Shakespeare Citation Generator

Your citations

Enter the title to see your citations.

How to Use the Shakespeare Citation Generator

1. 1. Choose what you are citing and where. A play or the sonnets, in an edition of its own (Folger, Arden, Oxford) or inside a collected works (Norton, Riverside).
2. 2. Describe the edition. Copy the editors, publisher and year from the title page and its back. For a collected works, add the title of the whole book and, if you want it, the pages of the play.
3. 3. Add the passage. Act, scene and lines for a play; the sonnet number and lines for a sonnet. Use the numbers printed in your edition.
4. 4. Add dates for APA. APA dates a classic text twice, so give the year it first appeared and the year of your edition.
5. 5. Copy the style you need. Each entry copies with its italics intact.

Act.Scene.Line: How the Locator Works

A play has no page numbers that all editions share, so every style points to a passage by act, scene and line, written with Arabic numerals and periods: 3.1.64 is act 3, scene 1, line 64, and 3.1.64–65 is lines 64 and 65. The locator replaces the page number in MLA and APA, and ends the pinpoint in a Chicago note.

Line numbers belong to the edition. Editors count lines differently, split speeches differently and sometimes number scenes differently, so 3.1.64 in one edition may be 3.1.56 in another. Take the numbers from the book you cite, and never copy one from a quotation website. If your edition has no line numbers, the MLA Style Center says you may cite act and scene alone, with a page number if it helps, and explain the choice in a note. The tool writes the locator you type; it does not renumber.

Shakespeare Citation Examples

Hamlet in the Folger Shakespeare Library edition. The locator, 3.1.64–65, is illustrative; check it against your copy.

When you cite several plays, MLA recommends the play's standard abbreviation in italics in place of the author. Type the abbreviation exactly as the MLA Handbook gives it:

The Tempest in the Arden Shakespeare, the edition Chicago guides use for their note and bibliography example:

Hamlet read inside The Norton Shakespeare. Add the pages of the play in the pages box if your instructor wants them:

The sonnets, in the Arden edition by Katherine Duncan-Jones. The MLA Style Center names the sonnet by number in the prose or the parentheses and uses one Works Cited entry for the whole sequence.

Why the Edition Matters

• It decides the line numbers. Folger, Arden, Oxford and Norton do not agree, so the edition is part of the evidence.
• It decides the text. Hamlet exists in three early versions, and editors combine them differently.
• It decides the entry. An edition with an editor and a series is cited as a book. A play inside a collected works is cited as a part of that book.
• An online text is an edition too. If you read the play on a site such as the Folger's, cite that edition, with its editors, and add the URL. MLA leaves out the https://.

Common Mistakes

• Citing Shakespeare as the editor. The author is Shakespeare; the editor goes after the title.
• Using page numbers. Plays and sonnets are cited by act, scene and line, or by sonnet and line.
• Mixing numbering. Use Arabic numerals — 3.1.64, not III.i.64 — unless your instructor asks for Roman numerals, which the tool converts for you.
• Inventing a play abbreviation. Use the Handbook's list, or write the full title.
• Leaving out the edition. A bare Shakespeare, Hamlet entry cannot be checked.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite Shakespeare in MLA 9?

Treat an edition as a book, with the editor and series, and cite the passage by act, scene and line: Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon & Schuster, 2012. In text: (Shakespeare 3.1.64-65). If your sentence already names the play, give only the numbers.

How do I cite a Shakespeare play in APA 7?

Date it twice, once for the original and once for your edition, and put the editor in parentheses after the title: Shakespeare, W. (2012). Hamlet (B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Simon & Schuster. (Original work published 1603). In text: (Shakespeare, 1603/2012, 3.1.64–65).

How do I cite Shakespeare in Chicago style?

The first note gives the full edition and the locator, and adds the sentence References are to act, scene, and line. Later notes shorten to Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.1.64–65. The bibliography lists the edition. Chicago 18 no longer asks for the place of publication on a book published after 1900.

What does 3.1.64 mean?

Act 3, scene 1, line 64. A range such as 3.1.64–65 means lines 64 and 65 of that scene. MLA shortens the second number of a range above 99, as in 2.4.263-64.

How do I cite a Shakespeare sonnet?

Name the sonnet by number and the lines you quote: (Shakespeare, sonnet 137, lines 1-2) in MLA, or give the number in your sentence and the lines in the parentheses. List the whole sequence once in the Works Cited, since the sonnets are numbered in order and need no page number.

How do I cite a play from a website such as the Folger Shakespeare Library?

Cite the edition the site publishes, with its editors, the year and the URL. In MLA drop the https://, and in APA and Chicago keep it. The line numbers on the site belong to that edition, so cite the same edition throughout your paper.