William Shakespeare was baptized on 26 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616.

Of the 36 plays in the First Folio, 17 were printed in Shakespeare's lifetime in various good and bad quarto editions, one was printed after his death and 18 had not yet been printed at all. It is this fact that makes the First Folio so important; without it, 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and The Tempest, might never have survived. 

Shakespeare is often called England’s national poet and the ‘Bard of Avon’.

The text was collated by two of Shakespeare's fellow actors and friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, who edited it and supervised the printing. They divided the plays into comedies, tragedies and histories, an editorial decision that has come to shape our idea of the Shakespearean canon.

Folio editions were large and expensive books that were seen as prestige items. 

The writer Ben Jonson's admiring introduction to the First Folio, seen in the title page image, declared in verse that the engraver had achieved a good likeness. 

The first record of Shakespeare's career as an actor and playwright in London is dated 1592, by which time he was reasonably well established. It is believed his London career began sometime between 1585 and 1592.

It is estimated around 750 First Folios were printed, of which 233 are currently known to survive worldwide. 

Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays, 36 of which are contained in the First Folio. Most of these plays were performed in the Globe, an open-air playhouse in London built on the south bank of the Thames in 1599. 

As none of Shakespeare's original manuscripts survive (except, possibly, Sir Thomas More, which Shakespeare is believed to have revised a part of) we only know his work from printed editions.