Shakespeare goes online

13 September 2004 10:37 GMT / By Stuart Miles

No one is anyone these days unless they have a website. Taking a leap into the digital age the British Library publishes some of the earliest editions of the Bard's plays on a new website launched last week.

The collection includes 93 copies of 21 Shakespeare plays from Hamlet to Titus Andronicus.

The texts are taken from pamphlets called a “Quartro” which were small, cheap pamphlets that could be bought by the crowd for six pence. None of Shakespeare's original manuscripts survive, so the printed texts of his plays are our only source for what he originally wrote however until now they are rarely shown to the public:

"The last time the quartos were available to an audience that went beyond scholars, curators and collectors was barely a generation after Shakespeare's death," said Moira Goff, head of British Collections 1501-1800 at the library.

The plays can be viewed online at: www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/homepage.html

Full tags

Software, Online, Websites