Early modern life

Uncover the world of cunning folk in Shakespeare’s England, as scholar Tabitha Stanmore reveals how these magic practitioners helped everyone from commoners to royalty with their practical spells and charms.

Without alchemy there would be no mixology. No cocktails, no spirits, no liqueurs, no essences! Dive into the history of alchemy and distillation, with two cocktail recipes.

Jennifer Rampling, a Princeton history professor and author of The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700, explores alchemy in Shakespeare’s England.

Scholar Will Tosh explores the hidden queer lives in Shakespeare’s works, revealing how early modern gender fluidity and same-sex desire influenced the Bard’s plays and characters.

Artistic Fellow Leah Hampton showcases the Folger’s collection of Early Modern bar tokens

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.

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.

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.”

In this busy travel time, try out our “Travel and Shakespeare” quiz about journeys in his plays and in real life, too.

Fellow Andrés Gattinoni looks at Early Modern collections of music and jokes intended to cure melancholy.

Folger Fellow Emma Marshall explores the history of the women of the Lucy family.