• Introduction
• Biblical
• Classical
• Medieval
• The Early English Drama
• The History Plays
• Contemporary
• Geographical

Introduction

An overview of Shakespearean sources can be found at: Narrative and Dramatic Sources of all Shakespeare's works, and at Sources of Shakespeare's works and Elizabethan Literature.  There are no links to follow from either of these sites, but they provide useful collections that can act as starting points in the search for sources.

• Bible Research: Internet resources for students of scripture.
• Wheaton College's Christian Classics Ethereal Library. A good gateway to some interesting texts.
• The 1560 Geneva Bible, (facsimile).
• The Bishops' Bible from Wikipedia.
• StudyLight version of the Bishops' Bible, lacking apocrypha.

• Ancient Rome and English Renaissance Theatre.  An electronic essay which considers the influence Ancient Rome exerted over the Renaissance theatre. The two  matters considered in depth are the relationship between the design of performance arenas in Elizabethan England and those of Ancient Rome, and Early Modern Plays with a Roman theme.

• A glossary of rhetorical terms with examples.

• Appolonius of Tyre, edited by Catherine N. Ball of Georgetown University, a source for Pericles.

• Didaskalia, an electronic source for the latest developments in Greek and Roman drama, dance, and music as they are performed today.

• Greek and Latin Classics, from BYU.

• Introduction to Greek and Roman Comedy.

• The Menaechmi of Plautus, source for The Comedy of Errors, from the Perseus Project at Tufts University.

• Ovid

  • Wikipedia article on Ovid.

  • Dr. Larry Brown's remarkable Ovid's Metamorphoses: An Introduction and Commentary.

  • The Ovid Project: A collection of images.

  • The. xv. Bookes of P. Ovidus Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into Englysh meeter, by Arthur Golding Gentleman, A worke very pleasaunt and delectable (1567) from Elizabethan Authors.  An original spelling transcription by Barboura Flues and Robert Brazil, with extensive glossary.

  • Shakespeare's Ovid: Being Arthur Golding's Translation of the Metamorphoses, By Ovid, translated by Arthur Golding, edited by William Henry Denham Rouse, Published by At the De La More Press, 1904, full view and PDF from GBS.

  • P. Ovidius Naso. Metamorphoses, ed. Arthur Golding, from the Perseus Project, Tufts University.

  • Book 6 of The Metamorphoses used as a source for Titus Andronicus, from the Perseus Project at Tufts University.

  • P. Ovidius Naso. Amores. ed. Christopher Marlowe, from the Perseus Project, Tufts University.

• Seneca's  Tragedies, By Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Translated by Frank Justus Miller, Published by W. Heinemann, 1917, Vol. I, Vol. II, full view and PDF from GBS.

• The Perseus Digital Library.

• Shakespeare's Morals: The Stoic Legacy to the Renaissance.  Readings from Cicero and Seneca.

• The Tech Classics Archive: From the same wonderful people who bring you the complete works of Shakespeare. A truly great site!
   

• Plutarch

  • Wikilpedia article on Plutarch of Chaeronea (46 - 127)
  • Shakespeare's Plutarch, being a selection from the live's in North's Plutarch which illustrate Shakespeare's plays; ed. W. W. Skeat, Macmillan, 1892, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF, 332 pages.  This edition includes "lives" of Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, Marcus Antonius, Octavius Caesar Augustus, Theseus and Alcibiades.  Skeat provides a long preface, notes and indices.  Sir Thomas North's 1579 "To The Reader" is also included.  Skeat's preface says, "The object of this volume volume is twofold.  First, to supply well written biographies of a few of the most interesting of the "noble Romans;" and secondly, to place in the reader's hands so much of the text of North's Plutarch as is necessary for a due appreciation of the use made of that work by Shakespeare."  And so it is.  Skeat's version is based on the 1595 edition printed by Shakespeare's friend Richard Field.
  • Shakespeare's Plutarch, edited by Tucker Brooke (1909) is available in two volumes from the Internet Archive.  Volume 1 contains "The Main Sources of Julius Caesar."  Volume 2 contains "The Main Sources of Antony & Cleopatra and of Coriolanus."
  • Works by Plutarch at Project Gutenberg, and at the Internet Archive.
  • Plutarch. Lives: Caius Martius Coriolanus: Julius Caesar: Marcus Brutus: Marcus Antonius: Octavius Caesar Augustus: Theseus: Alcibiades, ed. Thomas North, from the Perseus Project, Tufts University.
  • Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by Plutarch in the Dryden (edited by A. H. Clough) can be found in an eText version from the University of Adelaide to be read online or downloaded as a zip file which extracts to 70 different files.  Skeat (see above) calls the Dryden translation (1683-86) "a very indifferent performance."  For purposes of Shakespeare scholarship the North translation is the critical one, though one must admire the quality of the Adelaide transcriptions.
  • Plutarch on LacusCurtius, transcriptions of the various Loeb editions (c. 1914).
  • Plutarch of Charonea at Livius.org.

• Amleth, Prince of Denmark From the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus Edited by D. L. Ashliman

• Anniina Jokinen's Anthology of Middle English Literature (1350-1485). Visiting the Everyman page will lead to other Medieval drama sites and discussions of the early drama. Everything that Anniina does deserves five diamonds: . You will find several of her other sites linked from my Renaissance page.

• Boccaccio.  The Decameron Web.

• The Chronicles of Froissart (U. Virginia).

• John Gower's Confesio Amantis at the U. of Virginia etext center.

• The Croyland Chronicle Continuations, 1453-1486.

• The Danish History, Books I-IX by Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned") fl. Late 12th - Early 13th Century A.D.

• The Decameron Web, from Brown University, presenting the works of Boccaccio, including the novels of The Decameron, a source of All's Well That Ends Well (ninth novel third day).

• The invaluable Internet Medieval Sourcebook, with many texts and links to texts

• Jerusalem Delivered.

• A broad historical view of Jews in the Middle Ages.

• The Labyrinth - a central resource for Medieval Studies, especially The Labyrinth Middle English Bookcase.

• Medieval Drama Links

• Medieval English Towns.

• Medieval Jewish Life (Fordam).

• Medieval & Renaissance Europe--Primary Historical Documents, from BYU.

• The Salic Law (Yale).

• Anonymous. THE CHESTER PLAYS: A COLLECTION OF MYSTERIES FOUNDED UPON SCRIPTURAL SUBJECTS, AND FORMERLY REPRESENTED BY THE TRADES OF CHESTER AT WHITSUNTIDE. EDITED BY THOMAS WRIGHT, ( LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. 1843, in Amyot, Thomas, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. I. [London]: Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1853.
• Anonymous.  LUDUS COVENTRIAE. A Collection of Mysteries FORMERLY REPRESENTED AT COVENTRY ON THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI. EDITED BY JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, LONDON : PRINTED FOR THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY, 1841, in Amyot, Thomas, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. II. [London]: Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1853.
• Anonymous. Everyman, reprinted by W.W. Greg, from the fragments of two editions by Pynson preserved in the bodleian library and the British museum, together with critical apparatus (1910), from Internet Archive.
• Anonymous. Gammer Gurton's Needle
• Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville.  Gorboduc, in Amyot, Thomas, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. III, London, Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1853, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.
• Nicholas Udall.  Ralph Roister Doyster, in Amyot, Thomas, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. III, London, Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1853, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.
• Facsimile edition (The Tudor Facsimile Texts) of Cambyses, king of Persia, c. 1584, by Thomas Preston (1910), from the Internet Archive.

• Holinshed, Raphael, d. 1580?. The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. London : Printed by Henry Denham, at the expenses of Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, [1587]. In Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library.  The is the facsimile edition in its entirety.  There is a handy drop-down menu at the top of the frame to quickly jump to sections of the work by monarch, from William I to Elizabeth I.
• Wikipedia article on Holinshed.
• "Holinshed, Raphael," in Dictionary of National Biography, v. 9, ed. Sidney Lee, 1908, from GBS, full view and PDF.
• The Works of Raphael Holinshed at Project Gutenberg.
• Shakspere's Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared, W. G. Boswell-Stone, 1896, from GBS, full view and PDF.
• Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed ; with Introductions and Notes, Harvard Classics, vol. 35, 1910, from GBS, full view and PDF.
• Hall, Edward, d. 1547. The vnion of the two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre & Yorke, beyng long in continuall discension for the croune of this noble realme : with al the actes done in both the tymes of the princes, both of the one linage & of the other.... London : Rychard Grafton, Prynter to the Kynges Maiestye, 1550. In Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library.   This is a digital facsimile from the Schoenberg Center, U. of Pennsylvania.
• Wikipedia article on Edward Hall.
• Samuel Daniel's The Civil Wars between the two houses of Lancaster and York, Book IV, excerpt from the University of Toronto.  Daniel's poem was a source for the Henry IV plays.

• A pleasant conceited history, called The taming of a shrew : as it was sundry times acted by the right honorable the Earl of Pembroke his servants, from the Oxford Text Archive.  Text is downloadable and freely available for non-commercial purposes.

• The Taming of A Shrew, ed. Thomas Amyot, in Amyot, Thomas, et al. A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. IV, [London]: Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1853, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

• Facsimile edition (The Tudor Facsimile Texts) of the 1596 quarto (there was a 1594 printing) of The taming of a shrew. 1596 (1912), from the Internet Archive.

• Brooke's 'Romeus and Juliet,': Being the Original of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', "newly edited" by J. J. Munro, 1908, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

• Lodge's Rosalynde: Being the Original of Shakespeare's As You Like It, ed. W. W. Greg, 1907, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

• The True Chronicle history of King Leir, and his three daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella, the anonymous King Leir in modern spelling. Transcribed by Barboura Flues. Edited for the web by Robert Brazil, from Elizabethan Authors.

• Facsimile edition (The Tudor Facsimile Texts) of The true chronicle history of King Leir. 1605 (1910), from the Internet Archive.

• The Chronicle History of King Leir: The Original of Shakespeare's King Lear, editied by Sidney Lee, 1909, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

• King Leir, from From Geoffrey of Monmouth (Book II), transcribed by Barboura Flues at Elizabethan Authors.

• The Famous Victories of Henry V, an original spelling transcription by Barboura Flues from Elizabethan Authors, with glossary and appendices.

• The True Tragedie of Richard the Third, original spelling transcription by Ramon Jimenez from Elizabethan Authors.

• The Toublesome Reign of King John, etc. from the Oxford Text Archive, Arts and Humanities Data Service, available in ASCII text and specially formatted text for MS-DOS.

• A facsimile edition of the 1622 3rd quarto of The First and Second Part of the Troublesome Raigne of John King of England, from the Rare Book Room (Octavo) from a volume held by the University of Edinburgh Library.  The volume was donated to the library by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps.

• The Troublesome raigne of John, King of England : the first quarto, 1591, which Shakspere rewrote (about 1595) as his "Life and death of King John" : part II : a facsimile, by photolithography, from the unique original in the Capell collection at Trinity College, Cambridge (1888), by Charles Praetorius, from the Internet Archive.

• Facsimile edition (The Tudor Facsimile Texts) of The troublesome reign of John, king of England. 1591 (1911), from the Internet Archive.

• The Trial of the Earls of Essex and Southampton, 1601, a sumptuous production by Margaret Pierce Secara and Paula Kate Marmor.

• Daniel, Samuel.  An excerpt from The Tragedy of Cleopatra, a source for Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, from the Luminarium.

• King James VI of Scotland, I of England, The Daemonologie, a source for Macbeth and Lear.

• The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, a source for King Lear, from Renascence Editions, University of Oregon.

• Niccols, Richard, 1584-1616. A mirovr for magistrates : being a trve chronicle historie of the vntimely falles of such vnfortunate princes and men of note, as haue happened since the first entrance of Brute into this iland... newly enlarged.... London : Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, 1610. In Horace Howard Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library. STC 13446.   This is a facsimile edition from SCETI at the University of Pennsylvania.  Niccols was one of many editors.  See the Wikipedia article on Mirror for Magistrates.

• The Mirour for Magistrates, Vol. I: Part I by John Higgins; part II by Thomas Blenerhasset; Vol. II: Part III by Ferrers, Cavyll, Chaloner, Phaer, Baldwin, Skelton, Dolman, Sackville, Segar, Dingley, Churchyard, and Drayton; Part IV by Richard Niccols; ed. Joseph Haslewood, London, 1815, reprinted from the edition of 1587, collated with those of 1575 and 1610, from Google Book Search, full view and PDF.

• Portions of Cinthio's Hecatommithi, a source for Othello, from Classical Net.

• The Map of Early Modern London, from the University of Victoria, BC.

• Maps of the locations of Shakespeare's plays, from bardware.com.

• A Map of the Battle of Tewkesbury

• John Strype's amendment of John Stow's Survey: A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, 1720.  This web site transforms the text into HTML, with separate illustrations.  "John Stow's Elizabethan classic, A Survey of London, was first published in 1598, with a second edition following in 1603. Stow (c. 1525-1605) was a chronicler and antiquary who transcribed manscripts and inscriptions relating to English history, literature and archaelogy, but his Survey is perhaps his most famous work, with its evocative 'perambulation' of the streets of the Tudor capital, which forms the main framework of the book."  If you would rather read the original Stow, C. L. Kingsford published an edition in 1908 reprinted from the 1603 edition:  A survey of London By John Stow, Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, ed., Published by The Clarendon Press, 1908, Vol. I, Vol. II.  Another edition of the 1603 version was edited by William John Thomas in 1842. Also available is Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles: with historical memoranda by John Stowe, the antiquary, and contemporary notes of occurances written by him in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, edited by James Gairdner for the Camden Society in 1880.

©1995-2009 Terry A. Gray
Last modified 09/21/09
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