Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

A few months ago, Oxford University Press decided that in the New Oxford Shakespeare, the plays Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, an... Read more

“How is it possible for a whole country to fall into the hands of a tyrant? That’s a deeply unsettling question that Sha... Read more

The period when Shakespeare was writing was one torn by disagreements over the proper method of observing Christianity i... Read more

"It is not so. Thou hast misspoke, misheard.Be well advised; tell o'er thy tale again.It cannot be; thou dost but say 't... Read more

1606 was a critical year for Shakespeare’s creative career. It was the year in which he wrote KING LEAR, MACBETH, and AN... Read more

In Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, the magician Prospero conjures up a storm, charms his daughter to sleep, and uses his powe... Read more

In 1994, Deborah Harkness was doing research at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library when she stumbled across the Book o... Read more

Hear Sir Ben Kingsley, Earle Hyman, Liev Schreiber, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, Estelle Parsons, and others open up a... Read more

This podcast episode, which deals with race, Othello, and how the Elizabethans portrayed blackness onstage, offers a sta... Read more

How do actors breathe life into Shakespeare’s texts? How do they take language that’s centuries old and make it sound so... Read more

Think there were no women onstage in Shakespeare’s time? Think again. We talk to scholar Clare McManus about where and h... Read more

Laura Wayth, our guest for this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, is Assistant Professor of Theatre at San Francisco Sta... Read more

"I, that am rudely stamped..."(Richard III, 1.1.16)Shakespeare not only talked about his own times; he also wrote histor... Read more

Even if you’re not a Shakespeare scholar, there are things you have learned about Shakespeare and his plays throughout y... Read more

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronouncedit to you, trippingly on the tongue."—HAMLET (3:2:1–2)When Shakespeare wro... Read more

How do actors do what they do? How do they stir up emotions, both in themselves and in us as we watch them? Joseph Roach... Read more

How does Shakespeare portray girls and girlhood in his plays, and what do those portrayals tell us about life in Elizabe... Read more

"For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo."—ROMEO AND JULIET(5.3.320)Though the tragic love st... Read more

"I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings," (Othello, 3.3.152)How do Shakespeare's works, written so long ago, still sp... Read more

Renowned actor Derek Jacobi talks about the Shakespearean role for which he is best known, Hamlet. Beginning at the Edin... Read more