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Shakespeare & Beyond

Shakespeare & Beyond

The Shakespeare & Beyond blog features a wide range of Shakespeare-related topics: the early modern period in which he lived, the ways his plays have been interpreted and staged over the past four centuries, the enduring power of his characters and language, and more.

Four things to look for when you watch Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare and Beyond

Four things to look for when you watch Much Ado About Nothing

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Author
Ben Lauer

If you’re seeing “Much Ado About Nothing” for the first time, or the hundredth time, what should you look for?

Quiz: Can you complete these famous quotes from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?
Bottom and Titania
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Can you complete these famous quotes from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?

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Shakespeare & Beyond

For each of these famous quotes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” can you fill in the blank with the missing word?

Love-in-idleness, Part Two: Intoxicating botanicals in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'
Oberon and Titania
Shakespeare and Beyond

Love-in-idleness, Part Two: Intoxicating botanicals in 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'

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Author
Marissa Nicosia

Love-in-idleness, a flower also called pansy or heartsease, plays an important role in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as Marissa Nicosia explores.

Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial
purple pansy floating in pink cocktail
Shakespeare and Beyond

Love-in-idleness, Part One: Adapting an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial

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Author
Marissa Nicosia

Marissa Nicosia adapts an early modern recipe for heartsease cordial. This purple pansy syrup was used to “clear the heart” – to treat the chest and lungs or to reduce fever – but also for healing heartaches.

A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt
Her Majesty's Will book cover
Shakespeare and Beyond

A summer Shakespeare adventure: 'Her Majesty’s Will' by David Blixt

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Author
Austin Tichenor

Austin Tichenor recommends an adventure novel starring a young Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, who uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth.

Q&A: Lolita Chakrabarti - The 'Red Velvet' playwright on 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge
Amari Cheatom as Ira Aldridge in Red Velvet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Lolita Chakrabarti - The 'Red Velvet' playwright on 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Lolita Chakrabarti shares historical context about pioneering 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge, the subject of her play Red Velvet, including a notable detail about his funeral in Poland which she learned after she’d written the play.

Birds of Shakespeare: The Eurasian blackbird
blackbird painting
Shakespeare and Beyond

Birds of Shakespeare: The Eurasian blackbird

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Author
Missy Dunaway

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bottom sings a tune about blackbirds to keep up his courage when he finds himself in strange circumstances.

Shakespeare and the language of slavery
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare and the language of slavery

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Author
Dr. Judith Spicksley

A Folger fellow shares her research into the language of slavery in early modern England, and more specifically, the use of that language in the works of William Shakespeare.

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this summer
Shakespeare and Beyond

What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters this summer

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Author
Ben Lauer

Find out what’s onstage at Shakespeare theaters across the United States this summer.

Quiz: Which book should I read this summer?
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Which book should I read this summer?

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Take our quiz to get matched with one of 20 books from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s virtual book club inspired by Shakespeare and the early modern era.

Five Folger Finds: Coronations, jubilees, and royal processions
Queen Elizabeth II in the Folger Reading Room
Shakespeare and Beyond

Five Folger Finds: Coronations, jubilees, and royal processions

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Author
Esther French

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth II visited the Folger in 1991? In honor of her Platinum Jubilee, dig into some royal history in the Folger collection.

Q&A: Director Sam Gold on his 'Macbeth' with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga
Cast of Macbeth on a stage with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga sitting on purple chairs
Shakespeare and Beyond

Q&A: Director Sam Gold on his 'Macbeth' with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Director Sam Gold shares what he loves most about Macbeth, why it stands out from other Shakespeare tragedies he’s directed, and how his ideas about the play changed over time.

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