Shakespeare & Beyond

The Folger is home to the largest collection of early modern western European recipe books in the United States, and a team of Folger researchers recently uncovered a very early European potato recipe in our archives. This recipe, “to make a…

In this special anniversary year for Shakespeare, the Folger has commissioned Caroline Shaw to compose a new vocal piece inspired by The Tempest. Shaw, who has toured with Kanye West and is the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize…

Soldiers returning home. Armies clashing in a bloody struggle for power. Government officials abusing their authority. These are the Shakespeare characters populating the post-election landscape at our theater partners around the U.S. this month. Henry VI Two of the Folger’s…

The word “girl” means different things to us today than it meant in the Middle Ages, and Shakespeare was writing at a time when that meaning was changing, as Deanne Williams of York University in Toronto explains.

(l-r) Gail Kern Paster, Prince Charles, Camilla, Georgianna Ziegler. 2005. By Esther Ferington Charles, Prince of Wales, celebrates his birthday on November 14. To mark the occasion, we’ve been recalling his visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2005, with…

“To see or not to see… is there really any question?” Excited selfies with the First Folio continue to crop up on social media as the Folger’s nationwide tour, First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, wraps up its…

In Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, four friends forswear women so that they can focus on their studies. But, of course, as soon as they do, four lovely ladies enter their lives. Oh, what to do? Romance and comedy ensue. Four of our…

Shakespeare has a lot to say about power and politics in his plays. These six quotes touch on what it means to be a king, the power of the law, what separates royal from common, and speaking truth to authority. Folger…

In an election year, we couldn’t resist creating a quiz about Shakespeare characters running for president. This is a little like ISideWith, but for Shakespeare fans. You answer the questions, and we match you with a candidate. So, who would you…

Worried about encountering witches like Macbeth this All Hallows Eve? Turn to a witch-hunting manual such as the Malleus Maleficarum! This famous book, known as “The Hammer of Witches” in English, was written in the 15th century by a pair…

During World War I, the works of Shakespeare and Austen reached American troops on active duty through the American Library Association’s “War Service Library” program.  Between 1917 and 1920, the program collected donations of used books to help them distribute…

By Esther Ferington Among the curious items in the Will & Jane exhibition is a 19th-century edition of Shakespeare’s works in an unusual binding. A small frame in the binding’s front cover encloses a piece of wood, described in an…