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Shakespeare

Imagining Shakespeare and Marlowe as collaborators
Shakespeare and Beyond

Imagining Shakespeare and Marlowe as collaborators

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Following the extraordinary success of Tamburlaine, might the theatrical impresario Philip Henslowe have brought Marlowe together with Shakespeare to write about the Wars of the Roses? An excerpt from Dark Renaissance by Stephen Greenblatt.

Anthony Burgess and Shakespeare
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Anthony Burgess and Shakespeare

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Author
Christopher W. Thurley

You probably know Anthony Burgess as the author of A Clockwork Orange, but did you know he was also a prominent commentator on Shakespeare’s life?

The Forgotten Women Who Saved the Bawdy Bard
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Forgotten Women Who Saved the Bawdy Bard

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

A century after Shakespeare’s death, the Shakespeare Ladies Club ensured his original plays were not forgotten. The quarter discussed his plays, convinced theaters to produce them, and even campaigned for his statue in Westminster Abbey.

Jane Austen at 250
Shakespeare and Beyond

Jane Austen at 250

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Shakespeare & Beyond

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and the world is throwing a party in her honor all year long. We’re kicking off our celebration with a round-up of Austen stories and resources for reading and watching.

Shakespeare's queer inspiration
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare's queer inspiration

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

In an excerpt from Straight Acting, Will Tosh tells the story of Richard Barnfield’s meteoric rise in literary London in the 1590s and how his groundbreaking poetry influenced Shakespeare’s sonnets.

New discoveries about the Shakespeare marriage
Shakespeare and Beyond

New discoveries about the Shakespeare marriage

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Matthew Steggle’s findings about a letter addressed to “Good Mrs Shakspaire” show the couple might have lived together in London at the time that Shakespeare was writing Hamlet and Othello, dispelling certain myths about their marriage.

Folger Finds: A Shakespeare signboard
Shakespeare and Beyond

Folger Finds: A Shakespeare signboard

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

This signboard, probably created in the late 1600s to the early 1700s, is based on the popular “Chandos portrait”—the only portrait of Shakespeare that may have been painted from life.

Murmuration: Shakespeare in Flight
Shakespeare with arms turning into birds surrounded by a cloud of birds.
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Murmuration: Shakespeare in Flight

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Author
Jacklyn Brickman

Artistic Research Fellow Jacklyn Brickman explores Shakespeare, patterns, and the invasive starling species using AI.

Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895
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Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895

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Author
Erin Blake

Thanks for the great guesses about the object shown in the September Crocodile Mystery! Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann got it right. The photo shows the bottom of the bronze Shakespeare sculpture at the foot of the stairs from the Reading Room.…

Innogen and Ghost Characters
emma poltrack post
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Innogen and Ghost Characters

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emma poltrack

In a humorous post from 2017, web comic creator Mya Gosling mused about the absence of mothers in Shakespeare’s plays. Employing her signature stick-figure style, she presented a series of single-panel comics that put these absent maternal figures back in…

Reading Shakespeare in English in Eighteenth-Century Spain
hand written page showing three Shakespeare editions and other works by authors whose names begin with S
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Reading Shakespeare in English in Eighteenth-Century Spain

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Author
John Stone

a guest post by John Stone Deanne Williams, who was a Folger fellow in 2003, tells the story of how her work on early modern girlhood took shape just after her daughter was born—she began thinking about histories of gender,…

Visualizing Shakespeare’s Birds
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Visualizing Shakespeare’s Birds

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Missy Dunaway

a guest post by Missy Dunaway Greetings! I was the Folger Shakespeare Library’s artist-in-residence in November of 2021. I dedicated my Folger Institute Fellowship to a painting project entitled Birds of the Bard. This growing collection of paintings will catalog…

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