Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Part I: Introduction
An artistic-scientific endeavour
The scope of this dictionary
Entry structure
The nature of the evidence
Using original pronunciation
The history of OP studies
The modern OP movement
Transcription
References
Notes
Part II: The Dictionary

About the Author

David Crystal is known throughout the world as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language. His work on the language of Shakespeare includes Pronouncing Shakespeare (CUP, 2005), Think on my Words: Exploring Shakespeare's Languages (CUP, 2008), and, with Ben Crystal, Shakespeare's Words (Penguin, 2002), The Shakespeare Miscellany (Penguin, 2005), and The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary (OUP, 2015).

Reviews

This unique book, the result of more than a decade of research, offers a careful, nuanced account of the sounds and rhythms of individual words, as they might have sounded to the audiences of Shakespeares day, revealing rhymes and puns that are often lost or unclear in many varieties of Present Day English (PDE). In doing so, it provides fresh insights into Shakespeares work for a wide range of readers.
*Sarah Grandage, Early Theatre*

Crystal presents his robust, careful research, drawing together insights from linguistics, Shakespearean studies, and theatre practice, with his typical clarity and user-friendly style, repaying both targeted queries and meandering browsing ... [The book] provides insights for a wide range of users beyond theatre makers, including scholars, teachers, and students, the wider early modern heritage industry, as well as linguists with an interest in phonology, sociolinguistics, or stylistics.
*Sarah Grandage, Early Theatre*

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*

A whole linguistic world is anatomised by David Crystal ...
*Spectator*

fascinating
*Stratford-on-Avon Observer*

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*