One of the most famous lines from Shakespeare, “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York,” opens Richard III in an extremely memorable way.
It turns out the word “winter” appears 71 times in 34 of Shakespeare’s plays and poems. He even uses it in the title of The Winter’s Tale which tells us, “A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one of sprites and goblins.” It is one of six times the word appears in the play, tying it with the Sonnets. Only As You Like It mentions winter more, with seven occurrences.
Searching the Folger collection, we found a variety of ways the season is represented, from snowy outdoor scenes to fashionable illustrations to mentions of winter from Shakespeare’s Sonnets. We’ve included some favorites in the gallery below. Wishing everyone a wonderful warm winter (or a cool summer should you be down under)!
33 Shakespeare quotes about the weather
If you’re running out of ways to say, “It’s too hot,” try Shakespeare. Here are over thirty ways to complain about the weather.
The "American Nectar": William Hughes's hot chocolate
The perfect post for a winter’s day: Marissa Nicosia shares an early modern recipe for hot chocolate, associated with 17th-century author, botanist, and pirate William Hughes.
Early modern recipe combinations to get you through the winter
We’ve created some delicious combinations of our early modern recipe adaptations for you to experiment with over the holidays and beyond.
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