EEBO is an excellent resource for primary research.
It contains full-texts of early printed books from the 16th and 17th centuries.
You can view the material as originally published, in order to appreciate the text in its original form and also examine similarities and differences between variant versions of the texts.
Comprehensive online help is available to help you make the most of the service.
Starting from the EEBO Home Screen select the Advanced Search option and complete the search form.
You can use the Look up Authors option to help you complete the search form.
The illustration below shows you how to Look for and select Shakespeare from the list
Once you have selected the author click Add to search to continue.
You can also enter your own search terms into a box without using the Look up feature.
In this example, add to your search by manually entering richard third into the Document Title box
Click on Search once you have added all your search concepts.
You do not just have to search by author and/or title.
You could search by themes such as cunning, disguise, despair, intrigue etc. and discover how these themes appear in the literature across the database. You can add these to the keywords search box.
Once you have run your search you will see a list of matching search results.
If you retrieve too many results you can go back and Refine your search
You can also choose the most relevant results, by using the checkboxes and adding them to your Marked List.
You have a two different view display options either Full Text PDF or Image full text.
Not all formats are available for each item - they will vary between items.
You can adjust the image size if you wish to analyse it in greater detail.
For further information on how to use EEBO, please visit the links below:
EEBO webinar tutorial (44 mins)
Sample searches - examples of searching by keyword, author, etc.
English Poetry contains essentially the complete English poetic canon from the 8th century to the early 20th. Over 160,000 poems by more than 1,250 poets are drawn from nearly 4,500 printed sources.
Starting from the English Poetry home screen select the Advanced Search option.
First you will need to enter sonnets in Publication title - PUB search box. Next you will need to enter Shakespeare in the Author search box.
Click search to retrieve the results and find the sonnet required.
Alternatively you can search for the first line or the title of the selected sonnet.
Enter the details in the first line / title search box. e.g. “Shall I compare thee to a summers day” in Quotation marks
Click search to retrieve the results.
To view the full sonnet click on the link.