Shakespeare Resources

This selection of specialized resources in Shakespeare Studies is designed to help you navigate through the wealth of information in Fondren's collections. It is not a comprehensive list. See also the guides on English Literature and History of the British Empire.

Finding Articles

Use indexes to find references to periodical articles and other materials such as books, book chapters, dissertations, etc. In some cases, links to the full texts are provided.

ABELL [Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature] | includes Full Text

ABELL indexes scholarly articles, doctoral dissertations, books and reviews concerning English language, literature, bibliography and folklore published anywhere in the world. (1991-)

Dissertations and Theses - A&I | includes Full Text

Proquest Dissertations and Theses - A&I database includes citations for masters and doctoral dissertations from 1861 to those accepted as recently as last semester; those published from 1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts, written by the author. Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. The full text of dissertations and theses (Rice, 1918- ) may also be downloaded free of charge.

Iter Gateway to the Renaissance

Includes a journals database, which includes approximately 135,000 records from scholarly journals pertaining to the Renaissance (1300-1700) and Middle Ages (400-1500), as well as a monographs database (under construction), which acts as a bibliography of monographs, material published in monographs, and collected essays pertaining to the Renaissance (1300-1700) and, eventually, the Middle Ages (400-1500).

JSTOR | includes Full Text | Source List

JSTOR provides online, fulltext access to over 300 core 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. (Note: pop-up blocking must be disabled.)

Modern Language Association Bibliography (via FirstSearch) | includes Full Text

This bibliography covers literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore from over 4,000 journals and series published worldwide between 1926 and the present. The MLA Bibliography is updated ten times per year. (1926-)

Nineteenth Century Masterfile (Series I and V)

Within Series I are the main multi-title, periodical indices, spanning nearly all Anglo-American periodicals of the late eighteenth through early twentieth century. PP reproduces the indexing from: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1907), Index to Periodicals (1890-1902) (Ed. William T. Stead), Cumulative Index to a Selected List of Periodicals, Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-1899), ... and many more. Series V provides online access to the Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the U.S., 1774-1882, Compilation of the Message and Papers of the Presidents (1789-1897), Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Commons (1803-1830) and Hansard's Index to Debates, House of Lords (1803-1830).

Print & CDROM Indexes

MLA Bibliography

Holdings:  1921-2000

Call Number:  P1 .M64  REFERENCE

See MLA online for 1963-present.

Finding Books

WebCat
Look for books in Fondren Library by searching Fondren's catalog.

WorldCat
To find books not in WebCat, look in this index of books held by over 15,000 libraries.

Other Library Catalogs
A list of links to other libraries' online catalogs.

Interlibrary Loan
Rice students, staff, and faculty can borrow books and other materials not in Fondren.

Text Collections

online | print & CDROM

Online Text Collections

Early English Books Online (page images only) | Early English Books (full text searchable)

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). The Early English Books Tract Supplements will also be added to EEBO soon. The works in this collection are presented as images, which may be viewed online, or downloaded in PDF format for viewing off-line. To view the images online, you will need the DjVu plugin. Downloaded files are in Adobe Acrobat format.

Early English Prose Fiction

The Early English Prose Fiction collection contains over 200 works of prose fiction dating from 1500-1700. It includes Elizabethan fiction, Jest Books, collections of short pieces and novellas, Restoration fiction and works of popular fiction.

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare: 1591-1911

Eleven 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.

English Poetry Database

Guide

The English Poetry Database offers a comprehensive, searchable anthology of English poetry from 600 to 1900. Both well-known and lesser-known poets are represented, including: Matthew Arnold, Anne Bradstreet, George, Lord Byron, William Cowper, John Donne, Robert Herrick, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Christina Rossetti, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth, and Oscar Wilde.

English Prose Drama: 1280-1915

English Prose Drama contains more than 1,600 plays written by more than 350 different authors from the Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century. The database includes plays, masques, entertainments, and certain closet dramas.

English Verse Drama

Guide

A searchable database of more than 1,700 dramatic works in verse, authored by approximately 450 authors, from the late 13th century through the end of the 19th century.

Print & CDROM Text Collections

Axson Collection
A collection of original restoration and 18th century British play scripts of which 185 are by William Shakespeare.

Location: Woodson Resource Center.

Three Tragedies from the First Folio
The tragedie of King Lear -- The tragedie of Othello, the moore of Venice -- The tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra
This is a Shakespeare first folio published in 1623.

Location: Woodson Resource Center PR2763 1623

Microform Sets

Shakespeare and the Stage: The Prompt Books.

Prompt books used in productions of Shakespeare plays from the 17th through the 20th century.
Location: Government Publications/Microforms
Series one:Prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. PR3091 .S43
Series two:Prompt books from the Harvard Theatre Collection PR3091 .S432
Series three:Prompt books and related materials from the Shakespeare Library, Birmingham PR3091 .S433
Series four: Prompt books from the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon PR3091 .S434

Reference Works

Dictionary of Literary Biography

Lengthy essays on literary figures that integrate information on authors' lives with critical discussion of their works. Until recently, only authors writing in English were included. Print volumes are worth looking at for illustrations of authors, their homes and haunts, and their manuscripts.

Other available formats:  Print: PS21.D5

Garland Shakespeare Bibliographies. Godshalk, William, general editor.

Call Number:  Z 8812 etc.   STACKS

Each extensively annotated bibliography covers a play or a theme in Shakespeare. While the scholarhip covered extends only back to 1940, references are often made to earlier work. Sections cover such topics as criticism; sources for the plays; textual studies; bibliographies; editions and translations; adaptations and acting editions; and stage history.

Shakespearean Criticism. Thomson/Gale: 1984-.

Holdings:  vol. 1-

Call Number:  PR 2965 .S43 1984   REFERENCE

Each volume covers criticism of several plays and sometimes includes an essay on a theme. Excerpts of the criticism are included with references to the complete text. These books provide a useful lead for locating historical and recent comments on Shakespeare's works. Consult the most recent volume's index to locate information througout all volumes.

Theater Reviews

Academic Universe
Includes most major U.S. papers, regional U.S. papers, international papers, foreign-language news sources, and news wire transcripts. This is a good source for newspaper theater reviews from the 1980s to now.

Historical New York Times
Full text of The New York Times from 1851-2001, For more recent information see Academic Universe.

The Times Digital Archive
Full text of The Times of London from 1785-1985. For more recent reviews see Academic Universe.

Films

Link to a list of documentaries and feature films (on videotape and DVD) relating to Shakespeare and his works.

Websites

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

Now in its fourth edition, this site is an annotated guide to scholarly resources. You will find links to Shakespeare's works, and information on his life and times, the theatre and Elizabethan performance, criticism, and the renaissance. The "Other Sites" section includes not-so-scholarly but worthwhile sites.

Sites on Shakespeare and the Renaissance

A list of sites related to Shakespeare and his times. The most highly rated sites are marked with a swan logo.

Voice of the Shuttle: Literature in English: Renaissance and 17th Century

Click on authors, works, projects to find useful resources related to Shakespeare and his time.