About the Internet Shakespeare Editions website
In a busy month, our server receives requests from around the world for over 1.5 million pages, and many visitors stay to examine dozens of pages. While our audience is global, our statistics show a high proportion of visitors from educational institutions.
Those who visit our site discover a "one-stop shop" of resources in Shakespeare study: we publish in the areas of Shakespeare’s text, context, and performance.
Text
Shakespeare's works are being re-edited specifically for the digital medium by an international team of scholars. The works are initially published as "pre-prints" so that works can be accessed in draft form; when the editorial process is complete each page indicates that the contents have been peer reviewed. All plays are currently published in old-spelling versions; Penguin Books has just licensed these texts for their forthcoming edition of the Folio. Twenty two plays and most of the poems now appear in modern spelling. The fully edited works are annotated to a deep scholarly level, and are accompanied by a text-base of supplementary and supporting materials. Several plays and poems have been completed and published online, and the list is growing:
- As You Like It, edited by David Bevington (University of Chicago)
- Julius Caesar, edited by John Cox (Hope College)
- Henry V, edited by James Mardock (University of Reno, Nevada).
- Twelfth Night, edited by David Carnegie and Mark Houlahan (Universities of Otago and Wellington)
- Henry IV, Part 1, edited by Rosemary Gaby (University of Tasmania)
- Pericles, edited by Tom Bishop (University of Auckland)
- Venus and Adonis, edited by Hardy M. Cook (Bowie State University)
Many more works are well on the way as editors complete them.
Distilled versions of our online texts are also appearing in print. Penguin Books has licensed our old-spelling texts for their forthcoming version of the Folio, and our modern-spelling texts will be appearing from Broadview Press as a series of volumes that will provide students with a convenient starting point for more in-depth study online.
Context
"Shakespeare's Life and Times" is a multimedia resource of over 1,000 virtual pages for those undertaking research in the context in which Shakespeare was writing; it is aimed at introductory University level students, and provides contextual bibliographies for further study in the library. Sections of the site deal with Shakespeare's life, the stage he wrote for, and the background of ideas, politics, literature, and art. This resource is currently being updated.
Shakespeare was not alone as a writer in his period. Unfortunately many works of his contemporaries are out of print, or available only in expensive editions. To remedy this situation, the ISE is providing its software and publication platform to two sibling organizations that are creating scholarly editions of Early Modern writers other than Shakespeare: the Queen's Men Editions (Universities of McMaster and Toronto) and Digital Renaissance Editions (University of Western Australia).
Performance
Our database of Shakespeare in performance records current and historical performances, providing a dynamic view of the way his plays have been interpreted over time and in different cultures. Theaters across the world contribute to the database, updating with new performances each year. We provide a free service to theater companies by putting their upcoming productions online in our Shakespeare Calendar, and by highlighting them on each page of the site.
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