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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.

In the News: In Rare Books, Centuries-Old Proteins Can Reveal the Past
Sample of book dust being removed from 17th-century Bible. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

In the News: In Rare Books, Centuries-Old Proteins Can Reveal the Past

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Recent news about proteomics (the study of proteins) in the humanities has included a Folger Shakespeare Library project, irreverently called Project Dustbunny, that studies proteins in rare books to learn about those who once handled or read them.

Excerpt - 'Mad Blood Stirring' by Simon Mayo
'Mad Blood Stirring.' Simon Mayo. 2019.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - 'Mad Blood Stirring' by Simon Mayo

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Inspired by a real-life episode, Simon Mayo’s novel ‘Mad Blood Stirring’ tells the powerful story of a Shakespeare production by African American prisoners of war at Dartmoor prison in England, near the end of the War of 1812.

Four Terrible New Year's Resolutions from "Love's Labor's Lost"
Shakespeare and Beyond

Four Terrible New Year's Resolutions from "Love's Labor's Lost"

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Ben Lauer

Happy New Year! We picked out four awful ideas for New Year’s resolutions from Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labor’s Lost” and added some hints for improvements.

Discover the five most popular #FolgerFinds of 2018
IMAGE: A silhouette image of Titania, the fairy queen, and Bottom, who has a giant donkey's head
Shakespeare and Beyond

Discover the five most popular #FolgerFinds of 2018

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Enjoy our five most popular #FolgerFinds posts on Instagram of items from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection, from a silhouette of a ‘Midsummer’ scene with Bottom and Titania to vintage photos of 19th-century actress Julia Marlowe.

Enjoy the top five Shakespeare & Beyond blog posts of 2018
Shakespeare and Beyond

Enjoy the top five Shakespeare & Beyond blog posts of 2018

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Enjoy our most popular Shakespeare & Beyond blog posts from 2018, an eclectic range including a tasty 17th-century recipe, a quiz, a new play on Sarah Bernhardt and Hamlet, a female science fiction author from 1666, and a look at…

Revisit the top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2018
The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park
Shakespeare and Beyond

Revisit the top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes of 2018

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Revisit some of our most popular 2018 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes, from Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway to a conversation with actor Derek Jacobi to the tyrants in Shakespeare’s plays.

Drawing Shakespeare: Macbeth
Macbeth bas-relief. Drawing by Paul Glenshaw.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Drawing Shakespeare: Macbeth

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Paul Glenshaw

Artist Paul Glenshaw describes drawing John Gregory’s bas-relief of Macbeth, the three witches, and their cauldron, with a focus on the vast cloud of smoke made from stone. “I realized as I drew it that the smoke was as much…

Excerpt - 'How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England' by Ruth Goodman
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - 'How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England' by Ruth Goodman

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Shakespeare & Beyond

From rudeness to gross behavior, Ruth Goodman’s book “How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England” sheds some surprising light on what bad behavior really meant, including the reason that Shakespeare had Sampson threaten to “bite my thumb” at another character…

Thine Own Self
Aaron Krohn as Touchstone, in green with guitar, in As You Like It, Folger Theatre, 2017. Photo by Teresa Wood.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Thine Own Self

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Austin Tichenor

From the question “What are you?” (Countess Olivia) to “Tell my story” (Hamlet), Austin Tichenor looks at finding your identity and telling your story, through a decidedly Shakespearean lens.

Shakespeare theaters stage 'A Christmas Carol'
Shakespeare and Beyond

Shakespeare theaters stage 'A Christmas Carol'

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Ben Lauer

Are there similarities between staging Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ and putting on the Shakespeare plays that are these companies’ bread and butter? We asked our theater partners.

Excerpt - 'Decorating a Room of One's Own' by Susan Harlan
Susan Harlan,
Shakespeare and Beyond

Excerpt - 'Decorating a Room of One's Own' by Susan Harlan

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Shakespeare & Beyond

A detailed but absurd decor chat with Lady Macbeth is one of Susan Harlan’s many hilarious design interviews with literary figures in her new book “Decorating a Room of One’s Own.”

Play on! Tracy Young on translating 'The Winter's Tale'
Scenes from The Winter's Tale. Owen Jones. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare and Beyond

Play on! Tracy Young on translating 'The Winter's Tale'

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Shakespeare & Beyond

Tracy Young, who had previously directed “The Winter’s Tale,” writes about the challenges of translating “The Winter’s Tale” for the Play on! project.

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