Perhaps the most ubiquitous and influential writer in the history of the English language is getting a roadshow. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s birth this year,… Read more »
Early Shakespeare manuscript discovered in France
In a discovery that gives the French some ammunition in their centuries-long thumbing-of-noses battle with the English, a rare copy of William Shakespeare’s First Folio has been unearthed at a… Read more »
“You speak a language that I understand not,” or, Brits fund Mandarin translation of Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company will get 1.5 million pounds ($1.63 million in real money) from the British government to translate all of William Shakespeare’s works into Mandarin. The effort, said British… Read more »
Shakespeare & Company stages outdoor Macbeth production in Paris
There’s something magical about Shakespeare & Company in Paris—perhaps it has to do with the bookshop’s esteemed lineage. Originally Sylvia Beach’s shop at a different location on rue de l’Odeon,… Read more »
London underground’s poster campaign offends commuters, and poetry
Anyone travelling on London’s underground for the past few months will be familiar with the series of tube etiquette posters that are now ubiquitous. You’ve seen them plastered on station… Read more »
Scammer gets his comeuppance via the complete works of William Shakespeare…by text
When Edd Joseph of Bristol discovered he’d been scammed by a guy who sold him a PS3 console online and never delivered, he turned to literature. Not for solace, though… Read more »
Should The Globe Theatre take Hamlet to North Korea?
Earlier this week, Amnesty International criticized The Globe Theatre for planning to take its production of Hamlet to North Korea. Amnesty called for The Globe to read up on the… Read more »
Jo Nesbø to pen a noir Macbeth
Bestselling Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø, known for his series of crime novels about Inspector Harry Hole, has been pegged to write an updated version of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in… Read more »
Now I’ve written the whole thing. For Christ’s sake give me a drink.
On Lapham’s Quarterly’s Roundtable blog, Colin Dickey notes that their Means of Communications issue features an amazing collection of “complaints and marginal notes” left by medieval monks, who had to copy manuscripts… Read more »
Lambeth Palace recovers 1,400 stolen publications, thanks to thief’s note
A sealed letter from a former employee of the library at Lambeth Palace, home to the Archbishop of Canterbury, revealed the location of thousands of books he had stolen from… Read more »