Shakespeare & Beyond

Excerpt from Dunbar: Edward St. Aubyn retells King Lear
In “Dunbar,” a new novel by Edward St. Aubyn that retells the Shakespeare play “King Lear,” Henry Dunbar makes the mistake of handing over control of his global corporation to his eldest daughters, who bribe a doctor to declare him…

Rome’s encounter with Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra
In this excerpt from “Shakespeare’s Roman Trilogy,” Paul Cantor writes about the Romanization of Egypt and the Egyptization of Rome in “Antony and Cleopatra.”

Richard Burton, Shakespeare, and the search for the source of the Nile
When European explorers first began traveling into the interior of the African continent, they brought Shakespeare with them. This excerpt from Shakespeare in Swahililand, written by Edward Wilson-Lee, relates the expedition of Richard Francis Burton and his search for the…

An English Garden: Dancing tunes and lyric poetry in Elizabethan England
As the arts and culture flourished in Shakespeare’s England, musical life blossomed as well.

Salmon in pastry: A Renaissance recipe from Shakespeare's Kitchen by Francine Segan
Salmon, oysters, asparagus, and grapes are all ingredients in this unusual pie recipe from Francine Segan’s cookbook “Shakespeare’s Kitchen.”

Shakespeare, improvisation, and the art of rhetoric
Shakespeare characters like Viola and Iago are masters of improvisation, says Folger Director Michael Witmore in this excerpt from the 2017 Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture.

Quiz: The songs in Shakespeare's plays
Hey nonny nonny! Shakespeare’s plays are filled with music. Using some context clues, can you match the songs to the plays in which they appear? Happy playing!

A night at Hamlet's castle, followed by a debut novel
This debut novel by M.L. Rio takes place at a fiercely competitive school where the acting students only perform Shakespeare.
Shakespeare and the American Revolution
By the time the first battles of the American Revolution took place in 1775, Shakespeare had been imported from England on stage and page to the New World.

Dig into the Folger's vault for #MuseumWeek
It’s #MuseumWeek, and the Folger is sharing recipes from Shakespeare’s time, stories of swords and duels, and a little bit of tennis.

Misanthropes: Wyndham Lewis and Timon of Athens
Some of the most engrossing illustrations of Shakespeare’s rarely performed tragedy come from Wyndham Lewis, an early 20th-century artist who, like Timon, was a misanthrope.

Q&A: Tracy Chevalier on New Boy, her retelling of Shakespeare's Othello
Read this Q&A with Tracy Chevalier about her new novel New Boy, which retells the story of Shakespeare’s Othello and is the latest book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series.