The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation

Book excerpt: This dictionary is the first comprehensive description of Shakespearean original pronuniciation (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 to further aid 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 centers. 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.