LibGuides: English III: Shakespeare

Web Resources

British Library: Discovering Literature: Shakespeare Explore a range of articles written by scholars, performers, curators and journalists. - See more at: https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles#sthash.18AONjO0.dpuf
Elizabethan Theatre From the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Food in Elizabethan England British Library: The wealthiest Elizabethans ate lavish meals of many courses, while many poorer people didn’t even have their own ovens, and some of the poorest survived on leftover scraps from the rich. Liza Picard describes how class, religion and politics all influenced how Elizabethans shopped for food, cooked and ate.
Open Source Shakespeare Searchable text of the plays.
Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
The Reformation in Shakespeare (Religion) British Library: Brian Cummings explores the radical religious reforms enacted in Shakespeare's lifetime, and the traces of religion that exist in his plays from Measure to Measure to Hamlet.
Shakespeare's Childhood and Education British Library: From plague in the family to young love, Simon Callow explores Shakespeare's early life as the son of a glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Shakespeare's Life British Library: From Stratford to London (and back again), from ‘upstart crow’ to 'wonder of our stage', Andrew Dickson recounts some of the details of William Shakespeare’s life.
Shakespeare's London (Social Classes) Early modern London was an expanding metropolis filled with diverse life, from courtiers, merchants and artisans to prostitutes, beggars and cutpurses. Here Professor Eric Rasmussen and Ian DeJong describe the city that shaped Shakespeare's imagination.
Shakespeare's Playhouses British Library: From the open-air Globe to the candlelit Blackfriars, Professor Eric Rasmussen and Ian DeJong explore early modern playhouses.
Shakespeare and Gender British Library: In Shakespeare's day, female parts were played by male actors, while more recently, actresses have taken on some of his most famous male roles such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Clare McManus explores gender in the history of Shakespearean performance.
The Social Structure in Elizabethan England British Library: Liza Picard describes how, between the Queen at the top and the beggars at the bottom, there was jockeying for position in the different levels of Elizabethan society.
Shakespeare's Theater From the Folger Shakespeare Library
Performing Shakespeare in the 17th Century From the Royal Shakespeare Company

Search PeliCAT by LC Subject Headings

Useful Library of Congress subject headings:

English drama, Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Criticism and interpretation

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Dictionaries

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Encyclopedias

Shakespeare, William, 1546-1616 Tragedies

Databases

ARTstor
Provides over two million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences with accessible suite of software tools for teaching and research. Its community-built collections comprise contributions from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates. Off campus access available.
Biography Reference Bank
contains over 700,000 in-depth and original biography profiles plus the thorough periodicals coverage of Biography Index, full-text articles, page images, and abstracts from the complete range of Wilson databases. Off campus access available to Connecticut public library card holders and individuals located in Connecticut.
Biography Reference Center
Offers a comprehensive collection of more than 430,000 full text biographies, including the complete full text run of Biography Today and Biography Magazine, as well as thousands of unique narrative biographies. Off campus access available to Connecticut public library card holders and individuals located in Connecticut.
Britannica Academic Edition
A general encyclopedia with high quality comprehensive information. The articles are written by scholars and experts in a given field. Articles contain images and links to additional electronic material. Off campus access available.
Credo Reference
A database with over 875 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauri. Credo also contains over 200,000 images and audio files and nearly 100 videos. Off campus access available.
Ebsco eBook Academic Collection
A full-text eBook database containing material from scholarly presses and other leading publishers. This multidisciplinary database contains more than 170,000 eBooks, including titles from leading university presses. Off campus access available.
Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS)
Searches a majority of the Brush Library resources and databases, including PeliCAT, simultaneously in a single interface, and displays results in one unified list. Users have the ability to limit their search to books, eBooks, academic journals, and other resource types. Off campus access available.
History Reference Center
Features full-text for more than 2,000 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers. The database also includes full text for more than 150 leading history periodicals. Off campus access available to Connecticut public library card holders and individuals located in Connecticut.
JSTOR
Provides access to archival and current issues of more than 2,600 scholarly journals across more than 60 academic disciplines. JSTOR includes scholarly journals, conference proceedings, and primary source materials. Off campus access available.
Scribner Writers Series
Contains more than 2,000 original, scholar-signed bio-critical entries average 15-20 pages each. They include a concise overview, hyperlinks for cross-referencing and information that places the author's work in personal or historical context. Off campus access available.

If you are off campus and the database provides access click here for instructions on accessing databases from off campus.

Print & Ebook Reference

Find critical essays, biographical and other information in the print collection on the second floor and in ebooks available through PeliCAT, including:

Andrews, John F., editor. William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His Influence. Vol. 1: His World. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. PR 2976 .W5354 1985

Boyce, Charles. Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More. Facts on File, 1990. PR 2892 .B69 1990

Dobson, Michael, editor. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, 2001. PR 2892 .O94 2001

Dominic, Catherine C., editor. Shakespeare's Characters for Students. Gale Research, 1997. PR 2989 .S53 1997

Greene, Roland, editor. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press, 2012. Credo Reference ebook

McMurtry, Jo. Understanding Shakespeare's England: A Companion for the American Reader. Archon Books, 1989. Print. PR 2910 .M35 1989

Ousby, Ian, editor. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference ebook

Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Greenwood Press, 1995. Print. DA 320 .S56 1995