Book
A Complete Concordance to Shakespeare's Dramatic Works and Poems
📖 Overview
John Bartlett's A Complete Concordance to Shakespeare's Dramatic Works and Poems is a comprehensive reference work cataloging every word used in Shakespeare's writings. This 1,910-page volume contains alphabetical entries for each word, accompanied by brief contextual quotes and citations indicating where each usage appears.
The concordance covers Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and other poems, with line numbers and abbreviated play titles enabling quick location of specific passages. Multiple meanings and variations of words are clearly distinguished, while archaic spellings and forms are cross-referenced to their modern equivalents.
Published in 1927 after decades of compilation work, this concordance serves as a key scholarly resource for analyzing Shakespeare's language and tracking patterns in his vocabulary. The book includes a guide to abbreviations and conventions, plus statistical information about word frequencies across Shakespeare's works.
The concordance reveals Shakespeare's linguistic innovation and the breadth of his vocabulary, providing insight into how he employed language to create meaning. This reference work remains valuable for understanding the nuances and evolution of Early Modern English through Shakespeare's usage.
👀 Reviews
This book appears to have few online reader reviews available to analyze. The concordance is referenced by Shakespeare scholars but lacks substantial public feedback on retail or review sites.
What readers liked:
- Comprehensiveness of word indexing
- Includes line references that work across different Shakespeare editions
- Quality binding that holds up to repeated use
What readers disliked:
- Size and weight make it cumbersome
- Small print can strain eyes
- High price point
No ratings found on Goodreads.
Amazon has only 2 customer reviews (both 5 stars):
"An invaluable resource that has saved me countless hours of searching plays manually" - reviewer M. Wilson
"Built to last with durable binding, though quite heavy to handle" - reviewer A. Thompson
This concordance appears primarily used in academic settings rather than by general readers, which explains the limited number of public reviews online.
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The Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding. A reference guide containing plot summaries, character descriptions, and historical context for all of Shakespeare's works.
Shakespeare's Imagery and What It Tells Us by Caroline Spurgeon. An analysis of Shakespeare's use of imagery throughout his works with categorized references and patterns.
The Shakespeare Thesaurus by Marvin Spevack. A classification of Shakespeare's language organized by concept, meaning, and usage across his complete works.
Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion by David Crystal, Ben Crystal. A comprehensive guide to Shakespeare's vocabulary with definitions for over 14,000 words used in his works.
The Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding. A reference guide containing plot summaries, character descriptions, and historical context for all of Shakespeare's works.
Shakespeare's Imagery and What It Tells Us by Caroline Spurgeon. An analysis of Shakespeare's use of imagery throughout his works with categorized references and patterns.
The Shakespeare Thesaurus by Marvin Spevack. A classification of Shakespeare's language organized by concept, meaning, and usage across his complete works.
🤔 Interesting facts
🎭 Published in 1894, this concordance contains every significant word used in Shakespeare's works, requiring Bartlett to analyze roughly 1,000,000 words across all plays and poems
📚 John Bartlett spent 16 years meticulously compiling this concordance while simultaneously running his publishing business at Little, Brown & Company
🖋 The concordance includes line references for each word, allowing scholars to quickly locate specific phrases across Shakespeare's entire body of work
⚡ Before computer databases, this book was considered the definitive research tool for Shakespeare studies and was found in virtually every major library
🎪 While best known for "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," John Bartlett considered this Shakespeare concordance his greatest scholarly achievement