Skip to main content
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.

Up Close: The voodoo Macbeth that generated jobs for Black Americans during the Great Depression
Shakespeare and Beyond

Up Close: The voodoo Macbeth that generated jobs for Black Americans during the Great Depression

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

A spectacular 1936 Federal Theatre Project production of “Macbeth” in New York City employed hundreds of black actors and theater technicians. It was financed by the Federal Theatre Project, a controversial part of the federal government’s New Deal programs to…

Where to Find Shakespeare in February
Shakespeare and Beyond

Where to Find Shakespeare in February

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

Check out innovative online plays and programs in February from the members of the Folger’s Shakespeare Theater Partnership Program.

Excerpt — ‘Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy’ by Paula Marantz Cohen
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt — ‘Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy’ by Paula Marantz Cohen

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

“Its sense of empathy for the gendered position—and the pains and difficulties that accompany it on both sides—is at the heart of its comic warmth,” writes Paula Marantz Cohen about Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” in this excerpt from her…

Order It: Sonnet 116
Wedding in As You Like It
Shakespeare and Beyond

Order It: Sonnet 116

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Sonnet 116 is one of Shakespeare’s most famous love sonnets. Take our quiz to see if you can put the lines of the sonnet in the correct order.

20 Shakespeare quotes about love
Shakespeare and Beyond

20 Shakespeare quotes about love

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

The word “love” appears 2,146 times in Shakespeare’s collected works (including a handful of “loves” and “loved”). Add to that 59 instances of “beloved” and 133 uses of “loving” and you’ve got yourself a “whole lotta love.” So, what does…

To be or not to be your valentine: Shakespearean expressions of love
Shakespeare and Beyond

To be or not to be your valentine: Shakespearean expressions of love

Posted
Author
Austin Tichenor

Shakespeare quotes can seem like good choices for Valentine’s Day cards, but his tales of love are nuanced and complicated.

A backpacker in the age of Shakespeare: Thomas Coryate at the court of the Mughal emperor
Shakespeare and Beyond

A backpacker in the age of Shakespeare: Thomas Coryate at the court of the Mughal emperor

Posted
Author
Charlie Beirouti

Thomas Coryate (c. 1577-1617) was one of the most widely traveled Englishmen of his day, motivated by curiosity, wanderlust, and fame. He served as a fascinating example of how early modern English travelers to the Islamic world might use their…

Up Close: Three scenes from Hamlet
Shakespeare and Beyond

Up Close: Three scenes from Hamlet

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Can you identify what’s happening in each of these three scenes from Hamlet? The drawings by British illustrator John Jellicoe are part of the Folger collection.

Strange Shakespeare: Vortigern and the women making and faking Shakespeare
Vortigern and Rowena
Shakespeare and Beyond

Strange Shakespeare: Vortigern and the women making and faking Shakespeare

Posted
Author
Fiona Ritchie

Women played a key role in creating, promoting, and ultimately undermining “Vortigern” and William Henry Ireland’s other Shakespeare forgeries.

Where to find Shakespeare (and more) in January
Shakespeare and Beyond

Where to find Shakespeare (and more) in January

Posted
Author
Ben Lauer

From new podcasts to online events, theater companies are creating great new ways to engage with Shakespeare and other amazing writers.

Quiz: Which Shakespeare character doesn’t belong?
Shakespeare and Beyond

Quiz: Which Shakespeare character doesn’t belong?

Posted
Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Take this quiz to see if you can identify the odd one out in each set of characters for a specific Shakespeare play.

The curious and complicated case of Locrine
Shakespeare and Beyond

The curious and complicated case of Locrine

Posted
Author
Alexandra E. LaGrand

The curious and complicated history of the 16th-century play “The Lamentable Tragedie of Locrine” prompts interesting conversations about the Shakespeare canon and its apocrypha.

1 21 22 23 24 25 69