Who Wrote the Preface to the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's Plays?

Ben Jonson. Shakespeare’s contemporary urged readers to “looke not on his picture, but his Booke” to understand the writer’s “wit.” Jonson might have been simply expressing his prejudice against images, or perhaps attempting to head off at the pass many centuries’ worth of speculation into the extratextual matter of the figure–or figures–behind the many plays.