Do You Think that Shakespeare is Hard to Read?

[astrum]

Do you find Shakespeare difficult to read?

In your opinion, is he the hardest to read, or are there other English writers who are harder to read (ie--Milton, Spenser, Chaucer, etc)?

What do you do to get through his plays? In other words, what do you do to understand his plays?

[Charles Darnay]

Out of the four authors you have listed here, Shakespeare is probably the easiest to read (unless you are reading Chaucer in translation).

Yes, some of the language can be difficult and there are so many allusions throughout. If you are new to Shakespeare, get yourself a text with good footnotes and glossaries (the Norton's Shakespeare is good for both).

It is impossible to get everything in one read. If you want to really understand the works, you need to read them several times. But if you want a surface understanding and to enjoy them, then my advice is that, while a glossary is very helpful, don't get bogged down in the language. Don't try to figure out every word, but rather understand the idea of the scenes.

[MementoMori]

What do you do to get through his plays? In other words, what do you do to understand his plays?

I read slowly. A regular 20th century play can be read in a sitting, but I might take a couple of days to read a Shakespeare (or other Early Modern) play for the first time. I read Shakespeare for the characters and language more than anything, and might go over a speech or a soliloquy two or three times to mull it over and establish what I think it means. A well-annotated version definitely helps with this.

The Canterbury Tales is quite easy to read, and very enjoyable, if you have a copy with a glossary in the margins. I haven't read much of Spenser, but of the authors you mention I definitely think that Milton is the most difficult. His verse is incredibly dense and his archaic syntax can be confusing. Milton wrote a lot in Latin and I think this is reflected in his English.

Disregarding Milton and Shakespeare's less famous works for a moment, there's also the difference between drama and epic poetry to consider. Passages from Paradise Lost can be long and relentless and when you get lost it can be difficult to get your bearings. Shakespeare's plays are all dialogue and so if you can't understand a particular line, or even a whole speech, it's relatively easy to infer the general meaning from the context of the scene or from a character's response.

[stlukesguild]

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In southwerk at the tabard as I lay
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght was come into that hostelrye
Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward caunterbury wolden ryde.

That's "easy" to read? Don't get me wrong... I love Chaucer and insist on reading his in the "original" Middle-English... but this is far from being as easy to grasp by the modern reader as Shakeapeare. I agree that Milton can be dense... but Spenser and Shakespeare can also provide quite a cognitive challenge at times. Spenser's Amoretti and Epithalimion are both quite accessible, IMO.

Honestly... to "get through" any older works of literature simply demands you familiarize yourself with the use of poetic structure, syntax, vocabulary, etc... This ultimately is achieved through experience. As a teen, I hated poetry and Shakespeare... and then I started to read it seriously... and in no short time not only did it make sense but it was a real pleasure to read.

[JCamilo]

The thing is Chaucer is in the end, providing you with a traditional narrative. Shakespeare form, drama, was not even really meant to be read. But I think, vocabulary apart (and depending which text we get), both are easier to be read. If we can define "easy" as "You can do if you really try without thinking you are going to find Dan Brown".

[Charles Darnay]

It took me so long to get through Canterbury Tales the first time. Unfortunately(?) I have an edition that puts its glossary as footnotes, and having to go up and down the page for every fifth word was tiresome.

[MementoMori]

"Easy" was a poor choice of word on my behalf. Of course it's not easy to read in the sense that modern prose might be easy to read but, using an edition that defines the obsolete words/more obscure spellings in the margin, I find the Canterbury Tales (those that I've read) easier to read and enjoy than I do Paradise Lost or many of Milton's shorter poems. The spelling is intimidating at first, but if you read it out loud a lot of it makes sense.


But I think, vocabulary apart (and depending which text we get), both are easier to be read. If we can define "easy" as "You can do if you really try without thinking you are going to find Dan Brown".

Yes, exactly.

[OrphanPip]

I'm so used to reading Early Moderns these days that I find Shakespeare quite an easy read, but he is denser than many of his contemporaries. Marlowe and Middleton are much easier to read, in terms of grasping the language. Jonson can be even denser than Shakespeare at times.

[astrum]

I'm so used to reading Early Moderns these days that I find Shakespeare quite an easy read, but he is denser than many of his contemporaries. Marlowe and Middleton are much easier to read, in terms of grasping the language. Jonson can be even denser than Shakespeare at times.

I didn't find Milton's poems to be too difficult to read.

His prose, on the other hand, is tough. It took me nearly an entire weekend to get through Tenure of Kings and Magistrates.

[NickBrown]

It is impossible to get everything in one read. If you want to really understand the works, you need to read them several times.

To me, that's the beauty of Shakespeare. The characters of his plays, along with the situations they find themselves in, have so many valid interpretations, each giving the work as a whole a layer of depth and complexity. However, I personally think John Donne is the most difficult English writer to understand.

[YesNo]

What do you do to get through his plays? In other words, what do you do to understand his plays?

I may have read Hamlet in high school, but I normally only watch Shakespeare's plays today usually as recordings. Although I haven't seen them all, many I wouldn't mind seeing again. Since recordings are usually available for Shakespeare's plays, I'd recommend watching them before reading the play for better understanding should you choose to read them later.