Shakespeare in the Little Apple

Features K-State Libraries' resources supporting discovery of Shakespeare.

Library Research Guide

The Works of William Shakespeare

Are you looking to study or read the works of William Shakespeare? This list provides a guide to finding the full text of his plays, many of which are available electronically. Sources include K-State Libraries shelves, our digital collections, and the wide world. 

Finding the Works Online

Institutions including the Folger Shakespeare Library and MIT have placed the complete text of Shakespeare's plays online for free.  

Examine copies of the First Folio online. Thanks to Internet Shakespeare at the University of Victoria, Canada, you can compare two copies side by side.

The link below is pre-set to compare the pages showing Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech between a copy from Brandeis University and a copy from New South Wales.  This is the same page the First Folio is opened to in the Beach Museum as part of Shakespeare in the Little Apple

Current K-State students, faculty, and staff, and visitors to our campus can access the full text of Shakespeare's plays through these databases.

Finding Editions in Search It

Locate specific editions of a work through K-State Libraries' Search It.  

Enter the title of the work and the editor/edition you need.  

Searching with an author

Search It groups all editions of a work together. Click on the View X versions link to see all available editions. (Where X equals the number of versions grouped together.)

Screen shot of Search It results with all editions grouped together.

Editions display with the most recently published first. Click on the Sorted by option above the first record and re-sort by Relevance. 

Screen shot of Search It Sorted by drop down box

If K-State Libraries owns it, the correct edition will appear first in the search results. 

Screen shot of Search It editions sorted by Relevance