• Accompanied by a website hosting sound files as a further aid to pronunciation
• The first book to offer a comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronunciation
• Extensive introduction outlines the aims, evidence, history, and current use of original pronunciation

 
This dictionary is the first comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronunication (OP), enabling practitioners to deal with any queries about the pronunciation of individual words. It includes all the words in the First Folio, transcribed using IPA, and the accompanying website hosts sound files as a further aid to pronunciation. It also includes the main sources of evidence in the texts, notably all spelling variants (along with a frequency count for each variant) and all rhymes (including those occurring elsewhere in the canon, such as the Sonnets and long poems). An extensive introduction provides a full account of the aims, evidence, history, and current use of OP in relation to Shakespeare productions, as well as indicating the wider use of OP in relation to other Elizabethan and Jacobean writers, composers from the period, the King James Bible, and those involved in reconstructing heritage centres. It will be an invaluable resource for producers, directors, actors, and others wishing to mount a Shakespeare production or present Shakespeare's poetry in original pronunciation, as well as for students and academics in the fields of literary criticism and Shakespeare studies more generally.
 
 
REVIEWS:
 
"Crystals work definitely surpasses all of the expectations that one could have of a magnum opus such as this one, which can definitely be considered as a must-have reference book for all of those interested in the language of Shakespeare. This dictionary is unquestionably another masterpiece by this British linguist." - Pablo Tagarro Melón and Nerea Suárez González, Clomputense Journal of English Studies
 
"Crystal's unique dictionary joins his other worthy Shakespearean language works to form an essential collection covering the language of the Bard." - R. A. Aken, University of Kentucky
  
"Crystal has looked to capture the state of our language at the time when Shakespeare was writing ... he has achieved something quite remarkable." - The Bookbag