The Shakespeare & Beyond blog features a wide range of Shakespeare-related topics: the early modern period in which he lived, the ways his plays have been interpreted and staged over the past four centuries, the enduring power of his characters and language, and more.
Shakespeare & Beyond also explores the topics that shape our experience of Shakespeare today: trends in performance, the latest discoveries and scholarship, news stories, pop culture, interesting books, new movies, the rich context of theater and literary history, and more. As the word “beyond” suggests, from time to time Shakespeare & Beyond also covers topics that are not directly linked to Shakespeare.
Curious about the book that gave us Shakespeare? We’ve assembled a playlist of seven Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes about the First Folio. Without this first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works, published in 1623, we might not have such famous plays as…
Follow the First Folio tour! Updates from Idaho, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Connecticut
Posted
Author
Esther French
The First Folio continues its national tour celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare in 2016, drawing crowds wherever it goes. Idaho, Iowa, Delaware, Nevada, and Connecticut have all welcomed the Folger Shakespeare Library traveling exhibition, and the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, WY,…
Which Shakespeare plays are most often taught in high school English classes?
Posted
Author
Esther French
Photo by James R. Brantley Think back to your high school English classes. Did you read Romeo and Juliet as a freshman? What about Hamlet in your senior year? Studying Shakespeare is required in the Common Core English Language Arts standards, but…
One of the stories told by the current exhibition Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity is that literary renown is as much about commodities as about books. Literary celebrity transforms authors into objects. Our exhibition traces…
Balancing the body and consulting the heavens: Medicine in Shakespeare's time
Posted
Author
Esther French
Hyacum, et lues venerea. Stradanus inuent. ca. 1591. Folger Shakespeare Library. Few Elizabethans were wealthy enough to afford a licensed physician. Instead, they would rely on the knowledge of a local “wise woman,” with her home collection of remedy recipes and medicines. Or,…
"You had more beard when I last saw you": a set of Shakespearean shaving papers
Posted
Author
Sarah Hovde
Two Folger exhibitions in this anniversary year have explored Shakespeare’s far-reaching effect on consumer culture: first, America’s Shakespeare considered how the United States has made the Bard our own, and now Will & Jane examines the celebrity status of literary superstars William…
Comic book casts Shakespeare's First Folio in a horror story
Posted
Author
Esther French
Cue the scary music! A new comic book injects a little horror and occult magic into the story of the First Folio, in an effort to make Shakespeare more accessible to a younger generation. 13th Night was written to accompany…
Jane Austen, who was born in 1775, came of age in the 1790s and started publishing in the 1810s; her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, came out in 1811. She died in 1817, which makes 2017 the 200th anniversary of…
The Ancient Greeks may hold the franchise on Olympic wrestling—but how would they have fared against a 17th-century British shin-kicker? Explore the story of the Cotswold Olympicks.
Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice': Perpetuating stereotypes or sparking much-needed conversations?
Posted
Author
Esther French
Matthew Boston (Shylock) in District Merchants, a variation on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Folger Theatre, 2016. Photo by Teresa Wood. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice ends badly for Shylock, with the court ruling against him and his claim on Antonio’s…
Bree Murphy (left) as Mistress Quickly and Marco Antonio Vega as Bardolph in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 production of Henry V. Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2016. Whether they are produced under the stars, in the moonlight, by…
As you’ve seen on this blog already, the next Folger exhibition, Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity (August 6 to November 6), will be a fascinating look at the posthumous celebrities of William Shakespeare and Jane…
