Shakespeare's Links


Jeff Gill

http://www.spinne.com/shakespeare/
   The title of this page is "Selected Shakespeare Plays," and the main disadvantage to this page is exactly what the title implies: it shows only selected works of Shakespeare.  However, it does include nineteen of them, and covers the major plays analyzed today.  An advantage to this page is that it has a very simple linear structure, showing links to the full texts, as well as scene-by-scene synopsis, scene-by-scene commentary, and even study questions to help better understand the text.

http://daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare/
   This page is entitled, "Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet."  This web page is designed for people who are true scholars of Shakespeare's works.  Not to say that you should not explore this page for general information on Shakespeare, but this particular site has an enormous mass of information on William Shakespeare.  It includes criticism, all different editions of the text, background information on Elizabethian times, different aspects of theater in general, and etc.  This page is formatted well, but it can be a little too overwhelming for the average internet cruiser.

http://www.ipl.org/reading/shakespeare/shakespeare.html
   This web page is probably the most creative, because of the way it is formatted; if you access it, you will see what I mean.  It does include all Shakespeare works, and divides them sensibly into four categories:  comedy, tragedy, history, and poetry.  It does not include any kind of criticism, or other helpful areas of interest, but it does have links to some of these categories.  The major disadvantage of this web site is that it is usually slow, and occassionally unable to locate the full text of some of the works.

http://wiretap.area.com/Gopher/Library/Document/shake.dic
   This site, "Shakespearian Glossary," is an extensive glossary of every confusing or ambiguous word one may have read in a Shakespeare text.  It is straightforward, and linear, so there is no confusion, but it provides no other information or links about Shakespeare.  However, it serves its purpose, which is only to provide short definitions to just about any word that one may not understand.

http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
   This web page, probably done by a student at M.I.T, is entitled, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare."  It is structured well, with a table that includes the texts of all comedies, tragedies, poetry, and history.  One important advantage to this site is that along with the texts of the plays, there is a built in glossary of their own.  So while you are reading through it, there are links to any possible confusing words or phrases.  It does not include any critical analysis of the plays, or any other research of Shakespeare.  The main disadvantage that I found in this site is that it took a long time to go from one link to another.

http://www.ke.com.au/cgi-bin/texhtml?form=Shake
    This site, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," was made by KE Software, and I found it to be extremely helpful.  It includes only the full texts of all of William Shakespeare's plays, but it is set up quite effectively.  It has a built in search engine; for example, you could type in a famous line, or a reoccurring theme in Shakespeare's works, and it will go directly to it.  Also, it was the quickest of all the sites that I analyzed.  I found two minor disadvantages to this site: it is limited only to the texts, and it does not include any of Shakespeare's poetry.

http://www.gh.cs.usyd.edu.au/~matty/Shakespeare/index.html
    Overall, "The Works of the Bard," may be the best web site to find the texts of all of William Shakespeare's works.  It is simply structured including all tragedies, comedies, histories, and poetry.  In fact it actually provides links to two other versions of each of the plays.  Another major advantage to this site is it has its own glossary; however, it is separate from the text, so one can not link straight to the definitions while you are reading.  It has its own search engine like the proceeding site, and it runs rather quickly.  Finally, it provides helpful links to other major Shakespeare web sites at the bottom of the page.

http://www.non.com/books/Shakespeare_William_b.html
    The main reason I included this web site, entitled "William Shakespeare-Biographies" was to have some reference to the life of Shakespeare.  You will find this site does not include an actual biography, but an enormous list of books published on William Shakespeare.  The reason I picked this is because there are many biographies on the web, most of them short and incomplete.  Therefore, this provides the titles of any books you may want to find for more information on William Shakespeare.
 

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