ManifestGET
/v1/index.jsonAPI version, corpus counts, and top-level entry points.
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A free, read-only API for Shakespeare's plays and poems. Retrieve lines, speeches, speakers, and word frequencies - normalized for reading and analysis.
Example
JavaScript
Request builder
Choose an endpoint, copy the URL or cURL, and retrieve JSON.
curl -sS "https://cdn.dramatis.app/v1/plays/a_midsummer_nights_dream/scenes/a01-s01.lines.json"
Click "Fetch JSON" to preview the response.
Docs
All endpoints for discovery, reading, and analysis.
API version, corpus counts, and top-level entry points.
Lists all plays with links to speakers and word frequencies.
Lists all poems with direct JSON links.
Scene listing with links to lines, speeches, and words.
One record per spoken line, normalized for reading.
Lines grouped by speaker with line ranges.
Word-frequency counts for a single scene.
All characters with line counts and scene appearances.
Word-frequency counts across the full play.
One record per line with stanza and line numbers.
Complete poem with stanza structure and metadata.
Fair use: Rate-limited to prevent abuse. Excessive requests return HTTP 429 - wait briefly and retry.
playSlugPlay ID from the plays index, e.g. a_midsummer_nights_dream.sceneKeyScene key from a play TOC, e.g. a01-s01 or 01-dramatis-personae.speakerIdCharacter ID from the speakers endpoint, e.g. theseus.poemSlugPoem ID from the poems index, e.g. sonnet_018 or elegy.Use derived endpoints (.lines.json, .speeches.json, .words.json) for most use cases. The base .json endpoint includes full tokenized data.