Reference works can get you quick information on specific subjects relating to Shakespeare's life, times, or works. They're often a good place to start, or a good place to check information.
Companions are designed to help readers understand complex concepts within the work; entries tend to be alphabetic by entry. An index will allow you to search the entries by topic of interest.
Depending on the specificity of the resource, one can look up a play, a character, a place, a common theme, a historical landmark, and more, and discover its significance to a particular Shakespeare play.
Companions and guides can be found in the PR2800- section of the reference section on level 3. Here are some examples:
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, a Textual Companion
All Things ShakespeareDictionaries of Shakespeare provide contextual meaning to key themes, characters, and concepts relevant to Shakespeare.
They are different from dictionaries of the English language (although I would certainly recommend using the OED).
The Columbia Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations
A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Semantic Wordplay
A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Sexual Puns and Their Significance
Music in Shakespeare
A Shakespeare Glossary by These aren't necessarily specific to Shakespeare, but you may still find them useful.
Concordances list the appearance of each word in a text, the number of times it's used, and where it is in the text.
Variorums provide line by line, critical analysis of complex works of literature by pooling a wide variety of scholarly critical essays and books on the topic and providing minute explications of the text as a series of footnotes.
Because of the volume of critical explication on Shakespeare, a variorum edition can be very useful in orienting you to the critical controversies.
Note that when searching the CUNY Catalog “variorum” is not listed as an authorized subject, nor is it a format, but you can find them by entering 'variorum' as a keyword.
