References

Plays

Historical References

Related Links

Sonnet 18 Reading Song by Brian Ferry Another reading by Michael Sheen

¡@ Howard Moss's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day"  Who says you're like one of the dog days?  You're nicer. And better.  Even in May, the weather can be gray,  And a summer sub-let doesn't last forever.  Sometimes the sun's too hot;  Sometimes it is not.  Who can stay young forever?  People break their necks or just drop dead!  But you? Never!  If there's just one condensed reader left  Who can figure out the abridged alphabet,           After you're dead and gone, In this poem you'll live on!  ¡@ ¡@ ¡@

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Sonnet 73

Reading

TOP

The first Globe Theatre was built in 1599, during the Elizabethan age.  The center of the circular theater was open to the sky.  The stage's roof was painted with stars and supported by two brightly colored pillars.  When the silk flag flew over the 30-foot-high walls of the theatre, the townpeople knew to head for the ferries.  It was time of a play such as one of William Shakespeare's.  Since there were no reserved seats, the crowds arrived long before the opening scenes.  They paid their pennies and elbowed their way up to the stage to see the fierce witches of Macbeth or the tragic lovers in Romeo and Juliet.  The English theatres of Shakespeare's time did not use curtains.  At the end of a scene, the "dead bodies" would just be carried offstage.  (The World of Theater  New York: Scholastic 1993: pp 16-17..) 

William Shakespeare: Selective Relevant Links

  1. Sites for Fun & Visual Stuffs

• Shakespeare Web--an interactive, hypermedia environment dedicated to the enjoyment of Shakespeare's works. 

2.  For Further Studies

•  Important Gateways to Shakespeare Studies:

  • Shakespeare on the Internet: Sites of Interest (offered by The Internet Shakespeare Homepage, constructed by U of Victoria)

• Major Shakespeare Homepage

  • The Internet Shakespeare Homepage including:
    • The Internet Shakespeare Editions: under construction
    • The Foyer: This section of the site collects all materials that deal with the overall structure of the Editions.
    • The Library: under construction
    • The Annex: The Annex makes available various materials in a more informal format: drafts, discussions, and  non-refereed texts that will nonetheless be useful to Shakespeare scholars.
  • The Oxford Society page: the oldest continuously operating organization involved in the two-centuries old Shakespeare authorship debate.
  • The Richard III and Yorkist History ServerThis site is devoted  to the study of King Richard III, last of the medieval English kings the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic struggle in the later middle ages that pitted Yorkist against Lancastrian fifteenth-century England and its culture the reputation of Richard III in history, literature, and drama, especiallyShakespeare. 

  3. Criticism

The Shakespeare Magazine

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Sonnets and Plays

1. Shakespeare's Sonnet & Sonnet in General

• http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/
  An extensive site about Shakespeare's Sonnets
• http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/16th_c/shakespeare.htm#18
  Fu Jen University's William Shakespeare's Sonnets

2. Shakespeare's Plays

The Elizabethan Stage, Rose Theatre reconstructed Shakespeare: Court, Crowd and Playhouse p. 69.

Comedy

The Merry Wives of Windsor

• Summary: Site with many resources about the play, including a summary and analysis
• Performance
  
  • Review of a production by the Shakespeare Theatre
  • Review of a performance at the Publick Theatre

Much Ado About Nothing

• Critical Essays
  • Written between 1598 and 1600 at the peak of Shakespeare's skill in writing comedic work, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's wittiest works. In this comedy, Shakespeare's drama satirizes love and human courtliness between two couples who take very different paths to reach the same goal: making the connection between inward and outward beauty. Much Ado About Nothing shows different ways of how people are attracted to one another, and how their realization and definitions of "love" relate to their perceptions of inward and outward beauty. Quote from https://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/a-research-on-much-ado-about-nothing-by-william-shakespeare-bgv9x5Hv
• Performance
  • David N. Butterworth's review of Branagh's movie

History

1 Henry IV

• Summary
  • Plot summary from Reviews & Plot Summaries Of Shakespeare's Best Plays by Anthony Wirth.
• Reviews
  • A brief discussion of the play and review of the performance done by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
  • "Reviews of Shakespeare's Best Plays" by Anthony Wirth: A highly opinionated "review" of the play with some topics for debate.

Henry V

• Performace

Black and white photos from a production of the play:http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tacit/henry/photos.html

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Tragedy

Romeo and Juliet

• For advanced studies: online texts of the two quarto and the one folio versions of the play

Hamlet

• Critical Essays
  • An essay entitled "The Hamlet Paradigm" by John S. Mamoun which introduces various themes in the play
  • "Certain Speculations on Hamlet, the Calendar, and Martin Luther" by Steve Sohmer
• Others
  • Site devoted to the study of Hamlet

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Renaissance: Relevant Links
Renaissance: its definition and continental philosophical roots

1. General Introduction: Literature

• THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Dates; Topics--Humanism, Reformation, Nationalism, Patronage system, Censorship, ELIZABETHAN AESTHETICS (from Fu Jen English Literature Databank; by Dr. Marguerite Connor) 
• 16th-Century Renaissance English Literauture from Luminarium

2. General Introduction: History & Culture

• Sixteenth Century Renaissance English Literature: Background Information from Luminarium 

3. Sites for Fun & Visual Resources

• Monarchs of England - including Monarches of Britain in history, King Arthur and recent ones, from Britannia Internet Magazine
• Image Gallery: an incredibly fun Renaissance image gallery.