PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Shakespeare and classic works

How to Cite Shakespeare and Classic Works in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a Shakespeare play gives his name inverted (Shakespeare, William), the play's title in italics, the year it was first printed if you choose to add it, Edited by and the editors' names, the publisher, and the year of your edition. For a text you read online, the website's name in italics and the URL take the place of the publisher. The in-text citation is his last name and the act, scene, and line numbers, joined by periods, with no comma: (Shakespeare 5.1.37).

The format

Shakespeare, William. Title of the Play. Year First Printed. Edited by First Name Last Name and First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th 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. PERRLA writes Edited by, and with three or more editors it names the first and adds et al.
  • Title of the Work: the title from your edition's title page. PERRLA puts it in title case and italics.
  • Publication Year: the copyright year of your edition. Leave it empty for a website that shows no date.
  • Publishers: the publisher from the title page, or, for a text you read online, the website's name. Add the URL too, and PERRLA sets the website's name in italics as the container, the MLA way.
  • Original Publication Year: optional in MLA. Type the year the work was first printed, like 1623, and PERRLA puts it right after the title.

When you quote a play, open Page or location in the citation box, choose Act, scene, & line, and type each number in its own box. PERRLA writes 5.1.37 after Shakespeare's name. For a long poem numbered by book and line, type the book in the Act box and the lines in the Scene box, and leave Line empty. For a sonnet, choose Other, type sonnet 18, lines as the label and the line numbers as the value.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author

Start with the writer's last name, a comma, and the first name. End with a period. Shakespeare is the author of his plays, even when the editors' names are bigger on the cover.

Shakespeare, William.

2. Title

Italicize the play's title and write it in title case, the way your edition's title page gives it. End with a period.

The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The title page can be longer than the cover: the Folger paperback says Macbeth on the cover and The Tragedy of Macbeth inside. In your sentences, the short name is fine: Macbeth, Julius Caesar.

3. Year first printed (optional)

MLA lets you add the year the work first appeared right after the title, when that date helps your reader. About half of Shakespeare's plays, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar, were first printed in the First Folio of 1623.

1623.

The sonnets were first printed together in 1609, and Paradise Lost in 1667. Leave this out if you aren't sure of the date.

4. Editors

Write Edited by and the editors' names in normal order, the way your edition prints them, followed by a comma. Join two names with and. With three or more, give the first editor and et al.

Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine,

Edited by Barbara Mowat et al.,

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

5. Publisher and year

For a print book or an e-book, give the publisher from the title page, a comma, and the copyright year of your edition, not the date of a later printing. End with a period.

Washington Square Press, 1992.

6. Website and URL (online)

For a text you read online, the website is the container: its name goes in italics, followed by a comma. When the site is named after the organization that runs it, give the name once. Add the date the site gives for the text, if any, then the URL without https:// and a period.

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

If the site shows no date, MLA suggests ending with the date you read it: Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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.

  • In-text citation(Shakespeare 5.1.37)
  • Narrative citationIn Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth cries, … (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. With four editors, MLA names the first and adds et al. This one cites the two lines where Cassius tells Brutus the fault lies not in their stars but in themselves. Past 99, MLA shortens the second line number to its last two digits: 1.2.147–48.

  • In-text citation(Shakespeare 1.2.147–48)
  • Narrative citationAs Shakespeare's Cassius tells Brutus, … (1.2.147–48).

A Shakespeare sonnet

Sonnet 18 from Shakespeare's Sonnets on Project Gutenberg, released on 1 September 1997 with no editor named. MLA gives the whole sequence one Works Cited entry and puts the sonnet's number in the in-text citation, with the word lines the first time you cite line numbers.

  • In-text citation(Shakespeare, sonnet 18, lines 1–2)
  • Narrative citationIn sonnet 18, Shakespeare asks, … (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 MLA joins the two numbers with a period and no label: 1.254–55 is Book 1, lines 254–55, where Satan says "The mind is its own place." The site puts each book on its own page, so the URL is the page for the book you quote.

  • In-text citation(Milton 1.254–55)
  • Narrative citationAs Milton's Satan boasts, … (1.254–55).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for Shakespeare is his last name and the place in the play, never a page number. Act, scene, and line numbers 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, and no comma after the name: (Shakespeare 5.1.37)
  • Several lines: join the first and last line with an en dash. Past 99, the second number keeps only its last two digits: (Shakespeare 1.2.147–48)
  • A sonnet: the word sonnet and its number, then lines and the line numbers. The label takes a comma after the name: (Shakespeare, sonnet 18, lines 1–2)
  • A long poem: the book and the line, joined by a period: (Milton 1.254–55)
  • More than one play: add the play's title in italics, shortened if it's long: (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 1.2.147–48)
  • Name in your sentence: give only the numbers in parentheses at the end: In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth relives the murder in her sleep (5.1.37).

If your edition prints no line numbers, cite the act and scene, and add the page if it helps: (54; 1.4).

Common mistakes

  • (Shakespeare 163)(Shakespeare 5.1.37)Page numbers change from one edition to the next. MLA cites a verse play by act, scene, and line, which work in any copy.
  • (Shakespeare, 5.1.37)(Shakespeare 5.1.37)MLA puts no comma between the name and a number. A comma only comes before a label word, like sonnet or lines.
  • (Shakespeare V.i.37)(Shakespeare 5.1.37)MLA uses Arabic numerals for acts and scenes, with periods between the numbers. Roman numerals are an older habit.
  • (Shakespeare 1.2.147–148)(Shakespeare 1.2.147–48)MLA shortens the second number in a range past 99 to its last two digits, for line numbers as well as pages.
  • Mowat, Barbara A., and Paul Werstine, editors. The Tragedy of Macbeth.Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. 1623. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine,Shakespeare wrote the play, so he stays in the author position. The editors go after the title, introduced by Edited by.
  • Shakespeare, W. (1992). The tragedy of Macbeth (B. A. Mowat & P. Werstine, Eds.).Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. 1623. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Washington Square Press, 1992.That's APA. MLA spells out first names, uses title case, writes Edited by, and puts your edition's year after the publisher.

Quick checklist

  • Shakespeare, William (or the classic's writer) first
  • Title in italics and title case, from your edition's title page
  • Year first printed after the title, if you add it
  • Edited by and the editors, et al. for three or more
  • Publisher and year, or the website in italics and the URL
  • Act.scene.line in the text, no comma after the name, never a page number

Questions students ask

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

Write the three numbers in Arabic numerals with periods between them, right after Shakespeare's name and with no comma: (Shakespeare 5.1.37). For more than one line, use an en dash, shortening the second number past 99: 1.2.147–48.

Do I need the 1623 date in an MLA citation for Shakespeare?

No. MLA treats the original publication date as optional. Add it after the title when the date matters to your discussion, like a paper on how the play first reached readers. The year of your own edition always goes in, after the publisher.

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

Cite the act and scene, like 1.4. If it would help your reader, add the page number first, with a semicolon: (54; 1.4). Most school editions and the free Folger texts do print line numbers, so look for one of those first.

How do I cite more than one Shakespeare play in the same paper?

Give each play its own Works Cited entry. In the text, add the play's title in italics after his name, so your reader knows which play the numbers belong to: (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 1.2.147–48). If the title is in your sentence, give the numbers alone.

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

The play is the source and the big volume is the container. Give the play's title in italics, then the volume's title in italics, a comma, edited by (lowercase here, since it follows the container) and the editors, the publisher, the year, and the pages the play fills.

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

Cite it as a book: the author, the title in italics, and your edition's publisher and year, with the original year after the title if you like. In the text, give the page. It helps to add a semicolon and the chapter, so readers with other editions can find the passage too.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, other contributors, and the optional original publication date) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on short quotations from a play (Shakespeare 2.4.263-64), editions without line numbers, numbers in citations of poems, line numbers in the first citation, sonnets from a sequence, and a Project Gutenberg book as a container. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page: the Folger Macbeth against its Library of Congress record (via Open Library), the Folger's Julius Caesar text and citation page for the four editors, Project Gutenberg's eBook #1041 record (released 1 Sept. 1997, re-checked Oct 27), and the John Milton Reading Room at Dartmouth.

PERRLA builds the Works Cited entry 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