PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Shakespeare and classic works

How to Cite Shakespeare and Classic Works in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a Shakespeare play lists Shakespeare as the author, the year of the edition you read, the title in italics, the editors with Eds. in parentheses, the publisher or website, the URL if you read it online, and (Original work published 1623) at the end. The in-text citation gives both years and the act, scene, and line instead of a page number: (Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37).

The format

Shakespeare, W. (Year of your edition). Title of the work (A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor, Eds.). Publisher or Website Name. URL (Original work published Year)

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 22, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

In PERRLA, choose Ancient & Classic Works. Fill it in from the title page and copyright page of your edition, or from the website you read:

  • Contributors: Shakespeare (or Milton, or whoever wrote the work) with the role Author, and each editor on the title page with the role Editor.
  • Title of the Work: the title in sentence case, like Much ado about nothing. Proper names keep their capitals.
  • Publication Year: the copyright year of your edition, from its copyright page. Leave it empty for a website that shows no date, and PERRLA writes n.d.
  • The publisher, or the website's name and its URL.
  • Original Publication Year: the year the work was first printed, like 1623.

When you quote a play, choose Act, Scene, & Line in the citation box and type each number in its own box. PERRLA writes 5.1.37 and puts both years in front of it. For a sonnet or a long poem, choose Other, type the label (Sonnet 18, lines) and the numbers, and PERRLA prints them as you wrote them.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author

Start with the writer's last name and initials, the same as any book. Shakespeare is always the author of his plays, even when the cover gives the editors more room than him.

Shakespeare, W.

2. Year of your edition

Give the year of the copy you read, in parentheses, followed by a period. For a print book, use the copyright year on the copyright page, not the date of a later printing. For a website that shows no date for the text, write n.d.

(1992).

Don't put 1623 here. The year the work first appeared goes at the end of the reference.

3. Title

Italicize the title of the play or poem and write it in sentence case: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. A title that is a name, like Julius Caesar, keeps its capitals.

The tragedy of Macbeth

Take the title from your edition's title page, which can be longer than the cover: the Folger paperback says Macbeth on the cover and The Tragedy of Macbeth on the title page. In your sentences, the title goes in title case and italics, and the short name is fine: Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing.

4. Editors

Put the editors' initials and last names in parentheses after the title, then Eds. (or Ed. for one). Join two names with an ampersand. Write each name the way your source prints it.

(B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.)

The editors matter because they chose the wording and numbered the lines. Two editions of the same play can put the same speech on different line numbers, and the reference tells your reader which one you used.

5. Publisher or website

For a print book or an e-book, give the publisher from the title page, with no city. For a text you read online, give the website's name and then the URL, with no period after the link.

Washington Square Press.

Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/julius-caesar/

6. Original publication date

End with the year the work was first printed: (Original work published 1623), with no period after it. Most of Shakespeare's plays, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar, were first printed in the First Folio of 1623, and APA's own Shakespeare example uses that year.

(Original work published 1623)

Some plays came out earlier in small single editions. Your edition's note on the text says which printing came first. Shakespeare's sonnets were first printed together in 1609, and Paradise Lost in 1667.

Examples

A Shakespeare play in a print edition

The Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Macbeth, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine and published by Washington Square Press in 1992. A nursing or psychology student might cite Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene, where she keeps washing her hands: "Out, damned spot, out, I say!" The citation gives the act, scene, and line, not the page.

  • Parenthetical citation(Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37)
  • Narrative citationShakespeare (1623/1992, 5.1.37)

A Shakespeare play you read online

Julius Caesar on the Folger Shakespeare Library's website, which credits four editors and shows no date for the text you read. The Folger's own citation page uses n.d. for these texts too. With no date, the year becomes n.d., and the in-text citation still leads with 1623. This one cites the two lines where Cassius tells Brutus the fault lies not in their stars but in themselves.

  • Parenthetical citation(Shakespeare, 1623/n.d., 1.2.147–148)
  • Narrative citationShakespeare (1623/n.d., 1.2.147–148)

A Shakespeare sonnet

Sonnet 18 from Shakespeare's Sonnets on Project Gutenberg, released in 1997 with no editor named. The reference is for the collection you read. The sonnet's number and line numbers go in the in-text citation.

  • Parenthetical citation(Shakespeare, 1609/1997, Sonnet 18, lines 1–2)
  • Narrative citationShakespeare (1609/1997, Sonnet 18, lines 1–2)

Another classic: a long poem with books and lines

John Milton's Paradise Lost in Dartmouth's John Milton Reading Room, edited by Thomas H. Luxon. The poem is numbered by book and line, so the citation names both. Satan's line "The mind is its own place" is Book 1, lines 254–255 in any edition with standard numbering. The site puts each book on its own page, so the URL is the page for the book you quote.

  • Parenthetical citation(Milton, 1667/n.d., Book 1, lines 254–255)
  • Narrative citationMilton (1667/n.d., Book 1, lines 254–255)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for Shakespeare gives his name, the two years, and the part you quote. Use the act, scene, and line numbers, never a page number: they let your reader find the passage in any edition, print or online.

  • A line from a play: act, scene, and line in Arabic numerals with periods between them: (Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37)
  • Several lines: join the first and last line with an en dash: (Shakespeare, 1623/n.d., 1.2.147–148)
  • Two years: the original year first, a slash, then your edition's year. A website with no date gives 1623/n.d.
  • A sonnet: the sonnet's number, then the word lines (lowercase) and the line numbers: (Shakespeare, 1609/1997, Sonnet 18, lines 1–2)
  • A long poem: the book (or canto) and the lines: (Milton, 1667/n.d., Book 1, lines 254–255)
  • The whole play, no quote: just the name and years: (Shakespeare, 1623/1992)

A narrative citation puts Shakespeare in your sentence and can name the play: In Macbeth, Shakespeare (1623/1992) has Lady Macbeth relive the murder in her sleep (5.1.37).

Common mistakes

  • (Shakespeare, 1992, p. 163)(Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37)Page numbers change from one edition to the next. Act, scene, and line numbers work in any copy, and APA asks for them for classical works. The citation also needs both years when the reference has an original date.
  • (Shakespeare, 1623/1992, V.i.37)(Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37)APA writes act, scene, and line in Arabic numerals with periods between them. Roman numerals are an older literary habit, not APA.
  • Shakespeare, W. (1623). The tragedy of Macbeth. Washington Square Press.Shakespeare, W. (1992). The tragedy of Macbeth (B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Washington Square Press. (Original work published 1623)The year after the author is the year of the edition you held. The 1623 date moves to the end, and the editors go after the title.
  • Mowat, B. A., & Werstine, P. (Eds.). (1992). The tragedy of Macbeth. Washington Square Press.Shakespeare, W. (1992). The tragedy of Macbeth (B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.). Washington Square Press. (Original work published 1623)Shakespeare wrote the play, so he stays in the author position. The editors of a Shakespeare edition go in parentheses after the title, the way APA's own Shakespeare example shows them.
  • Shakespeare, W. (1997). Sonnet 18. Project Gutenberg.Shakespeare, W. (1997). Shakespeare’s sonnets. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1041 (Original work published 1609)You read the sonnet inside a collection, so the reference is for the collection. The sonnet's number goes in the in-text citation.

Quick checklist

  • Shakespeare (or the classic's writer) as the author
  • The year of your edition, or n.d. for an undated website
  • Title in italics and sentence case
  • Editors with Eds. after the title
  • Publisher, or the website's name and URL
  • (Original work published 1623) at the end, and both years in every citation
  • Act.scene.line in the text, never a page number

Questions students ask

Do I need a reference entry for Shakespeare in APA 7?

Yes. APA 7 treats Shakespeare like any other book or webpage, so the edition you read gets a full reference list entry. Every in-text citation then points to it with both years.

What original publication date do I use for a Shakespeare play?

Use the year the play was first printed. For most plays that is 1623, the year of the First Folio, which is the year APA's own Shakespeare example uses. If your edition's introduction says the play was printed earlier on its own, use that year. The sonnets were first printed together in 1609.

How do I cite act, scene, and line in APA?

Write the three numbers in Arabic numerals with periods between them, after the years: (Shakespeare, 1623/1992, 5.1.37). For more than one line, give the range with an en dash: 1.2.147–148.

What if my copy of the play has no line numbers?

Look for an edition that has them: most school editions and the free Folger Shakespeare Library texts print line numbers. If yours truly has none, give the act and scene, like 5.1, so your reader can still find the passage.

How do I cite a classic novel like <em>Pride and Prejudice</em> or <em>Frankenstein</em>?

Novels have no act or line numbers that every edition shares, so cite them as republished books: the year of your edition, the publisher, and the original date at the end. Use page numbers in the text, or the chapter when you read an e-book with no stable pages.

How do I cite a play from a complete works of Shakespeare?

Make one reference for the volume you used, with its editors, year, and publisher. Name the play in your sentence so your reader knows which play each act.scene.line belongs to.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 6.17, 8.15, 8.28, 9.42, and 10.2, and the APA Style blog post on citing classical and religious works. Example sources verified on October 22, 2026: the Folger Macbeth against its Library of Congress catalog record (via Open Library) and the Folger's online text for the line number; Julius Caesar against the Folger Shakespeare Library's text, its citation page for the editor credits, and its note on the play's first printing; Project Gutenberg's eBook #1041 record; and the John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth.

PERRLA builds the reference for Shakespeare and other classics from your edition's details, and writes act, scene, and line into every citation.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days