[1] A quarto volume, or quarto, is a book which is the size of a fourth of a sheet of printing paper. The sheets are folded twice to make four leaves or eight pages, and the usual size is about 6x9 in. A folio is a volume of the size of a half sheet of printing paper. The paper is folded once and bound in the middle, the usual size being about 9 x 12 in. The divisions of the book made by thus folding sheets of paper are called quires, and may consist of four or eight leaves. [2] This view of the Pavier-Jaggard collection is held by A. W. Pollard of the British Museum and W. W. Greg of Trinity College Library, Cambridge. The writers of this volume incline to accord it complete recognition. [3] It was evidently designed to fit in between _Romeo and Juliet_ and _Julius Caesar_; but the owner of the publishing rights holding out till that part of the book was ready, the editors "ran in" _Timon of Athens_ to fill up. When _Troilus and Cressida_ was finally arranged for, it had to be inserted between the Histories and Tragedies. {131} CHAPTER X THE PLAYS OF THE FIRST PERIOD--IMITATION AND EXPERIMENT 1587 (?)-1594 The first period of Shakespeare's work carries him from the youthful efforts at dramatic construction to such mastery of dramatic technique and of original portrayal of life as raise him, when aided by his supreme poetic art, above all other living dramatists. It was chiefly a period in which the young poet, full of ambition, curious of his own talents, and eager for success, was feeling his way among the different types of drama which he saw reaching success on the London stage. The longest period of experiment was in the writing of chronicle histories. The experience acquired in these six plays, all derived in some measure from earlier work by others, made Shakespeare a master of this type. Next in importance was comedy, chiefly romantic with four plays of widely different aim and merit. These two types are brought to the highest development in the dramatist's second period. Tragedy was to wait for a fuller and riper experience. What the complete earlier version of _Romeo and Juliet_ was like, we have only a faint idea; it was obviously, while {132} intensely appealing, the work of a young and immature poet. _Titus Andronicus_ led nowhere in development. Christopher Marlowe remained Shakespeare's master in the drama throughout the chronicle plays of the period. John Lyly's court comedies contained most of the types of character which are to be found in _Love's Labour's Lost_. Throughout the period Shakespeare grows in mastery of plot and of his dramatic verse; but his chief growth is away from this imitation of others into his own creative portraiture of character. The growth from the bluff soldier, Talbot, in _Henry VI_ to the weak but appealing Richard II is no less marked than is that from the fantastic Armado in _Love's Labour's Lost_ to the unconsciously ridiculous Bottom.