How should I cite an e-book version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that uses paragraph numbers instead of line numbers?
Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
If your source uses paragraph numbers instead of page numbers or line numbers, your in-text citation should give the relevant number or numbers preceded by par. (for paragraph) or pars. (for paragraphs):
HAMLET. Ay, marry, is ’t,
But, to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance. (par. 25)
To allow readers to easily locate the quotation in a more standard edition of the play, you could add the act, scene, and line numbers in square brackets as part of your citation:
HAMLET. Ay, marry, is ’t,
But, to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honored in the breach than the observance. (par. 25 [act 1, scene 4, lines 15–18])
For either method, it would be a good idea to indicate in an endnote that your source does not have line numbers, because readers may expect them.