Use the MERLIN and MOBIUS catalogs to locate books of criticism about an author or topic. 
Do a subject search on the author's name and scroll to an appropriate subheading. 
For example: Shakespeare, William ... Criticism and Interpretation.
Do a table of contents search to locate relevant chapters in books with a broader focus.
The keyword search searches for words in author, title, subject headings, tables of contents and notes all at once.  
Some subject headings that are useful for finding background information include:

• Social life and customs
• Intellectual life
• Social conditions
• Literature and society
• Popular culture

Finding criticism in journal articles is usually a two step process. 
1) Use the following databases and indexes to see what articles have been published and where.  If you're looking for articles from a specific time period, be sure to use an index or database that covers publications from that time. 
2) If the full text of the article is not provided in the database, check . This will guide you to electronic full text from a different source, connect to the catalog to look for a print copy in the library, or help you request a copy through ILL@MU. Feel free to ask a librarian for help.

 LION: Literature Online contains the major literary databases: 
MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures
1926-present online.
ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
1920-present online.

Help and a demonstration of LION's features are available online.

The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online is the most comprehensive index to all publications related to Shakespeare.

You may also want to try databases that focus on other disciplines or types of publications:
Academic Search Premier
Historical Abstracts 
Tip! To search for information about a specific century or decade, use the advanced search and search by time period.
Alternative Press Index
GenderWatch

• limit by date
• include in your search s: sources 
• include in your search s: sources and nth cent* e.g., s: sources and 16th cent* and marriage
• include in your search s: early works and nth cent* e.g., s: early works and 16th cent* and marriage
• include in your search s: personal narratives

MERLIN lists not only printed books, but also links to electronic books, and many items contained in large microfilm collections, such as: 

• English Books, 1475-1640
• English Books, 1641-1700
• English Literary Periodicals, 1681-1914
• English Cartoons and Satirical Prints, 1320-1832

Microforms and the equipment needed to view, print, or scan the materials are found in Special Collections.
See the guide to the Microform Collection for detailed information on the microfilm sets, including some that are not analyzed in the MERLIN catalog. Tips for finding microfilm.

A digital collection of interest to this class is the 17th-19th Century British Religious, Political, and Legal Tracts.

LION: Literature Online provides online texts of many English and American literary works with a search mechanism to facilitate text analysis.
From the main LION menu, choose Search Texts to search for words and phrases within a specific work or group of works. The advanced search feature allows you to define a corpus by period, literary movement, author's gender or ethnicity, and other criteria.

The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) lists works of all sorts published prior to 1800 in English, many of which we have on microfilm. The MERLIN catalog includes records for the titles held by MU and we can borrow others through ILL@MU.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains catalog records for all the ESTC titles and image files of most of the titles. This trial is active through Nov. 13, 2006.

Early American Imprints, Series I  contains the full-text of books published in America 1639-1800.
Although this covers only American publications, these are often reprints of materials originally published in Britain.

The Index to English Literary Periodicals indexes articles published in early English journals and magazines contained in the microfilm set English Literary Periodicals 1681-1914
Note: This Index is a work in progress, so you may also want to use the guide Accessing English Literary Periodicals ( SPEC-R PN5124.P4 A25 1981).

For browsing chronologically, use the following sources:

Annals of English literature, 1475-1950; the principal publications of each year, together with an alphabetical index of authors with their works. Z2011 .A5 1961 

The London Stage, 1660-1800: a calendar of plays, entertainments & afterpieces, together with casts, box-receipts and contemporary comment. Compiled from the playbills, newspapers and theatrical diaries of the period Ref. Biblio (NE corner of room 202) PN2592 .L6 
See also the Index to The London stage, 1660-1800 Ref. Biblio PN2592.L63 S3

John Stow's The Annales of England and Survey of London 
Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande 
Different years of these publications are located on various reels of microfilm and/or in the print collection. Use the MERLIN catalog to determine the reel number or exact location. They are also available online via Early English Books Online.

See also the Chronological Listing of Periodicals by Decade.

For visual resources, try the British Library Images Online. Use the advanced search option and put the century in the "production details" box. Google Images can also be useful, although not as precise.

Literary Resources on the Net

James L. Harner. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies (Ref. PR83.H34 2000)