How to Cite Shakespeare in APA Referencing

To cite, or not to cite? That is the question. But many referencing systems have special rules for citing The Bard, so the second question might be ‘How do I cite it?’ Here, then, we take a look at how to cite Shakespeare in APA referencing as part of an academic paper.

How to Cite Shakespeare in APA Referencing

Citing Shakespeare in APA means giving the author’s surname and two years of publication: one for the original text and another for the edition you’re referencing. Give both dates in the in-text citation, separated by a forward slash:

Hamlet is a play concerned with death (Shakespeare, 1599/2004).

If you’re quoting or paraphrasing a play, give a pinpoint citation as well. For Shakespeare, this will mean citing act, scene, and line numbers. For instance:

Yorick is ‘a fellow of infinite jest’ (Shakespeare, 1599/1992, 5.1.191–192).

Here, for example, we’re citing act five, scene one, lines 191–192 of Hamlet. The advantage of using act, scene, and line numbers rather than page numbers is that they should be consistent across editions of Shakespeare’s work, so other people can look up the reference even if they don’t have the same version of the text.

Listing Shakespeare in an APA Reference List

The format for a Shakespeare play in an APA reference list should include the names of any editors or translators. APA also suggests providing a date of original publication for republished texts:

Surname, First Initial. (Year of Publication or Translation). Title of play. (Translator Initial(s). Surname(s), Trans.). Editor Initial(s). Surname(s). (Ed.). Publisher. (Original work published date)

If your edition of the play does not have a translator or an editor, simply leave out these details. In practice, then, we would list an edited version of Hamlet in the original Shakespearean English like this:

Shakespeare, W. (1992). Hamlet, prince of Denmark. C. Watts & K. Carabine (Eds.). Wordsworth Editions. (Original work published 1599)

Online Editions of Shakespeare Texts

The format is a little different for an online version of a text. In this case, you will need to provide a date for when the text was uploaded or last updated, as well as a URL for where it can be found:

Shakespeare, W. (2016). Hamlet, prince of Denmark. B. Mowat & P. Werstine (Eds.). https://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/html/Ham.html#line-1.3.0 (Original work published 1599)

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