LibGuides: ENGL 215: Shakespeare: ENGL 215: Shakespeare

Getting Started

These sources are a good place to start your research and to gain background information. In addition, they may contain excellent bibliographies. However, you should not rely on them as major sources for your bibliography. Some examples are:

William Shakespeare by John F. Andrews (Editor)
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2976 .W5354 1985 v.1-3
ISBN: 0684178516
Publication Date: 1905-06-01
Shakespeare A to Z by Charles Boyce
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2892 .B69 1990
ISBN: 0816018057
Publication Date: 1990-09-01
Shakespeare's World and Work by John F. Andrews
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2892 .S56 2001 v.1-3
ISBN: 0684806290
Publication Date: 2001-03-08
Shakespeares Words by David Crystal
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2892 .C78 2002
ISBN: 0141007370
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
The Essential Shakespeare by Larry S. Champion
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2894 .C53 1986
ISBN: 0816187312
Publication Date: 1986-08-01
An A-Z Guide to Shakespeare (2 ed.) by Stanley Wells
ISBN: 0191740764
Publication Date: 2013
Compiled by one of the best-known authorities on Shakespeare's works, this online-only dictionary offers up-to-date information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time and on his impact and influence on later ages. It includes entries on the plays and the major characters, on Shakespeare's life and his contemporaries, on actors from Richard Burbage to Judi Dench, on theatres and directors, plus comments on Shakespeare by later authors such as Jane Austen, Dr Johnson, and Bernard Levin.
Dictionary of Shakespeare by Louise McConnell (Editor)
ISBN: 9781901659399
Publication Date: 2000-03-01
A comprehensive dictionary that covers the plays, poems, characters and background to Shakespeare's works. The dictionary also includes terms used in the theatre and stagecraft, as well as historical references and details on the Elizabethan historical and social period.
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare by Michael Dobson (Editor); Stanley Wells (Editor)
Call Number: DEN Reference PR2892 .O94 2001
ISBN: 0198117353
Publication Date: 2001-11-29
From the conjectured identity of the Dark Lady of the Sonnets to the misprints in the First Folio, from Shakespeare’s favourite figures of speech to the staging of Othello in South Africa, a team of 100 internationally renowned scholars provides a lucid, stimulating, and authoritative guide to Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and their interpretation around the world over the last four centuries. Now revised and updated to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this much-loved Companion reflects developments and discoveries made in recent years as well as the performance, interpretation, and influence of Shakespeare’s works up to the present day.
William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume by Catherine Loomis (Editor)
ISBN: 9780787660079
Publication Date: 2002-08-12
Volume 263 of the Dictionary of Literary Biography

Gale Literature Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online This link opens in a new window
Literary biographies of more than 143,000 past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, People

Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online includes all volumes of Gale's reference set, Dictionary of Literary Biography, the main series, as well as Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series and Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook Series. It features comprehensive literary biographies written by recognized literary scholars and critics of more than 143,000 past and present authors, historians, journalists, screenwriters, publishers, and playwrights. The biographies discuss the lives and careers of the literary figures profiled, along with the critical response to their works.

The Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series concentrates on major literary figures with in-depth essays and related images such as manuscript pages and revised galley proofs, title pages, dust jackets and pictures from the authors' lives. The Documentary series allows for further study of major literary figures through critical and biographical source materials.

The Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook Series is annual compendium which includes original material covering a given year's literary highlights, including obituaries and tributes. The Yearbook provides signed essays summarizing the year in poetry, fiction, biography, drama and children's books we well as scholarly articles, interviews, biographies and critical studies covering events, organizations, works, writers and the business of literature.

Cross-searchable with the Literature Criticism database. Also features a link to the Literary Index.

Format: Full Text Journal, Reference Works
Database Producer: Gale Cengage
Gale Literature Criticism This link opens in a new window
Compilation of literary commentary, both scholarly and popular, from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals. Formerly known as Literary Criticism Online, or LCO.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

Literature Criticism Online is a compilation of literary commentary, both scholarly and popular, from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals. Cross-searchable with the Dictionary of Literary Biography Online. Also features a link to the Literary Index.

Format: Full Text Journals
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Gale Literary Index This link opens in a new window
Complete biographies on authors and critical essays on their writings.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, People

Literary Index is a master index to published resources containing complete biographies on authors and critical essays on their writings including series such as Contemporary Authors and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Gale Literary Index is now available within Gale Literature.

Format: Index to Books
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Literary Reference Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

Literary Reference Center Plus is a comprehensive database that provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. LRC Plus combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. Includes:

* plot summaries, synopses and work overviews
* articles of literary criticism
* full text of literary journals
* author biographies
* book reviews
* author interviews
* and images of key literary figures

Format: Index to Journal Articles
Database Producer: EBSCO Publishing.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Over 500 online reference sources on every major subject.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General

Credo Reference is an online reference solution for learners and librarians. Offering more than 500 highly-regarded titles from over 70 publishers, Credo Reference covers every major subject from the world's best publishers of reference.

Format: Full Text Books, Reference Sources
Dates of Coverage: Varies
Update Schedule: Ongoing
Database Producer: Credo Reference
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Online access to over 3,000 reference books in all subject areas.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General

Gale eBooks (formerly known as Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)) provides online access to over 3,000 reference books in all subject areas.

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Gale Cengage.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Full text of 400 dictionaries, general reference, language reference, and subject reference works from Oxford University Press.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General

Oxford Reference combines Oxford Reference Online and Oxford Digital Reference Shelf to provide full text of 400 dictionaries, general reference, language reference, and subject reference works from Oxford University Press. Link directly to:

* Encyclopedia
* Maps
* Names & Places
* Quotations

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Oxford University Press

Three Useful Journals

Library Catalogs - Find Books

CONSORT Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
Combined library catalog of Denison University, College of Wooster, Kenyon College, and Ohio Wesleyan University
OhioLINK Library Catalog This link opens in a new window
Catalog of books and other materials held in Ohio college and university libraries.
WorldCat.org (Web Interface) This link opens in a new window
Worldcat.org is a global catalog of library content and materials.
WorldCat.org is the web interface for the world's largest network of library content and services. Over 10,000 libraries have provided access to their records and catalogs through this resource.

Want to browse the stacks? Go to the 2nd floor and check out PR2750-PR3112

Relevant Databases

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to books & articles on modern languages, literature, folklore, & linguistics. Coverage includes literature from all over the world.
Off Campus URL: Authenticate with your full name and all the numbers on the back of your Denison ID card.

Subject Areas: English, French, German, Spanish, Theatre. Cinema

MLA International Bibliography is an index to books and articles published on modern languages, literature, folklore, and linguistics.

Coverage includes literature from all over the world.
- Folklore is represented by folk literature, music, art, rituals, and belief systems.
- Linguistics and language materials range from history and theory of linguistics, comparative linguistics, semantics, stylistics, and syntax to translation.
- Other topics include literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts (film, radio, television, theater), and history of printing and publishing.

The MLA Directory of Periodicals and the Association's proprietary thesaurus used to assign descriptors to each record in the bibliography are also included.

Format: Index to Journal Articles
Dates of Coverage: 1926-Present
Update Schedule: Regularly
Database Producer: Modern Language Association. Distributed by EBSCO Publishing.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Digital library containing over 10 million academic, full text online resources.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

The JSTOR Archive is a digital collection of eBooks and academic journals, which extend back to the first volume published. This digital library is particularly strong in the humanities, but covers all subject areas. The database itself supports data and text mining as well. For additional information, visit the JSTOR Research Guides.
Please note, Artstor is now a part of JSTOR. Looking for ways to use Artstor in JSTOR? Visit Artstor on JSTOR Guides.

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: Vary by title
Update Schedule: Annual
Database Distributor: JSTOR
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers the literature about television and film writing.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Cinema, Communication, Mass Media

Film & Television Literature Index covers the literature about television and film writing. It provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 300 publications. FTLI has been designed for use by a diverse audience that includes film scholars, college students, and general viewers. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.

Format: Index to Journal Articles
Database Producer: EBSCO Publishing.
Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) This link opens in a new window
Archive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General, Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences

Periodicals Archive Online is an archive of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas, direct from their computer.

Format: Full Text Journals
Database Producer: ProQuest / Chadwyck-Healey.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: All Subjects

Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers unmatched full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: animal science, anthropology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, materials science, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion & theology, veterinary science, women's studies, zoology, and many other fields.

Format: Full Text, Index and Abstracts
Dates of Coverage: 1887 - Present
Update Schedule: Daily
Database Producer: EBSCO
Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Theatre

The Shakespeare Collection provides access to an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Resources include the most recent Arden Shakespeare editions of the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, other works published during Shakespeare's time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference.

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Gale Publishing.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Digital humanities and social sciences books and journals, from university presses and scholarly societies.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: General

Project MUSE is an online archive of digital humanities and social sciences content; since 1995, its electronic journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. Project MUSE contains Open Access (OA) content. To see the title list of OA books and journals, click here.

Format: Full Text Journals and eBooks
Database Producer: Johns Hopkins University Press
Please Note: Project MUSE provides access to alumni as well as current members of the Denison community.
Shakespeare survey: an annual survey of Shakespeare studies and production This link opens in a new window
Contains the best international scholarship in English of Shakespeare criticism.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English

Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948 Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism.

Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies, and of the year's major British performances. The virtues of accessible scholarship and a keen interest in performance, from Shakespeare's time to our own, have characterised the journal from the start.

The books are illustrated with a variety of Shakespearean images and production photographs.

Shakespeare Survey Online makes all issues of the Survey, including over 90% of the original images, available online for the first time.

Format: Full Text Books
Database Producer: Gale/Cengage: Cambridge Collections Online

Primary Resources

Digital Theatre + This link opens in a new window
A digital streaming video collection of unique films including current, leading British theatre productions and behind-the-scenes documentaries.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: Theatre, Dance, Drama, Performing Arts.

Digital Theatre Plus is a streaming video platform of current British theatre productions as well as behind-the-scenes commentaries. This platform is one way to immerse researchers in performance while also helping to ready performing arts students for employment.

This database is comprised of 4 main parts:

(1) Plays & Productions: with 361 "filmed and audio" productions. These recordings include performances from Shakespeare's Globe theatre, the Broadway Digital Archive, the Royal Opera House, and the BBC.

(2) Practice & Practitioners: 397 interviews and documentaries with cast members, directors, and backstage crews are found in Digital Theatre Plus.

(3) Theory & Criticism: Digital Theatre Plus includes 284 written resources (6,975 pages) written by both academics and practitioners. These materials explore theatre history, theory, and technique.

(4) Teaching with DT: These resources have been commissioned, created and curated by Creative Content Producer Fiona Lindsay and Editorial Director (Higher Education) Talia Rodgers to support the teaching of English, Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Performing Arts subjects from secondary to higher education. We provide resources which bridge the gap between school and university. Many of the resources below can be used across all levels from the UK to the US and beyond.

Format: Streaming Media, Full Text
Dates of Coverage: Varies by production, from the 1960's through present
Update Schedule: Quarterly
Database Distributor: Digital Theatre Plus
Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimile images of virtually every work printed in Great Britian and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, History

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700, from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

Format: Archival Resources, Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1473-1700.
Database Producer: ProQuest
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare (via American and English Literature) This link opens in a new window
Complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeare's works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: English, Theatre

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare, a collection within American and English Literature, includes the complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeare's works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6. It also includes twenty-four separate contemporary printings of individual plays, selected apocrypha and related works, and more than 100 adaptations, sequels, and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

Format: Full Text Books
Dates of Coverage: 1623-1866
Database Producer: ProQuest / Chadwyck-Healey
Shakespeare's Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance This link opens in a new window
Documenting over 300 productions from 1997-2016, this digital collection provides resources for the study of Shakespeare, theatre, cultural history and early-modern literature.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: English, Theater

This collection of documents offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

Format: Full Text, image, videos
Dates of Coverage: 1997-2006
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window
Contains unique prompt books from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. These prompt books describe key performances in Great Britain and the United States, between the 17th and 20th centuries. This resource also contains curated case studies built around 17 selected performances with supplementary materials.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject: Theatre, History, Art History and Visual Culture

This collection belongs to AM Explorer.

Date range: 1660-1980
Format: Archival Resources, including text, image
Database Producer: AM (Adam Matthew Digital)
Theatre in Video: Volume I This link opens in a new window
Performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Theatre

Theatre in Video contains performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video. Some plays presented in multiple productions exemplifying various interpretations of the text, and technical and cultural differences among the presentations. Stage work of directors and actors are cross-searchable and available for side-by-side comparison. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, provide illustration of the development of texts and the productions
Format: Digital Media
Update Schedule: Updated periodically by a new release
Dates of Coverage: 20th Century
Database Producer: Alexander Street Press

Search Summon

Use Summon to search nearly everything to which Denison has access. Summon is a great place to start with research on interdisciplinary topics.

Summon This link opens in a new window
Summon is a database of databases, searching the Library databases as well as the Library catalog. Searches may be refined by using the filters available in this interface.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: All

Summon is a search interface that indexes the metadata and full text available in the Library databases and catalog. It is a one-stop search tool for searching almost 500 databases at once and links users to full text resources.

Searches may be refined by using the filters available in this interface.

Format: Full Text, Metadata, and Catalog Records
Dates of Coverage: Varies
Update Schedule: Weekly
Database Distributor: ProQuest