Folger Digital Texts use the text of Shakespeare's plays from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions. The editions contain the work of Shakespeare on the right-hand pages, and notes, glosses, and illustrations on the left.
Folger Digital Texts use the same page numbers as the Folger editions. In the editions, the text of the play appears only on the right-hand, odd-numbered pages, so page numbers here are all odd numbers, too.
FTLN stands for Folger Through Line Number. To the right of the play, the lines are numbered in the usual way, starting over with each scene. To the left of the play are numbers that follow a simpler system: Folger Through Line Numbers.
With Folger Through Line Numbers, all of the lines in a play are numbered sequentially, from the first line of a play to the last. This makes it easier and more convenient to find any line.
Folger Digital Texts is designed to be a mirror of our popular print series, right down to the layout - so no matter whether readers are using Folger Digital Texts, Simon and Schuster’s ebook, or a good old-fashioned print book, everyone can be “on the same page.”
Folger Digital Texts is pleased to present the first sixteen plays in our series. We will be adding to this collection until it includes all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems.
Watch for announcements about new plays being released at the Folger Shakespeare Library website, or check in with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Each play in Folger Digital Texts is rigorously encoded: every word, every punctuation mark, every space, within a sophisticated, TEI-compliant XML structure.
Using the encoded texts as a starting point is a significant time-saver in creating mobile apps and other digital projects, or conducting research. We are delighted to share our encoded texts at no cost for noncommercial uses. To get started on your own scholarly research, or other projects, register with Folger Digital Texts and download the text you need.
Our free, high-quality digital texts of Shakespeare's plays start with the basics: superb source texts, meticulously edited on the basis of current scholarship. The plays in Folger Digital Texts are taken from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions, completed in 2010 by editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine and published by Simon & Schuster.
To these texts, we've added sophisticated coding that works behind the scenes to make the plays easy to read, search, and index—and lays the groundwork for new features in the future. We've also used the same page numbers and layouts as in the Folger print editions, so it's simple to use the two together.
Our digital texts are also powerful scholarly tools in the fast-growing field of digital Shakespeare research. We encourage researchers and developers to download the coded texts at no cost for noncommercial purposes, including specialized studies and mobile apps.
Folger Digital Texts are among many digital resources on the Folger Shakespeare Library website, including an extensive digital image collection; Teach and Learn K-12 teaching resources; Discover Shakespeare resources; blogs, podcasts, and videos at Digital Folger; and links to the Folger on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.
- Michael Poston, Digital Texts Editor and Encoding Architect
- Rebecca Niles, Digital Texts Editor and Interface Architect
- Eric Johnson, Director of Digital Access
- Additional thanks to:
- Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
- David Schalkwyk, Project Director (2012-2013)
- Garland Scott, Head of External Relations
- Tom Stanton, Head of Information Services
- Melody Fetske, Director of Finance and Administration
- Robert Young, Head of Education
- Esther Ferington, writer
- Images of bas-reliefs from Folger Shakespeare Library façade:
- Keith Weller Photography
Folger Digital Texts include texts of Shakespeare's plays from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions published by Simon and Schuster, which also include extensive illustrations, glosses, notes, and essays not incorporated here.
- Editors, Folger Shakespeare Library editions:
- Barbara Mowat
- Paul Werstine
Folger Digital Texts and their source code are available at no cost for online reading and download, for noncommercial purposes only, under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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Folger editions include notes, essays, and more.
