shakespearean sonnet essay

Sonnet 130 Summary & Analysis by William Shakespeare

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

"Sonnet 130" was written by the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. Though most likely written in the 1590s, the poem wasn't published until 1609. Like many other sonnets from the same period, Shakespeare's poem wrestles with beauty, love, and desire. He tries to find a more authentic, realistic way to talk about these things in the sonnet, and gleefully dismisses the highly artificial poems of praise his peers were writing. Shakespeare's poem also departs from his contemporaries in terms of formal structure — it is a new kind of sonnet—the "Shakespearean" sonnet.

• Read the full text of “Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”

The Full Text of “Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”

1 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; 

2 Coral is far more red than her lips' red; 

3 If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; 

4 If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 

5 I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 

6 But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 

7 And in some perfumes is there more delight 

8 Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 

9 I love to hear her speak, yet well I know 

10 That music hath a far more pleasing sound; 

11 I grant I never saw a goddess go; 

12 My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. 

13    And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare 

14    As any she belied with false compare.

“Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” Summary

“sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” themes.

Beauty and Love

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Love, Personality, and the Superficial

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; 

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;  If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;  If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. 

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,  But no such roses see I in her cheeks;  And in some perfumes is there more delight  Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know  That music hath a far more pleasing sound;  I grant I never saw a goddess go;  My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. 

Lines 13-14

   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare     As any she belied with false compare.

“Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” Symbols

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Parallelism

End-stopped line, “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”

Rhyme scheme, “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” speaker, “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” setting, literary and historical context of “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”, more “sonnet 130: my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” resources, external resources.

Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady" — Read the full text of Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady," a rewriting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130.

"Sonnet 130" Glossary — A glossary and commentary on Sonnet 130 from Buckingham University.

1609 Quarto Printing of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 — An image of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 as it appeared in its first printing, in 1609.

Reading of "Sonnet 130" — Ian Midlane reads "Sonnet 130" for the BBC, introduced by some smooth jazz.

Blazon Lady — See an image of Charles Berger's blazon lady and read Thomas Campion's contemporaneous blazon. 

Sidney's Astrophil and Stella #9 — Read the full text of Sidney's earlier blazon, Astrophil and Stella #9.  

LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time

Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes

Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted

Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments

Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore

Sonnet 65 ("Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea")

Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead

Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More

Sonnet 18: introduction, sonnet 18 analysis: literary devices, sonnet 18: tone and themes, symbolism and imagery in the sonnet 18, literary analysis of sonnet 18: conclusion, works cited.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? The Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare is one of the most known Shakespeare’s sonnets. Want to learn more about the themes, tone, and imagery in Sonnet 18 ? Read the literary analysis below!

This essay analyzes Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 . The sonnet is a captivating love story of a young man fascinated by the beauty of his mistress and affectionately comparing her to nature. The first stanza, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ opens the poem with an indication of a young man deeply in love (Shakespeare 1). He envisions her as a beautiful creature and even wonders whether one can compare her beauty to any summer season.

This love sonnet falls under the lyric genre, with the author expressing deep emotional feelings for his mistress throughout the poem. The first stanza gives an assumption to the reader that the poet is not sure of what is more beautiful, a beautiful summer day or his mistress.

However, the air is cleared in the preceding stanzas that see the poet overcome by flamboyant feelings and admits that his lover is even lovelier than the summer itself (Shakespeare 2). The poem embeds an image of an undying and eternal kind of beauty as visualized by the poet.

The poet adopts a thematic structure technique to express his lover’s beauty. A line-by-line analysis of Sonnet 18 shows that the first stanza acts as an eye-opener of the poet’s attempt to compare his lover with summer. He goes on to state why his lover is better. Stanzas 1-6 give a solid reason as to why one cannot compare his lover to summer. Though summer appears to be beautiful, it is not constant and can be very disappointing if solely relied upon. It also does not last as long as his lover’s beauty would.

The stanzas give detailed answers to his rhetorical question posed at the beginning of the poem. The poet’s praises and awe are well expressed in these stanzas by revealing all the beautiful qualities seized by his mistress. Her beauty is constant and can neither be shaken by strong winds nor can it become unpredictable like the hot sun. It doesn’t waiver in the eyes of the beholder like the clouds swallow the summer hence losing its beauty.

Stanzas 7-14 indicates everlasting beauty, which he says cannot be claimed by anything, not even a natural calamity such as death. In the conclusion of the Sonnet 18 , W. Shakespeare admits that ‘Every fair from fair sometime decline,’ he makes his mistress’s beauty an exception by claiming that her youthful nature will never fade (Shakespeare 7). Interestingly, the author takes a different twist in the ending when he no longer compares the beauty to the summer but rather to the immortality of his poems (Shakespeare 14).

The poem features an affectionate mood portrayed by the poet throughout the poem. The tone of the Sonnet 18 is that of the romantic intimacy of a young man intrigued by a woman’s beauty. The mood and the tone, therefore, play a significant role in describing the setting of the poem.

The poet is sitting in a field on a warm summer day (Shakespeare 1). Though the weather seems ideal, it is breezy, with rough winds’ shaking the buds of May’ (Shakespeare 3). That is an indication that the poet is sitting under a tree enjoying the scenery on a hot afternoon. The poet enjoys the unpredictable weather till the clouds swallow the sun, and as he states, ‘By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’ d,’ nature always seems to take its course during sunset and sunrise (Shakespeare 8).

The poet uses metaphor and personification to bring life to the Sonnet 18 . For example, he uses figurative speech to presume change, fate, and immortality. He speaks of how he will internally save his lover’s beauty from fading from the face of the earth (Shakespeare 12). ‘Summer’ as a literary device is used to mean the life of the mistress that should be safe from fate. Fate, in this case, is portrayed by the use of scorching sun and rough winds.

The imagery of the Sonnet 18 includes personified death and rough winds. The poet has even gone further to label the buds as ‘darling’ (Shakespeare 3). Death serves as a supervisor of ‘its shade,’ which is a metaphor for ‘after life’ (Shakespeare 11). All these actions are related to human beings. ‘Eternal lines to lines though growest’ (Shakespeare 12) is a praise of the poet’s poems which he says will last forever so long as ‘men can breathe or eyes can see,’ a metaphor symbolizing ‘poet lovers’ will be there to read them (Shakespeare 13).

He views beauty as an art that cannot diminish despite all the hurdles in life. However, beauty does not apply to everything but only to images that appeal more to the eyes of the beholder than nature itself. That kind of beauty is immortal and surpasses all tribulations caused by nature itself.

This essay on the Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare analyzed the poem’s tone, imagery, meaning, and main themes. In summary, the poet is fascinated by his mistress’s beauty, such that he cannot imagine that very beauty fading from his eyes. He argues that beauty is constant and, unlike a ‘summer day,’ is not affected by any changes or fate at all. He, however, seems to be praising his poem as characterized at the end of the poem, where he only compares the everlasting beauty to his text. The Sonnet eighteen’s conclusion indicates that beauty can only end only when the poem ceases to exist.

Shakespeare, William. “ Shakespeare Sonnet 18. ” Shakespeare Sonnets . 1564. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2018, October 11). William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespeares-sonnet-18/

"William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More." IvyPanda , 11 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/shakespeares-sonnet-18/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More'. 11 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More." October 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespeares-sonnet-18/.

1. IvyPanda . "William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More." October 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespeares-sonnet-18/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 Analysis: Tone, Imagery, Symbolism, and More." October 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/shakespeares-sonnet-18/.

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Write a sonnet.

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Step 1: Choose your own sonnet adventure

The world is your oyster! You can write a sonnet…

…on your own. Get typing, or dust off that quill pen.

…with others in your home. Banish boredom around the dinner table or on the couch!

…with friends and family online. Collaborate to write and record yourselves across the miles.

Step 2: Find inspiration

Check out Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Few collections of poems—indeed, few literary works in general—intrigue, challenge, tantalize, and reward as do Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Almost all of them love poems, the Sonnets philosophize, celebrate, attack, plead, and express pain, longing, and despair, all in a tone of…

More inspiration

• Read a poem that pokes fun at sonnets.
• Read a poem that refers to the film The Matrix .
• Read a poem that plays with pop culture and with Shakespeare, too.
• Listen to poet Terrance Hayes read one of his sonnets.

Step 3: Get writing!

Sonnets have been around for over seven centuries, maybe because they’re so much fun to write! A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines that reflects upon a single issue or idea. It usually takes a turn, called a “volta,” about 8 lines in, and then resolves the issue by the end.

Shakespearean sonnets use iambic pentameter and an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme, but don’t worry too much about all that. Sonneteers have been bending and breaking the sonnet form for ages, so share whatever you’ve got!

Here’s a quick list to help you get started. How fancy you get is up to you!

• 14 lines (though there are “stretched sonnets” of 15 and 16 lines, too)
• A big idea or feeling or issue (like love, or heartbreak, or a problem to be solved)

The next level

• A turn, or “volta”—some kind of shift in tone or thought
• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme
• 10 syllables in each line

Super-fancy sonneteering

• Iambic pentameter in some or all of the 14 lines
• Final couplet resolves the issue or problem in the sonnet

Try your hand, see how much of this sonnet stuff you want to play with, and no matter what, enjoy the experience of writing poetry.

More about sonnets

Enjoy these selected episodes from our podcast.

All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, with Paul Edmondson

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 167 Over 400 years after Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in 1609, what is left to learn? All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, a new edition of the sonnets published in 2020, takes some bold steps to help…

Billy Collins on Writing Short Poems and Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets

Poet Billy Collins talks about humanizing Shakespeare and other literary titans, delves into his own work and inspirations, and reads from his new collection, Musical Tables .

The Early Years of Shakespeare's Sonnets (16th and 17th centuries)

Shakespeare Unlimited:Episode 136 Did Shakespeare intend to publish his sonnets? For whom were they written? What can they reveal about their author? We talk to Dr. Jane Kingsley-Smith about her newest book, The Afterlife of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, published by Cambridge…

The Long Life of Shakespeare's Sonnets (18th century – today)

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 142 Today, we think of Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a triumph. We read them, puzzle over them, and recite them. We compare our significant others to summers’ days, beweep our outcast states, and never admit impediments to the…

Pop Sonnets

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 41 There’s something that never ceases to astound when it comes to Shakespeare – the way this 400-year-old playwright continues to pop up in popular culture. Our guest on this podcast episode is Erik Didriksen, who takes…

Writing a group sonnet

Are you a teacher? Use this lesson plan to have your class write a group sonnet together.

Writing a Group Sonnet: Shakespeare’s Sonnets

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A Guide To Writing Shakespeare Essays, Including Pitfalls & Tips

William Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the most significant personalities of the world and culture in particular. This dramatist is considered to be an inventor of literary English language, an inventor of modern theater, and the greatest poet in the history of England. Starting in the 15th century, Shakespeare’s poems and plays have been published in a lot of countries and translated into almost all languages of the world. It is no wonder that students have to write a Shakespeare essay despite their disciplines and specialization. The assignments vary. You might get a task to analyze the sonnets or a play of a famous playwright and writer, write a book report, or say some words about his life in a Shakespeare biography essay. No matter what is your writing about, experts from  ProHighGrades  collected some ideas and essential tips that will help.

How to Write a Shakespeare Biography Essay

If you are to write essays about the background of a great author, you need to know his biography, and the peculiarities of the time he lived in. Here are some ideas:

• Describe the town he was born and lived. Stratford-upon-Avon was a small English town, and his family was among the noble ones. You can analyze the primal education and the reasons to move to London.
• Literature resources give a little knowledge of young Shakespeare. No one knows the real day of birth. The authors know he was baptized in April. History did not save much about his school or university education. The period which starts in the year 1585 and finishes in 1593 is called “the lost years of Shakespeare.” An excellent attempt to analyze and make suggestions concerning his real life and a search for additional facts will amaze the professors.
• You can analyze the relationship between Shakespeare and other people. Some works and pages contain suggestions about his love, friends, etc. A good Shakespeare biography essay will try to study the stories related to the company surrounding him. Study the writers he mailed.
• Finally, his last years and death are covered in mystery as well. You can try to find a reason why Shakespeare left a big part of his property to his daughter Susanna. Write about a real reason to move back to Stratford.

A good story about a simple man, people to follow him, the political and historical circumstances and terms, the rights of a human of Shakespeare’s society, popular suggestions, and references to his biography from other sources deserve to appear in an excellent Shakespeare essay.

How to Write an Essay About Shakespeare’s Works

Everybody read the author. Students compose tons of writings, where they give information about his collection of works. In order to claim some originality and score free points on exclusiveness, you need to consider many things:

• All the essays about Shakespeare’s literature are written. People wrote about the classic plays after his sonnet or plots. Scholars read, search, and research the significance of his works in almost every paper. You need something contemporary. New plays and interpretations of the texts appear today (for example, a fresh Hamlet play with Benedict Cumberbatch). New movies come from Hollywood and other countries. Take them into account. Many original Shakespeare essay topics are reserved for you
• If you are in despair, choose a way that worked for centuries. Analyze the title of a particular poem or play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream , the plays entitled by names ( Romeo and Juliet , Macbeth , Much Ado About Nothing and others are a reason to write a good, short essay about William Shakespeare.
• A good idea is to analyze the characters of Shakespeare. His plays are not all full of action, but characters are deep. Conflicts, emotions, experience, and background stand behind every one. To make a Shakespeare paper better, reading work is not enough. Try to watch the performance of actors from plays and movies. Usually, they do not make an exact copy of the text but bring the new interpretation.
• Good Shakespeare essay examples choose famous critics for referencing. A catchy quote or a properly referenced idea will make your essay worth money and effort. Remember that the question you ask in the Shakespeare paper must find its answer despite the length of a paper, and a number of essay pages needed.
• Adjust your essay to a discipline. In every Shakespeare text, you can find something for a history, sociology, culture, linguistics, psychology, arts, mythology, and literature essay.

Shakespeare was not a simple person and now has a truly global identity. His impact on his and further times are great. Many people study him, and increasingly significant numbers will no doubt do so in the future. You can also count on the guys from EditProofRead to check out your paper to make sure it’s good.

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Shakespeare's Sonnets William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of various sonnets by William Shakespeare.

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ARTS & CULTURE

How the soon-to-reopen folger shakespeare library came to be.

A full 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio will go on view as the renovated Washington, D.C. institution makes its debut

Andrea Mays and James L. Swanson

Future titan of industry Henry Clay Folger Jr. lived the first part of his life in Dickensian poverty. Born in Brooklyn in 1857, he used essay contests to pay for his education at Amherst College, where he hand-washed his own laundry to save money and still could not afford coal for heat. And he was a deep admirer of William Shakespeare : He recalled delight in reading the Bard’s plays and poems “far into the night” while still at Amherst. A guest lecture by 75-year-old Ralph Waldo Emerson inspired Folger to search out the author’s 1864 “Remarks at the Celebration of the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Shakespeare,” further enflaming his passion.

Still, little about his early life indicated Folger would amass the largest collection of Shakespeareana in the world: the Folger Shakespeare Library , which has been the envy of other collectors and a lifeline to generations of Shakespeare scholars. Of all the collection’s treasures, the central jewels are the First Folios —the earliest published collection of the plays, from 1623, of which only some 235 survive, in any form.

Now, as the Washington, D.C. library reopens after an ambitious renovation and expansion, it’s bringing its First Folios out of the vault and onto display. The gathering of 82 First Folios is a historic moment, and the library’s new exhibitions give visitors a variety of ways, both digital and analog, to know the Bard better. The renovated Folger is a triumph—one that preserves and honors the best of its past while incorporating breathtaking updates and innovations.

Folger was always a collector of sorts: He saved every book he ever read and from childhood assembled meticulous scrapbooks of theater tickets and other ephemera. But he’d never owned a rare book.

A chance encounter changed all that. One day in 1889, Folger wandered into a New York City auction gallery and made an impulse purchase he could ill afford. For $107.50 (around $3,650 today), he bought a later, 1685 edition of Shakespeare’s plays, also known as a Fourth Folio. It included seven “new” plays, six of them by other authors. Folger asked if he could pay in installments. He brought the volume home to his wife, Emily, who shared his literary inclinations. They opened the binding and beheld the portrait of the author, pressed from a copper engraving of the only known portrait of Shakespeare. They turned the thick, luxurious rag paper pages, poring over the beloved words.

Henry Folger never recorded what called him into his first auction gallery on that decisive 1889 day. Little could he know that answering that mysterious call set him on the path to becoming the greatest Shakespeare collector in the world; nor that the young man who could barely afford $100 for a Fourth Folio would one day pay the highest price in the world for a book (not once but three times); nor that he would create the greatest Shakespeare library on the planet. In any case, in 1893, Folger bought his first copy of a First Folio and never looked back.

When Shakespeare died in 1616, no one—not even the playwright himself—believed that his writings would endure, nor that future generations would celebrate him as the greatest playwright-poet in the history of the English language. Plays of the period were meant to be performed, not read; they were entertainment, not literature. They were not written for all time, but for their own. Shakespeare had written five long poems, 154 sonnets and, depending on how one counts them, 37 plays. In his lifetime, only half his plays were published. The other half were in danger of extinction.

In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, two loyal friends, fellow actors and Globe Theater shareholders John Heminges and Henry Condell, collected and published all of the plays in one mammoth volume, the First Folio. Formally called Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies , the First Folio is the book that preserved Shakespeare’s work for posterity, elevating the Bard to the status he enjoys today. It was the first time in history the collected plays of a single author had been printed. Without Heminges and Condell, the plays that had not been previously published—including Macbeth , The Tempest , Julius Caesar , Measure for Measure , Antony and Cleopatra , Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale —would have been lost.

No more than 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, a large run at the time, which signaled the editors’ confidence in the marketability of their friend’s plays. Over the last 400 years, around 500 of those copies have perished: Lost, devoured by insects or vermin, dismembered by time, or burned. Of the 235 or so surviving copies, fewer than 40 exist in coveted original condition. In October 2020, one such copy, once held at Mills College in California, sold for a record $9.9 million , making it one of the most valuable books in the world.

Henry Folger’s rise to great fortune took decades of toil. After graduating Amherst, he attended Columbia Law School at night so he could hold a full-time day job as a clerk at Charles Pratt and Company, an oil firm in Brooklyn, where he distinguished himself with an uncanny knack for facts, figures and efficiency. When that small enterprise merged with the Standard Oil Company, then the largest corporation in the world, Folger caught the eye of founder John D. Rockefeller. The richest man on the planet mentored Folger, adopting him as a trusted protégé. Their close relationship thrived on two shared passions: business and golf. Toward the end of his life, Rockefeller wrote to Folger: “I would not be outdone in appreciation of your companionship, and the delightful associations of the long years, and notably of these later years, as the ranks of the older associates are thinning out and we of the Old Guard draw closer together.”

By 1911, when Folger became president of Standard Oil Company of New York, he had already acquired an astonishing 40 First Folios before even hitting full stride as a collector. His wife, Emily, encouraged his obsession and became his canny collaborator. A fellow bardolator—one devoted to Shakespeare and his work—she had written a master’s thesis about the playwright while studying at Vassar College. Now, she advised him on all important purchases and cataloged the collection by recording bibliographic and provenance details on index cards by the thousands.

Over the next decades, Henry and Emily Folger purchased such massive quantities of Shakespeare material that they ran out of space in their modest rented home. Folger safeguarded the most precious treasures in bank vaults and crammed the rest into hundreds of crates that he secreted in storage units scattered all over New York City. As the couple branched out into collecting other rare books, plus paintings and sheet music, the storage question became more pressing still.

To preserve their collection in perpetuity, the Folgers decided to build a library in Washington, D.C. within sight of the U.S. Capitol and gift their collection to the American people and as a triumph of industry and philanthropy. When the Folger Memorial Shakespeare Library was dedicated on April 23, 1932 (the 368th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth), the Washington Post reported it was “attended by as distinguished an audience as ever gathered in Washington for any cultural reason.” Sadly, Henry Folger died in 1930 and never got to see the completed monument to his and Emily’s great passion.

By the early 2000s, it had become obvious that the library had outgrown its home and was in desperate need of more space for its ever-expanding acquisitions of books, documents, playbills, manuscripts, paintings, artifacts, tapestries, costumes, sheet music, maps, musical instruments and more.

But the historic status of the original structure made it impossible to break through the roof and rise vertically. Nor was it possible to expand the building’s footprint. That left one option: dig deep down below and build a new 12,000-square-foot wing, which includes 6,000 square feet of new exhibit space underneath the library and its lawn.

Much of the original structure remains intact. The huge reading room preserves its Elizabethan and Tudor carved woodwork, a balcony, and the dominant “Seven Ages of Man” stained-glass window; the jewel-box theater lives on as an homage to an Elizabethan playhouse; the secluded founder’s room that the Folgers designed for their own private enjoyment endures, and Henry and Emily Folger’s ashes are entombed in a niche in the old reading room.

The real action happens below street level, where an innovative new design of high ceilings, light-toned wood and LED lighting transforms underground rooms that ought to be dark and claustrophobic into airy, bright, spacious galleries. Stephen Kieran, principal architect behind the renovation, says it was a thrill to “unbury one of the nation’s great cultural assets, making the insight and wisdom of Shakespeare more physically and emotionally accessible. … We get to renovate both memory and architecture.”

In one such underground gallery, the Folger has resurrected its 82 First Folios (about one-third of all the copies in the world) from their hidden storage vaults and showcases them in what the library calls a “visible vault”—a gigantic wooden bookcase, with each Folio horizontal, spine facing out on a dedicated shelf, alongside a biography of each volume. No two copies of the First Folio are identical: Each one differs in size, binding, condition, completeness or provenance. Each tells its own story of romance, passion, obsession, neglect or discovery. Thanks to the new space and the innovative bookcase design, this is the first time a visitor can see all 82 together.

Indeed, this is the first time that so many First Folios have been assembled in one place in 400 years, when stacks of copies fresh off the press were piled high in Isaac Jaggard’s London printing shop.

Interactive light-up captions will answer questions about individual copies: Which was the most expensive one? The precious, so-called Vincent copy, acquired in 1903 for $48,732.50 ($1.7 million in today’s dollars—though its value is currently estimated at $8 million to $10 million). Which was the cheapest? The shabby Copy #64, also purchased in 1903 for $220 ($8,000 in today’s dollars).

Nearby stands a functional re-creation of a 17th-century hand-operated press that evokes the laborious process that went into typesetting and printing the First Folio. In an innovative and entirely new exhibit, visitors will be able to try their hand at digitally “setting” type: First you place it backward, and then, with the pull of a lever, you project the mirrored result onto a screen. A newly commissioned poem by former United States poet laureate Rita Dove, inscribed in marble along the pathway through the new West Garden, invites visitors to “clear [their] calendars” and enter this monument to Shakespeare.

Other new features include a Shakespeare map of the world that shows the beach where Viola was shipwrecked in Twelfth Night and the forest to which Rosalind was exiled in As You Like It .

What would Henry Folger say today, knowing that his reinvented library has flung open to the world the doors to his treasures? Quoting Cardinal Wolsey in The Life of King Henry the Eighth , Folger would likely speak the words he ordered carved into stone above an entrance to his library: “I shower a welcome on ye; Welcome all.”

No Bard Feelings

When two of Shakespeare’s friends compiled the first folio, a few plays didn’t make the cut By Sonja Anderson

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Pericles is one of the least-performed plays in Shakespeare’s canon. Some scholars believe Shakespeare co-wrote the play with fellow playwright George Wilkins, though Wilkins was never credited. The play’s title character spends the first two acts trying to win the hands of princesses through competitions devised by their kingly fathers, and even saves a community from famine. Once married, Pericles comes to believe his new wife has died in childbirth at sea and casts her coffin overboard—even though she’s still alive! How will they reunite?

The Two Noble Kinsmen

This collaboration between Shakespeare and playwright John Fletcher borrows plotlines from Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” and follows cousins Palamon and Arcite of Thebes. Imprisoned by the Duke of Athens, the cousins espy the beautiful Emilia from their cell—and each man falls immediately in love. When Arcite is freed, he disguises himself and becomes Emilia’s servant. Thus disguised, he sets out to duel with Palamon, in a tournament organized by the Duke of Athens. Comedy and, of course, mistaken identity ensue.

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Andrea Mays | READ MORE

Andrea Mays, the author of  The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio , has devoted countless hours to researching in the Folger.  A protégé of Frank McCourt, she spent much of her Manhattan girlhood toting copies of the plays in her rucksack.

James L. Swanson | | READ MORE

James L. Swanson is the author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer and  Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin .