Shakespeare & Beyond
Excerpt - "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne" by Katherine Rundell
“Spiritually speaking, many of us confronted with the thought of death perform the psychological equivalence of hiding in a box with our knees under our chin: Donne hunted death, battled it, killed it, saluted it, threw it parties.” Read more…
![The Final Curtain cover The Final Curtain cover](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/10/final-curtain-cover.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Excerpt: "The Final Curtain: The Art of Dying on Stage" by Laurence Senelick
Shakespeare’s plays provide ample opportunity for dramatic deaths onstage, and 18th-century English actors like David Garrick transformed simple stage directions in the text into “stirring set-pieces,” as Laurence Senelick writes in the below excerpt from his new book, “The Final…
![Detail from cover of Laughing Histories People laughing and playing music](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/09/laughing-histories-cover-fb.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Arthur Murphy's 18th-century collection of humor - Excerpt: "Laughing Histories" by Joy Wiltenburg
“Murphy may be the first person in history to subject laughter to such intensive and extensive study, at least from the perspective of a laughter professional,” writes Joy Wiltenburg about the 18th-century writer’s 500-page compilation of humor, in this excerpt…
![Prince Charles and Camilla Prince Charles and Camilla](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2016/11/Prince-Charles-visit.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Henry VIII and herbals: Prince Charles and Camilla's visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library
See some of the Folger collection items that Charles and Camilla examined when they visited the Folger in 2005, including an early modern book on plants that got the prince’s attention.
![Susanna Hall Her Book cover Susanna Hall Her Book cover](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/09/susanna-hall-her-book-sm-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Excerpt - "Susanna Hall, Her Book" by Jennifer Falkner
In the opening scene of Jennifer Falkner’s novella “Susanna Hall, Her Book,” the queen of England has just arrived at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, has reasons for not wanting to host Henrietta…
![The Elizabethan Mind The Elizabethan Mind](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/08/Elizabethan-Mind-book-cover-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
The soliloquy and Hamlet - Excerpt: 'The Elizabethan Mind' by Helen Hackett
Helen Hackett explores Shakespeare’s use of the soliloquy in “Hamlet,” including the famous “To be or not to be” speech, in this excerpt from her new book, “The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age of Uncertainty,” published…
![Sammelband Sammelband](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/08/156669-fb-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Active reading in the 16th century: Commonplace books and sammelbands
Collecting extracts of text in commonplace books and binding multiple books together to create a sammelband were two notable practices of readers in the 16th and 17th centuries, as Jason Scott-Warren (University of Cambridge) explains in this excerpt from a…
![Folger Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream actors performing a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/07/C267-Folger-Theatre-Midsummer-2022-Brittany-Diliberto-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Insights from Folger Theatre dramaturg Michele Osherow
“Nowhere does Shakespeare attend more to theatrical enterprise and potential than in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” writes Michele Osherow, Folger Theatre’s resident dramaturg. “It makes the play irresistible to those who practice theatre and to those who crave its incomparable…
![Chess set chess board with pieces](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/07/017887-fb-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
A game of chess
Take a closer look at some unusual chess sets in the Folger collection, spanning continents and centuries.
![Bottom and Titania Bottom and Titania](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/07/35853-fb-1.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Quiz: Can you complete these famous quotes from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?
For each of these famous quotes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” can you fill in the blank with the missing word?
![Red Velvet Amari Cheatom as Ira Aldridge in Red Velvet](https://images.folger.edu/uploads/2022/06/red-velvet-stc.jpg?fit=10%2C10)
Q&A: Lolita Chakrabarti - The 'Red Velvet' playwright on 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge
Lolita Chakrabarti shares historical context about pioneering 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge, the subject of her play Red Velvet, including a notable detail about his funeral in Poland which she learned after she’d written the play.
Quiz: Which book should I read this summer?
Take our quiz to get matched with one of 20 books from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s virtual book club inspired by Shakespeare and the early modern era.