The Plays and Poems
About our collection
The Internet Shakespeare Editions offers multiple ways of exploring Shakespeareʼs plays and poems. We publish several versions of Shakespeare's works: searchable old-spelling transcriptions, modern editions prepared especially for the digital medium, and facsimile images of the original texts. Select any play or poem from the menu at the top of the screen to explore the texts or see a complete list of Shakespeare's works published on the site.
Old-spelling and modern editions
All Shakespeareʼs plays and poems are currently published in old-spelling versions, and twenty-two plays and most of the poems now appear in modern spelling. The old-spelling versions are diplomatic transcriptions and do not amend any errors present in the original text. Modern spelling versions are being edited specifically for the digital medium by an international team of scholars.
Learn more about how to navigate our collection and how to access the teaching, learning, and research aids in our Toolbox by visiting the Plays and Poems help page.
Facsimiles
Our collection includes a growing number of facsimiles—graphic images—of the folios and quartos as they were originally published. These images are kindly provided by libraries from around the world.
Learn more about our collection of facsimiles.
To explore the collection, visit the Library of Facsimiles.
Complete Editions
Complete editions contain Shakespeareʼs fully-edited plays and poems, critical and reference materials, and a full exploration of the context of Shakespeareʼs writing.
These plays 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 (Victoria University of Wellington, University of Waikato, New Zealand)
- Henry IV, Part 1, edited by Rosemary Gaby (University of Tasmania)
- The Winter's Tale, edited by Hardin Aasand (Dickinson State University)
An "illuminated text"
The Illuminated Text is an interactive resource that allows you to view the texts as the scribes did while
taking advantage of the full capabilities of digital publications. Here you will find
a range of multimedia tools to assist in the display, comparison and exploration of
Shakespeare's texts.
Example:
Henry V
Editors, editorial principles, and peer review
The Internet Shakespeare Editions publishes only high quality materials. Our aim is to provide our world-wide audience with the best in Shakespeare scholarship and performance on a site that is freely available.
Items published on the site are edited by an international team of scholars and are subject to differing levels of review. To learn more about our editorial team, meet our editors and our advisory and editorial boards. Review our editorial principles and guidelines to learn more about the theories and methods informing our editions.
We publish works that have been rigorously peer-reviewed by scholars in the field to the same standard expected of traditional scholarly presses. Peer reviewed works are published in our Library and each page indicates that the contents have been peer reviewed.
The ISE takes advantage of the flexibility of the web as a medium that can publish works in progress. The Annex contains “pre-prints,” or drafts. These works have been approved by the Coordinating Editor, Michael Best, and are judged to be of sufficient academic quality for them to appear on the site, but have not yet been peer-reviewed.
We welcome your feedback! Contact us to submit questions, comments, and ideas.