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All 16 posts by

Karen Lyon

is managing editor of Folger Magazine and has written on topics relating to everyday life in Shakespeare’s time, including education, clothing, food and humors, sporting games, attitudes toward animals, the role of magic, crime and punishment, and table manners (or lack thereof).
Elizabethan Holidays: Christmas, New Year's Day... and Plough Monday?
Shakespeare and Beyond

Elizabethan Holidays: Christmas, New Year's Day... and Plough Monday?

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Karen Lyon

The Twelve Days of Christmas, from December 25 to January 6, was the longest and most enthusiastically celebrated festival in the Elizabethan calendar. On Christmas Eve, people decorated with evergreens, ivy, and holly, burned a Yule log, sang carols, and…

Happy Holidays from Elizabethan England
Elizabethan Holidays
Shakespeare and Beyond

Happy Holidays from Elizabethan England

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Karen Lyon

Some people believe that the Renaissance image of “Merry England,” a land of festivity and mirth, was a myth created during the Stuart reign by people nostalgic for the good old days before the Puritans put the kibosh on fun.…

The Four Humors: Eating in the Renaissance
The Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Four Humors: Eating in the Renaissance

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Karen Lyon

John Augustus Atkinson. The Taming of the Shrew. Watercolor drawing, late 18th or early 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio attempts to squelch Katherine’s hot temper by denying her meat, snatching away a roast…

Off the Shelf: Shakespeare and World Cinema, Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary, and more
Shakespeare and Beyond

Off the Shelf: Shakespeare and World Cinema, Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary, and more

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Author
Karen Lyon

Looking for a new addition to your bookshelf? Here’s a survey of some recently published books about Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, and the early modern age. Pop Sonnets: Shakespeare Spins on Your Favorite Songs by Erik Didriksen “Alas! I once…

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