Guides to Research

James L. Harner. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies (Ref. PR83.H34 2002)

Frieda Elaine Penninger. English Drama to 1660, Excluding Shakespeare: A Guide to Information Sources (Z2014.D7 P46)

Everett U. Crosby et al. Medieval Studies: A Bibliographical Guide (Ref. Z5579.5.C76 1983)

Louis John Paetow. Guide to the Study of Medieval History (Ref. Z6203.P25 1980)
James M. Powell. Medieval Studies: An Introduction (D116.M4 1992)

Background Information

Dictionary of the Middle Ages (Ref. D114 .D5 1982) A good place to start for background on any topic.
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre (PN2587.C36 1994)
A Companion to the Medieval Theater (Ref. PN2152.C66 1989)
Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature (Ref. PN669.E53 2000)

A Manual of the Writings in Middle English (Ref. PR255.S4) Background information and a select bibliography on various works.

Locating Primary Sources

Search MERLIN by exact title or author, if known.

Bibliography of English Translations from Medieval Sources (Ref. Z6517.F3) and Bibliography of English Translations from Medieval Sources, 1943-1967 (Z6517.F47) list specific works. Use the indexes in the back of these books to find works dealing with specific topics.

If you don't know an exact item, do a keyword search in MERLIN, using the following tricks:

• include in your search s:sources and (medieval or middle ages) e.g., s:sources and (medieval or middle ages) and (drama or theat*)
• include in your search s:sources and nth cent* e.g., s:sources and 14th cent* and (drama or theat*)
• include in your search s:early works and nth cent* e.g., s:early works and 14th cent* and (drama or theat*)

We have several large sets of reprints and transcriptions of early documents. Do a keyword search in MERLIN and include the name of one of these sets in your search. E.g., Early English Text Society and drama; Translations and Reprints and drama.

• Early English Text Society
• Records of Civilization
• Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History (Use just Translations and Reprints in your search)
• Bohns Antiquarian Library
• Camden Society

Special Collections houses several microfilm sets of medieval manuscripts. You may need to use a printed guide to each set to locate specific works.

• British Literary Manuscripts from Cambridge University Library. Series One. The Medieval Age, c.1150-1500 Parts 1-3. Brighton: Harvester Microform Publication; 1984. 49 reels (191 titles) (Brighton Library Heritage). Note: Guide: SPEC-R Z6611 .L7 B69 1984, British Library Manuscripts from Cambridge University Library. FILM BOOK 0019.
  
• Lambeth Palace Library. The Medieval Manuscripts Section I: Old English, French. etc. London: World Microfilm Publication; 1974. 17 reels (51 titles). Note: The publisher's brief title listing is available in the Special Collections office. Full description of each manuscript is available in Z6621 .L82J 1932. Descriptive Catalog of Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace. FILM BOOK 008.
  
• Lambeth Palace Library. The Mediaeval Manuscripts. Section IV: Humanistic Studies. London: World Microfilm Publications; 1976. 39 reels (112 titles). Note: The publisher`s brief title listing is available in the Special Collections office. Full description of each manuscript is available in Z6621 .L82J 1932 Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace. FILM BOOK 009.
  
• Trinity College (University of Cambridge) Library. Mediaeval Manuscripts Collection Including Some Post-Medieval Manuscripts Section V. Literature. Part A. General. Part B. The Greek and Later Classics. London: World Microfilms Publications; 1979. 61 reels (235 titles). Note: An uncataloged guide, Trinity College, Cambridge. The Mediaeval Manuscript Collection, is available in the Special Collections office. FILM BOOK 010.
  
• Trinity College (University of Cambridge) Library. Mediaeval Manuscript Collection Including Some Post-Medieval Manuscript Section VI. Secular Mss. Part A. General. Part B. History. London: World Microfilms Publications; 1979. 80 reels (241 titles). Note: An uncataloged guide, Trinity College, Cambridge. The Mediaeval Manuscript Collections is available in the Special Collections office. FILM BOOK 0011.

Several resources provide access, not to the plays themselves, but to other primary records of dramatic activities. These are useful for discovering what was performed where, when, and by whom.
Records of Early English Drama (Call numbers vary. Search this title in MERLIN to see the various volumes.)
Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain: A Chronological Topography to 1558 (PN2587.L36 1984)
English Ritual Drama: A Geographical Index (398 F69p 77)

Criticism

Criticism may be published in books or as articles in journals.

Use the MERLIN and MOBIUS catalogs to locate books of criticism about an author or topic. 
Do a subject search using the Library of Congress subject headings, such as:

Drama--medieval
Theater--history--medieval, 500-1500
Liturgical drama
Moralities
Mysteries and miracle plays
Passion-plays

Wakefield pageants
York mysteries

Do a table of contents search to locate relevant chapters in books with a broader focus.
Note that tables of contents are not included in the catalog records for all books. Another way to find essays in collections is to use The Essay and General Literature Index (Ref. Alcove 9 AI3.E752 )
The keyword search searches for words in author, title, subject headings, tables of contents and notes all at once.  You can use various search options to make your search more precise and to sort the results in various ways.
You may expand your search to include all MOBIUS libraries. Materials requested through MOBIUS are usually delivered in about 48 hours.
If you haven't found enough, use WorldCat to search libraries throughout North America. You may request books from WorldCat by clicking on the button at the top left of each record.

 The major literary databases are: 
MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures
1963-present online, 1921-1962 in print in Ref. Alcove 9.
ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
1920-1999 online.

The International Medieval Bibliography (Ref. Z6203 .I52) focuses on medieval studies in all disciplines. Each volume covers one year. To use this two-step bibliography, first check the index in the back, then follow the references to the citation numbers in the front.

Several bibliographies focus on Medieval drama:
Carl Joseph Stratman. Bibliography of Medieval Drama 2nd ed. (Ref. Z5782.A2 S8 1972)
Maria Spaeth Murphy. Bibliography of Medieval Drama, 1969-1972 (AS36.K32 34 4)
Carole Ferguson. Bibliography of Medieval Drama, 1977-1980 (AS36.K32 37 2)
Sidney E. Berger. Medieval English Drama: An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Criticism (Z2014.D7 B43 1990)
D. Jerry White. Early English Drama, Everyman to 1580: A Reference Guide (Z2014.D7 W48 1986)

Serial Bibliographies for Medieval Studies (Z6203.R66) and
A Guide to Serial Bibliographies for Modern Literature (Ref. Alcove 9 PN695.W67 1995) list additional specialized bibliographies.

Use additional subject databases to find materials beyond the literary:
Art Index
ATLA Religion Database
Historical Abstracts
Music Index
Philosophers Index
sociofile

Web of Science
Expanded Academic and Periodical Abstracts both contain the full-text of selected journals. 
 

Electronic Literary Texts 

Middle English Text Collection
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.

Collections of Internet Resources

"All the World's a Stage": WWW Links for Theatre History and Early Music

Medieval Theatre

Medieval Drama

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies

ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies

Literary Resources on the Net

Voice of the Shuttle

LION: Literature Online contains a database of literary web sites. From the main LION menu, choose Search Criticism and Reference, then WWW.

Electronic Discussion Forums
PERFORM  Medieval and Renaissance performance discussion group.

REED-L Discussion list for early drama, music, and popular custom.

Citation Guides
MLA style manuals are available on Index Table 11 in Ellis' Reference area in 1 South.
If you use articles you obtained in full-text version directly from a library database, the citation protocol will be different than if you had found the article in paper copy in the library.