William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

The canon of Shakepearean criticism is vast and prolific. Several important articles are published each month, and the new book list generated by scholarly and popular publishers grows each year. The critical reader will tread cautiously through this plethora of publications in order to discover a scholarly perspective about William Shakespeare.
See also related guides Theater| Literature in English

Encyclopedias

Provide background/overview information. An excellent place to begin research. Contain articles written by experts for a general audience. Provide indexes indicating scope of coverage of a topic and pinpointing articles in which a concept will be discussed. Provide bibliographies for further reading.

	Encyclopedia of the renaissance CB361 .E52 1999 (Reference) Paul F. Grendler, editor in chief, 6 vols. Provides the reader with extensive coverage of hisorical as well as literary topics. Includes bibiography for each entry as well as an index, a directory of contributors, and an outline of the contents iin volume 6.
	Hutchinson enyclopedia of the renaissance CB361 .H88 1999 (Reference) Edited by David Rundle The reader finds short, concise entries. Includes maps and an index.
	Reader's encyclopedia of Shakespeare PR2892 .C3 (Reference) Edited by Oscar James Campbell and Edward G. Quinn Provides the reader with biographical sketches and a ready reference about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era.

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Reference Works

Dictionaries, concordances, glossaries, quotations, and bibliographies; detailed procedural information specific to the subject areas addressed.

	English theatrical literature, 1559-1900: a bibliography James F. Arnott Z2014 .D7 A74 1970 (Reference) Annotated list of theatrical literature (vs dramatic literature--does not include plays and critical accounts of them). Subject arrangement.
	New Cambridge bibliography of English literature Vol. 1, 1600-1660 George Watson, ed. Z2011 .N45 1969 v. 1 (Reference)
	Shakespearean criticism: excerpts from the criticism of William Shakespeare's plays and poetry, from the first public appraisals to current evaluations vols 1-57 - to present PR2965 .S43 (Reference) This series is part of the Gale Literary Group. An overview of several plays and their literary histories are covered in each volume. The more current volumes evaluate the plays from these perspectives: an introduction, gender issues, history and philosophy, representation and identity, language, character studies, structure, sources, influences, and ideology. Includes bibliographies, indexes, and illustrations.
	Dictionary of Shakespeare Stanley Wells. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998 PR2892 .W43 1998 (Reference) Includes a "selective finding list" and a "conjectural chronology of Shakespeare's work."
	Shakespeare glossary C.T. Onions Enlarged and revised throughout by Robert D. Eaglesohn Oxford: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1986 PR2892 .O6 1986 (Reference)
	Columbia dictionary of quotations from Shakespeare Mary & Reginald Foakes PR2892 .F48 1998 (Reference) Includes play, poem, character, and keyword indexes.
	Essential Shakespeare: an annotated bibliography of major modern studies 2 vols., 2nd edition Larry S. Champion Z8811 .C53 1993 (Reference)
	Shakespeare Poetry Search http://quarles.unbc.edu/shakescan/ Promotes concordance-like search capabilities using single words, words in a sequence, or combinations of two words for Shakespeare's poetry; The Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, A Lover's Complaint, The Passionate Pilgrim, and The Rape of Lucrece.
	Oxford companion to Shakespeare Michael Dobson & Stanley Wells, eds. PR2892 .O94 2001 (Reference)
	Harvard concordance to Shakespeare Spevack, Marvin PR2892 .S62
	Shakespeare on screen: an international filmography and videography Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melze PR3093 .R68 1990 (Reference) Includes a bibliography and several indexes; i.e. entries, series and genres, films and videos by year produced and/or released, and various name indices that include entries for actors and speakers, production team, and authors, critics, and editors.

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Databases and Indexes

Magazine, periodical and journal articles provide information on current developments, research trends, experiments and hot topics in a discipline. For every discipline, there are specific databases or indexes that provide article level information. Once articles are identified through the database or index search, look up the source journal in Vikat, PSU Library's online catalog, to locate them in the library. For a complete list of online databases and indexes, see the Library's Online Databases pages.

	Arts & humanities citation index (1974-present) AI3 .A75 (Reference) Allows searching of references cited in books and journal articles as well as author, title and subject searching.
	Columbia Granger's world of poetry PN1022 .C628 1997 (Reference) Columbia Granger's world of poetry Retrieves 422 complete poems and indexes 684 poems with the search statement, "Shakespeare, William."
	EBSCOhost Academic Search Elite Provides full text for nearly 1,380 journals covering the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, and education.
	Essay and general literature index (1900-1996) AI3 .E752 (Reference) Essay and general literature index online(1985-present) Provides an author and subject index to essays in collections. Emphasizes the humanities and social sciences.
	Humanities index - 1975 - Present AI3 .H8 (Reference) A cumulative index to English language periodicals. Subject fields indexed include archaeology and classical studies, area studies, folklore, history, language and literature, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology, and related subjects. *Humanities index online* - 1984 - Present Journals in Humanities Index held by PSU.
	Inter-Play: an on-line index to plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals. http://www.lib.pdx.edu/systems/interplay An index to the complete texts of plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals in the PSU Library.
	JSTOR - Holds the full text of 117 scholarly journals with complete back file access in the Arts & Sciences I Collection. The literature and history journal selections will retrieve relevant results. Contains the Shakespeare Quarterly (1950-1995).
	MLA international bibliography (1921-present) Z7006 .M64 MLA international bibliography (1963-present) MLA Bibliography covers literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide. Licensed from the Modern Language Association.
	Project Muse: Scholarly journals online Holds over 100 full text scholarly journals online in the arts & humanities, the social sciences, and mathematics. The back files for the journals are scant. Important inclusions for this subject are the Yale Journal of Criticism (1996- to present), Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 (1999-to present), and Shakespeare Quarterly (2001-to present).
	WorldCat http://firstsearch.oclc.org/fsip?dbname=WorldCat&done=referer Contains more than 30 millions records for materials cataloged by the Library of Congress and OCLC member libraries, including most academic and many public libraries in the U.S. Catalog includes books, serials (journals, magazines and newspapers), musical scores, recordings, videos, computer software, films, maps and manuscripts. Locations for all materials are cited. Can be searched by author, title, subject, year, language, material type.

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Subject Headings

Subject headings allow you to search library catalogs for materials on a particular topic. Often subject heading searching can be more productive than searching by simple keywords. Listed here are some major subject headings of interest for research about William Shakespeare. Copies of the complete set of the Library of Congress Subject Headings are available at the reference desks throughout the library.

	Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
	Shakespeare, William -- Appreciation
	Shakespeare, William -- Bibliography
	Shakespeare, William -- Biography
	Shakespeare, William -- Characters
	Shakespeare, William -- Chronology
	Shakespeare, William -- Concordances
	Shakespeare, William -- Contemporary England
	Shakespeare, William -- Criticism, Interpretation
	Shakespeare, William -- Criticism, Textual
	Shakespeare, William -- Dramatic Production
	Shakespeare, William -- Film, Video adaptations
	Shakespeare, William -- Political, Social views
	Shakespeare, William -- Quotations
	Shakespeare, William -- Stage History
	Shakespeare, William -- Study and Teaching

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Call Numbers

Browsing the library shelves by call number ranges is another strategy for locating information on a topic; call numbers can help you get to the "right neighborhood" in the library stacks.

PR2199-3195	English Renaissance (1500-1640)
PR2750-3112	Shakespeare, William
PR2775-2800.5	Shakespeare, William - Translations
PR2801-2840	Shakespeare, William - Separate Works
PR2841-2849	Shakespeare, William - Poems
PR2885-2935	Shakespeare, William - Criticism, biography
PR2892	Shakespeare, William - Concordances, dictionaries, indexes, and quotations
PR2937-2961	Shakespeare, William - Authorship
PR2965-3088	Shakespeare, William - Criticism & interpretation
PR3091-3112	Shakespeare, William - Dramatic representation of Shakespeare's plays
DA20-690	England (670 Local history and description, 675-689 London)
Z8811	Shakespeare, William - General
Z8812	Shakespeare, William - A-Z Individual works
Z8813	Shakespeare, William - Other topics

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Organizations

Often the best way to find information on a topic is to look for material published by a professional society or an organization.

	Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ This resource is "Aimed at those working in the area of English Renaissance literature and its environs, it offers its members a Starter Guide to help them get more from the internet, and a regular email newsletter, CERES Harvest, detailing and reviewing new developments in electronic resources for research in the Renaissance, as well as relaying calls for papers and conference programmes."
	Renaissance Society of America http://www.r-s-a.org/ Since 1954 the Renaissance Society of America has been the leading organization in the Americas for the interdisciplinary study of the period 1300-1650 in Western history. The RSA sponsors abstracts from Renaissance Quarterly and the full text of Renaissance News & Notes. PSU Library has the Renaissance Quarterly (CB361 .R45 or full text in JSTOR).
	Shakespeare Society of America New York, New York http://www.shakespearesociety.org/ "Formed for those who enjoy exploring and discussing the works of a man who is generally considered the greatest of all writers in the English language. The programs are inventive and wide ranging in seeking to explore the many facets of Shakespeare's influence on American culture." Sponsors the Shakespeare Newsletter, which the PSU Library has to date (PR2885 .S48).
	Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company Portland, Oregon http://www.tygresheart.org/index.cfm Founded in 1989 the theatre company presents three of Shakespeare's play each season, October through May. Tygres Heart is reknown for their contemporary and unconventional interpretations.

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Important Resources

These sources don't fit any particular category, but are important for the discipline.

	Norton Facsimile: the first folio of Shakespeare Prepared by Charlton Hinman fPR2751 .A15 1968
	Shakespeare : the invention of the human Harold Bloom PR2989 .B58 1998 Bloom evaluates the plays' modern relevance from a psychoanalytic perspective. Bloom explores each play looking for the dominant consciousness that expresses the play's fundamental dilemmas.
	Art of Shakespeare's sonnets Helen Vendler PR2848 .V46 1997 Vendler writes microscopic explications of each sonnet in order to support her theory that a key couplet exists, which reveals the deeper meaning of the poem, and further, the sonnet cycle. These key couplets echo across the cycle as a kind of conversation.
	Lectures on Shakespeare W.H. Auden reconstructed and edited by Arthur Kirsch PR2976 .A93 2000
	*Shakespeare's imagery and what it tells us* Caroline F.E. Spurgeon PR3081 .S64 1968
	Shakespeare's language Frank Kermode PR3072 .K47 2000
	Shakespeare, our contemporary Jan Kott Translated by Boleslaw Taborski PR2979 .P58 K63
	William Shakespeare : a documentary life S. Schoenbaum. PR2894 .S33 OVERSIZE
	William Shakespeare, records and images S. Schoenbaum PR2893 .S32 1981b OVERSIZE
	Elizabethan dramatists T. S. Eliot PR653 .E6 1968
	Essays on Elizabethan drama T.S. Eliot PR653 .E62 1960

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Web Resources

	Complete Works of William Shakespeare Created by Jeremy Hylton http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare The Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993. Operated by The Tech, MIT's oldest and largest newspaper.
	Folger Shakespeare Library Washington, D.C. http://www.folger.edu/Home_02b.html "The Folger is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, as well as magnificent collections of other rare Renaissance books and manuscripts on all disciplines—history and politics, theology and exploration, law and the arts. Included in the collections are over 280,000 books and manuscripts; 27,000 paintings, drawings, engravings, and prints; and musical instruments, costumes, and films."
	Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/ An annotated guide to Shakespeare resources on the Internent, with links to texts of his works and materials on his life, Elizabethan England and the theater of his time. Includes a guide to specifically-Shakespeare search tools.
	Oregon Shakespeare Festival Ashland, Oregon Open February 16 through October 28 http://www.orshakes.org "The mission of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is to create fresh and bold interpretations of classic and contemporary plays in repertory, shaped by the diversity of our American culture, using Shakespeare as our standard and inspiration." Presents classic and contemporary drama in three theaters.
	Renaissance, the Elizabethan World Life in Elizabethan England: A Compendium of Common Knowledge, 1558-1603 http://renaissance.dm.net/
	Shakespeare Illustrated http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/Shakespeare.htm Explores nineteenth-century paintings, criticism and productions of Shakespeare's plays and their influences on one another. A digitized collection of 18th and 19th century line drawings and paintings represents numerous scenes from most of Shakespeare's plays.

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Page developed by:
Kimberly Willson-St. Clair
Please send comments to:
Kimberly Willson-St. Clair

Last updated: January 24, 2002