Folger Theatre: Measure for Measure
Shakespeare’s dark comedy, onstage through November 1
Welcome to the Folger!
Choose how you want to experience Shakespeare, the humanities, and our world-renowned collection.
Visit Shakespeare’s home in America
Plan your visit
Get details and reserve timed-entry passes.
Take a tour
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Eat at Quill & Crumb
Enjoy lunch or a quick snack at our café.
About us
The Folger Shakespeare Library showcases the utility of Shakespeare and the humanities in cultivating healthy civic life.
What’s on
Join us for theater, poetry, talks, and other programs.
Measure for Measure
Inventing the Icon: How Shakespeare Became "Shakespeare"
To Hear Her Speak: Black Women and Shakespeare
Humanities Lab: To Hear Her Speak
O.B. Hardison Reading: Cornelius Eady
Folger Salon with Austin Anderson, Joaquín Molina, and Alice Wickenden
Teacher Weekend Intensive: Shakespeare and Civics
The latest from our blogs and podcast
Time-traveling Shakespeare
“Theaters are time machines, and Shakespeare knew it,” writes Austin Tichenor. “Only in the theater can people so persuasively journey from the present to another time and place. It’s an act of collective imagination.”
Animal Magnetism: Absorption and Attraction in Early Modern Recipes
Fellow Madeleine Sheahan looks at early modern medical recipes that use an ingredient that can’t help but seem gruesome to modern readers: puppies.
Remembering Earle Hyman at 100
The first Black actor to play a wide variety of Shakespearean roles in America, Hyman was equally loved for his portrayals of Panthro in ThunderCats and Russell Huxtable on The Cosby Show. His papers are now in the Folger collection.
To Hear Her Speak: Black women, Shakespeare, and early modern texts
Patricia Akhimie, curator of the Folger exhibition To Hear Her Speak, asks: “What do Black women and Shakespeare have to do with each other?” Quite a bit over 400 years it turns out, as she shows in the catalog’s introduction.
Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox
Acclaimed actors and real-life spouses Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox share stories from their extraordinary careers on stage and screen, from King Lear and Succession to their current roles as Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach.
James I’s Last Book Burning
Banning books goes back thousands of years, almost as long as people have been writing. Aaron T. Pratt, the Folger’s curator of rare books and prints, looks at one of 15 books that James I went beyond banning to publicly burn during his reign.
Our collection
The First Folio
The Folger has the world’s largest collection of First Folios. Learn more about the book that gave us Shakespeare.
A majestic portrait
The Folger collection includes about 200 paintings. This portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by George Gower is dated 1579, making it the oldest painting in our collection. Two years after he completed this portrait, Gower became Serjeant Painter to the Queen, making him the most important artist in England.
Our other Elizabeth I holdings include hand-signed letters, books, and even New Year’s gift rolls detailing her holiday gifts. It is the largest collection of Elizabeth I materials in North America.
Shakespeare’s works
View the full list of plays and poems to read, search, and download our bestselling editions of Shakespeare’s works.
Shakespeare’s most popular plays
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Julius Caesar
Othello
Hamlet
Explore
What was Shakespeare's theater like?
Learn about the Globe and other London playhouses where Shakespeare’s company performed. What was it like to be an actor there, or an audience member?
Teach
How can Shakespeare help 21st-century students be stronger readers?
Our Folger Method is revolutionizing how not just Shakespeare but all literature is taught using strategies that allow all students to own – and enjoy – complex texts.
Research
If we are what we eat, what can recipes from the past tell us?
Projects like Before ‘Farm to Table’ unite scholars and practitioners in investigations into the past to shed light on what matters to us today.
Support the things you love
Your gifts make access to our collection, learning opportunities, and exciting experiences happen.
Folger Shop
Find unique gifts inspired by Shakespeare and our collection.