Literatures in English: Shakespeare
Contents
Shakespeare: Contents
Fondren has lots and lots of resources for studying and performing Shakespeare. Click below to view a section of the guide. But first...
Shakespeare Resources from Drama Online
Access a wide variety of Shakepeare resources from Drama Online, including Arden editions of the plays, filmed performances, performance master classes and criticism.
- Reference ResourcesEfficiently find context on Shakespeare's works, life and language.
- BooksLearn how to find books by and about Shakespeare.
- Articles and MoreBibliographies, databases, journals and other resources for articles on Shakespeare.
- Digital Primary SourcesRead authoritative editions of Shakespeare and original texts from him and his contemporaries online.
- Rare BooksThe Woodson Research Center holds a section of a First Folio and other Shakespeare-related historic texts.
- Performance ArchivesTake a look at theater history with digital access to performers' copies of the plays and the archive of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
- Shakespeare Video and AudioStreaming and DVD access to filmed plays and documentaries.
- WebsitesShakespeare and historical resources on the web.
Reference Resources
Digital Reference
- An A-Z Guide to Shakespeare (2nd edition)This encyclopedic dictionary "offers up-to-date information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time and on his impact and influence on later ages." Edited by Stanley Wells.
- Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new windowThe Cambridge Companions collection includes numerous books on Shakespeare, and chapters related to Shakespeare from books in other fields like music, philosophy, film and history.
- Oxford Bibliographies Online: William ShakespeareUse this article to get an expert overview of the best sources for studying various aspects of Shakespeare.
- Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2ed)Use this companion for in-depth reference entries on Shakespeare's work, context, reception and performance.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation"This dictionary is the first comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronunciation (OP), enabling practitioners to answer any queries about the pronunciation of individual words. It includes all the words in the First Folio, transcribed using IPA, and provides sound files as an additional aid to pronunciation. "
- A Shakespeare GlossaryFrom Literature Online (LION), C.T. Onions' glossary of Shakespeare's English in the 2nd (1986) edition, revised and expanded by Robert D. Eagleson.
Print Reference
All Things Shakespeare: an encyclopedia of Shakespeare's world by Call Number: PR2892 .O56 2002 (2 volumes)
The Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language by Call Number: PR2892 .C79 2023ISBN: 9781350017955Publication Date: 2023-08-24The Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language is a two-volume encyclopedia offering the first comprehensive account of Shakespeare's language to use computational methods derived from corpus linguistics - methods of choice for today's lexicographer.
Music in Shakespeare by Call Number: PR3034 .W55 2005An A-Z of over 300 entries includes a definition of each musical term in its historical and theoretical context, and explores the extent of Shakespeare's use of musical imagery across the full range of his dramatic and poetic work.
Shakespeare's Language by Call Number: PR2892 .S447 1996Altogether 15,000 words are defined, focusing on those that modern Americans might find least familiar. Also includes some Shakespeare seems to have made up. Cites and quotes the passages in which the word appears.
The Shakespeare Name Dictionary by Call Number: PR2892 .D33 1995A guide to the historical, mythological, fictional, and geographic references that appear in Shakespeare's complete plays and poems, covering every name, proper adjective, official title, literary and mystical title, and place name.
Shakespeare's Words: a glossary and language companion by Call Number: PR2892 .C78 2002David Crystal, one of the world's foremost authorities on the English language, with his actor son, Ben, have taken a fresh look at the vocabulary of Shakespeare's poems and plays and compiled a glossary of nearly 14,000 words and meanings. They have included every word which presents the reader with a difficulty arising out of the differences between Elizabethan and Modern English.
Books
Books
See the Books tab on this guide for general information about finding books.
In Fondren, find books by and about Shakespeare mainly on the 2nd floor, call numbers PR2750-PR3112.
In the catalog, books about Shakespeare are organized by subject heading. Browse subheadings for Shakespeare here. In general, you can search for titles of plays and names of characters as subject keywords. The following subject keywords may help you get more focused search results:
- Adaptations
- Appreciation
- Authorship
- Bibliography
- Biography
- Contemporaries
- Criticism
- Dictionaries
- Dramatic production
- Ethics
- Family
- Film adaptations
- Forgeries
- Friends and associates
- Homes and haunts
- Humor
- Influence
- Knowledge
- Language
- Literary style
- Musical settings
- Parodies
- Philosophy
- Political and social views
- Portraits
- Psychological studies
- Quotations
- Religion
- Shakespearean actors and actresses
- Songs and music
- Sources
- Spurious and doubtful works
- Stage history [try this with a country or time period]
- Stories
- Technique
- Translations
- Versification
Articles and More
Articles and more
- World Shakespeare Bibliography Online This link opens in a new windowEverything Shakespeare: articles, books, reviews of plays, CDs, and films and much, much more. An essential tool for any Shakespeare scholar. Does not include full text.
- MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) This link opens in a new windowThis bibliography covers literature, languages, linguistics, film and folklore from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide between 1926 and the present.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowA database of full-text journals in a variety of the humanities and social science disciplines. It covers recent years including current issues and for some journals serves as an update to JSTOR.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowOnline, full text access to scholarly journals from date of inception to a "moving wall" of 2-5 years from present. The archived collection includes journals in humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The content is searchable by author, title, fulltext with limits by discipline, year, and article type.
Shakespeare Quarterly (in JSTOR and Project MUSE)
SQ is a leading journal focusing on all aspects of Shakespeare studies. Topics cover criticism of the plays and poems, theater history, the history of Shakespeare as an institution, and studies in editing, text, canon, and bibliography. "Shakespeare Performed," publishing review-essays on Royal Shakespeare Company and other significant stage and film productions around the world, is a regular feature.
Shakespeare Quarterly also has a public "Digital Space" where you can "see highlights from our peer-reviewed, published journal, browse past issues of SQ, and explore web-exclusive, invited content, including interviews, performance reviews, and reflections."
- Shakespeare SurveyFrom Cambridge Core: "Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948 Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism."
Digital Primary Sources
Digital Primary Source Texts
- New Oxford Shakespeare Online This link opens in a new window"The New Oxford Shakespeare presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship (Oxford University Press)."
The New Oxford Shakespeare Online includes the Modern Critical Edition, the Authorship Companion and the Critical Reference Edition. - Drama Online This link opens in a new windowThe Core Collection from Drama Online includes the Arden Shakespeare 3rd Series, an excellent collection of single-volume editions of the plays. Look up by play title.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new windowPage images from books printed in English from 1473-1700, from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, North America, and elsewhere.
- Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare (1591-1911) This link opens in a new windowEleven major editions from the First Folio to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6, twenty-four separate contemporary printings of individual plays, selected apocrypha and related works and more than one hundred adaptations, sequels and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare's WorksView and download both modern, edited texts and high-quality color images of original sources.
- Oxford Scholarly Editions Online This link opens in a new windowContains editions from The Oxford Shakespeare (overseen by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor), the basis for the Norton Shakespeare. Also the Sonnets, Apocrypha, a textual companion, and some of Shakespeare's contemporaries.
Rare Books
Primary Sources: Rare Books
The following are located in the Woodson Research Center on the first floor of Fondren.
Axson Collection
A collection of original restoration and 18th century British play scripts of which 185 are by William Shakespeare.
To search this collection, use the library's Advanced Search option, enter a keyword, then once the hits are displayed, choose WRC-AXSON from the facet for "sub-locations" to limit your search to this rare book collection.
- [Three tragedies from the first folio]Call Number: PR2763 1623 (Restricted - Woodson Research Center)The tragedie of King Lear -- The tragedie of Othello, the moore of Venice -- The tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra.
A collection of three tragedies without a collective title from the first folio edition of the plays of William Shakespeare, published in 1623.
Performance Archives
Performance Archives
- Royal Shakespeare Company Archives This link opens in a new windowCompany documentation, interviews, videos, set and costume designs, production notes, and more from the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, UK.
- Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance This link opens in a new windowThis archive documents the performance and construction history of the new Globe and the indoor theatre space of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Includes over 200 performances through prompt books, wardrobe notes, programmes, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, photographs and architectural plans (Adam Matthew).
- Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window"Shakespeare in Performance showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries (Adam Matthew)."
Shakespeare Videos in Fondren
Videos
Fondren has many Shakespeare productions (stage, film and television), operas, adaptations, and films about performance and production. To search our DVD and streaming video collections, enter your keywords in OneSearch and then select the filters, Material type > Audio visual and Videos (see this tutorial for more information)
OneSearch listings include our DVDs as well as streaming video from the databases Swank, Films on Demand and Kanopy Streaming. The databases contain both performances of the plays and documentaries on understanding Shakespeare and performing his works. In addition, you can stream video from the following theatrical resources through the library:
- Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new windowThis is a streaming video database which includes many recent British productions of Shakespeare plays and interviews with theatre practitioners. The contents of Digital Theatre Plus are not listed in OneSearch
- National Theatre Collections This link opens in a new windowContains numerous innovative stagings of Shakespeare's plays with star-studded casts from the National Theatre in London, along with other exciting performances.
Audio
LION (Literature Online) has a streaming collection of the Arkangel productions of Shakespeare's plays. Go to the Shakespeare author page and scroll to "Related Audio", then click View All.
- L.A. Theatre Works, Drama Online This link opens in a new windowThis collection of audio plays includes 8 plays by Shakespeare along with "Shakespeare's Greatest Hits" (search the page for Shakespeare with Command or CTRL-F).
- The Shakespeare Sessions, from BBC Radio 3This podcast includes discussions and full audio productions of 11 plays.
Shakespeare's Original Pronunciation by Call Number: PR3081 .S47 2012 (Behind the Circulation Desk)ISBN: 9780712351195Publication Date: 2012How did the actors of Shakespeare's stage sound to the audiences of his day? For the first time, this disc offers listeners the chance to hear England's greatest playwright performed by a company of actors using the pronunciations of the Elizabethan era. Under the guidance of Ben Crystal--actor, author of Shakespeare on Toast, and an expert in original Shakespearian pronunciation--the company performs scenes from Shakespeare's plays and several of his best-known poems. Listeners will hear new meanings uncovered, new jokes revealed, and poetic effects enhanced. The CD is accompanied by an introductory essay by Shakespeare authority David Crystal.
Websites
Websites
- First Folios ComparedCompare dozens of Shakespeare First Folios side by side in high-resolution color scans. From AM Quartex.
- Folger Shakespeare LibraryThis major repository of Shakespearean and related primary texts offers complete digital Shakespeare texts in modern editions, online viewing of folios and quartos, and many other digital documents and exhibits.
- London Stage DatabaseAn open source database of London stage performances from 1660-1800, built on the classic reference, The London Stage, 1660-1800: A Calendar of Plays, Entertainments & Afterpieces, Together with Casts, Box-Receipts and Contemporary Comment. Compiled from the Playbills, Newspapers and Theatrical Diaries of the Period (Southern Illinois University Press, 1960-1968).
- Map of Early Modern London"The Map of Early Modern London is comprised of four distinct, interoperable projects: a digital edition of the 1561 Agas woodcut map of London; an Encyclopedia and Descriptive Gazetteer of London people, places, topics, and terms; a Library of marked-up texts rich in London toponyms; and a versioned edition of John Stow’s Survey of London."
- MIT Global ShakespearesVideo and performance archive of Shakespeare productions from around the world.
- Open Source ShakespearePresents the texts in the 1864 Globe Edition, along with search and concordance tools.
- Royal Shakespeare CompanyThis site offers production photographs, videos and other educational material from a leading Shakespearean theatrical company.
- Shakespeare's Globe: Virtual TourLook around this working replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater in 360 degrees.
- Shakespeare Resource CenterLinks to Shakespeare resources around the web, synopses of the plays, suggested readings and more.
- Staging Shakespeare"Shakespeare’s Staging collects audio-visual materials related to the performance of Shakespeare’s plays from the time of Shakespeare to the present." From the Berkeley Shakespeare Program.
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