Geoffrey Bullough, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957), 8 vols

Summary from the Publisher:

Shakespeare’s writing is filled with ideas, images, plots and characters borrowed or interpreted from other dramatists and poets. This work gathers together the sources and traces the relationship of these texts to Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic works.

Whole texts are included wherever possible, and significant extracts provided from longer works such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Since many of the reprinted texts are based on the Elizabethan editions highly regarded at that time, this collection also serves as a valuable anthology of prose and verse.

A critical introduction to the sources of each of the plays explains the significance of the reprinted texts, and appraises the influence each had on Shakespeare’s writings. Each volume in the series contains a selective bibliography.

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