Inspired by Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is having a moment—actually two, with A Room in the Castle and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel) exploring Shakespeare’s characters before, during, and after the events of his greatest tragedy.

Are Bob Dylan and William Shakespeare truly solitary geniuses given what collaborative art forms music and theater are? A look at how A Complete Unknown and Shakespeare in Love depict young genius on the rise.

In an excerpt from Grace Tiffany’s imaginative novel, The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, we meet Judith Shakespeare at age 61, a midwife-apothecary in war-torn 17th-century England on the run to avoid arrest for witchcraft.

To commemorate Black History Month, we’re sharing interviews with acclaimed Black theater artists—actors, directors, playwrights—and scholars about performing and adapting Shakespeare, then and now.

Austin Tichenor discovers the TV series Shakespeare & Hathaway, which features former police detective Frank Hathaway teaming up with amateur sleuth Luella Shakespeare to solve crimes in—where else?—Stratford-upon-Avon.

Enjoy our top five Shakespeare & Beyond blog posts from 2024. Happy reading!

Scenes of winter in the Folger collection, from snowy outdoor scenes to fashionable illustrations to mentions of winter in Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

The end of the year brings feasts, celebrations, and family. Our reading list of Folger Book Club picks offers a wide range of ways to reflect on the ties that bind us.

Washington National Opera’s Artistic Director Francesca Zambello interviews director, Brenna Corner, about Verdi’s opera inspired by Macbeth.

Luke Skywalker strikes an iconic Hamlet pose in this illustration from the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series. Credit Nicolas Delort. Courtesy Quirk Books. Shakespeare and Star Wars would appear to have very little in common. Or at least they did,…

On his very popular Tumblr, Pop Sonnets, Erik Didriksen takes hit songs and rewrites them as Shakespearean sonnets. For example, Beyoncé’s “If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it” becomes “If truly you did wish…