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PowerPoint slides: How to request materials from the Snell Library Remote AnnexWhat is a Reference source?
Think of a reference resource as a bird's-eye overview of your topic. A reference (or tertiary) resource compiles, analyzes, digests, and categorizes secondary and primary sources. This chart from the University of North Carolina has excellent examples of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Remember to properly cite your sources to avoid plagiarism and preserve academic integrity.
Online Reference Sources
Remember, reference sources will frequently be classified as encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, bibliographies, guides, or companions.
- The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare / Michael Dobson and Stanley WellsMore than 3000 entries, covering Shakespeare's biography, legend, works, literary features and terms, individuals (both real and fictional), Elizabethan and Jacobean literature and theater, plus entries on each play with scene-by-scene explanations as well as examinations of the play's particular artistic features, critical history, and stage and screen history, and a listing of recent editions and selected criticism.
- The Shakespeare Book of Lists / Michael LoMonicoFun but factual basics on Shakespeare's life, England, plays, actors, acting companies, and film adaptations. Includes a list of all the silent film adaptation, a timeline of the Globe Theatre, and the most common male and female names in Elizabethan England.
- William ShakespeareOxford Encyclopedia of British Literature
- Renaissance Theory and CriticismJohns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
- Textual CriticismJohns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory
- Oxford Dictionary of the RenaissanceOxford Reference Online
- A Dictionary of ShakespeareOxford Reference Online
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new windowThe foremost reference work on the English language. Thousands of definitions quote Shakespeare's works, many as that word's or meaning's first appearance.
Histories as an Overview
While not always a traditional reference source, books classified as "histories" often give a good broad overview of a topic. In library catalogs, the key subject term to add to your search is "history"; you'll find not only specific books but well-known series like the Cambridge Histories.
- Elizabethan TheatreThe Cambridge History of British Theatre
- Elizabethan Theatrical Genres and Literary Theory / George HunterThe Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
- Literature and the Theatre / David BevingtonThe Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature
- Habits of Reading and Early Modern Literary Culture / Steven N. ZwickerThe Cambridge History of Early Modern English Literature
- The Impact of Shakespeare / Jonathan AracThe Cambridge History of Literary Criticism
Unsure of a Word?
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new windowThe foremost reference work on the English language. Thousands of definitions quote Shakespeare's works, many as that word's or meaning's first appearance.
- Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation DictionaryThis online version of Alexander Schmidt's glossary provides excerpts of the words' uses in the plays and poems, with links to the texts themselves.
- A General Glossary to Shakespeare's WorksAlexander Dyce's 1867 glossary, also with references to the full texts.
- Lexicons of Early Modern EnglishFrom the site: "LEME searches and displays word-entries from monolingual English dictionaries, bilingual lexicons, technical vocabularies, and other encyclopedic-lexical works, 1480-1702."