If you're shying away from Shakespeare because you aren't native English speaking, try reading the play in your native language first (so you really know the story) and then in English (to appreciate the original poetry). That and watching adaptations, like Lauren suggested, helped me enjoy Shakespeare very much. :)
I've just done that with Hamlet. It's been awesome. I was able to appreciate both the plot and the poetry. Speaking the truth, I wasn't able to read and understand straight away, and many passages were so hard to get! But after a little while I started sort of enjoying the game. Within the last pages I gave up and kept reading only in Italian: I was so into it I had no will to struggle with language. But it was fun, in the meanwhile, as I got into a smart line, to check how did Shakespeare wrote it in English. Furthermore, many things are not enjoyable but in English. Some quotes like "And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" are so beautiful you can't get the same impact in another language. I literally cried when I read it, so meaningful it was.
Great tips. Another great resource I found for my Shakespeare reading is the "Chop Bard" Podcast. The guy who runs it is a trained actor who basically reads the plays out (some alone and some with other actors) and gives commentary alongside it. I am currently making my way through the backlist. He has done Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, King Lear, all four of the Hollow Crown plays and is currently doing The Winter's Tale. And in between there are also some Episodes on acting and teaching and women in Shakespeare etc. Another fun Shakespeare podcast is "The Pendent Shakespeare aka the Wild Bill Variety Show" where they are reading Shakespeare with a full cast in a sort of wild wild west style.
While it does put you at the mercy of the actors, I usually recommend a play be watched and then read - watched, because that was how it was meant to be enjoyed, and then read, because the language is so rich that no matter how closely you listen or pay attention, you probably won't catch everything. I love going back and reading after seeing one. Great video!!
This took me back to my English lessons, where my teacher was brilliant and bought Shakespeare to life by breaking down the sentences explaining what the meaning of each verse or line was....great video
I took the opposite way, my 1st literature in English was Othello and it wasn't an annotated version it had no explanations just a glossary. The dictionary that I used was a Merriam-Webster. That was in 2016, although it was hard it was worth it. Today I finished my 7th book, King Lear, a kindle version with the Word Wise function (It makes the reading way easier).
I've been avoiding Shakespeare for years. The plays are intimidating, especially as a non-native speaker (though I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up that excuse since I read all my classics - and most books in general - in English). It also definitely doesn't help that I liked the sonnets in high school and got bullied for it. It does help to see other (young) people who are so enthusiastic about Shakespeare, so thank you for that!
Wonderful video. I am going through Shakespeare's plays in a Norton one volume edition, which can be picked up rather cheaply considering there are newer editions out there. The Norton makes for a smooth read keeping footnotes to a minimum and placing meanings of certain words on the same page. I know there are other editions at there such as the Riverside or Folgers, but the Norton helped me through Milton, and now have taken me through two plays, even helping me through some of the colloquial and bawdy banter.
I had firmly decided on English as my optinal in UPSC but was really nervous about Shakespeare but thanks to your tip of 'No Fear Shakespeare' which has given me the sunlight of hope. And yes I am a sheer novice when it comes to read any author. Thank You Very Much!
I've also found that rereading the same play by Shakespeare allows a lot more of the story to come out, since you aren't working quite so hard to understand it. While I've only read three of his plays (Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, and Othello) I've read Othello twice, and the second time around I was able to laugh at the jokes as I was reading, instead of laboriously trying to work through the language to get to the jokes, as I'd done that legwork previously. It might take some hard-core Shakespeare fans to follow this advice, however.
Yes very true. It's too much to try and follow the plot and try to understand all the hidden meaning in a one single reading. On the second reading you already have an idea of where the story is going so it frees up mental bandwidth to pick up on all the fine details.
Awesome & valuable video! I like to read along the text while watching an adaptation, & then go back and read it again. The (larger size, not mass market) Folgers editions are my favorite for their explanations and insights. Thanks for doing this.
Great video! This takes me way back to my GCSE Drama and English Lit classes (in a good way). I was very lucky to have RSC-trained teachers, so learned to understand and appreciate these plays in a less daunting way.
I love Shakespeare and I'm going through his plays now - I bought the complete plays from BBC on DVD and have bought annotated books of the plays I've read so far - thanks for the No Fear Shakespeare tip - that website is brilliant.
thank you for this! We are currently reading Romeo and Juliet in class and as much as I love reading it, it becomes rather frustrating when I cannot understand the meaning behind the dialogue between characters.
I've only just come across your channel after seeing your work with the Bailey's Women Prize. I'm so glad I found your channel! There are so few people I have seen speak so fluently about Shakespeare, and this was so helpful! It's great listening to you, definitely consider me subscribed! Loved the video. :-)
This is genius and just what I needed to introduce myself into Shakespeare for fun!! Great way of explaining and super helpful, thank you so much! totally in love and going to subscribe, can't believe I didn't know of your channel until yet!
Thank you Lauren. I did no Shakespeare at school, however recently watched All is Truth on Netflix which piqued my curiosity. I know so much more now. Oh I’m doing a course on the Tudors too, which led to me watching the film. This would be fantastic for school kids as you are very relatable.
This was so great and so helpful! I think as you say the themes are pretty universal so it's not difficult to enjoy the content of the plays but the writing is a bit of a challenge, mostly what you said about the way it's read as being different from how it's written - like where the sentence cuts off. I feel like my lack of knowledge of the form has sometimes been in the way for understanding plays, and also poetry, better. I think in the future I'll watch a few adaptions to get a feel of the melody of the language before reading further.
No Fear Shakespeare is how I got through my AP English class. So useful! I love Shakespeare now more than I did in school. I love listening to Tom Huddleston read Shakespeare Sonnets or if he's acting in a play. You read Shakespeare beautifully. You should do videos of you just reading Shakespeare! Thank you! Great video! ❤Nicole
I adore how you read them! You really motivate me to try and read some of his works again (I have only read some resumed). I think it's especially hard for me to understand his writing because I'm not a native English speaker. Thank you so very much for those tips, they are indeed very helpful! :)
I suggest an audio book series called Smart pass, at the beginning they really put the world in Shakespeare's day in context, and during the reading they occasionally take breaks to discuss the plot or the context for Shakespeare's jokes.
Thank you I really needed this because our school is doing a play though from Shakespeare of the taming of the shrew and I was out of town so I missed five days of it which may not seem like a lot but it was
New subscriber, so late to the party. I am not an native speaker, so I read most of Shakespeare in another language. I never read an entire play in English (even when ended up living in London), but I read all the famous parts and even memorised some of them. All that said, I agree with Lauren. Plays (not Shakespeare only) are to be seen. I have seen most plays on stage (Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear is my favourite), and endless adaptations. The pit (standing area) is the best spot in The Globe. You are SO close to actors.
I always thought that I would hate Shakespeare... We have been reading Macbeth for the last few days in my English class, and I am officially in love. This video was great xx
I actually had some great Shakespeare picture books when I was young, which explained the plot with comic strip-like illustrations and snippets from the play. I also think the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged is a great way to get into the language because they are also hilarious. And they bring out lots of dick jokes! It's on youtube, you can watch the whole show. Also, I've been to see Shit Faced Shakespeare twice in Edinburgh, they always do the fringe and it is the funniest show I've ever been to see! Basic premise - they perform a Shakespeare play but one of the actors is very very drunk. I cannot recommend it enough.
When Dustin Hoffman performed as Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE for Sir Peter Hall, he started off using a version of the text which had a translation on the facing page. Hall wasn't too pleased about this however, and soon persuaded Hoffman to ditch it, saying that if he trusted the rhythm of the text, and the clues embedded in the language, he would come to understand it naturally. It wasn't long before Hoffman became a convert to good old text analysis...
To my native german folks: There are bilingual Reklams for mostly any Shakespeare Play! If you struggle understanding something in english you can just read that part in german, or read it in german and watch out for cool quotes in english, it‘s up to you!
When we were reading Shakespeare in class, our teacher would always make us translate the hard parts out loud to portuguese (our native language), as directly as possible. While at first it seemed like a stupid thing to do in an english major, it really did help us understand sentence construction, metaphors, etc. If you're not a native speaker, that would be my advice. Also, he really insisted in us trying to imagine what the characters were doing, exactly as you said. It helps a lot!
Puns at almost every page; amusing and incredibly wity analogical reasoning among aristocrat and comoner; alusion and reference to greek and roman myth, to medieval church theology, to chivalry & courteous love, to farm and peasant life, to the change from catholicism to national religion. Language barrier may come first, but is in the least the greatest challenge in reading Shakespeare.
The tragedies are all quite introspective- the tragic heroes (and, in the case of Othello, the villain) often have a lot of self doubt, obsession, and/or paranoia which their speeches give in awesome detail.
+olimpia verdossi would also recommend Hamlet if you enjoy introspection! Although it's not the easiest play to start off with 😊 glad you.enjoyed he video! Xx
As soon as I finish my current reading I'll get to Shakespeare :) I'll challenge myself, as English isn't my native language (but I'm decently fluent and I study it at university).
I know I've said it before, but I do love your Shakespeare videos! No Fear Shakespeare would have helped me so much at school... I didn't get any of the jokes at that time! In fact, I think that I still haven't noticed them all. Have you read "When I have fears" by John Keats? It was written when he was studying Shakespeare, and this poem is basically Keats being frustrated by not matching Shakespeare's genius while using Shakespeare's style to write about it. It has a very different tone from his later works, but I find it quite interesting and very beautiful. xx
It was really helpful. Thank you very much. I'm Russian, so I've only read the Russian translation and been very scared of getting even close to the original. But I know I should)) Thanks to you I think I will))
Thanks for the video. I have a suggestion (if it hasn't already been mentioned - I have not read all of the comments yet): I find it helpful to read some verses of the King James Version of the Bible (which was composed during Shakespeare's latter years), and compare it to another version (preferably the New King James version). (A good resource is biblegateway.com ) Also remember (as you may have mentioned), a lot of the language is poetic, and not necessarily common everyday speech at the time. Hope this helps. Thanks.
I have just started with Shakespeare and want to read and analyse his works as much as I can. Recently I am reading Macbeth with the annotations. Would you enlighten me which things and aspects I should research about and any other sources that might help me?
Shakespeare was next to impossible for me to understand in high school. It didn’t matter what resources I used. Cliffnotes, SparkNotes, the God-awful Leo DiCaprio/Mel Gibson movies, nothing came close to get me to have any semblance of appreciation for the man.
If you're shying away from Shakespeare because you aren't native English speaking, try reading the play in your native language first (so you really know the story) and then in English (to appreciate the original poetry). That and watching adaptations, like Lauren suggested, helped me enjoy Shakespeare very much. :)
that's exactly what I'm planning to do thank you
And when you watch adaptations in English, don't be afraid to watch them with subtitles. It can really help you follow the text easier.
Makes sense, i've done it with operas. Very helpful information, thank you.
I'm gonna try it out, thank u :)
I've just done that with Hamlet. It's been awesome. I was able to appreciate both the plot and the poetry. Speaking the truth, I wasn't able to read and understand straight away, and many passages were so hard to get! But after a little while I started sort of enjoying the game.
Within the last pages I gave up and kept reading only in Italian: I was so into it I had no will to struggle with language.
But it was fun, in the meanwhile, as I got into a smart line, to check how did Shakespeare wrote it in English.
Furthermore, many things are not enjoyable but in English. Some quotes like "And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" are so beautiful you can't get the same impact in another language. I literally cried when I read it, so meaningful it was.
“Wasn’t designed to be read, it was designed to be performed “ .. love that
If it wasn't designed to be read then he wouldn't have written it down...
I have read almost all of shakespeares works aloud
Great tips. Another great resource I found for my Shakespeare reading is the "Chop Bard" Podcast. The guy who runs it is a trained actor who basically reads the plays out (some alone and some with other actors) and gives commentary alongside it. I am currently making my way through the backlist. He has done Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, King Lear, all four of the Hollow Crown plays and is currently doing The Winter's Tale. And in between there are also some Episodes on acting and teaching and women in Shakespeare etc. Another fun Shakespeare podcast is "The Pendent Shakespeare aka the Wild Bill Variety Show" where they are reading Shakespeare with a full cast in a sort of wild wild west style.
Great tip! I'd not heard of those podcasts, thanks for sharing xx
Going to try the podcast. Thanks!
You have done a great job !!! I am a senior citizen who always wanted to understand Shakespeare. You have been most helpful.
Thank you
While it does put you at the mercy of the actors, I usually recommend a play be watched and then read - watched, because that was how it was meant to be enjoyed, and then read, because the language is so rich that no matter how closely you listen or pay attention, you probably won't catch everything. I love going back and reading after seeing one. Great video!!
This took me back to my English lessons, where my teacher was brilliant and bought Shakespeare to life by breaking down the sentences explaining what the meaning of each verse or line was....great video
Thank you, this was just the encouragement I needed! Now I'll continue with A Midsummer Night's dream after really enjoying Hamlet.
I've recently started studying Shakespeare's work (for fun), and this was really helpful :) thank you
same 💙
Me too!!
How can I study Shakespearean English I really want to learn and speak it.
Same
Thanks Lauren. Reading a lot of plays over Skype during lockdown and trip up with Shakespeare. This helped!
I have found audiobooks (especially the complete Arkangel Shakespeare series) to be extremely helpful and enjoyable!
I took the opposite way, my 1st literature in English was Othello and it wasn't an annotated version it had no explanations just a glossary. The dictionary that I used was a Merriam-Webster. That was in 2016, although it was hard it was worth it. Today I finished my 7th book, King Lear, a kindle version with the Word Wise function (It makes the reading way easier).
I've been avoiding Shakespeare for years. The plays are intimidating, especially as a non-native speaker (though I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up that excuse since I read all my classics - and most books in general - in English). It also definitely doesn't help that I liked the sonnets in high school and got bullied for it. It does help to see other (young) people who are so enthusiastic about Shakespeare, so thank you for that!
Although I hated reading it in school, I understood it more than on my own because of the different parts assigned to different students 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you! I have friends that are much into Shakespeare's works, but this is another way of learning :)
Wonderful video. I am going through Shakespeare's plays in a Norton one volume edition, which can be picked up rather cheaply considering there are newer editions out there. The Norton makes for a smooth read keeping footnotes to a minimum and placing meanings of certain words on the same page. I know there are other editions at there such as the Riverside or Folgers, but the Norton helped me through Milton, and now have taken me through two plays, even helping me through some of the colloquial and bawdy banter.
I had firmly decided on English as my optinal in UPSC but was really nervous about Shakespeare but thanks to your tip of 'No Fear Shakespeare' which has given me the sunlight of hope. And yes I am a sheer novice when it comes to read any author. Thank You Very Much!
I've also found that rereading the same play by Shakespeare allows a lot more of the story to come out, since you aren't working quite so hard to understand it. While I've only read three of his plays (Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, and Othello) I've read Othello twice, and the second time around I was able to laugh at the jokes as I was reading, instead of laboriously trying to work through the language to get to the jokes, as I'd done that legwork previously. It might take some hard-core Shakespeare fans to follow this advice, however.
Yes very true. It's too much to try and follow the plot and try to understand all the hidden meaning in a one single reading. On the second reading you already have an idea of where the story is going so it frees up mental bandwidth to pick up on all the fine details.
Thanks for this! I did not know about No Fear Shakespeare and I am currently reading Hamlet
Awesome & valuable video! I like to read along the text while watching an adaptation, & then go back and read it again. The (larger size, not mass market) Folgers editions are my favorite for their explanations and insights. Thanks for doing this.
This is a brilliant video, thank you! I just bought a copy of Romeo and Juliet a few days ago and looking forward to reading it now! :)
Great video! This takes me way back to my GCSE Drama and English Lit classes (in a good way). I was very lucky to have RSC-trained teachers, so learned to understand and appreciate these plays in a less daunting way.
I love Shakespeare and I'm going through his plays now - I bought the complete plays from BBC on DVD and have bought annotated books of the plays I've read so far - thanks for the No Fear Shakespeare tip - that website is brilliant.
Örn Leifsson that is awesome. I had no idea that you could get the a DVD set of Shakespeare's play! I'll have check that out.
Thanks!
❤Nicole
thank you for this! We are currently reading Romeo and Juliet in class and as much as
I love reading it, it becomes rather frustrating when I cannot understand the meaning behind the dialogue between characters.
I've only just come across your channel after seeing your work with the Bailey's Women Prize.
I'm so glad I found your channel! There are so few people I have seen speak so fluently about Shakespeare, and this was so helpful!
It's great listening to you, definitely consider me subscribed! Loved the video. :-)
Thanks for the No Fear tip!x
This is genius and just what I needed to introduce myself into Shakespeare for fun!! Great way of explaining and super helpful, thank you so much! totally in love and going to subscribe, can't believe I didn't know of your channel until yet!
this video was really helpful I am finally understanding and getting into this thank you
Thank you Lauren. I did no Shakespeare at school, however recently watched All is Truth on Netflix which piqued my curiosity. I know so much more now. Oh I’m doing a course on the Tudors too, which led to me watching the film. This would be fantastic for school kids as you are very relatable.
Make a series just reading out Shakespeare 😍
This was so great and so helpful! I think as you say the themes are pretty universal so it's not difficult to enjoy the content of the plays but the writing is a bit of a challenge, mostly what you said about the way it's read as being different from how it's written - like where the sentence cuts off. I feel like my lack of knowledge of the form has sometimes been in the way for understanding plays, and also poetry, better. I think in the future I'll watch a few adaptions to get a feel of the melody of the language before reading further.
For me reading Shakespeare is pretty easy as I did for fun!
No Fear Shakespeare is how I got through my AP English class. So useful! I love Shakespeare now more than I did in school.
I love listening to Tom Huddleston read Shakespeare Sonnets or if he's acting in a play.
You read Shakespeare beautifully. You should do videos of you just reading Shakespeare!
Thank you!
Great video!
❤Nicole
I adore how you read them! You really motivate me to try and read some of his works again (I have only read some resumed). I think it's especially hard for me to understand his writing because I'm not a native English speaker. Thank you so very much for those tips, they are indeed very helpful! :)
Thank you, your enthusiasm and clarity deliver your points well. subscribed. (nervous first year BA Eng student)
I suggest an audio book series called Smart pass, at the beginning they really put the world in Shakespeare's day in context, and during the reading they occasionally take breaks to discuss the plot or the context for Shakespeare's jokes.
Thank you I really needed this because our school is doing a play though from Shakespeare of the taming of the shrew and I was out of town so I missed five days of it which may not seem like a lot but it was
Thanks Lauren this helped so much!
I am a Novice...I'm trying to prepare to watch Coriolanus. Good video...thanks !!
New subscriber, so late to the party. I am not an native speaker, so I read most of Shakespeare in another language. I never read an entire play in English (even when ended up living in London), but I read all the famous parts and even memorised some of them. All that said, I agree with Lauren. Plays (not Shakespeare only) are to be seen. I have seen most plays on stage (Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear is my favourite), and endless adaptations.
The pit (standing area) is the best spot in The Globe. You are SO close to actors.
Thank you ! This video was really helpful as i am about to start reading hamlet.
Thrilled that I have found you.
Thank you!!!
I always thought that I would hate Shakespeare... We have been reading Macbeth for the last few days in my English class, and I am officially in love. This video was great xx
I actually had some great Shakespeare picture books when I was young, which explained the plot with comic strip-like illustrations and snippets from the play. I also think the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged is a great way to get into the language because they are also hilarious. And they bring out lots of dick jokes! It's on youtube, you can watch the whole show.
Also, I've been to see Shit Faced Shakespeare twice in Edinburgh, they always do the fringe and it is the funniest show I've ever been to see! Basic premise - they perform a Shakespeare play but one of the actors is very very drunk. I cannot recommend it enough.
When Dustin Hoffman performed as Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE for Sir Peter Hall, he started off using a version of the text which had a translation on the facing page. Hall wasn't too pleased about this however, and soon persuaded Hoffman to ditch it, saying that if he trusted the rhythm of the text, and the clues embedded in the language, he would come to understand it naturally. It wasn't long before Hoffman became a convert to good old text analysis...
To my native german folks: There are bilingual Reklams for mostly any Shakespeare Play! If you struggle understanding something in english you can just read that part in german, or read it in german and watch out for cool quotes in english, it‘s up to you!
Yeah I watched Romeo and Juliet and I’ve never been more confused in my life
When we were reading Shakespeare in class, our teacher would always make us translate the hard parts out loud to portuguese (our native language), as directly as possible. While at first it seemed like a stupid thing to do in an english major, it really did help us understand sentence construction, metaphors, etc. If you're not a native speaker, that would be my advice. Also, he really insisted in us trying to imagine what the characters were doing, exactly as you said. It helps a lot!
Puns at almost every page; amusing and incredibly wity analogical reasoning among aristocrat and comoner; alusion and reference to greek and roman myth, to medieval church theology, to chivalry & courteous love, to farm and peasant life, to the change from catholicism to national religion. Language barrier may come first, but is in the least the greatest challenge in reading Shakespeare.
love this
This is such a helpful video! :)
This is a great video! I want to start reading something of Shakespear. I like more introspective stories, so where should I start? Maybe Hamlet?
The tragedies are all quite introspective- the tragic heroes (and, in the case of Othello, the villain) often have a lot of self doubt, obsession, and/or paranoia which their speeches give in awesome detail.
Thank you! I know that Shakespeare was one of the first author to write about the criminal mind and to investigate them :)
+olimpia verdossi would also recommend Hamlet if you enjoy introspection! Although it's not the easiest play to start off with 😊 glad you.enjoyed he video! Xx
As soon as I finish my current reading I'll get to Shakespeare :) I'll challenge myself, as English isn't my native language (but I'm decently fluent and I study it at university).
sooo helpful thank you!!!!!
I know I've said it before, but I do love your Shakespeare videos! No Fear Shakespeare would have helped me so much at school... I didn't get any of the jokes at that time! In fact, I think that I still haven't noticed them all.
Have you read "When I have fears" by John Keats? It was written when he was studying Shakespeare, and this poem is basically Keats being frustrated by not matching Shakespeare's genius while using Shakespeare's style to write about it. It has a very different tone from his later works, but I find it quite interesting and very beautiful. xx
Yay! Thank you Lauren!
It was really helpful. Thank you very much. I'm Russian, so I've only read the Russian translation and been very scared of getting even close to the original. But I know I should)) Thanks to you I think I will))
Man you're brilliant!
I had learned this at high school. I can read Shakespeare smoothly. 😋
Nice tips though.
Very useful video. Thanks a lot. :)
Thank you so much!❤️
Brilliant!
You look like Emilia Clarke.
Fabulous - thank you
Great Video thank you xxx
loved it!
Thanks for the video.
I have a suggestion (if it hasn't already been mentioned - I have not read all of the comments yet):
I find it helpful to read some verses of the King James Version of the Bible (which was composed during Shakespeare's latter years), and compare it to another version (preferably the New King James version). (A good resource is biblegateway.com )
Also remember (as you may have mentioned), a lot of the language is poetic, and not necessarily common everyday speech at the time.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
Great!!
I have just started with Shakespeare and want to read and analyse his works as much as I can. Recently I am reading Macbeth with the annotations. Would you enlighten me which things and aspects I should research about and any other sources that might help me?
Would share it with my classmates
Tell me why she looks like rebbeca
No Fear Shakespeare for me. I need simultaneous translation 😅
but how do i read it
GCSE In 2 days .... still don’t understand shakespeare
love u
Shakespeare was next to impossible for me to understand in high school. It didn’t matter what resources I used. Cliffnotes, SparkNotes, the God-awful Leo DiCaprio/Mel Gibson movies, nothing came close to get me to have any semblance of appreciation for the man.
Why
BMP motorsport how do we always find the worst stuff on theee internet
I was bummed because I was going to share this with my 9th graders, but then she said, "d*** jokes"
Ok but not the best
You don't plays are not meant to be read