Research Guides: Find Plays, Monologues, and Scenes: Plays Online

Plays in Library Databases

The following Sterne Library databases include the full text of plays.

Black Drama: Third Edition This link opens in a new window
1,200 plays by 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa,
the Caribbean, and other African Diaspora countries. Texts can be browsed and searched by authors, plays, characters, productions, theaters, theatrical companies, and subjects.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
150,000 digitized English-language and non-English-language titles and editions printed in Great Britain between 1701 and 1800. Does not include an option to limit to plays, so you need to know the title of the 18th century play you want.
Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
Useful for identifying plays published in periodicals. To retrieve full plays, limit results to Full Text then choose Drama (Text of Play) from the Document Type limits.
Literature Online This link opens in a new window
Library of British and American literature. Includes more than 5,000 works of English and American drama from 1280 to 1915. Plays are in the public domain, usually first published editions. Choose Texts then Drama.
LitFinder This link opens in a new window
Provides access to literary works and authors throughout history and includes more than 150,000 full-text poems and 800,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays.

Plays on the Open Web

The following websites include the full text of free e-books, including plays. Most of the titles included are classics in the public domain (no longer under copyright). These editions are often plain text copies, not scans of print editions or performance scripts.