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Early modern life

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The Cotswold Olympicks
Photo illustration by David Dilworth
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Cotswold Olympicks

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Author
Karen Lyon

  The Ancient Greeks may hold the franchise on Olympic wrestling—but how would they have fared against a 17th-century British shin-kicker? In 1612 in the tiny village of Chipping Campden, Robert Dover opened the first Cotswold Olympicks, ushering in a…

A perfect pairing: A recipe for almond jumballs and a podcast episode on "Recipes for Thought"
Wendy Wall, Recipes for Thought: Knowledge and Taste in the Early Modern Kitchen
Shakespeare and Beyond

A perfect pairing: A recipe for almond jumballs and a podcast episode on "Recipes for Thought"

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Author
Shakespeare & Beyond

Early modern kitchens, food, and recipes offer an intriguing window on the world in which Shakespeare lived. Our new Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episode is a fascinating interview with Wendy Wall, who explores the role of food, kitchens, and other related subjects in…

Ask a Librarian: Summertime in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare and Beyond

Ask a Librarian: Summertime in Elizabethan England

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Author
Karen Lyon

Q: I know about Queen Elizabeth I’s summer progresses, but how did ordinary people spend their summers in Shakespeare’s time? A: For most Elizabethans, summer presented little opportunity for a vacation from regular work routines. There were still farms to tend,…

The Elizabethan Garden: 11 plants Shakespeare would have known well
Elizabethan Garden
Shakespeare and Beyond

The Elizabethan Garden: 11 plants Shakespeare would have known well

Posted
Author
Esther French

The text for this blog post is adapted from an article in the Summer 2009 issue of Folger Magazine. Shakespeare, who grew up in a riverside country town and was the grandchild of prosperous farmers, refers with familiarity to an extraordinary number of plants…

How Queen Elizabeth I spent her summer vacation
Queen Elizabeth I arriving at Nonsuch
Shakespeare and Beyond

How Queen Elizabeth I spent her summer vacation

Posted
Author
Karen Lyon

Elizabeth I arriving at Nonsuch, Franz Hogenberg after Georg Hoefnagel. Hand-colored engraving from Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, ca. 1598. Folger Shakespeare Library. (Click the image to see a zoomable version in the Folger’s digital image collection.) You thought you had…

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

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

Posted
Author
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

Posted
Author
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

Posted
Author
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…

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