White People in Shakespeare examines what part Shakespeare played in the construction of a “white people” and how his work has been enlisted to define and bolster a white cultural and racial identity.
Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell
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Shakespeare & Beyond
"Spiritually speaking, many of us confronted with the thought of death perform the psychological equivalence of hiding in a box with our knees under our chin: Donne hunted death, battled it, killed it, saluted it, threw it parties." Read more from Katherine Rundell in this excerpt from her new biography of the English poet John Donne, "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne."
Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick
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Shakespeare & Beyond
Shakespeare's plays provide ample opportunity for dramatic deaths onstage, and 18th-century English actors like David Garrick transformed simple stage directions in the text into "stirring set-pieces," as Laurence Senelick writes in the below excerpt from his new book, "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage."
Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg
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Shakespeare & Beyond
"Murphy may be the first person in history to subject laughter to such intensive and extensive study, at least from the perspective of a laughter professional," writes Joy Wiltenburg about the 18th-century writer's 500-page compilation of humor, in this excerpt from her book, "Laughing Histories." Murphy's commonplace book is part of the Folger collection.
Henry VIII and herbals: Prince Charles and Camilla's visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library
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Shakespeare & Beyond
See some of the Folger collection items that Charles and Camilla examined when they visited the Folger in 2005, including an early modern book on plants that got the prince's attention.
Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner
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Shakespeare & Beyond
In the opening scene of Jennifer Falkner's novella "Susanna Hall, Her Book," the queen of England has just arrived at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, has reasons for not wanting to host Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett
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Shakespeare & Beyond
Helen Hackett explores Shakespeare's use of the soliloquy in "Hamlet," including the famous "To be or not to be" speech, in this excerpt from her new book, "The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty," published by Yale University Press.
Active reading in the 16th century: Commonplace books and sammelbands
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Shakespeare & Beyond
Collecting extracts of text in commonplace books and binding multiple books together to create a sammelband were two notable practices of readers in the 16th and 17th centuries, as Jason Scott-Warren (University of Cambridge) explains in this excerpt from a Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode about books and reading in Shakespeare's England.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Insights from Folger Theatre dramaturg Michele Osherow
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Shakespeare & Beyond
"Nowhere does Shakespeare attend more to theatrical enterprise and potential than in A Midsummer Night's Dream," writes Michele Osherow, Folger Theatre's resident dramaturg. "It makes the play irresistible to those who practice theatre and to those who crave its incomparable pleasures." Read more in this playbill excerpt from Folger Theatre's new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," onstage through August 28 as part of "The Playhouse" at the National Building Museum.