Once again, Shakespeare. This year the Folger is leading a nationwide celebration—The Wonder of Will—to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, or better, the fifth century of his afterlife. Why do we keep returning to this writer? There are many answers to this question. One is that he belongs to no one, and so potentially… Continue Reading »
We covered a lot in our podcast about Shakespeare this year, from the popular William Shakespeare’s Star Wars adaptation to the Bard’s legacy in Hong Kong and the Caribbean to the evolution of stage design for Shakespeare’s plays.
Folger Finds delivers delightful and insightful moments with the Folger collection. Sarah Hovde, a cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library, shares the story behind a book that belonged to the library’s founder. Many of us have probably given or received books for Christmas. Sometimes we’ve inscribed the book with a personal message, or have added… Continue Reading »
A late eighteenth-century Shakespeare art museum is experiencing a second life as a detailed online re-creation, the brainchild of University of Texas English professor Janine Barchas.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, from December 25 to January 6, was the longest and most enthusiastically celebrated festival in the Elizabethan calendar. On Christmas Eve, people decorated with evergreens, ivy, and holly, burned a Yule log, sang carols, and visited neighbors. Wassail was dispensed by groups who carried the cauldron of beer and roasted… Continue Reading »
Every few years it seems, a newly discovered portrait of Shakespeare emerges, only to be discredited by scholars after the obligatory media maelstrom. Many observers have noted that the cyclical nature of these announcements and the intense excitement that accompanies them point to a keen public interest in knowing what Shakespeare looked like, to put… Continue Reading »
