Shakespeare Pro App

Shakespeare – PlayShakespeare.com
Oddly enough, this isn’t the most used app on my phone or tablet; however, it is a favored one. While, see the footnotes, I’ve written about this app before, in a year-end, “best of” collection, it gets an honorable mention.

Shakespeare Pro App

Shakespeare – PlayShakespeare.com
It’s not an app that I use daily, and to be honest, although I carry it on the front screen of my phone, I’ve use infrequently, at the very best, in that setting. However, in a weekly commute, or just various wandering, or questions about Shakespeare in context?

The iPad app is the quickest way to source data. Fact check. Fast check. Fast facts.

Shakespeare Pro App

In the last week, maybe ten days? I’ve accessed the app on my main tablet to look at three items. One was an off-the-cuff comment in The Tempest. One was something from Henry IV, pt. 2, and then I was searching for context to understand a Hamlet quote.

In preparation for the following year, I already have a long list of dates — weeks for the weekly column — with first choice quotes in place.

These days, what I tend to do is copy the quote straight out of the app’s UI, and in the app’s settings, I keep the traditional line numbers turned on, so I have a common reference point. Makes academic look and feel easier.

Once I got accustomed to the slightly skewed search function, I found it much easier to access the data.

That’s me, learning how to use the app’s interface and me, learning to interpret the app’s results.

Shakespeare Pro App

The weird part, and I’m unsure if I have made allusion to this little “Kramer fact,” but one of the reasons I got interested in computers and textual analysis was the ability to search through a large library of text files to grab information.

Now, as I understand it, there’s a whole subset of linguistics study called “Stylemetrics,” or “stylometry” that analyzes text for clues. Like most of the library arts, though, the data is confusing, and can be debated endlessly.

What I like about the Shakespeare Pro App best is that it doesn’t delve into the controversy. It doesn’t judge — too much — the good quartos, the bad quartos, the apocrypha is clearly labeled, and text carries the weight.

For me, it’s a very handy app that serves as coherent and cogent front-end for a simple collection of the plays, poems, and related works.

Shakespeare – PlayShakespeare.com

Perviously

Shakespeare Pro App 2013
Shakespeare Pro App 2015
Shakespeare Pro App 2016
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