Inside Shakespeare's plays

In Henry IV, Part 1, Shakespeare created Lady Percy and Lady Mortimer out of the fragments of history, giving them voices that appeal freshly to us today.

The Hostess seems to have been a favorite character from the beginning, ruling the tavern where Prince Hal hangs out with Falstaff. Evidently aware of her popularity with audiences, Shakespeare developed her character further in later plays, where she evolves…

Love’s Labor’s Lost is one of three Shakespeare plays without a primary source (the others being A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest), but that doesn’t mean it was created in a vacuum. Using four items from the Folger collection,…

Shakespeare’s witches, like nearly all witches of Shakespeare’s time, have their roots in the kitchen more than in the study.

Austin Tichenor writes about Shakespeare’s history plays, the political considerations of the day, and patriotic portrayals centuries later.

What kind of father was Shakespeare? The fathers he portrays in his plays don’t always come off looking so good, but he also explores parental regret.

Playwright Caridad Svich writes how ‘Henry VIII’ oscillates between characters’ desire for power, on the one hand, and forgiveness, on the other.

What did William Shakespeare think of marriage, based on how he wrote about it in his plays and what we know about his union with Anne Hathaway?

A key plot point of Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’ relies on the country of Bohemia having a seacoast, which poses a geographical dilemma.

We asked our followers on social media to share their favorite stagings of the “statue scene” from “The Winter’s Tale” with the hashtag #ImaginingShakespeare. 

Spoiler alert: something magical happens in the last scene of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.” We dug into the Folger collection to explore.

What makes “The Winter’s Tale” so compelling? Folger Director Michael Witmore shares spoiler-free insights about this Shakespeare play in three short videos.