The Folger Shakespeare Library is the largest collection of Shakespeare Folios and Shakespeareana in the world, and we were given a private tour by none other than Folger Director Gail Paster and Head of Reference Georgianna Ziegler themselves.

We recorded the whole thing for the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast, which you can listen to here.

And the Folger put up a fantastic slideshow of all the things we looked at, which you can see here. Don’t miss:

(Thanks to Garland Scott, Head of External Relations and Chief Twit for the Folger Shakespeare Library. Follow her/them on Twitter @FolgerLibrary.)

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  1. Bonnie W. Carlson

    I agree! I completely buy the implausibility. It is absolutely implausible. Very easy to buy that. Well said. And love the Happy Days allusion. Jumping the shark should hereby be the phrase to sum up the utter self-destruction of any artistic endeavor. B is an appropriate grade as this film should be seen with a buzz. I too loved Christopher Guest as Anne Boleyn. And the epiphany that Tom Hulce wrote Shakespeare’s plays? Priceless! I laughed, I cried, it was the feel-good review of the year!

  2. Patricia

    I too could not really wait to see the movie, so I saw it the Saturday that it opened. I agree that the costuming was outstanding; I rather liked the acting. But the STORY – Yikes! Any relation between history and this really was coincidental! I mean, the Essex rebellion did do a Shakespeare play beforehand, but it was Richard II, and Robert Cecil had a bad leg, he wasn’t a hunchback. The whole plot, I think, set back the cause of the DeVere afficionados back about 200 years. Not that I mind. I think the whole DeVere theory is elitist. Thanks for your review. It was good to be able to listen you all your opinions!

  3. Dan O.

    I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this and how Emmerich kept the story moving well enough to keep me glued, even if it does feel a tad over-dramatic to an extent. Good review. Check out mine when you get the chance.

  4. Nick

    William Shakespeare did NOT write the plays. Rather, they were written by another author of the same name.

  5. Jess Winfield

    A very well-balanced review, guys. Personally I can’t wait to see the movie, because it will be an opportunity for me to take many Xanax beforehand. Your listeners may be interested in this former Reducer’s dissection of the whole authorship controversy a couple of years ago.

    http://infinitejess.blogspot.com/2007/10/shakespeare-authorship.html

    FYI, Howard’s concern about the order of scenes in Hamlet: Emmerich seems to have used the order from the First Quarto of 1603… to his credit.

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