Guides: ENG 456 Shakespeare (Dr. Jonathan Koch): Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source

A primary source is "first-hand" information, sources as close as possible to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. In literary studies, primary sources are often creative works, including plays, poems, stories, novels, and so on. In historical studies, primary sources include written works, recordings, or other source of information from people who were participants or direct witnesses to the events in question. Examples of commonly used primary sources include government documents, memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts.

Early English Books Online

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
Full-text items published in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700.
It contains over 100,000 of the 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgraves's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).

Shakespeare Documented

Shakespeare Documented
Celebrating 400 years of William Shakespeare with an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time. Topics covered: Playwright, actor and shareholder; Shakespeare the poet; Family, legal and property records; 17th century legacies.
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A multi-institutional collaboration convened by the Folger Shakespeare Library to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Shakespeare Documented is the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), bringing together all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

Primary Sources about Elizabethan Theatre

Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project
Photographic images of the Henslowe-Alleyn papers which provide extensive, detailed, dated, and unique information about their daily, weekly or annual employment of dramatists and actors such as Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, George Chapman, Thomas Heywood, Philip Massinger, Thomas Dekker, Cyril Tourneur, John Webster, Richard Burbage, Will Kemp and Nathan Field, among numerous others.
London Stage Database
A project that aims to capture and present the rich array of information available on the theatrical culture of London, from the reopening of the public playhouses following the English civil wars in 1660 to the end of the eighteenth century.
Early Modern London Theatres
A research database and educational resource that lets you see what direct use has been made, over the last four centuries, of pre-1642 documents related to professional performance in purpose-built theatres and other permanent structures in the London area.
Records of Early English Drama
An international scholarly project that is establishing the context from which the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries grew
Database of Early English Playbooks
An easy-to-use and highly customizable search engine of every playbook produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the beginning of printing through 1660,
Lost Plays Database
A wiki-style forum for scholars to share information about lost plays in England, 1570-1642. Its purpose is to add lost plays to scholarly discussions of early modern theatrical activity.
English Broadside Ballad Archive (EBBA)
EBBA has broadside ballads of the 17th century from many different holdings, gathered together on one site as ballad sheet facsimiles, facsimile transcriptions, text transcriptions, and recordings,