Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

Welcome to the latest edition of Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet. Newcomers should read the Introduction for an explanation of the way things are arranged. IThe What's News page describes new links, ideas and features, along with current events and other Shakespearean news.

This site attempts two things:

To be an annotated guide to the scholarly Shakespeare resources available on the Internet. Admittedly, some of the resources are not so scholarly, but that's as may be. Usefulness to students (in the broadest sense) is most often the guiding principle. The truly un-scholarly sites are linked on the "Other" Sites page. With respect to current performances, a very popular feature is a listing of Shakespeare Festivals.

To present unique Shakespeare material unavailable elsewhere on the Internet, such as

A Shakespeare Timeline, which gives the key events of Shakespeare's life and work along with related documentary evidence. There are several supporting pages to the timeline:

A Shakespeare genealogy. A chart showing the relevant family relationships and dates.
A Shakespeare Timeline Summary Chart, showing the events of Shakespeare's life in outline along with important contemporary events and publications.
A Shakespeare Biography Quiz. If you are brave enough, you may take the quiz before reading the timeline.

Primary documents related to the life of Shakespeare.

The latest feature...

1598 - First Title Page

The first appearance of Shakespeare's name on the title page of a printed play was the quarto publication of Love's Labour's Lost. The first quarto, and only authoritative text, of Love's Labour's Lost appeared in 1598 with the following title page...The W. W. is thought to be William White (d. 1615). Cuthbert Burby (d. 1607) owned the copyright to this play and to Romeo and Juliet, transferred on his death to Nicholas Ling.
Q1 served as the text for the Folio printing, but it has been revised inconsistently, giving rise to a theory of a lost Q0, but there is no other evidence for a lost quarto (except for the "Newly corrected and augmented" tag printer on the Title page of Q1. More...

Reviews of web sites, books, DVDs and other materials. Click here for the latest review and the archives.

The latest review...
Soul of the Age. Jonathan Bate is one of the great Shakespeare scholar/editors of the late 20th-early 21st century. He belongs in the company of such early 20th century greats as E. K. Chambers, J. D. Wilson and Alfred Harbage; capable of speculation, but with an unerring centrifugal instinct to fact and truth. Bate's The Genius of Shakespeare is a groundbreaking summation of the perception of Shakespeare's works, his Arden Third Series edition of Titus Andronicus is the best I know, and his (and Rasmussen's) masterful RSC Complete Works is, well, masterful. With a buildup like that, it would be hard to say his latest, Soul of the Age, is anything but a very good book, and indeed it is. That is not to say great. Great books on Shakespeare are extremely rare, but very good from this scholar is nearly as good as it gets. The only caution I would suggest is that it is not a beginner's book. Considerable familiarity with the works of the period and the various controversies over Shakespearean biographical details would be helpful to the reader. Following the close arguments in several of the set pieces throughout the book would be quite challenging without at least a basic understanding of 16th and 17th century British history and literature. More...

The Editors of Shakespeare—a work in progress...

The latest editor added to the series...
Warburton Complete. William Warburton (1698 - 1779) was born the son of a Newark attorney. In 1723 he took orders in the Church of England. He was awarded the M. A. degree by Cambridge in 1728, and was subsequently curate, vicar, King's Chaplain, Lincoln's Inn Preacher, Prebendary, Dean and Bishop of Gloucester. He had an intense interest in both theology and Shakespeare. More...

Significant introductions and prefaces to the various historical editions of the Works of Shakespeare:

Heminge and Condell's Prefatory materials to the First Folio (1623).
Nicholas Rowe's Some Acount of the Life &c. of Mr. William Shakespear ( 1709);
Alexander Pope's Preface (1725);
Lewis Theobald's Preface (1733/1740);
Sir Thomas Hanmer's Preface (1743-1744);
Dr. Warburton's Preface (1747);
Dr. Johnson's Preface (1765);
George Steevens' "Advertisement to the Reader," prefaced to Twenty of the plays... (1766);
Isaac Reed's Advertisement to the 1785 edition of the Johnson-Steevens-Reed text;
John Boydell's Preface to A Catalogue of the Pictures, &c. in the Shakspeare Gallery, Pall Mall, 1793 (1789);
Thomas Bowdler's Preface to the 1818 edition of The Family Shakspeare;
Samuel Weller Singer's Preface (1826);
Advertisement from the 1836 American "Peabody" edition, based on Singer.
Charles Knight explains his motivation to publish The Pictorial Shakespeare, 1838-41, from his autobiography, Passages of a Working Life;
G. C. Verplanck's Preface to his 1847 American "Illustrated" Shakespeare.
Alexander Dyce's Preface to his 1857 first edition of The Works of William Shakespeare;
Preface to Richard Grant White's edition of Shakespeare, 1865.
Henry N. Hudson's Preface to "The Harvard Edition" of 1881.

Shakespeare's Contemporaries. A brief biography and essential link to many of the important theatrical, political, and intellectual figures of the Renaissance.

The latest figure...
John Speed was born at Farndon, Cheshire, the son of John Speed who was admitted to the freedom of the Merchant Taylors' Company on 5 April 1566, and Elizabeth Cheynye of Newgate. In 1580 he also was admitted to the freedom of the Merchant Taylors 'Company and followed his father by earning his living as a tailor. In the same year he married and seems to have settled in Moorfields where he leased a property from the Merchant Taylors' Company for 20s per year. The boon of his life came when he gained the favorable notice of Fulke-Greville, Lord Brooke More...

Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare.