Shakespeare & Beyond

Learn more about authorship and influence among the playwrights of Shakespeare’s day in this excerpt from a recent book by Darren Freebury-Jones.

The word “gull” is used twelve times in Shakespeare’s plays, appearing the most in Twelfth Night, a play full of pranks and hijinks.

“He exits, pursued by a bear.” Take our quiz to match stage directions like this one with the Shakespeare plays in which they appear.

Dynastic power struggles, political intrigue, and forbidden love: Austin Tichenor looks at “Shakespearean” as a popular cultural shorthand.

“King Lear is about insiders who with terrible suddenness are shoved outside, and what they learn or don’t learn from finding themselves positioned there,” writes Arthur Frank.

Hamlet uses the heron, or “handsaw,” to reference his power struggle with his uncle, Claudius.

Daniel Blank writes about Shakespeare’s presence within the early modern university sphere.

Plan a visit to a theater near you with our guide to summer Shakespeare across the United States.

Lots of characters die in Shakespeare’s plays, sometimes in quite violent and graphic ways. Test your knowledge by taking our quiz.

Did Shakespeare give much thought to how his works would survive after his death? Margreta de Grazia argues that his sonnets show he did.

Austin Tichenor finds that AI does not quite measure up to William Shakespeare when he asks ChatGPT and Bard to write a new play called “Cardenio.”

The disabled body of Richard III, a historical English king and one of Shakespeare’s most iconic villains, is the focus of a recent book by Jeffrey R. Wilson.