Condell

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. English actor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men who, with John Heminges, co-edited the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's plays
2. Surname of an Elizabethan actor and one of two editors who published the 1623 First Folio collection of William Shakespeare's works
3. The name of the actor who, alongside John Heminges, prepared the 1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works

Etymology: Henry Condell was one of two fellow actors who gathered Shakespeare's plays for the First Folio of 1623, and the name survives only because he and John Heminges wrote a preface to it. Seven years after Shakespeare's death, they set out to rescue plays that would otherwise have been lost, several of which had never been printed. Their dedication, addressed to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, is the source of nearly everything known about them, and it is a rare case of a working theatre company paying tribute to its own author in print. Condell was a member of the King's Men, the company for which Shakespeare wrote, and he appears in the cast lists of the period. Because the surname is a rare English one, with no common-word meaning to fall back on, the word itself is simply a proper name carried into English usage through the editors' fame, and its use as a noun for a Folio editor is a modern, specialist convenience rather than an old term.