Correcting The Tempest
The Tempest is the first play in the First Folio, and its very first page exists in four different states (full page images). As the presses continued to print out copies of the first page of The Tempest, several mistakes were gradually corrected.
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STATE I
The most glaring error occurs in the first letter of dialogue on the page: a backward 'B':
State I (Folger Copy 024)
This first page (State I) also contains two other major errors:
1) the page is incorrectly signed 'B' rather than 'A'
State I (Folger Copy 024)
2) the page's first act/scene division -- 'Actus primus, Scena prima' contains a defective 'S'
State I (Folger Copy 024)
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STATE II
In State II of this first page of The Tempest, the
ornamental 'B' is righted:
State II (Folger Copy 028)
The signature and the defective 'S', however, remain uncorrected:
 State II (Folger Copy 028) |
 State II (Folger Copy 028) |
FULL PAGE IMAGE OF STATE II
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STATE III
In State III of this first page of The Tempest, the signature is corrected to read 'A':
State III (Folger Copy 012)
The defective 'S' in 'Scena' still remains uncorrected:
State III (Folger Copy 012)
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STATE IV - FULLY CORRECTED STATE
Only in the fourth state, where the defective 'S' in Scena has been replaced, are all the major errors fully corrected:
State IV (Folger Copy 007)
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