Sources for Shakespeare Material

Main Texts

Potential sources:

1. Gutenberg:
   • (-) has issues as the main complete works version claims to be copyright by world library inc and impose non-commercial conditions
   • (-) seems to have several versions of a given work and you have to root around to find a satisfactory one
   • (+) however they do usually have at least one copyright free version and
   • (+) quite a lot of effort has been made to make the edition: e.g. 0ws3010 which is all's well that end's well is a consolidated version of 30 first folios with fairly detailed notes of how this was done. (note this demonstrates the potential benefits of using svn or similar)
   • (+) heavily proofed

2. University of Virginia:
   • http://etext.virginia.edu/shakespeare/
   • has 2 versions:
     1. The complete works of Shakespeare, Globe Edition (1866)
        • 'Note: We have been unable to verify conclusively the exact source of this electronic text, but we believe it to be "The Globe Edition" of the Works of William Shakespeare edited by William George Clark and William Aldis Wright. Error checking was done against the 1866 edition noted in the "Source Description" field. These texts are public domain.'
     2. The First Folio and Early Quartos of William Shakespeare.
   • (-) some copyright claim on each page but not clear what it refers to (seems to be absent on the folio)

3. The Moby shakespeare:
   • http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/research/ilash/Moby/mshak.html
   • this is globe version as evidenced by acknowledgement on Univ of Virginia's pages in their globe edition pages: 'Creation of machine-readable version: Grady Ward, Moby Lexical Project'
   • have details of checking the electronic version against printed
   • There is an xml version of these texts at: http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/examples/shakespeare/

Obtaining Other Information

Information we want:

• Chronology of plays
• Chronology of life
• Notes and introductions to plays

Looking around the web it is really quite ironic how much shakespeare stuff is copyrighted (almost every website has a big 'All rights-reserved sign at the bottom'. However some digging gives:

Chronology

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Shakespeare_plays
  • unfortunately this is GFDL (which we won't/can't use) though maybe the data is ok
  • but following a bunch of links takes us to:
• EB 11th ed: [1] (below)
  • p.777 gives a chronology along with notes
• http://www.dlhoffman.com/publiclibrary/Shakespeare/by-year.html
  • base page has copyright but since a source is referenced probably this info is not covered ('This list is based on the scholarship of Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, who prepared the Oxford edition of the complete works. I have included a note about the date -- sometimes Wells and Taylor's estimate, other times a fact that helps pinpoint the date.')

Introduction:

• http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/rowe.htm
  • 1714 introduction to shakespeare's works by Rowe (PD)
• http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/Folio1.htm
  • prefatory material to first folio
• EB 11th ed: [1] (below)
• [2] has extensive section on shakespeare

Other stuff:

• neat chronology graph (though without sources): http://inamidst.com/shaks/playchron
  • linked from: http://miscoranda.com/157 (unfortunately no sources provided)

Sources

1. Encyclopedia Britannica: 11th edition
   • http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Tim_Starling
     • contains links to a wikisource tiff scan of entire 11th edition of encyclopedia britannica
   • project gutenberg has vol. 1 and some of vol.2 of this already scanned and OCR'd (unfortunately does not cover shakespeare)
     • http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/200
     • http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13600
2. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin (1910)
   • http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13240