Missy and Mariam Talk Shakespeare: Mariam-Supplemental: The Folger Shakespeare Library

On Wednesday, Missy and I went to the Folger Shakespeare Library. This library was made by a couple named the Folgers who over their lifetime collected 82 of the first printing of Shakespeare's collection. It is on Capitol Hill in DC, right next to the Library of Congress. Admission is free with optional donations and reserving a ticket ahead of time possibly didn't save us a ton of time because there was no line on a Wednesday morning.

But first, breakfast. Easily the best bagels in this part of Maryland and I had a jalapeno bagel with olive and pimento cream cheese and an Irish cream latte because I like my breakfasts to be preferably a lunch.

DC was predictably empty and surprisingly with a lot of road closures. It was a beautiful fall day and that drive is lovely on most days if you ignore the atrocious traffic patterns.

There was a statue of a word that Missy kept saying that didn't make sense in the context she was saying it so I couldn't understand it. It turns out that the word is "Bottom". Possibly I shall have more to say on that topic once we've done A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The walls are covered in prints from the library's collection and then there are a few different manuscripts, images, figurines, etc under glass. The coolest things were prop daggers from Hamlet stageplays and a manuscript from one of the Kenneth Branagh plays.

(Most of my images are from online because I, an aging millennial, no longer remember to take my own.)

The best part, of course, were the First Folios. These are the first printing of the complete collection of Shakespeare's plays in 1623. Some 200 copies were made in the first printing. The reason all of them look different is because people back then bought the loose leaf manuscript and then got it bound themselves.

The First Folio display was the most fascinating but there was not a way to get a lot of information. There was a lights display, that would light up the folios by groups and a caption would tell you that these were the most expensive, or owned by women, or the bargain ones.

It took two years to print because they set the type for each page by hand, something we were then allowed to try out ourselves. I got some words upside down and it did help me understand what an undertaking printing anything at that time was.

My friends know I get obsessed with weirdly small details in large pictures and I currently have made a huge mystery out Folio 65, about three times the size of the others. I keep wondering, what's in it??? I have emailed the reference department of the library to ask. If they respond, I shall update you all.

When we walked out of the hall, my chest actually felt full and almost painful, the way you feel after you've something wonderful and meaningful and fulfilling.

There was a hall with paintings from various scenes. The largest one was of the Romeo and Juliet death scene and I was vastly confused by the number of people in that painting. Missy said, "That's Paris," and I said, "who's Paris?" I barely remembered that guy existed even when I was watching/reading it.

I never hear the whole of any of the Shakespeare's plays and think oh yeah, I understood everything. But I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I could recognize any reference to any play I'd seen already. I'm not sure what about this very generic scene was instantly recognizable to me as King Lear but it was.

Two old ladies were sitting in front of the Romeo and Juliet painting and talking about how people are still the same as Shakespeare described them, how one of them had gone through the same thing but she'd been 18 and Juliet 13. 👀

We went the Great Hall and got some cider and iced tea and scones and tarts. People were quiet and respectful. Everyone was reading or writing.

We saw some of the gardens coming in and saw them again coming out. They were aromatic and when you walked out, you got a great gust of rosemary and other lovely things.

The reading room was closed to visitors. Only researchers can visit on weekdays. We peeked in from the windows and this is what it looks like according to the internet.