Shakespeare & Beyond

An excerpt from Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain surveys some of the cultural roles of rivers, including how Shakespeare mentioned them in his plays.

Peggy O’Brien helps us explore a giant, richly detailed fictional map filled with Shakespeare’s characters, newly created for the Folger’s exhibition spaces.

Austin Tichenor explores how the films Sing Sing and Ghostlight show the power and healing of theater and Shakespeare, in both forceful and amusing ways.

New research casts a more positive light on why Shakespeare’s father was fined for building a muckhill.

Read our round-up of August performances from Shakespeare theaters across the country.

Greg Prickman explains how news of the 1623 book we now call the  First Folio appeared a year earlier, on the occasion of a trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Looking for summer reading? Try a novel based on Romeo and Juliet, from a San Diege restaurant feud to a zombie horror tale to a story about first love.

Shakespeare’s plays are full of sports and games. Test your knowledge with these questions.

Tabitha Stanmore tells the story of a 15th-century widow hiring a magic practitioner in this excerpt from her book “Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic.”

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.

Inspired by the Olympics, Austin Tichenor explores how Shakespeare uses sports in his plays, including as a way to show tensions between England and France.

Three Taylor Swift-themed cocktails inspired by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century recipes from our collection.