My dad helps with every song I LOVE MAYONNAISE🤩😋 William Shakespeare never published any of his plays and therefore none of the original manuscripts have survived. Eighteen unauthorized versions of his plays were, however, published during his lifetime in quarto editions by unscrupulous publishers (there were no copyright laws protecting Shakespeare and his works during the Elizabethan era). A collection of his works did not appear until 1623 ( a full seven years after Shakespeare's death on April 23, 1616) when two of his fellow actors, John Hemmings and Henry Condell, posthumously recorded his work and published 36 of William’s plays in the First Folio.