How to Cite Shakespeare in MLA, APA, and Chicago

Verse versus prose does not decide the locator by itself. The edition does. Many scholarly Shakespeare editions number both verse and prose continuously within each scene. Others number verse but give only pages for prose, and some digital editions use paragraphs. Line numbering—and occasionally scene division or wording—can differ, so never transplant a locator from a quotation website into a different edition.

Use Arabic numerals in the citation even if a heading in the book displays Roman numerals. If you mention the play, act, and scene in your sentence, avoid repeating them unnecessarily in parentheses; retain only the information the reader still needs.

MLA is the most common system for literature papers. A standalone scholarly edition is cited as a book: Shakespeare is the author, the play is italicized, the editor follows the title, and the publisher and edition year identify the copy used. The example below uses bibliographic facts from the MLA Style Center’s current Shakespeare example.

The parenthetical reference starts with the first element of the Works Cited entry, then gives the locator without a comma. If your sentence already names Shakespeare, write only (3.2.106–14). If the paper cites more than one Shakespeare play, identify the work too: (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 3.2.106–14), or (Romeo and Juliet 3.2.106–14) when Shakespeare is already named in your sentence. A conventional abbreviation may be used when your instructor or field supplies a recognized abbreviation list; do not create an abbreviation that readers cannot decode.

If the play is one work inside a complete works volume or anthology, cite the play and the larger container exactly as presented. If the edition lacks line numbers, use its page number, and mention act and scene in your prose when helpful. MLA’s official guidance demonstrates both the general in-text citation principle and a current Shakespeare play entry with act.scene.line.

• Up to three lines of verse: integrate the quotation into your paragraph and mark each poetic line break with a spaced slash: word / next line.
• More than three lines of verse: use a block quotation, omit quotation marks, and preserve the line breaks and indentation that matter.
• Dialogue from two or more speakers: use a dramatic block quotation with the speaker labels and line layout, even when the excerpt is short.
• An omission: use an ellipsis within an integrated quotation; in a verse block, MLA provides a line of spaced periods when one or more complete lines are removed.

For example, an integrated verse quotation may end “It was the nightingale, and not the lark, / . . . / Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree” (Shakespeare 3.5.2–4). Preserve the wording of your edition. The MLA Style Center’s 2024 guidance explains omissions and block treatment in verse drama; its official page on a play’s prose or verse prologue confirms that the locator follows the form supplied by the source.

The three-line cutoff is an MLA quotation-layout rule, not a universal Shakespeare rule. Under APA’s official quotation rules, a quotation normally switches to block format at 40 words, while Chicago follows its own quotation guidance and any publisher or instructor requirements.

APA treats the edition as a republished or edited book. Put the edition’s publication year in the main date position, identify the editors after the italicized sentence-case title, and add the original publication year at the end when it is established. In text, give the original and edition years separated by a slash. Do not replace the edition year with an approximate composition or first-performance date.

APA does not require one Shakespeare-only dotted shorthand for every edition. For a direct quotation, use the locator that most directly takes the reader to the passage. A stable page is the ordinary choice; act, scene, and line information is a useful alternative when the edition supplies it and pages are absent or unsuitable. Spell the locator out when that avoids ambiguity.

If you quote an editor’s introduction or note rather than Shakespeare’s text, cite the editor as the author of that separate part. If you use a translation, credit the translator in the reference and use the dates for the translated edition and original work. Compare the entry with APA Style’s official book and republished-work examples and its guidance for quotations without page numbers. The site’s APA format guide covers the broader author-date system.

Humanities papers usually use Chicago Notes and Bibliography. The current manual is the 18th edition, and a place of publication is no longer required in book citations. Cite the specific edition in the first note and bibliography, then give act, scene, and line for the quoted passage when the edition supplies them.

If the numbering may not be obvious, explain once that references are to act, scene, and line. Chicago specifically warns that Shakespeare editions can differ in wording, line numbering, and scene division, which is why the edition must be identified.

When an assignment requires Chicago Author-Date, move the edition year after the author in the reference list and use (Shakespeare 1992, 3.2.106–14) in text. Chicago can record an original publication date when it is relevant, but do not import APA’s slash-date form automatically. Check Chicago’s current 18th-edition chapter 14, especially sections 14.153–14.154, and its official samples for Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. The Chicago style guide explains the two systems.

• Online play text: cite the edition actually displayed, including the editor, site or publisher, date, and stable URL when available. Keep its page, paragraph, or line numbering; do not silently substitute numbers from a print edition. See how to cite a website and how to cite an ebook.
• Film or recorded performance: cite the production, director, performers, release details, and a timestamp. Act.scene.line identifies Shakespeare’s text, not the location in a recording. Use the guide to citing a movie.
• Editor’s introduction or note: cite that contributed part under the editor’s name, not Shakespeare’s. For container structure, review a work in an edited book.
• Critical article or biography: cite the scholar’s work as an article or book. This page does not replace research-source documentation.
• Sonnets: identify the sonnet and its lines rather than using act.scene.line. The guide to citing a poem covers collection and anthology details.

The general citation generators on this site format their supported source types, but they do not currently have Shakespeare-specific fields for act, scene, line, editor, and original-publication dates. Use the patterns here manually rather than forcing the play into an unrelated form.

• Citing “Shakespeare” without the edition: readers need the edited, translated, print, or online text you actually used.
• Assuming all line numbers match: verify the quotation and locator in the same edition before submitting.
• Using act.scene.line for unnumbered prose: use a page or paragraph rather than inventing a line.
• Repeating the author or title: do not repeat in parentheses information already given clearly in the sentence.
• Treating the editor as coauthor: credit the editor in the edition element; make the editor the author only when citing the editor’s own introduction or notes.
• Mixing quotation rules: MLA’s verse-line threshold, APA’s 40-word threshold, and Chicago’s rules are not interchangeable.
• Using a generator output blindly: generic book fields cannot decide the correct Shakespeare locator or reconcile two editions.

For help integrating the passage into your sentence or block, see how to cite a quote and the broader guide to in-text citations.

MLA examples and quotation rules were checked against current MLA Style Center pages that cite the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook. APA examples apply the official APA Style rules for edited or republished books and direct quotations without pages. Chicago examples use the current 18th-edition table of contents and official sample citations, including the new omission of publication place. The guide separates rules confirmed for a style from sensible edition-specific choices; it does not claim that one locator format works for every text.