Browsing the local used book store this past weekend, scanning the Poetry section, my mouth watered when I stumbled across a like-new copy of Shakespeare's Words, a glossary of words used in the plays and poems. Alas, purse and brain both empty, forced I was to leave it begging on the shelve! (Perhaps it was for the best, as C.T. Onion's glossary seems to be the more authoritative.)

Today I see Kottke (whom I must confess not reading very much of late) pointing to Clusty's search engine, Shakespeare Searched, which is just plain cool (and some wag named the search functions "billy." Farceur!). Although, I don't see anything about which text they're using, except that it's in the public domain.

For instance, my search for "Spunge" comes up empty, but the modern spelling, "Sponge" returns the expected result.

And it's easy enough to discover the Shakepeare Searched tagline, "Go search like nobles, like noble subjects," is spoken by Helicanus in Pericles Act II, Scene iv.