This is a guide to Shakespeare-related materials in the Greenfield Library and Music Library at The University of the Arts. If you have questions about this topic please see the librarian's e-mail address at the end of this document.
If you're interested in Shakespeare you may also want to look at our guides on Theater Research and Character Research.
Reference materials || Searching the Catalog by Subject || Periodical Indexes || Style Manuals || Web Sites
The first place to look when beginning research on a topic is in reference material: specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias or handbooks. These allow you to check names, dates and places, find additional information, look up unknown terms, and check for the proper spelling of words. They are particularly helpful for finding basic background information on a topic, and are often the only place many students may need to look to find answers to their questions. They may include bibliographies (lists of additional materials on a topic, usually considered by the author to be the best materials on that topic) that you can use to find other materials.
Call numbers are for the Greenfield Library unless otherwise indicated. REF in front of a call number indicates the reference section of the library, which in Greenfield is opposite the circulation desk.
Champion, Larry S. The Essential Shakespeare: An Annotated Bibliography of Major Modern Studies. New York : G.K. Hall ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International, c1993.
Greenfield REF 016.82233 Sh155c 1993
"This collection of more than 1,800 (including more than 600 new ones) of the most significant articles, books, and monographs of twentieth-century Shakespearean scholarship includes not only the classical studies but also ranges through structuralist, poststructuralist, deconstructionist, feminist, and cultural-materialist criticism since 1984. ... The Essential Shakespeare remains an indispensable tool for efficient research for undergraduate students, graduate students, and busy teachers, and will prove valuable even to veteran Shakespearean scholars."--quoted from American Reference Books Annual, 1994, entry #1256.
Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More. New York: Facts on File, 1990.
Greenfield REF 822.33 BB692s
Includes sections on each play: stage history, plot synopsis, critical overview.
Colaianni, Louis. Shakespeare's Names: A New Pronouncing Dictionary. New York: Drama Publishers, 1999.
Greenfield REF 822.33 GC67s
Cunliffe, Richard John. A New Shakespearean Dictionary. London: Blackie and Son Limited, 1910.
Greenfield REF 822.3 C9
What is a congee? What on earth does concupiscible mean? How about facinerious? Look it up in this little old dictionary.
Olsen, Kirstin. All Things Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Greenfield REF 822.33 GOl8a v. 1-2
Daily life in Shakespeare's world. Includes a chronology of historical events.
Onions, C. T. A Shakespeare Glossary. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1911.
Greenfield REF 822.3 On4
Everybody loves Onions. A standard reference work on Shakespeare, it provides definitions of the more obscure words.
Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Greenfield REF 822.33 GOx2c
"A truly fun, accessible, and contextually rich companion to the vast world and work of Shakespeare. Spanning the historical and contemporary, and the literary and dramatic, this authoritative and illustrative 3,000-entry compendium is well-constructed, solidly cross-referenced, and above all, delightful and interesting reading."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2002.
Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare. Edited by Oscar James Campbell. New York: Crowell [1966].
Greenfield REF 822.3 C15
Essential information on aspects of Shakespeare's life and works. Includes the plays, stage histories, characters, actors, other playwrights and people thought to have known Shakespeare, genealogical table of the Houses of York and Lancaster, a chronology, Elizabethan life in the plays, playhouse structure, and more. Numerous illustrations plus a selected bibliography.
The Riverside Shakespeare. Textual editor: G. Blakemore Evans. General introd.: Harry Levin. [Introduction and explanatory notes to the plays and poems by] Herschel Baker [and others] With an essay on stage history by Charles H. Shattuck. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin [1974].
Greenfield REF 822.3 JEv1
A standard textbook of Shakespeare's works. Each play has an introduction and includes annotated text.
Rothwell, Kenneth S. and Annabelle Henkin Melzer. Shakespeare on Screen: An International Filmography and Videography. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1990.
Greenfield REF 791.4375 Sh15r
"Includes 747 entries covering silent and sound films, television productions, Shakespeare offshoots, parodies and travesties, documentaries, operatic versions, and educational films. The entries provide critical commentary both through editorial analysis and through excerpts from a variety of reviews."--quoted from The Essential Shakespeare, entry 26.
Scheeder, Louis. All the Words on Stage: A Complete Pronunciation Dictionary for the Plays of William Shakespeare. Hanover, NH: Smith and Kraus, 2002.
Greenfield REF 822.32 GSch22a 2002
The Shakespeare Handbook. Edited by Levi Fox. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1987.
Greenfield REF 822.33 GF15s
Spevack, Marvin. Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1973.
Greenfield REF 822.3 GSp3
A concordance is an index to every word in a text or body of texts, showing every occurrence of a word. Where else, for example, does Shakespeare use the word "spot" besides Lady MacBeth's "out, out, damned spot" speech? How many times does Shakespeare use the word "breach"? Find out here.
Trussler, Simon. Shakespearean Concepts: A Dictionary of Terms and Conventions, Influences and Institutions, Themes, Ideas and Genres in the Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. London: Methuen ; Portsmouth, N.H: Distributed by HEB Inc., 1989.
Greenfield REF 822.33 GT775s
Use the University Libraries catalog to find books, videos, CDs, scores, journal titles, etc. To locate all of the materials the library holds on a topic, it is most efficient to search by Subject. Use the following subject headings in the online catalog. Be careful to follow the exact spelling and form. These subject headings are standard and are used in most libraries.
SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM, 1564-1616Periodical indexes are research tools that allow you to search for articles in journals and magazines.
Be aware that there are different ways to find an article once you pull up a citation in the index:
PERIODICAL INDEXES
On the Web:
Go to the library's Research Tools and Resources page for a list of the UArts Libraries' subscription databases, indexes, and reference works. You can select "View Databases by Type" or "View Databases by Subject" to see which is best for your topic, or you can always ask a librarian which ones to try.
When you find information on a topic, no matter what format it takes (book, journal, Web page), there are style manuals to show you the correct way to give cite those sources in a paper.
Searching the Web can be overwhelming. If you are using the Internet for research you want to choose sites that meet the standards of accuracy, currency and authority.
Try out the Librarians' Index to the Internet. Search for Shakespeare, then follow the links and explore.
The Arden Shakespeare: Related Links
http://www.ardenshakespeare.com/relatedlinks/index.aspx
A publisher of works on Shakespeare,
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/default.htm
A thorough collection of links, including those for education, "best" links, and a fun group of "other" links.
Send questions, suggestions or remarks about this page to Sara MacDonald, Public Services Librarian, smacdonald@uarts.edu.
Last updated 24 January 2006 sjm
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