Frederick J. Furnivall (1825-1910), an early adherent of the movement to experience Shakespeare in his most primal textual state, developed the 43-volume series Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles, launched in the 1880s. It was meant to compete with the Halliwell-Ashbee facsimiles, which were not photographically reproduced but lithographic, with every letter in every text hand-traced. This limited edition was blindingly impractical and costly. Furnivall enlisted the photolithographic printers William Griggs and Charles Praetorius and issued a much less expensive product, with critical introductions, line-numbers, and the like. His ethos was moral and nationalistic. The more Shakespeare, the better off English-speaking citizens would be.
Furnivall published an English version of the German scholar Frederick Delius's edition of the plays, translating his notes and adding his own (1877).
Andrew Murphy's Shakespeare in Print (2003) provided some of the information above. Furnivall's photograph is to the left.
1. Ham. Q1 1603 2. Ham. Q2 1604 3. MND Q1 1600 (Fisher copy)
4. MND Q2 1600 (Roberts copy) 5. LLL Q1 1598
6. MWW Q1 1602 7. MV Q1 1600 8. 1H4 Q1 1598 9. 2H4 Q1 1600 10. PP Q1 1599
11. R3 Q1 1597 12. VA Q1 1593 13. Tro. Q1 1609 14. Ado Q1 1600 15. Taming of a Shrew 1594
16. MV Q2 1600 (I.R. for Thomas Hayes) 17. R2 Q1 1597 (Devonshire) 18. R2 Q2 1597 (Huth) 19. R2 Q3 1600 (BL) 20. R2 Q5 1635
21. Per. Q1 1609 22. Per. Q2 1609 23. 2H6 (Whole Contention I) 1619 24. 3H6 (Whole Contentiion II) 1619 25. Rom. Q1 1597
26. Rom. Q2 1599 27. H5 Q1 1600 28 H5 Q2 1608 29. Tit. Q1 1600 30. Sonnets & LC Q1 1609
31. Oth. Q1 1622 32. Oth. Q2 1630 33 Lr. Q1 (N. Butter Pide Bull) 1608 34. Lr. Q2 (N. Butter) 1608 35. Luc. Q1 1594 36. Rom. (n.d.)
36. Rom. (n.d.) 37. (2H6) First Part of the Contention 1594 38. (3H6) True Tragedy 1595 39. Famous Victories 1598 40. Troublesome Raigne I (1591)
41. Troublesome Raigne II (1591) 42. R3 Q3 1602 43. R3 Q6 1634
to the left: Furnivall and his ladies' sculling team. He was a polymath: editor, spelling reformer, raconteur. Some think he was the model for Shaw's Henry Higgins in Pygmalion. As a Christian Socialist, he was a tireless advocate for women’s rights, and helped invent the sport of sculling. The Westminster Sculling Club was renamed for him.
