Databases and Electronic Resources
Below you'll find databases that will be most useful regarding the study of Shakespeare. For a refresher on how to search some of the more major ones, like the MLA International Bibliography and Literature Criticism Online, see our guide on Introduction to English Language Literature, which has instructions for searching the major databases.
Article Databases for Literature
- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature This link opens in a new windowThe annual bibliography of English language and literature (ABELL) lists monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published anywhere in the world; unpublished doctoral dissertations are covered for the period 1920-1999. The bibliography consists of 80 volumes, beginning in 1920 and issued annually. A number of items published between 1892 and 1919 have been indexed retrospectively.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online This link opens in a new windowProvides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
- English Poetry This link opens in a new windowContains more than 183,000 poems, comprising essentially the complete canon of poetry in English from the 8th century to the early 20th. Drawn from nearly 4,900 sources, the collection represents the work of more than 2,700 poets. The main bibliographic source is the New Cambridge bibliography of English literature, 1969-1977. Also includes poetry written in English by authors from Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: MLA International Bibliography in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches).Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Proved access to citations from worldwide publications, including periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies.
- ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new windowThis database contains 3 million literature citations from thousands of journals, monographs, dissertations, and more than 500,000 primary works. These include rare and obscure texts, multiple versions, and non-traditional sources like comics, theatre performances, and author readings. It also includes book reviews and criticism related to this content.
- Shakespeare Survey This link opens in a new windowEach 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.
- World Shakespeare Bibliography This link opens in a new windowProvides annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare. Each year coverage moves forward one year and backwards at least three years.
General and possibly useful article databases
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
(Academic Search Ultimate classic*) A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others. Also includes full-text access to over 5,000 journals. Offers coverage of many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields. *(best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches)
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowProvides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from more than 200 scholarly journals in history and the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. Disciplines covered include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others. A brief bibliographic description of each title is given. Searches can be conducted across the full text of all journals in the database.
- Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowSearchable database of full-text articles, essays, book reviews, plot summaries, poems, short stories, plays, and interviews with contemporary writers.
Literary Criticism
- Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism This link opens in a new windowA full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. It also treats related persons and fields that have been shaped by or have themselves shaped literary theory and criticism. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography
- Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new windowPart of Gale Literature Criticism Online. LCO covers a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres, offering tens of thousands of hard-to-find critical essays. Database subscriptions may include any or all of the following titles, based on subscriber preferences: Contemporary literary criticism; Twentieth-Century literary criticism; Nineteenth-Century literature criticism; Literature criticism from 1400-1800; Shakespearean criticism; Classical and medieval literature criticism; Poetry criticism; Short story criticism; Drama criticism; and Children's literature review.
- Poetry Criticism This link opens in a new windowPart of Gale Literature Criticism Online. The database presents literary criticism on the works of poets of all nations, cultures, and time periods. Critical essays are selected from leading sources, including published journals, magazines, books, reviews, diaries, newspapers, broadsheets, pamphlets, and scholarly papers.
- Shakespeare Criticism This link opens in a new windowPart of Gale Literature Criticism Online. Presents literary criticism on the plays and poetry of Shakespeare. Critical essays are selected from leading sources, including journals, magazines, books, reviews, diaries, newspapers, pamphlets, and scholarly papers. Includes commentary by Shakespeare's contemporaries as well as a full range of views from later centuries, with an emphasis on contemporary analysis. Includes aesthetic criticism, textual criticism, and criticism of Shakespeare in performance.
Shakespeare Libraries & Archives
The Folger Shakespeare Library is the largest collection of Shakespeare in the world. Their collection contains 260,000 print books, 60,000 manuscripts, and 90,000 prints and works of art. They offer podcasts and several more online resources that may be of use.
The Shakespeare Electronic Archive seeks to make it easier to access digital copies of primary material while reading digital versions of Shakespeare. It is free to use. When accessing a play, simply click the one you want and it will pull up the text alongside a related primary material. The archive has images of of the 1623 First Folio and artwork.
Shakespeare Resource Center acts as a repository for information about Shakespeare and his works. The site directs users to information by providing links to useful resources available online.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust cares for the several Shakespeare Heritage Sites in Stratford-Upon-Avon and encourages the celebration and study of the bard. Their research page provides links to scholarly publications, current research projects, and the online catalog, which gives users free access to materials held in the library. In the catalog, you may specify if you're looking for holdings specifically in the museum, archive, library, or in performances.
- Royal Shakespeare Company Archives This link opens in a new windowCovers the years 1889-2013. provides a comprehensive record of the performance history of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Browse and compare almost 1,400 prompt books to uncover how productions took shape, and explore the creative process behind the company's most important presentations in extensive additional documentation including production records, costume designs, music files and photographs.
Digital Editions and other Digitized Content
Below you will find databases and other collections that present digitized editions and other related content. Please select that resource that most appropriately addresses your research or learning needs. Please note that links to the Norton Shakespeare and the New Oxford Shakespeare appear on the Homepage.
- Shakespeare Collection This link opens in a new windowThe Shakespeare Collection contextualizes the legacy of this poet and playwright, containing a selection of over 200 prompt books (annotated working texts of stage managers and company prompters) from the 17th to 20th centuries, the extensive diaries of Shakespeare enthusiast Gordon Crosse documenting 500 UK performances from 1890 to 1953, the First Folio and Quartos, editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, more than 80 works Shakespeare is thought to have been familiar with, as well as works composed by Shakespeare's contemporaries.
- Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new windowShakespeare in Performance showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
- Shakespeare: Editions and Adaptations This link opens in a new windowContains 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, eighteeenth and nineteenth centuries.
Useful Sources on English Drama
- English Drama This link opens in a new windowContains more than 3,900 plays in verse and prose from the late thirteenth century - the likely date of the Shrewsbury Fragments - to the early twentieth. It offers exhaustive coverage of the prodigious dramatic literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, as well as Restoration plays, medieval morality plays and mystery cycles, and nineteenth-century closet dramas.
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowReproduces works listed in: Pollard & Redgrave's Short-title catalogue, Wing's Short title catalogue and Thomason tracts, online via ProQuest Direct.
The Globe Theatre
- Shakespeare's Globe Archive This link opens in a new windowAn archive documenting the performance and construction history of the Globe Theatre reconstruction as well as the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
- Shakespeare's Globe on Screen (2008-2015) This link opens in a new windowA video archive of performances at the Globe Theatre reconstruction from 2008-2015 and 2016-2018.
Book History and Early Printed Works
The Library of Congress provides an overview of England's Early English printing. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds fifteenth and sixteenth-century English printing materials including English imprints or incunabula.
The bibliography is a database of secondary sources on women's writing and labor in the Early Modern period.
- Book History ResourcesA brief list of open-access resources for studying early modern book history, with a preference for British history.
- Descriptive Cataloging of Rare MaterialsThe manuals are intended for catalogers, but are useful for understanding how to use catalogs (RBMS).
- Early Modern ResourcesEarly Modern Resources is a research portal for the early modern period (c.1500-1800 CE).