This above all -- to thine own self be true! (HAMLET)
I truly feel lucky that for the last number of years I have been able to take an annual trip to Stratford, ON and indulge in the viewing of a play at the Stratford Festival. I have always loved Shakespeare from the very first play I read, "The Taming of the Shrew". This year I have booked tickets to see, "Hamlet" and am not only excited to see the play but also read the play beforehand. I might love Shakespeare but I haven't read all of his works ... yet.
I never seemed to have had any trouble understanding Shakespeare. Unlike most people I know, I enjoy the language, the double-entendres, and the deeper meanings found between his wonderful words. However, until my daughter began to love & appreciate the Bard as well, I didn't get the opportunity to see too many of the plays onstage. I am glad this has become one of the few things we have in common , and sometimes praise myself for her getting this way. As a baby I used to read Shakespeare to her, and continued to until she became of an age when she realized the words I was speaking were "odd" and she'd look at me in a funny way. But I still told her about his stories, and annoyed her constantly by reciting verses from Romeo & Juliet. Mind you, I only have one particular scene memorized so I can kind of understand why she would get annoyed.
What is interesting about her though is that as a young child I never expected she'd ever understand Shakespeare. Her reading comprehension in grade school was well below average, and one of the concerns her teachers always brought to my attention. I never actually believed she couldn't understand what she was reading, but only that she didn't like what she was reading and so, didn't enjoy it. To help her I bought a book of Shakespeare tales written for children. Unfortunately, this tactic didn't work because her teacher discouraged her from reading it and told me, "There is no way she is going to understand this!" Yes, teachers can suck sometimes! Luckily, giving her a copy of C.S. Lewis', "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" did the trick and she was hooked. She's been an avid reader ever since, and not only did she read the children's version of the Shakespeare tales I got her, she began as she got older to read the original Shakespeare plays, and now I have a partner in crime!
So this makes me wonder why everyone I know seems to find Shakespeare so hard to understand? I know the English is different, but it's still English. It's not really that difficult to translate it into your own words when you think about it. So I decided to take some of his quotes and translate it into today's English to demonstrate how very simple I think it is to understand. Here is what I came up with -
THEN NOW
"I dote on his very absence" I'm really glad that dude doesn't hang here!
"Mislike me not for my complexion, Don't be a racist, dipshit!
The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd Sun"
"It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock" You just say that because you're jealous!
"I like this place and willingly could waste my This place is awesome, bro!
time in it"
"The course of true love never did run smooth" Love sucks!
"For you and I are past our dancing days" We're too old for this shit!
"The world has grown so bad, that wrens make The world's gone crazy, man!
prey where eagles dare not perch"
"How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? " WTF are you doing here?
"There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the That's pretty obvious, dumbass!
grave to tell us this"
"And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the C'mon man, own up! No excuses.
fault worse by the excuse"
"I love you with so much of my heart that none is ILYSFM
left to protest"
See now that doesn't seem very difficult, does it? Certainly almost anyone can get past the old English style of Shakespeare's writing in order to enjoy the most amazing storyteller of all time. I think so, anyway.
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.” (HAMLET)
I truly feel lucky that for the last number of years I have been able to take an annual trip to Stratford, ON and indulge in the viewing of a play at the Stratford Festival. I have always loved Shakespeare from the very first play I read, "The Taming of the Shrew". This year I have booked tickets to see, "Hamlet" and am not only excited to see the play but also read the play beforehand. I might love Shakespeare but I haven't read all of his works ... yet.
I never seemed to have had any trouble understanding Shakespeare. Unlike most people I know, I enjoy the language, the double-entendres, and the deeper meanings found between his wonderful words. However, until my daughter began to love & appreciate the Bard as well, I didn't get the opportunity to see too many of the plays onstage. I am glad this has become one of the few things we have in common , and sometimes praise myself for her getting this way. As a baby I used to read Shakespeare to her, and continued to until she became of an age when she realized the words I was speaking were "odd" and she'd look at me in a funny way. But I still told her about his stories, and annoyed her constantly by reciting verses from Romeo & Juliet. Mind you, I only have one particular scene memorized so I can kind of understand why she would get annoyed.
What is interesting about her though is that as a young child I never expected she'd ever understand Shakespeare. Her reading comprehension in grade school was well below average, and one of the concerns her teachers always brought to my attention. I never actually believed she couldn't understand what she was reading, but only that she didn't like what she was reading and so, didn't enjoy it. To help her I bought a book of Shakespeare tales written for children. Unfortunately, this tactic didn't work because her teacher discouraged her from reading it and told me, "There is no way she is going to understand this!" Yes, teachers can suck sometimes! Luckily, giving her a copy of C.S. Lewis', "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" did the trick and she was hooked. She's been an avid reader ever since, and not only did she read the children's version of the Shakespeare tales I got her, she began as she got older to read the original Shakespeare plays, and now I have a partner in crime!
So this makes me wonder why everyone I know seems to find Shakespeare so hard to understand? I know the English is different, but it's still English. It's not really that difficult to translate it into your own words when you think about it. So I decided to take some of his quotes and translate it into today's English to demonstrate how very simple I think it is to understand. Here is what I came up with -
THEN NOW
"I dote on his very absence" I'm really glad that dude doesn't hang here!
"Mislike me not for my complexion, Don't be a racist, dipshit!
The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd Sun"
"It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock" You just say that because you're jealous!
"I like this place and willingly could waste my This place is awesome, bro!
time in it"
"The course of true love never did run smooth" Love sucks!
"For you and I are past our dancing days" We're too old for this shit!
"The world has grown so bad, that wrens make The world's gone crazy, man!
prey where eagles dare not perch"
"How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? " WTF are you doing here?
"There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the That's pretty obvious, dumbass!
grave to tell us this"
"And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the C'mon man, own up! No excuses.
fault worse by the excuse"
"I love you with so much of my heart that none is ILYSFM
left to protest"
See now that doesn't seem very difficult, does it? Certainly almost anyone can get past the old English style of Shakespeare's writing in order to enjoy the most amazing storyteller of all time. I think so, anyway.
“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.” (HAMLET)