Shakespeare & Beyond

Scholar Jean E. Feerick looks at how Hamnet takes us back to a premodern world when people knew how deeply nature pervades us. Inspired by Shakespeare’s own eco-sensibility, Zhao’s film invites us to consider anew our place in the world.

In an excerpt from her new book about when literature spoke truth to power during the Red Scare, critic Marjorie Garber looks at how Shakespeare inspired journalist Edward R. Murrow and the role it continued to play in his reporting.

One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, both in his lifetime and ours, Romeo and Juliet juxtaposes the joy of first love against a violent world divided by a blood feud. Explore some of the tragedy’s most well-known quotes.

Summer reading is one of the season’s great pleasures. Add to your TBR stack from our list of fiction and non-fiction titles exploring Shakespeare, his world, and our own. Happy reading!

One of the books in the Folger collection is extraordinary for both its cover, the War of the Roses binding created by book artist Léon Maillard, and its contents, the Pavier quartos, an early try at publishing a collection of Shakespeare’s plays.

In Shakespeare’s Scholars, Sean Keilen explores one of the more comic parts from Hamlet, Polonius’ advice to his son Laertes, and why audiences, from Shakespeare’s time until quite recently, took the words of guidance quite seriously.

A round-up of gift ideas for graduation, weddings, or just because from our online Folger Shop. Books, jewelry and apparel, stationery, home, and more, perfect for lovers of Shakespeare and literature.

He’s quoted Shakespeare in numerous speeches, from his first as king to his most recent at the White House during his state visit at the end of April. But Charles III’s interest in Shakespeare goes all the way back to his school days.

A roundup of Shakespeare stories, including discoveries about his only London real estate purchase and family papers; all Shakespeare’s plays ranked as well as video games Shakespeare would love; and actors sharing Shakespeare.

Richard II opens Shakespeare’s Henriad tetralogy of English history plays and is one of his most eloquent. Explore some of the play’s most well-known lines, in order of their appearance.

We’re celebrating the start of spring with some of our favorite Shakespeare quotes about the season, a time of renewal, rebirth, and new beginnings.

In his groundbreaking documentary, We Were Here, Folger Fellow Fred Kuwornu shares the diverse African presence in Renaissance Europe—princes, ambassadors, saints, artists, scholars, and knights—all revealed through art from the period.