Wikipedia:WikiProject Shakespeare

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Welcome to the Shakespeare Wikiproject main page. This project is devoted to increasing the quality of any and all articles dealing with William Shakespeare. Anyone is invited to join in the effort by adding their name to the members list. A list of current jobs needing to be done can be found in the to do section.

For information on assessments of articles within the scope of the project please go to Wikipedia:WikiProject Shakespeare/Assessment.

Scope

Open tasks for WikiProject Shakespeare.

Edit or discuss these tasks.


Shortcuts: Recent changes | Categories | History

This project deals with everything concerning William Shakespeare, poet and playwright, man of theater, who has influenced English, Western and world culture for four centuries and counting. Specifically, it is intended to bring Wikipedia's main Shakespeare articles to Featured Article standards, raise the quality of the more peripheral Shakespeare articles, as well as set specific standards and guidelines to future editors on articles on the writer and his works.

To do

  1. Maintain .
  2. Crowd-source the creation of a definitive repository of free, open-source translations into modern English of all Shakespeare plays and poems, to replace "No Fear Shakespeare" (which is now behind a paywall as of April 2022)
  3. Decide on the next project collaboration

Related WikiProjects

Article Alerts

Did you know

Good article nominees

Requested moves

Project organization

Departments

Assessment

The assessment department focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's Shakespeare articles. The article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work.

The ratings are done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the {{

Wikiproject Shakespeare
}} project banner; this causes the articles to be placed in a set of categories that serves as the basis for an automatically generated worklist.

Collaboration

The project's Collaboration department seeks to identify particular articles that would benefit from a significant collaborative effort. A single article is selected as the focus, and the project attempts to improve it, potentially to

featured article standards. The current collaboration article is The Tempest
.

Any Shakespeare article is eligible, and everyone is invited to nominate articles.

Members

To join this project, add your user name to the list below:

  1. Curtangel 20 April 2007
  2. Anvituteja 26 March 2021 (UTC)
  3. VanTucky
    20 April 2007
  4. Wrad 20 April 2007
  5. Smatprt 20 April 2007
  6. AndyJones 20 April 2007
  7. Mandel 21 April 2007
  8. RedRabbit1983 22 April 2007
  9. Tiria 23 April 2007
  10. BeastKing89 23 April 2007
  11. Drboisclair 23 April 2007
  12. Jlittlet 23 April 2007
  13. Ojevindlang 25 April 2007
  14. Ladb2000 25 April 2007
  15. Ham
    28 April 2007
  16. Tprosser 14 May 2007
  17. Ceranthor 20 May 2007
  18. Sydneysaurus 30 May 2007
  19. Romeo in love 6 June 2007
  20. Macman202 10 June 2007
  21. Sbp 6 July 2007
  22. Xover 11 July 2007
  23. Brandon Christopher 16 July 2007
  24. GuillaumeTell 28 July 2007
  25. Bardofcornish 8 August 2007
  26. Buey36 10 August 2007
  27. Dionysos Proteus 13 August 2007
  28. kaylin814 21 August 2007
  29. Nowah Balloon 30 August 2007
  30. Moz1916 15 September 2007
  31. Tanstaafl28 29 September 2007
  32. Trixi72 October 2, 2007
  33. ROGER DAVIES 21 November 2007
  34. Graybeard67 26 Nov 2007
  35. guycox65 28 Nov 2007
  36. Elesi 15 January 2008
  37. Cowardly Lion 4 February 2008
  38. Sutherland4l 15 February 2008
  39. George D. Watson (Dendodge) 20 February 2008
  40. Luksuh 5 April 2008
  41. Jgurd 8 April 2008
  42. Olaf Davis 4 May 2008
  43. Erik the Red 2
    5 May 2008
  44. BenJonson 21 July 2008
  45. Maedin
    23 July 2008
  46. BlackPearl14
    20 September 2008
  47. Septemberfourth476 7 October 2008
  48. Dr.h.miller 11 January 2009
  49. TheGeniusPrince
    13 February 2009
  50. Malkinann 28 October 2008
  51. Themis-Athena 16 December 2008
  52. Heslopian 6 February 2009
  53. Springboard08 8 March 2009
  54. Yuma 16 April 2009
  55. JiveTalkinChoirBoy 24 June 2009
  56. Bertaut 4 August 2009
  57. Sean 25 December 2009
  58. Lo, i am real 25 August 2010
  59. Ling.Nut
    27 September 2010
  60. UltimateCoach 16 December 2010
  61. Roscelese 15 February 2011
  62. Rogala 27 March 2011
  63. Jg2904 9 January 2012
  64. Songeant 3 February 2012
  65. Macbeth1313 27 February 2012
  66. RussellM 29 August 2012
  67. Cfsibley 27 October 2012
  68. Jwalkfour 31 October 2012
  69. Iamthecheese44 25 November 2012
  70. Lord Sjones23 2 April 2013
  71. Clockery 8 April 2013
  72. Biggs Pliff 15 September 2013
  73. TomCheesman 26 January 2014
  74. Five Antonios 5 March 2014
  75. Falkirks 11 August 2014
  76. BenLinus1214
    3 December 2014
  77. Apragopolis 25 January 2015
  78. Accurateedits 25 February 2015
  79. ZonMusicStar
    22, April 2015
  80. Twomcvms
    22 April 2015
  81. The Dancing Badger 8 July 2015
  82. Bhanks 19 October 2015
  83. Prof TPMS 17 January 2016
  84. Rajeshkumar Pipaliya 19 May 2016
  85. love2evolve 12 December 2018
  86. WanderingWanda 12 May 2019
  87. Partytemple 11 June 2019
  88. Elizabeth Tavares 24 September 2019
  89. Samsmachado 19 January 2020
  90. Doromiant314 24 January 2020
  91. talk) 22:51, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  92. TheWinterFireAJ (talk) 21:40, 13 August 2020 (UTC) 14/08/20[reply]
  93. Musophilus 22 May 2021
  94. Patr2016 04 January 2022
  95. Prickle of Porcupines 24 April 2022
  96. Saturn star 3 May 2022
  97. LizRichardson (talk)1 December 2022

Former members

The following editors who have passed away have contributed to or been active in WikiProject Shakespeare. They are sorely missed!

Templates

WikiProject iconShakespeare NA‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Shakespeare, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of William Shakespeare on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.
NAThis article has been rated as NA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

To be placed on the talk page of all articles within the scope of the project. {{WikiProject Shakespeare}}

Userbox

Wikiproject Membership

This user is a participant in the Shakespeare WikiProject

 – {{User WikiProject Shakespeare}}


Other

This user has read # of William Shakespeare's plays.

 – {{User:UBX/User playread|#}}


Article policies

Sonnet articles

Phil wink has created a proposed policy for the 154 individual sonnet articles as the Sonnet Uniformity Act. The proposal has received some feedback, but not enough to determine a firm consensus. It is recommended that the proposed policy is used as a guideline for editors on these articles, but care should be taken to not lean too heavily on it before more feedback is gathered.

Play articles

At present, Shakespearean articles, particularly those on the plays, are not standardised. The following is a proposed guideline to achieve standardisation in the writing and copyediting of articles pertaining to the plays of

WP:ENGVAR.) Note that a more detailed proposal is here
.

  1. Intro paragraph with graphic to the right (as recommended in the MOS) – The title of the play should be given in full, bold, modernized spelling, in its most commonly used form. Follow
    WP:LEAD
    .
  2. Characters – Very brief, NPOV description. Should not attempt to analyze characters in this section but give, briefly, who they are and their relationship with a protagonist. No spoiler details should be added here just the character as described at the start of the play or in the first scene. Characters in need of a more in-depth analysis should have their own article.
  3. Synopsis – Accuracy and a lucid style.
    Wikipedia asks for plot synopses to stay within 500–700 words, with a ceiling of 900 words in special circumstances only. The summary is not to be subdivided in further Acts and scenes. Acts and scene divisions do not exist in the earliest Shakespeare texts and were probably added by later editors. Furthermore, sub-dividing synopses into acts and scenes could make this section too long.
    Key idea here: synopsis means to summarize the vital plot points of the play, not to re-tell the entire plot in your own words.
  4. Sources – What works influenced the play or poem?
  5. Date and Text – The play as it survives to us. Are there Quarto versions? What is its relationship with the Folio text? What other titles (if any) were attached to the play, and under what circumstances?
  6. Analysis and criticism
    1. Critical History – How have scholars' views about the play changed over time?
    2. Structure – What have scholars said about the plot structure?
    3. Language – ...about language and style?
    4. Themes and motifs – ...about themes and motifs in the play?
    5. Other interpretations – Add a bit about Feminist, Psychoanalytic, Queer, and other readings.
  7. Performance history – What is the first known recorded performance?
  8. Influences – Literary and cultural
  9. Adaptations and cultural references – What the world has done with it...
    1. Musical adaptations – and music, including opera and musicals
    2. Screen versions:
      Where there are numerous versions, there should be a separate article, eg.
      Shakespeare on screen
      .
      Where there are only a handful of versions, these should be covered in a prose section on the page, and in list form at
      Shakespeare on screen
      .
  10. References
  11. External links

Character articles

Because of Shakespeare's prominence, nearly all of his characters have enough scholarly information on them to qualify under wikipedia's notability guidelines (with a few exceptions). Several of his characters have been represented in later works of fiction. The below is not intended as a standard as much as a guideline for character article expansion. Look here for ideas on how to expand a character-stub article to a B-or-higher class article:

  1. Intro – Of course, summarize the rest of the article as per
    Sycorax (Shakespeare)
    ).
  2. Origins – Where does the character's name come from and what does it mean? Did Shakespeare borrow this character from another story? What was his source?
  3. Role in the play – Describe the character's role in the play. Avoid providing analysis or interpretations of the text in this section. Leave that to later sections.
  4. Analysis – Summarize the scholarly opinion surrounding this character. Use sources from academic books and journals only.
  5. Performance history – Outline the development of the role by different actors or actresses over time.

Using one Standardized Complete Shakespeare for quotations

The complete Shakespeare used:

  • must be modern enough (at least 19th century)
  • preferably in public domain
  • easily accessible and verifiable
  • critical

The template {{Shakecite}} has been proposed as a solution. It is still under construction, but usable, and includes the ability to link to quartos, folios, and in some cases, modern versions of all the plays.

Note that consensus in this area is drifting towards the use of the latest individual Arden edition of the play, rather than any "complete works" collection.

Research help

To be acquainted with the latest scholarship on the Bard, we strongly advise frequent editors to read at least one modern critical edition of Shakespeare's works. Recommended are the "Big 3": Arden (2 or 3), Oxford and New Cambridge. These have copious notes, lengthy introductions, helpful appendices, and full critical apparatus. Also recommended are the Penguin Shakespeare and New Variorum editions. Other editions usually do not give as detailed an analysis or footnotes, or offer the variant readings.

For journals, one could consult Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Studies, or Borrowers & Lenders (online, open-access). Or, if you have access to a college library, consult their databases for several excellent references, starting with The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online.

For books, college libraries are also excellent. If you don't have access to one, though, an option is to use The Internet Archive and search for your subject. This search engine provides facsimiles of books, although sometimes it cuts out portions of them. In using this site, be sure that you are only using scholarly books as sources for your article.

For biographies, take a look at the references used in the William Shakespeare article.

Accomplishments and notoriety

There are 1560 articles within the scope of the Shakespeare project. Currently the project has 11

Good articles
: 1 out of every 52 articles (1.9%). Thus, one in 38 articles in the project is rated GA or higher (2.6%).

Featured articles

Former featured articles

Good articles

Former good articles

Did you know? articles

In the News articles

Picture of the day pictures

  • A Scene from Troilus and Cressida - Angelica Kauffmann
    A Scene from Troilus and Cressida - Angelica Kauffmann
  • Falstaff 3
    Falstaff 3
  • Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2
    Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2
  • George Romney - William Shakespeare - The Tempest Act I, Scene 1
    George Romney - William Shakespeare - The Tempest Act I, Scene 1
  • Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
    Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
  • Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Titus Andronicus
    Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Titus Andronicus
  • John Everett Millais - Mariana - Google Art Project
    John Everett Millais - Mariana - Google Art Project
  • John Opie - Winter's Tale, Act II. Scene III
    John Opie - Winter's Tale, Act II. Scene III
  • Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen - Google Art Project
    Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen - Google Art Project
  • Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
    Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
  • Midsummer Night's Dream Henry Fuseli2
    Midsummer Night's Dream Henry Fuseli2
  • Shakespeare's King John at Drury Lane Theatre
    Shakespeare's King John at Drury Lane Theatre
  • Shakespeare
    Shakespeare
  • Taming of the Shrew
    Taming of the Shrew
  • Thomas Keene in Macbeth 1884 Wikipedia crop
    Thomas Keene in Macbeth 1884 Wikipedia crop
  • Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster
    Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster
  • Thomas Keene in Richard III 1884 Poster
    Thomas Keene in Richard III 1884 Poster
  • Thos. W. Keene in Hamlet
    Thos. W. Keene in Hamlet

Featured pictures

  • A Scene from Troilus and Cressida - Angelica Kauffmann
    A Scene from Troilus and Cressida - Angelica Kauffmann
  • Falstaff 3
    Falstaff 3
  • Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2
    Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2
  • George Romney - William Shakespeare - The Tempest Act I, Scene 1
    George Romney - William Shakespeare - The Tempest Act I, Scene 1
  • Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
    Hector Berlioz, Béatrice et Bénédict score title page - Restoration
  • Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Titus Andronicus
    Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Titus Andronicus
  • John Everett Millais - Mariana - Google Art Project
    John Everett Millais - Mariana - Google Art Project
  • John Opie - Winter's Tale, Act II. Scene III
    John Opie - Winter's Tale, Act II. Scene III
  • Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen - Google Art Project
    Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Ellen Terry at Age Sixteen - Google Art Project
  • Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
    Marcel Jambon - Giuseppe Verdi - Otello Act I set design model
  • Midsummer Night's Dream Henry Fuseli2
    Midsummer Night's Dream Henry Fuseli2
  • Ralph Cleaver - 1904 amateur performance of W.S. Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Garrick Theatre, London - Image 1
    Ralph Cleaver - 1904 amateur performance of W.S. Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Garrick Theatre, London - Image 1
  • Shakespeare's King John at Drury Lane Theatre
    Shakespeare's King John at Drury Lane Theatre
  • Shakespeare
    Shakespeare
  • Taming of the Shrew
    Taming of the Shrew
  • Thomas Keene in Macbeth 1884 Wikipedia crop
    Thomas Keene in Macbeth 1884 Wikipedia crop
  • Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster
    Thomas Keene in Othello 1884 Poster
  • Thomas Keene in Richard III 1884 Poster
    Thomas Keene in Richard III 1884 Poster
  • Thos. W. Keene in Hamlet
    Thos. W. Keene in Hamlet


Quality matrix


Tools

Main tool page: toolserver.org
  • Reflinks – Edits bare references – adds title/dates etc. to bare references
  • Checklinks – Edit and repair external links
  • Dab solver – Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
  • Peer reviewer – Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.

External watchlist