Wikipedia:WikiProject Shakespeare



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 WikiProject Shakespeare/Assessment.

Scope
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 FA status for the articles William Shakespeare, Shakespeare authorship question, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.
 * 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

 * WikiProject Biography/Arts and entertainment
 * Continental Philosophy Task Force
 * WikiProject Literature
 * WikiProject Poetry
 * WikiProject Theatre

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)  R OGER D AVIES   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)  Luk  suh  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) TuorEladar (talk) 22:51, 9 April 2020 (UTC)
 * 92) TheWinterFireAJ (talk) 21:40, 13 August 2020 (UTC) 14/08/20
 * 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
 * 98) Malvoliox (talk)13 May 2024

Former members
The following editors who have passed away have contributed to or been active in WikiProject Shakespeare. They are sorely missed!
 * Wadewitz (aka. Awadewit)
 * Paul Barlow (aka. Paul B.)

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

Wikiproject Membership
– User WikiProject Shakespeare

Other
– #

Sonnet articles
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 William Shakespeare. (Note: All play articles should use British spelling. See 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.
 * 1) Sources – What works influenced the play or poem?
 * 2) 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?
 * 3) Analysis and criticism
 * 4) Critical History – How have scholars' views about the play changed over time?
 * 5) Structure – What have scholars said about the plot structure?
 * 6) Language – ...about language and style?
 * 7) Themes and motifs – ...about themes and motifs in the play?
 * 8) Other interpretations – Add a bit about Feminist, Psychoanalytic, Queer, and other readings.
 * 9) Performance history – What is the first known recorded performance?
 * 10) Influences – Literary and cultural
 * 11) Adaptations and cultural references – What the world has done with it...
 * 12) Musical adaptations – and music, including opera and musicals
 * 13) Screen versions:
 * Where there are numerous versions, there should be a separate article, eg. Macbeth on screen, which will allow fuller coverage. That should have a {main article} tag and a brief prose summary on the play's article, and a {main article} tag and a brief list summary at 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.
 * 1) References
 * 2) External links
 * 1) Adaptations and cultural references – What the world has done with it...
 * 2) Musical adaptations – and music, including opera and musicals
 * 3) Screen versions:
 * Where there are numerous versions, there should be a separate article, eg. Macbeth on screen, which will allow fuller coverage. That should have a {main article} tag and a brief prose summary on the play's article, and a {main article} tag and a brief list summary at 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.
 * 1) References
 * 2) External links
 * 1) References
 * 2) External links
 * 1) 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 WP:LEAD, as with any other article. Add a picture of the character to the right (see King Hamlet), or, if you can't find one, consider adding a quotebox with one of the character's more famous quotes or descriptions (See 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.

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

 * Wikiproject Watchlist – WikiProject Shakespeare