THREE copies of the first printed edition of William Shakespeare’s plays will go on display in Scotland to mark 400 years since it was first published.

The booklets will be available for viewing at the University of Glasgow, the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh and Mount Stuart, on the Isle of Bute, at different times this year.

The display marks the 400th anniversary of the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collection of plays, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio.

It was first published in 1623, about seven years after the playwright’s death, and is considered one of the most influential books ever written.

Only 18 of Shakespeare’s plays appeared in print during his lifetime, and some of these were in corrupt or pirated editions, literary experts said.

Professor Adrian Streete, head of English literature at the University of Glasgow, said publishing the First Folio was “an expensive and risky undertaking” at the time.

“Shakespeare’s popularity was not then what it would become later,” he said.