Wikipedia:WikiProject Shakespeare

This is a WikiProject, an area for focused collaboration among Wikipedians. New participants are welcome; please feel free to participate! Guide to WikiProjects Directory of WikiProjects

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.

Open tasks for WikiProject Shakespeare. Edit or discuss these tasks. Shortcuts: Recent changes | Categories | History

• Urgent:
• Collaboration:
• To Nominate at WP:FAC:
• To Improve to Featured standard: The Tempest
• To Improve to GA standard:
• To Expand: King Hamlet, Laertes
• To Clean up: Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, Horatio, Puck
• To Review/Rate: Unassessed Shakespeare articles
• To Merge/Split: Shakespeare on screen, Puck, Ur-Hamlet
• To Destub: Stub-Class Shakespeare articles
• To Copyedit:
• To Categorize:
• To Create:
  • Shakespeare's characters (discussing his characters in general)
    • The Winter's Tale (main and supporting characters)
• To de-redlink:
• Lists to complete:
  • List of Shakespeare's works
• Wanted Pics/Graphics: Sycorax, Rude Mechanicals, Stephano, Fleance
• Maintain: add {{WikiProject Shakespeare}} to the talk pages of Shakespeare-related articles.
• Assessments: Process articles who have requested assessment.

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.

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

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Arts and entertainment#Writers and critics
• Continental Philosophy Task Force
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Literature
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Poetry
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Theatre

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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.

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.

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

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.)

Shakespeare Unassessed

This 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.ShakespeareWikipedia:WikiProject ShakespeareTemplate:WikiProject ShakespeareShakespeare articles ??? This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

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

This user is a participant in the Shakespeare WikiProject

 – {{User WikiProject Shakespeare}}

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

 – {{User:UBX/User playread|#}}

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.

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.
3. 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.
5. 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.

7. Sources – What works influenced the play or poem?
9. 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?
11. 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.
13. Performance history – What is the first known recorded performance?
15. Influences – Literary and cultural
17. 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. 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.

19. References
21. External links

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.

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.

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.

There are 1574 articles within the scope of the Shakespeare project. Currently the project has 11 Featured articles and lists, or 1 out of every 143 articles in the project (0.7%). It also has 30 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%).

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Shakespeare}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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

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

• 
  Shakespeare

Shakespeare articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	Total
FA	4	2	2	3		11
GA	3	2	8	17		30
B	6	26	64	54		150
C	4	60	120	173		357
Start	2	31	100	631		764
Stub		3	4	221		228
List	2	4	5	23		34
Category					175	175
Disambig					14	14
File				1	43	44
Template					45	45
NA			3	13	209	225
Other					7	7
Assessed	21	128	306	1,136	493	2,084
Total	21	128	306	1,136	493	2,084
WikiWork factors (?)		ω = 7,126			Ω = 4.63

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

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.

• Wikiproject Watchlist – WikiProject Shakespeare