Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

by

Terry A. Gray

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Introduction

This project will be developing over time.

I intend to pull together here all the best Shakespeare links on the web. Other of the resources referenced here can lead you to older Shakespearean gopher links, which aren't nearly as much fun. I've annotated most of the links with my own comments. My intention is to make this your best of the web hyperguide. In addition to specifically Shakespearean links, I've added Shakespeare related links that go along with the scholarly tone of this page, including links to Shakespeare in Education, Shakespearean Criticism, Elements of Elizabethan Theatrical Production, Primary and Secondary Literary Sources, and Related Literary Journals and Renaissance Resources.

In time I hope to add more original material for which I cannot find adequate coverage on the web, such as architectural information on Elizabethan playhouses, Elizabethan actors and acting, and a hyperlink Shakespeare chronology. Since I would like to dedicate this page to more scholarly material, I intend to leave out the festival and production announcements. The links provided here will lead you to many sights which will provide that information. If you are a true Shakespearean the term 'scholarly material' will translate as 'fun.' If you are being forced to take a Shakespeare class or do research, this is your chance to become a true Shakespearean and develop a love and enjoyment for the best poet ever.

At the end of the page there is a link to an eform which will allow you to email me. Please do so if you find other links that should be included here. I would also love to hear your comments or suggestions for improvements. Finally, I have provided some of my favorite Internet Tools. If you are new to the web you will find them well worth looking into.

I've arranged the page as follows:

Index

Introduction
Shakespearean Links
Shakespeare In Education
Shakespearean Criticism
Elements of Elizabethan Productions (Speech, Music, Dance, Stagecraft)
Primary and Secondary Sources (Classical, Renaissance)
Related Literary Journals and Renaissance Resources
Email--Let Me Know What You Think
Internet Tools
Notices
To return to this index click on the symbol.

Some Pretty Good Shakespeare Links

First Folio Web: Excellent html As You Like It and The Sonnets...and a nice copy of the Chandos portrait, too
Internet Shakespeare resources: Links from the Tech.
Shakespeare Homepage: The complete works from the Tech.
Shakespeare Web: Ongoing, well designed and potentially important.
Bartlett's Famous Shakespearean Quotations: The redoubtable, outstanding chestnut.
Searchable Index Of Shakesperian Sonnets and Other Poetry
Search: The Collected Works of Shakespeare
Shakespeare Database Project: It is often difficult to reach this server.
Shakespeare FAQ: An html version that makes it fun but is much too short.
The Rebuilding Of The Globe Theatre: Updates by Englishmen on the rebuilding of Shakespeare's Globe. All you would care to know about the project.
Shakespeare Globe Centre Germany: Germany's version of what's going on with the rebuilt Globe. The best articles here are in German.
Shakespeare Illustrated: Mostly 19th century oil on canvas illustrations from the plays. This will become an outstanding ongoing resource.
SHAKSPER Listserv: A blurb about Dr. Cook's fun and interesting discussion list.
Sir John Reads The Sonnets: Readings from the plays are included as well--accompanied by Elizabethan music even. Huge files. Set Netscape to save to disk and go for coffee.
Yahoo Shakespeare Index: A pale reflection of this one.
The Shakespeare Oxford Society: Definitely the minority view, but here it is in all its web glory
will shakespeare's page: David Sauer's presentation of some very nice Shakespeare artwork. The links, however, are a little dated and mainly to gopher sites.
Shakespearean Insult Server: Try thy luck, thou droning plume-plucked puttock.
A do-it-yourself table of Shakespearean Insults: For those who have more specific purposes in mind.

Shakespeare In Education

Want to see how the bard is being treated by Internet savvy educators? The potential is enormous. The rewards are great. If you are using the Internet to teach Shakespeare in interesting and elegant ways use the email pointer at the bottom of this page to write me with your URL. I would like to include it in this list. In the meantime, here are the best resources I have found:

Michael Best's Shakespeare By Individual Studies page.
Information on obtaining Shakespeare's Life And Times CD can also be obtained from Dr. Best's page.
J. M. Massi's very interesting web page for Shakespeare courses being taught at WSU. Why didn't we have these tools when those of us who are older were younger?
The Electric Renaissance: Not specifically Shakespeare, but a very interesting course. Brought to you by Boise State U.

Shakespearen Criticism

Thusfar there is very little actual Shakespearean criticism on the web. A situation that will no doubt be remedied when authors, publishers, and English Departments settle the issues of copyright and publication requirements. In the mean time, here is what I have found:

Illinois Shakespeare Festival Notes and Articles. Some very interesting background studies of the festival's productions.
Base Trade: Theater As Prostitution By Joseph Lenz. Thanks to ELH for making this wonderful scholarship available via the Web.
Dr. Johnson On Hamlet.
Thanks to Laura Blanchard of the Richard III Society for a pointer to the wonderful scholarship by Dr. James A. Moore in Historicity in Shakespeare's Richard III. This is the sort of presentation which will bring the web to the forefront of research over the coming years.

Elements of Elizabethan Productions

Elizabethan Speech

Proper Elizabethan Pronunciations: Meant for employees of a Renaissance Faire, but good enough for scholars.

Renaissance Music

Looking for some gems of Renaissance music? Try the

Camerata Hungarica. There are some enormous sound files here.

Wondering about all those odd Renaissance instruments? Can't take another breath until you find out what a shawm, a tabor, a bass crumhorn sounds like? Then you must visit the Renaissance Consort Home Page.

For some wonderful links to Medieval and Renaissance music sites visit the Early Music Page.

To acquire your own MIDI samples from English Renaissance composers (among many others) visit the Classical MIDI Archives. You will find samples here from Byrd, Campion, Dowland, Morley and many others. The emphasis is on the Classical period, but there are many early music samples here also.

Renaissance Dance

Perhaps the least understood and appreciated facet of Shakespearean productions involves the art of the Renaissance dance. You may begin to remedy this situation by visiting the clever and interesting Renaissance Dance Page.

If you are actually mounting a production, you will want to visit Playford's The English Dancing Master (1651).

Theatrical Presentation

I know I said I did not want to include festival or specific production information on this page, but these resources are just too good to pass up.

Take a look at Theatre Central for the best general theater resource on the web. Then take a look at its spectacular cousin from Alabama. A visit back, from there, to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Page may well be worth your while.

If you prefer recorded performances, check out The Cardiff Movie Database of Shakespeare video/film productions.

Primary And Secondary Sources

The Classics

The Tech Classics Archive: From the same wonderful people who bring you the complete works of Shakespeare. Great!
The Ovid Project: No texts yet, but very nice images. We look forward to the texts.
Classics on the Internet: A very thorough Gateway to other resources.
Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology Home Page: The archaeology part may not be all that relevant but the classics links are good.
Voice of the Shuttle: Classical Studies Page: The best classics links. This is where you get the As You Like It (tm) shareware product.
The WWW Bible Gateway: Searchable and your choice of translations, excluding most of the modern copyrighted ones, of course.

Renaissance Sources

Early Modern Literary Studies: Electronic Texts: This is an outstanding resource with links to lots of primary documents. Jonson, Marlowe, Lyly, Nashe, Daniel, Sidney, Spenser, Raleigh, Montaigne--all the usual suspects are here.
Renaissance Electronic Texts: Some wonderful related html texts.
The Edmund Spenser Page: Brought to you by Richard Bear at the University of Oregon
The Milton-L Home Page:
And so Sepulcher'd in such pomp dost lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die.
Milton knew a thing or two about Shakespeare. This is the best Milton Resource I have found on the web.
The Thomas Middleton Page: Several html editions of the works of Shakespeare's successor with the King's men.

Journals And Renaissance Resources

Project Aldus: Johns Hopkins beautifully designed Renaissance Archive and Resource Center. There are primary and secondary texts from the English Renaissance and the gallery contains a nice collection of gifs and jpgs.
The Universite Paul Valery at Montpellier will lead you to the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur la Renaissance Anglaise, and eventually to the Cahiers Elisabethains. Guess what language is spoken here.
Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
The Richard III Society: Since I am never bashful about minority views

Email

Send email to tgray@owl.csusm.edu

Click on the picture of the mailbox to let me know if you have any suggestions, contributions, or criticisms. I am always interested in finding new links to add to the page, and it is always a pleasure to hear from anyone who has found this page useful.

Internet Tools

To find anything on the Internet you can use the best search page anywhere, anytime: The All-In-One Search Page.
If your web site has acquired access to the Encylopaedia Brittanica you can search it from here. Bear in mind that this is not a public server and you must be authorized to use it first.
You can search the Brittanica specifically for articles on Shakespeare.
Set up your own free Home Page on the web from Beverly Hills Internet.
Learn about constructing web pages and how to use HTML from the HTML Resource Page.
Get the outstanding HotDog web editor from Sausage Software.

Notices

Last Updated October 3, 1995.

Enhanced for Netscape 1.1. If it looks funny, get Netscape.

All images on this page are public domain and free from copyright restrictions. I have either stolen them from web sources or made them myself. In the case of the thefts, I have made an effort to determine their copyright status. In most cases the author of the source has declaired them to be public domain. Where I could not determine copyright status, I assumed public domain. If you see your art work here and it is not public domain please notify me and I will remove it.

The text is © copyright Terry A. Gray, 1995. The opinions are my own. My school and my department would never own up to them.

Last modified December 6, 1995.