Hi everyone, it's Lauren and welcome to
another episode in my series on
Shakespeare, in today's video I'm going
to be talking about how to read
Shakespeare, some tips and tricks to help
you feel comfortable with the language
It's no secret that a lot of people feel
quite intimidated by  Shakespeare
because of the old-fashioned language
and because of the fact it's written in verse
one of the big barriers is that
Shakespeare wasn't really designed to be
read, Shakespeare was designed to be
performed so it does take a little bit
of imagination on our part to work out
what the actors are doing on stage whereas
in a book you have a lot more direction
as to what would be going on with the plot
Tip number one is to find a synopsis of
the play and read that before you
actually read the play itself. A lot of
Shakespeare's language is very poetic
and there's a lot of imagery in what he
writes because you've got to imagine
that a lot of these plays were performed
outside and there was minimal staging
and special effects so what
audienceswere there for was the poetry
and Shakespeare was able to paint a
picture for them with his words but that
does mean that when you're trying to
work out what's going on sometimes
characters go off on tangents and talk
about something else
and while that may be very beautiful it
might be completely irrelevant to what
is actually happening in the plot in
very basic terms, so if you are
struggling with Shakespeare's language
or you get to a passage that you really
don't understand, if you have in the back
of your mind a basic outline of the plot
you know that as you're reading it if you
get lost you'll be able to find your way
again quite easily. Tip number two, one
of the most important ones is to find
some adaptations of Shakespeare, there
are tons of films, you can go and see
Shakespeare on stage, you can see tv
adaptations, film adaptations,
I'm sure there are tons of clips on
youtube. Seeing an actor perform Shakespeare
can really do wonders to break down the
barriers of language because they
really understand what Shakespeare's words are trying
to say and I find it especially helps you
to watch an experienced person  read
Shakespeare because then your ear gets atuned
to the rhythm and cadence of
Shakespeare which is very similar, he
tends to write in iambic pentameter and
once you get used to that rhythm of
language it makes it a lot easier for
you to hear that in your head when
you're reading it alone
not to mention the fact that
Shakespeare's themes are absolutely
universal of love and loss and revenge
and they are fantastic to watch if you
are struggling with reading it, then
watching an adaptation can really help
bring these things out. A fantastic
online resources the No Fear Shakespeare
project, so all of Shakespeare's plays
are in the public domain and can be
found online, if you type in 'No Fear
Shakespeare' you will find a website
which has every single one of his plays. On one
side of the screen you have the original
text and on the other side you have a
modern-day translation and I find it
especially helpful when there are
sections of Shakespeare which are prose,
which are discussions between people
because on this side of the screen you just
end up with all of the dick jokes which
you would not get on a first read
because that colloquialism, that banter
something that we've lost in translation
interestingly, I find it actually a lot
easier to understand Shakespeare when
he's doing this high imagery kind of
poetic parts of his soliloquies and then
when it is just the everyday banter
between the servants for example and
No Fear Shakespeare t is very helpful with
that. There's also a ton of analysis of
Shakespeare online if you want to get
really deep into the language and what
Shakespeare really means, then you can
just type in a specific soliloquy and
you'll get loads of responses come up
and finally I have some examples for you
I'm going to help you with this reading
experience this is my copy of Romeo and
Juliet, you can see that most of it is
written in verse. Iambic pentameter is
what Shakespeare uses mostly and that
means that they are ten syllable lines
however that is just the way that it's
written on the page to keep it in the
rhythm of the verse, if you have a
sentence that is longer than ten
syllables then it will get to a certain
point and then the sentence will continue on
another page but that doesn't mean
that's how you would read it, or how an
actor on stage would actually say the line
so for example here is Juliet. You would not
read afraid like this -
What's in a name? That which we call a
rose. By any other word with sweet. So
Romeo would were he not Romeo call'd.
Retain that dear perfection which he
owes. No, no, no! Make sure when you're
reading it that you're paying attention
to the grammar, to the punctuation and
you're reading the sentences off the line
and you're not thrown by the
indents here. As I've already said another
thing that can throw you off your
reading experience is the excessive
almost use of imagery. I have another
example here from Romeo 'But soft! What
light through yonder window breaks? It is
the east and Juliet is the Sun. Arise
fair Sun and kill the envious moon who
is already sick and pale with grief that
thou, her maid art far more fair than she'
so Romeo is just going off on a tangent
here because Juliet has just come to the
window and he's describing her beauty, he's
describing the effect that she's having
on him and Shakespeare is using poetry
to convey emotions to you but you don't
really need to understand this about the
Sun and the moon, Imean it is
interesting but that's not the point
the real point is this - 'but soft!' Hey!
hang on one moment, what's going on over
there? A light has come through that
window over there and it is the east, it's
like the dawn and Juliet is the Sun
rising and bringing that light the rest
of the world
later on he says 'It is my lady; O! It is
my love: O that she knew she were. She
speaks yet she says nothing.
What is that her eye discourses? I will
answer it
I'm too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks.' So
through Romeo's words we're actually
getting what Juliet is doing, there aren't any
stage directions here but he is talking
to her, he's wishing that she knew that
he was there and he sees that she's
talking to herself, looking around the
garden, he thinks she can see him he goes
to wave to her...Oh no no! So it just takes a
slightly more closer look at the text to
not only get what Romeo was saying but
also to give you a vision of what is
happening on stage as well
Another example that I really like of
the texts really communicating what an actor
would be going on stage is this
soliloquy from Macbeth, it is just
before Macbeth is about to go and kill
Duncan and he's having a vision - 'Is this
a dagger which I see before me the
handle toward my hand?
Come let me clutch thee. I have been not
and yet I see thee still. Art though not fatal
vision sensible to feeling as to sight?
Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false
creation proceeding from the heat-opressed
brain?' So not only do we have that
Macbeth is seeing a dagger in front of
him, but he's trying to grab it and
realizing that he can't 'art thou not sensible
to feeling as to sight?' like I can see
you
why can't I feel you? 'I see thee yet in form
and palpable as this which now I draw. Though
marshall'st me the way that I was going
and such an instrument I was to use.' so
again I see you there as palpable as this
which now I draw -  this dagger which I have
with me and which i'm drawing from my
belt, to me this dagger I see is as real
as the one that I'm holding here which
the audience can see, and you are showing,
'thou marshall'st me the way' you are
showing me the way that I need to go to
commit murder
so it's always worth bearing in mind
that it's a person delivering a speech to the
audience, if you try and read it as you
would read a normal book then you're
only going to get half the story. So I
hope that was helpful if Shakespeare is
something that you are a little bit
nervous about, I know the language can be
difficult, the 'thous' the 'thys' the
'th'arts'
but it really is quite simple, the
English follows exactly the same grammar as
we have now, it's just an older form of 'you'
these are things that you can look up quite
easily and once you understand them
it really is just like reading plain
English and you won't even notice that
they're in the text. So let me know how you
feel about Shakespeare in the comments
below - are you a complete novice who's a
little bit nervous about getting stuck
in or are you a Shakespeare aficionado?
Do you have any more tips of your own
that you can share with everybody else? I
will be very happy to answer any more
questions and take suggestions if
there's anything else that you'd like to
learn and i will see you in my next video
bye!
