The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC contains not only Shakespearean treasures of every sort and size but various items belonging to its founders. Henry Folger ordered two racing umbrellas from the company founded in London in 1836 by Thomas Brigg as “Brigg and Sons.” The Folgers would have custom-ordered the umbrellas in London. The company has now become Swaine Adeney Brigg (purveyors to the Prince of Wales) and is currently located in the Picadilly Arcade. Henry Folger’s crook-style black racing umbrella measures 36 inches. The initials “H C F Jr.” are monogrammed on a one-inch ..read more

Imperfect title-page of Shakespeare Fourth Folio (1685) acquired by Folger Library in 2014 In 1889, 10 years after he graduated from Amherst College and 84 years before I did, Henry Folger walked “with fear and trepidation” into the foremost book auction house in America, Bangs and Co. on 91 Fifth Avenue. A large, thick volume caught his eye and changed his life forever. For the first time, he picked up, and fondled, a genuine Shakespeare Folio containing the Bard’s Comedies, Tragedies, and Histories. It was not the most well known First Folio (1623) respected for its authenticity and of which ..read more

 ‘This other magic, it will not do, sir.’ – Gilbert Norrell ‘But Shakespear’s Magick could not copy’d be, Within that Circle none durst walk but he.’ – John Dryden It’s entirely possible that my thesis is giving me tunnel vision, but the way characters discuss the ‘wild, cruel, medieval’ magic of the Raven King in the BBC’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell series is starting to seem eerily familiar to me. The terms being used are remarkably similar to what writers in the century and a half after the Restoration say about Shakespeare’s poetry. The ‘magic of the modern age’ championed by ..read more

Henry Folger was unlike his executive colleagues at the Standard Oil Company in New York who vacationed in Florida and California or cruised the Mediterranean. He took his wife and collecting partner Emily to England eleven times between 1903 and 1923. In the first year, 1903, he purchased as many as EIGHT First Folios: Folger number 1, 17, 33, 45, 47, 48, 56, and 64 out of the eighty-two copies he purchased over a lifetime. In the last year, 1923, he stepped down as president of Standard Oil Company of New York to become the oil giant’s chairman of the board. That year, he acquired only one ..read more

by Shaul Bassi This summer scholars, actors, students will spend four weeks on a Venetian island with an ambitious goal, that of preparing the first ever promenade production of The Merchant of Venice in the Jewish Ghetto. Two landmark anniversaries will coincide in 2016: the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and the 500th anniversary of the foundation of the Ghetto of Venice, a place that provided the world with the concept of the ‘ghetto’, as well as the historical backdrop to The Merchant of Venice. The Ghetto, founded in 1516 as a place of segregation, became an important c ..read more

“I regret that you insist upon a discount from my catalogue prices. I must decline trading on such terms. That other booksellers allow 10% discount from their catalogue is no precedent for me. These men made their selling prices accordingly. I am sorry that I must lose you as a customer.” Hard bargainer Henry Clay Folger met his match in Bernard Quaritch Sr., as this quote from the London bookseller’s letter to the oil executive in New York City on March 25, 1897 attests. The business relationship survived, however. In his quest to assemble the most complete collection of Shakespeareana in the ..read more

As Christopher Marlowe anachronistically says in Anonymous, six years after his historical death: ‘It’s difficult to write, isn’t it? After watching something like Hamlet. It eats at you – at your soul…’ And it’s especially difficult to write a verse play. I’m a PhD researcher at the Shakespeare Institute looking at the history of verse drama in the wake of Shakespeare, and one theme that comes up again and again, in critical reviews and the words of verse playwrights themselves, is a certain anxiety over measuring up. Shakespeare’s verse plays, after all, are the reason people come from acros ..read more

Published 23 April 2015 Shakespeare has mattered ever since his name first appeared in print in 1593 with his erotic and entertaining poem, Venus and Adonis. He was 29 years old. For much of the poem the goddess of love is naked and begging for sex before Adonis, but he resists her advances. Venus and Adonis was a sensation (it still can be to the first-time reader) and became the most printed of all of Shakespeare’s works in his lifetime with ten editions by the time he died in 1616. Unsurprisingly, the poem was popular among university undergraduates. In 1600, the poet and academic, Gabriel ..read more

Rosy-cheeked white-bearded poet, painter, and shipmaster Captain John Robinson of Watford, Hertfordshire was a commanding presence on the bridge of the steamship Minnehaha from 1900 until he retired from the American-owned Atlantic Transport Line due to poor eyesight in 1907. His seafaring career spanned a half-century, starting as cabin boy at a shilling a month. When the Henry Folgers met him on board, they discovered a commander not only with extensive seamanship and a genial disposition, but a thorough knowledge of Shakespeare. Other illustrious personalities who traveled on the Minnehaha ..read more

Professor Louis Marder Are you studying Shakespeare at college, university, or for leisure? Are you going to be using the archives or library of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust? You might be interested in applying for the Louis Marder Shakespeare Centre Scholarship (or recommending it to a friend). This annual scholarship of £1,000 is awarded to ‘a worthy Shakespearian currently pursuing a Ph.D. or similar study, who pledges to produce an original, publishable article on a previously approved literary, historical, or biographical topic about William Shakespeare (as opposed to character analys ..read more