Shakespeare Sites

This website gives a detailed look at Shakespeare’s birth and boyhood, married life in London, career prospers, and his death and burial. In addition, the website also offers links to Macbeth Study Notes – a site offering condensed (easy to understand) version of some of Shakespeare’s greater known plays. --Christopher Ison

This site is divided into a variety of sections focusing mainly on Shakespeare's life and times. The section entitled "Renaissance History and Politics" gives a good introduction to the time during which the late plays were written. In addition, the section on some of the individual plays, such as Hamlet, is interesting for the bare facts it covers, such as publication dates, possible sources of the play, plot summaries, etc. While this site is very internally focused and offers few links to other sites, rendering it less comprehensive, it does have a very nice "Further Reading" page, which offers bibliographies for the subtopics on the site, such as "King James." -- Brittany Melson

This particular web site is mainly concerned with the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Although the site is slightly less scholarly than the other sites in this list, it does pose a rather interesting (if somewhat ridiculous) question. -- Rick Davidson

The beginning of this website (to me) is hilarious: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived in a naughty time and worked in a naughty business. And from there, it spirals out of control. The site examines the crowds that were associated with the theater going experience during Shakespeare’s time. -- Christopher Ison

This site would be useful for surface information regarding Shakespeare. What I thought was helpful about it is its explanation of Shakespeare's language, sentences, words, wordplay, dramatic verse, and implied stage action. That is what I would probably use most from this site. It also offers a wide variety of venues for areas of study including biographical info, interpretative info, and examinations of his many works. -- Tabitha Stowell

Although it is a bit difficult to browse through at first, this website provides some interesting tools for research. I found some decent critical essays and a really neat tool for helping students use non-traditional approaches to Shakespeare. Also, the site contains basic information on the author. -- Diana Ngo

This site is part of the Internet Public Library. A graphic of a bookshelf is separated into various genres of plays and poetry by Shakespeare. By clicking on a book, you are linked to a contents page on Bartleby.com where you can read the play or sonnet. Also, bibliographic information is offered for the selection. You will find links to other Shakespeare information, such as criticism, on the main Shakespeare page. -- Jessica Helm

Shakespeare Online

This site is rich in detail. It is easy to navigate. On the welcome page, there are "new this week," "today's question," "essentials," "favorites," and "hot picks" on the right. On the left there is a menu containing "welcome," "plays," "poems," "analysis," "essays," "ask us," "sources," "biography," "theatre," "key dates," "topics," "plots," "faq," "books," "videos," "glossary," "scholars," "quiz," and "links.” There is also a search bar. The section "plays" does contain the texts of the play. The center appears to contain three recent articles, a welcome and "more...” Under "more..." are several more articles such as "What He Didn't Say"- quotes often incorrectly attributed to Shakespeare, “Shakespeare’s Characters" - a listing of all characters and what play they are from, "Shakespeare's Will"- a translation of his will, "Shakespeare's Queen Gertrude" - an article describe what the queen is and is not, "The Great Theatre" - a history of the theatre, and "Shakespeare on Friendship" - a list of quotes about friendship. Under "analysis" are nine play analyses. Within a play's analysis there are "Commentary," "Sources," "Plot Synopsis," "Play History," "Essays," "Essay Topics," and character descriptions. There are a number of broken links within "Essays" though. Another interesting section was the "sources" area. There are the sources for most of Shakespeare’s plays. Hamlet is said to be based on a Norse legend, with Amleth as the son of the king. Overall, this is a very informative site that just needs some work on the links. -- Christina Anderson

This site has a lot of useful information including (as far as I can tell) all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets with contemporary translations, analysis, essays, and a glossary of terms. The woman who maintains the site provides Shakespeare information for About.com, a popular online source for all kinds of information. -- Jessica Helm

Shakespeare Resource Center

Shakespeare Resource Center is just that- a complete resource center. Not only does it contain a plethora of information on the life, works, and world of Thee Bard, but also the Resource center provides several links to other reputable websites for further enjoyment. -- Diana Ngo

On the left there is a menu containing "The Man," "The Works," "Play Synopses," "Shakespeare's Will," "Authorship Debate," "The Globe," "Elizabethan England," "Language," "Reading List," "Theatre Companies," "Shakespeare Shop," "Other Links," and "About the SRC." The right side contains “News & Reviews.” In the center are a welcome and a description of what each area contains. The description for "Play Synopses" is interesting and accurate, "Just enough information to help understand what's going on, but not enough information to past a test without having actually read the play." All the items in the left side menu contain additional links at the bottom except "Play Synopsis" and "Shakespeare's Will.” -- Christina Anderson

I looked at this site originally to try something at a .net location. What I found was similar to the first site that I found, but it has some interesting information on Authorship. I am not an English major, so understanding authorship will be a little more difficult for me, so this site might be able to help! Also, this site has a huge list of links that can take you to a variety of different sites if this one doesn’t have what you need. -- Tabitha Stowell

Absolute Shakespeare

This page includes sections of “Shakespeare Plays,” “Shakespeare Sonnets,” “Shakespeare Pictures,” “Bard Facts,” “Biography,” “Authorship Debate,” “Quiz,” “Poems,” “Quotes,” “Globe Theatre,” “Films,” “Bibliography,” and “Timeline.” Across the top of the page are the selections of “Home,” “Plays,” “Sonnets,” “Poems,” “Quotes,” “Summaries”, “Essays,” “Glossary,” “Links,” and “Help.” Although it contains much information, this site is not very interesting. -- Christina Anderson

This site also could be helpful because it is very complete. It has many different things to look at regarding Shakespeare, but it also has a good deal of the author’s views on it too. I liked the list of criticisms for Shakespeare’s work, and also the links within the text that lead you to a more in-depth look at whatever you are reading. -- Tabitha Stowell

Provides links to various criticisms on each of Shakespeare's plays. Some of these criticisms appear to actually be scholastic in nature! -- Rick Davidson

The fourth edition of this site, which is maintained by a professor named Terry Gray at Palomar College, is visually appealing, well-organized, and comprehensive. It contains a valuable annotated guide to other internet sites on Shakespeare, which helps to identify the truly scholarly sites from the less valuable ones (a task that the internet makes uniquely difficult). A page that lists what Gray considers to be the best, "Five Diamond" sites on Shakespeare is particularly helpful. -- Brittany Melson

This simplistic website is extremely useful for beginners; Gray provides students with solid biography of Shakespeare as well as a general historical background of the Renaissance. Also, this site includes handy timelines and charts. -- Diana Ngo

This site offers a Shakespeare timeline and genealogy, criticism, and plenty of links to other relevant sites. -- Jessica Helm

This site gives a brief overview of Shakespeare's works. The site is relatively simple and easy to navigate due to its jump-to option at the top of the screen. -- Rick Davidson

This site is a fun information center for those (myself included) who are slightly ill at ease in their readings and interpretations of 16th century English. This site is a kind of map that shows where a student may find pertinent information in the forms of peer reviewed journals, books, and of course, the world wide web. The site also offers tutorial centers where a student may find one on one help concerning selections that are hard to understand. -- Ashley Kissinger

Bartleby.com, a site sponsored by Amazon in 2004, renders a lot of useful Shakespeare information; the site lets students reference Hamlet through many venues including both verse and background. I was especially impressed by the search verse section which enables students to locate whatever verse they need to find. The site is very descriptive and uses a plethora of encyclopedias for a cross examination into both the life and writing styles of Shakespeare both in Hamlet and in other plays. -- Ashley Kissinger