Major Research Tools

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)

Full-Text, Index
Coverage: 1892-present

Index of books, articles, and other publications on literature in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. Covers more British publications than MLA International Bibliography. Includes links to some full text. From the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA).


Chaucer Encyclopedia

Full-Text
Major reference material for Chaucer studies with nearly 1,400 entries covering Chaucer's writing, the people, places, and ideas represented in his works, and the literary impact his works have had throughout the years.

Gale Literature

Full-Text

Database for researching authors and their works, literary movements and genres. Contains full text of literary works, journal articles, literary criticism, reviews, and biographical information. Also known as Literature Research Center.


Gale Primary Sources

Full-Text

Coverage: 1604-2008

Research environment for finding primary sources mainly from Great Britain and the United States covering the 17th to 20th centuries.


MLA International Bibliography

Index

Coverage: 1884-present

Index of scholarly articles, edited books, and dissertations on literature, languages, film studies and folklore. Includes MLA Directory of Periodicals, which provides detailed information on periodicals covering literature and languages. For help searching MLA, see our Search Guide.


New Chaucer Society

Full-Text, Gateway, Index

A gateway to Chaucer texts and the Chaucer Bibliography Online, which indexes Chaucer research from 1975 to the present. Also includes Studies in the Age of Chaucer, the journal published annually by the Society,


New Oxford Shakespeare Online

Full-Text

Combines the Oxford Modern Critical Editions, Critical Reference Editions, and Authorship Companions for all of Shakespeare's works, including sonnets and other verse. Each work is accompanied by extensive notes and critical commentary, and can be read in the original or modern spelling.


Shakespeare Survey Online

Full-Text

1966-Present

Online collection of scholarly essays in Shakespeare studies and production. This resource is fully searchable across volumes or can be browsed by theme, volume, author, etc


Other Suggested Research Tools

British Literary Manuscripts Online

Full-Text

Coverage: 1120-1900

Digitized collection of British manuscripts, including poems, plays, novels, diaries, journals, religious writings, and correspondence. Consists of two parts (Medieval and Renaissance, and 1660-1900), which can be searched separately or together. Note that while the full text of the manuscripts is not searchable, a searchable, detailed description is provided for each.

Digital Theatre Plus

Streaming video of British theater productions plus supplementary study and teaching materials.


Drama Online

Full-Text

Digital collection of play scripts "from Aeschylus to the present day." Plays can be searched by criteria such as theme, genre, setting, and cast size. Includes streaming versions of performances from Shakespeare's Globe and National Theatre.


Early Americas Digital Archive

Full-Text, Gateway

"Collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820."


Early English Books Online

Full-Text

Collection of texts printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700. Includes literary texts, sermons, legal documents, scientific treatises, and many other types of works.


Historical Thesaurus of English

Reference

Database that organizes all the words in the 1300-year history of English into a vast hierarchy of meanings allowing users to pinpoint the range of meanings of words from Old English to the present.


International Medieval Bibliography

Index

Multidisciplinary bibliography indexing journal articles and "miscellany volumes" (conference proceedings, essay collections or Festschriften) covering medieval studies in disciplines ranging from history to languages to art and music.


Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Index

Collection of databases, including Iter Bibliography, a bibliography and index of articles, books, essays, and book reviews on the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Includes coverage of art and literature.


LEME: Lexicons of Early Modern English

Full-Text

Database of word-entries from English dictionaries, bilingual and polyglot dictionaries, and other lexical works published from 1480 to 1700.


Map of Early Modern London

Full-Text

Map of London during the late 16th and early 17th centuries with descriptions of streets, sites, and churches. From the University of Victoria.


Medieval Family Life

Full-Text
Coverage: 14th & 15th Centuries

Collections of letters and supporting documents (e.g. wills, accounts) detailing the daily lives of 5 families in Medieval England.


Medieval Travel Writing

Full-Text
Coverage: 13th - 16th Centuries

Digitized manuscripts in a variety of European languages detailing journeys primarily to the Holy Land and Silk Road destinations in India and China.


Middle English Compendium

Full-Text

Online version of Middle English Dictionary, which provides meaning and usage of English words from 1100 to 1500. Includes links to a bibliography of sources as well as texts of Middle English verse and prose.


Motif-Index of Folk Literature

Reference

Classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, jest-books, and local legends. The above links to the index (Volume 6). To directly access other individual volumes: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5.


Open Source Shakespeare

Full-Text

Shakespeare's complete works online, including the plays, sonnets, and longer poems. Advanced search functions include a character search, concordance search, and full-text search. Hosted by George Mason University.


Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Full-Text, Reference

Scholarly, biographical articles on noteworthy people who inhabited or were connected with the British Isles. (Does not include information on people still living.)


Perdita Manuscripts

Full-Text
Coverage: 1545-1752

Digital facsimiles of manuscripts by early modern women writers from the UK and Ireland, covering topics ranging from daily life to religion to biography and more.


Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library

Full-Text
Coverage: 1663-1975

Over 1,000 prompt books demonstrating the ways in which different theatrical companies across the centuries have interpreted and directed productions of Shakespeare's plays.