inbetween

The big work project launched into cyber-space on Friday at 4:30 PM. And now I can put links to the site on the blog!

Internet Shakespeare Editions

Michael Best created the site in 1995, and has been adding to it ever since. Many of the files were never touched in that time, and the site was really starting to show its age. Our job (a team of four programmers and two research assistants -- all students!) over the last year was to renovate it, stem to stern, top to bottom and metaphor to simile. The graphics for the site were created by outside folks. We aren't graphic designers, so that was a very easy call.

How to use this site

Michael wrote the content for the pages. I created the templates from the graphic designs, with lots of contributions from the rest of the team. The page contents box on the right (not my creation) is generated dynamically, which still blows my mind sometimes.

About the Internet Shakespeare Editions

The creation of the site is described in more detail, and a "technical info" page is forthcoming. The site is served with Cocoon, an XML processing framework. Most of the data is stored in XML files, or in databases. Cocoon transforms that XML into the HTML that you see in the browser. That's the overly-abbreviated explaination

Some of the components in the Internet Shakespeare Editions:

Shakespeare in Performance

A searchable database of performance materials from 1000 film and stage productions. Think IMDb, but Shakespeare-specific. The Romeo & Juliet section alone is huge:Romeo and Juliet :: Shakespeare in Performance

First Folio, page 669

Of course, what good are the performance materials without the plays? This folio was published in 1623. The particluar copy on that page is owned by the State Library of New South Wales. Of course, we have images of three other folios, and the two Romeo & Juliet Quartos. (Book Facsimiles: Romeo and Juliet).

Romeo and Juliet (Folio 1, 1623)

And what then about a text transcription? We've transcriptions of the First Folio, and the Quartos, in different stages of editorial review. Each editor is also preparing a new, unique modern version for the Internet Shakespeare Editions, with full annotations.

ISE Links Database

Any good website must contain the highest quality content, and also be a portal to other sites. Our links database has over 800 links to various sites on Shakespeare, his texts, and Renaissance life. Selected Romeo and Juliet links are available.

Shakespeare's Life and Times: Home Page

Who was William Shakespeare? What life like as the Renaissance ended? Michael Best wrote and collected a thousand pages dedicated just to the Bard, his life, and Renaissance London. The Life & Times contains images, music, and dialog. Video clips will be added in the near future. Of course, the Life & Times also examines Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet Home Page

And to bring all these varied components together, we have the play home pages. Each one is generated dynamically, sending off queries to the independent databases, applications, and other areas of the site. New Romeo and Juliet links will automatically appear, as will the facsimilies, transcriptions, and discussions in the Life and Times.

More?

Oh yes, there is much more to the site. Michael Best has documented the creation of the site from its beginning in 1995. We've reproduced, in facsimile form, Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition by John Velz (a seminal academic work on Shakespeare's writings). We've textual studies essays, critical works, international contributions and descriptions of Shakespeare's work outside England ( Shakespeare in South Africa: SeZar Table of Contents is one of many, describing a South African adaptation/production of Julius Cesar), and background materials on which Shakespeare based many of his plays.

And by the way, we're number one: "demon sex" - Google Search. We even beat out the smut.