Blogging Shakespeare

Sidney Lee né Solomon Lazarus Lee in London in 1859 was a biographer and Shakespearean scholar. He edited the Dictionary of National Biography to which he contributed over 800 articles. He wrote a biography of Shakespeare in 1898. We Americans remember that he delivered lectures on “Foreign Influences in English Literature” at Johns Hopkins University […]

In 1926, the reserved Henry Clay Folger (1857–1930), CEO at Standard Oil Company of New York, uncharacteristically resolved to have large twin oil portraits made of him and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger (1858–1936). The paintings would hang in the Folger Shakespeare Library to be built in Washington DC to house the greatest collection of […]

A Look Back and a Look Forward: Three Years of Shakespeare Calling By Ruby Jand   It is now more than a month since I wrote anything for Shakespeare Calling, even longer since Hal and I finished reading The Tempest. I miss Shakespeare like a dear friend who has gone on a long voyage with […]

By Janice Valls-Russell Cranes are – along with spires and towers – part of the Gdańsk cityscape. The harbour had a man-powered crane back in the Middle Ages, to unload cargo in this busy Hanseatic harbour, long before the steel monsters we associate with the city’s shipyards and their politically charged history. Today, building cranes […]

While my colleagues of the Shakespeare on the Road venture are hurtling round a series of Shakespeare festivals in the New World – I hope to join them on the Canadian leg of their journey – I had the pleasure of attending a festival in the historic and delightful town of Gyula, in Southern Hungary. […]

The undeniable spirit of New Orleans has infused our four days here with a beat all of its own. From our first evening when we took our eye-opening walk down Bourbon Street, to the photograph we had taken with an Uncle Sam lookalike outside the Maple Leaf jazz bar on Oak Street, and the magical, […]

Arrived in New Orleans the other night after 600 mile drive from an unexpected stop in the unexpectedly delightful St. Genevieve, MO. A gumbo dinner and good night’s sleep later and we’re enjoying coffee in high humidity. Amid the sweet, sticky madness of it all, I thought it might be grounding to make a list […]

‘Romeo loved Juliet Juliet she felt the same When he put his arms around her He said ‘Julie, baby, you’re my flame Thou giv-est fever when we kisseth Fever with the flaming youth Fever I’m afire Fever yea I burn for sooth’ Elvis Presley would have sung these lyrics about Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers hundreds of […]

As we leave the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival I look across Kansas City to the trees lying beyond the skyscrapers. The Winter’s Tale which we saw in Southmoreland Park feels like it is sending its city beat onto the road in front of us. We are at once driving away from and heading towards […]