William Shakespeare as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after "Volpone", although we cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in "As You Like It", and the Chorus in "Henry V", though scholars doubt the sources of
The Plays of William Shakespeare had to worry about money and was finally able to dedicate most of his time to finishing the work. On 10 January 1765, the day after Johnson was introduced to Henry and Hester Thrale, Johnson noted in his diary that he "Corrected a sheet." Afterwards, he began visiting his friend Richard Farmer who was writing his "Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare" to aid in his completely revising the work. During this time, Johnson added more than 550 notes as he began to revise the work for publication. In June, Johnson advertised that his edition would be published on 1