Shakespeare Resources
Who was WIlliam Shakespeare?
The Chandos Portrait
"This is the only portrait of Shakespeare that has a good claim to have been painted from life, and may be by a painter called John Taylor who was an important member of the Painter-Stainers' Company. The portrait is known as the 'Chandos portrait', after a previous owner, and was the first portrait to be acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, when it was founded in 1856."
[From the National Portrait Gallery, London, website]
Biographical Information
- Shakespeare's Life | Folger Shakespeare Library (US)The Folger Library (also called the Folger Shakespeare Library) claims the largest Shakespeare collection in the world.
- William Shakespeare: The life and legacy of England’s bard | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)From their iWonder/Timelines site.
- William Shakespeare's last will and testament: original copy including three signatures[From website] "William Shakespeare’s last will and testament provides one of the richest surviving documents for understanding his familial and professional networks. The will names many of the important people in his life, including family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors, as well as describing specific pieces of personal property. The handwriting does not match that of Shakespeare’s lawyer, Francis Collins, suggesting that the will was drawn up by a clerk. The document is written on three sheets of paper, with William Shakespeare’s signature appended to each sheet, as prescribed in contemporary manuals"
The so-called "Shakespeare authorship question" refers to the scholarly (and sometimes non-scholarly) debate that someone other than the person known as William Shakespeare from the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works that have attributed to him.
Candidates for authorship are:
Top left: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Top right: Sir Francis Bacon
Bottom left: Christopher Marlowe
Bottom right: William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
[Image Credit: Smatprt at English Wikipedia]
- The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition'Dedicated to legitimizing the by increasing awareness of a reasonable doubt about the identity of William Shakespeare." [From the website]
- The Shakespeare Authorship Page"Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare." [From the website]
Selected Books from the APUS Library
'Counterfeiting' Shakespeare: Evidence, Authorship and John Ford's Funerall Elegye by Publication Date: 2009-10-01'Counterfeiting' Shakespeare addresses the fundamental issue of what Shakespeare actually wrote, and how this is determined. In recent years his authorship has been claimed for two poems, the lyric 'Shall I die?' and A Funerall Elegye. These attributions have been accepted into certain major editions of Shakespeare's works but Brian Vickers argues that both attributions rest on superficial verbal parallels; both use too small a sample, ignore negative evidence, and violate basic principles in authorship studies.
Shakespeare and His Authors: Critical Perspectives on the Authorship Question by Publication Date: 2010-04-15This collection brings together leading literary and cultural critics to explore the Authorship question as a social, cultural and even theological phenomenon and consider it in all its rich diversity and significance.
Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? by Publication Date: 2011-12-03Robin Williams' premise that a woman may have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare is NOT based on analysis of the female characters in the plays or on any perceived feminine attributes. Rather, she grounds her provocative study on documented evidence regarding Mary Sidney, a woman who developed the most important literary circle in English history, whose mission in life was to create great works in the English language, and who was unable to put her name on work written for the public theater.
Shakespeare: The Basics
Dictionary of Shakespeare by Publication Date: 2000-03-01A reference about Shakespeare's plays, characters, productions and themes. Includes over 1500 entries that help explain the terms used in Shakespeare's texts and in their execution.
- How to Study Shakespeare
Five steps to success reading a Shakespeare play. From Shakespeare Online.
Shakespeare: The Basics by Publication Date: 2006-09-06Aiming to demystify Shakespeare, this title provides a general introduction to the plays. Covers Shakespeare's language, and the plays as performance texts.
- Shakespeare Uncovered
Behind every Shakespeare play there is a story. Shakespeare Uncovered reveals not just the elements in the play, but the history of the play itself. What sparked the creation of each of these works? Where did Shakespeare get his plots, and what new forms of theater did he forge? What cultural, political and religious factors influenced his writing? How have the plays been staged and interpreted from Shakespeare’s time to now? Why at different times has each play been so popular – or ignored? And finally, why has this body of work endured so thoroughly? What, in the end, makes Shakespeare so great?
Shakespeare Performed
"I don't think people should bother to read Shakespeare.
They should see him in the theatre. Reading just reduces him to an examination subject."
~ Sir Ian McKellen
The Telegraph. "Sir Ian McKellen: Don't bother reading Shakespeare." By Patrick Foster, 27 Oct 2015.
Royal Shakespeare Company | Online Performances
Two full performances:
I, Cinna (The Poet) is a drama written and directed by Tim Crouch and starring Jude Owusu, inspired by the RSC's 2012 production of Julius Caesar, directed by Gregory Doran.
First Encounters With Shakespeare: King Lear. In the summer of 2012, a company of nine actors created a production of King Lear specifically for young audiences.
I, Cinna (The Poet) is a drama written and directed by Tim Crouch and starring Jude Owusu, inspired by the RSC's 2012 production of Julius Caesar, directed by Gregory Doran.
First Encounters With Shakespeare: King Lear. In the summer of 2012, a company of nine actors created a production of King Lear specifically for young audiences.
- Royal Shakespeare Company | YouTube ChannelSee "Playlists" link for clips of performances, interviews with actors, teaching productions, and production trailers.
Excerpt | Twelfth Night, Act 3 Scene 4
Published on Aug 12, 2013
"One of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies . . . . The hilarious tale of misdirection and deception is performed here by an all-male cast, among whom we find Mark Rylance as Olivia and Roger Lloyd-Pack as Sir Anthony Aguecheek. The production also marks Stephen Fry's triumphant return to the stage as the pompous Malvolio, ridiculous in his yellow stockings."
[Opusarte YouTube Description]
Text/Transcript of Twelfth Night | Act 3 Scene 4
Text of Twelfth Night | Act 3 Scene 4. From the No Fear Shakespeare site of Sparknotes.
ShakespearesGlobe | YouTube Channel
Official YouTube channel of the Shakespeare's Globe theater in London, England.
Ruff ride: the everlasting battles and beauty of Shakespeare's Globe
"To mark the Globe’s 20th birthday, we raid the Guardian archives to see how it has divided critics, sparked academic arguments, faced down political protests – and weathered the British summertime." By Chris Wiegand
To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, England's The Guardian news site
asked leading actors to perform some of his greatest speeches.
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare performed at Shakespeare in Styria 2014, with Christoph Johan (as Octavius)
Image by permission of Francisco Peralta Torrejón
Places To See Shakespeare Performed Near You
Looking for a production of one of Shakespeare’s plays close to where you live? This constantly-updated site lists theaters across the world that specialize in performing Shakespeare.
Local theater groups often stage and video-record their productions of Shakespeare's plays. To locate them, try searching Google Videos with the following phrases:
- college production of [name of play]
- local theater production of [name of play]
- amateur production of [name of play]
Here are some samples videos:
- HamletQueensborough Community College. Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts.Fall 2016. Published on Mar 6, 2017.
- The Merchant of VeniceUMASS Hillel Jewish Theatre Collective and the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies Presents: The Merchant of Venice. Published on Apr 30, 2013.
- The Taming of the ShrewUniversity of Alaska Anchorage Department of Theatre & Dance Presents The Taming of the Shrew (Full Performance)
By William Shakespeare. Published on Nov 28, 2012.
Selected Books
King Lear by Publication Date: 2008-08-16An up-to-date and comprehensive anthology of textual scholarship, performance research, and critical writing by experts it the field on one of Shakespeare's most important and perplexing tragedies.
The Merchant of Venice by Publication Date: 2005-05-15The Merchant of Venice has always been regarded as one of Shakespeare's most interesting plays. Before the nineteenth century critical reaction is relatively fragmentary, but since then the critical tradition reveals the tremendous ability of the play to evoke emotion in the theatre and in study. An extensive introduction to the volume charts the critical reactions to the play and reflects changing reactions to prejudice.
Othello and Interpretive Traditions by Publication Date: 2012-03-15During the past twenty years or so,Othellohas become the Shakespearean tragedy that speaks most powerfully to our contemporary concerns. Focusing on race and gender (and on class, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality), the play talks about what audiences want to talk about.
Shakespeare after All by Publication Date: 2005-09-20A brilliant and companionable tour through all thirty-eight plays,Shakespeare After All is the perfect introduction to the bard by one of the country's foremost authorities on his life and work.
Shakespeare and Women by Publication Date: 2005-08-04Situates Shakespeare's female characters in multiple historical contexts, ranging from the early modern England in which they originated to the contemporary Western world in which our own encounters with them are staged. Challenges currently prevalent views of Shakespeare's women-both the women he depicted in his plays and the women he encountered in the world he inhabited.
Shakespeare in the Movies by Publication Date: 2000-04-27Proceeds chronologically, in the order that plays were written, allowing the reader to trace the development of Shakespeare as an author--and anauteur--and to see how the changing cultural climate of the Elizabethans flowered into film centuries later.
Shakespeare's Domestic Economies by Publication Date: 2002-07-08Explores representations of female subjectivity in Shakespearean drama from a refreshingly new perspective, situating The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, and Measure for Measure in relation to early modern England's nascent consumer culture and competing conceptions of property.
Shakespeare Texts | Open Web Resources
- Folger Digital Texts
[From About Us] "Our free, high-quality digital texts of Shakespeare's plays start with the basics: superb source texts, meticulously edited on the basis of current scholarship. The plays in Folger Digital Texts are taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions, completed in 2010 by editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine and published by Simon & Schuster." - Open Source Shakespeare
Based on the 1864 Globe Edition of the complete works. Includes concordance, keyword search, advanced search, word counts, and characters lists & search. - Shakespearean Scholars | Shakespeare Online WebsiteNoted Shakespearean scholars of 18th, 19th, & 20th centuries.
- Shakespeare's Works | Project Gutenberg
Available in HTML, EPUB, Kindle, or Plain Text formats.
Talking About Shakespeare | Podcasts
- Approaching Shakespeare | University of OxfordEach lecture in this series focuses on a single play by Shakespeare, and employs a range of different approaches to try to understand a central critical question about it.
- My Own Shakespeare | BBC4 RadioPublic figures talk about the piece of Shakespeare that inspires them most.The pieces are read by well known actors. 29 podcasts from May 2012 to to Sept 2013.
- Shakespeare Unlimited | Folger Library"Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places--not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Join us for this "no limits" podcast tour of the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us." [from website]
Shakespeare | Digital Images
Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet
- Folger Library | Digital Image CollectionDigital image collection: This database offers access to tens of thousands of high resolution images from the Folger Shakespeare Library, including books, theater memorabilia, manuscripts, and art. Users can show multiple images side-by-side, zoom in and out, view cataloging information when available, export thumbnails, and construct persistent URLs linking back to items or searches. [from website]
- Furness Theatrical Image Collection"Comprises more than 2,000 prints and photographs that illustrate and interpret Shakespeare's plays and also document theatrical performers and performances of works by Shakespeare and other dramatists." [from website]
Find Articles & Journals in the Library
- Library Search This link opens in a new windowA discovery search tool that will search most of the library's collection, including journal articles. Use the filters on the results screen to restrict your results to articles only. Learn How.
- Library Search: Journal Titles This link opens in a new windowSearch by title or ISBN number to access specific full-text journals available in the library's collection. Learn How.
- FAQ: How can I explore our library's journals by subject?Explains how to use Primo to browse journals by subject.