Shakespeare & Beyond

First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare opening reception at the Mead Art Museum. May 9, 2016. Photo by Maria Stenzel. On a typical book tour, authors travel to read from their work, sign copies, and give talks. But…

The First Folio tour is coming to an end! These are the last tour stops where the First Folio will be on display, after which the books will be returning home to the Folger Shakespeare Library, where they will join the…

By Esther Ferington The roles of early modern women in Shakespeare’s time—both the fictional characters in his plays and the real-life women of his era—have been central to many projects created by Georgianna Ziegler, Louis B. Thalheimer Associate Librarian and…

“Let the sky rain potatoes… I will shelter me here.” Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor is referring here to a food that had but recently arrived to England, but was already on its way to popularity. A team of Folger researchers…

The Folger is home to the largest collection of early modern western European recipe books in the United States, and a team of Folger researchers recently uncovered a very early European potato recipe in our archives. This recipe, “to make a…

In this special anniversary year for Shakespeare, the Folger has commissioned Caroline Shaw to compose a new vocal piece inspired by The Tempest. Shaw, who has toured with Kanye West and is the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize…

Soldiers returning home. Armies clashing in a bloody struggle for power. Government officials abusing their authority. These are the Shakespeare characters populating the post-election landscape at our theater partners around the U.S. this month. Henry VI Two of the Folger’s…

The word “girl” means different things to us today than it meant in the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare was writing at a time when that meaning was changing, as Deanne Williams of York University in Toronto explains on a recent episode…

(l-r) Gail Kern Paster, Prince Charles, Camilla, Georgianna Ziegler. 2005. By Esther Ferington Charles, Prince of Wales, celebrates his birthday on November 14. To mark the occasion, we’ve been recalling his visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2005, with…

“To see or not to see… is there really any question?” Excited selfies with the First Folio continue to crop up on social media as the Folger’s nationwide tour, First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, wraps up its…

In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, four friends forswear women so that they can focus on their studies. But, of course, as soon as they do, four lovely ladies enter their lives. Oh, what to do? Romance and comedy ensue. Four of our…

Shakespeare has a lot to say about power and politics in his plays. These six quotes touch on what it means to be a king, the power of the law, what separates royal from common, and speaking truth to authority. Folger…