Thanks too to William Parry, our Individual Giving Manager, who helped Tim to organise the day.

The children left Wadham after refreshments in the Dining Hall, and we hope they enjoyed their time with us as much as we did.