Where can I find a book that breaks down Shakespeare plays by the characters in each scene?

July 16, 2008 4:14 PM

ShakespeareFilter: I'm trying to find a book--or something similar to it--that a classmate loaned to me briefly a few months back. Briefly, it had all of Shakespeare's plays with charts showing which scenes each character appeared in and the total number of lines each had. My classmate can't remember the author or title, so I'm stuck throwing this vague question out to the general public. Does anyone know where I can find something along these lines?
posted by Mr. Bad Example to media & arts (5 answers total)

Shakespeare's Characters for Students, by Catherine Dominic? Not sure about the total number of lines bit.

If that's not it, you might find what you're looking for in this bibliography.
posted by not that girl at 4:21 PM on July 16, 2008

Maybe The Essential Shakespeare Handbook? I've looked through it at the bookstore and I know it has charts and also has the # of lines for each character data.
posted by iconomy at 4:58 PM on July 16, 2008

Not sure if this is the same book, but it has the same information, and it's online! Shakespeare's Words, by David & Ben Crystal. Number of lines and links of characters.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:43 PM on July 16, 2008

Many Eyes allows users to do really cool things with data. You can find something like what you're looking for here.
posted by nushustu at 8:02 AM on July 17, 2008

Thanks for the help, everybody. I found what I was looking for--Casting Shakespeare's Plays: London Actors and their Roles, 1590-1642 by T.J. King. It's apparently out of print and incredibly expensive used, but I managed to find a copy in the local library. Now for the tedious part of this project...
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:56 AM on August 20, 2008