#shakespeare beginners

[noshitshakespeare]

Hi so, this may seem like a stupid question, but what are the small numbers to the left of the text in a play?

Not a stupid question at all, my friend! Those are line numbers; they tell you which line of the scene you’re on. So if you’re writing an essay and you want to reference a particular line, you can write the act, scene and line number. It’s generally put in brackets after a quotation, like (III.ii.33), meaning Act 3, scene 2, line 33. It can also be written (3.2.33). I do this whenever I quote from a Shakespeare play even on this blog so people can find the line in context if they want to.

[noshitshakespeare]

I've just read my very first Shakespeare play (Hamlet) and am so excited to get my hands on something else, but I'm a bit torn between all the options. Which plays would you recommend to someone just starting out? Thank you!

Gosh, sorry I’ve left this one so long. I suppose you’ve already found something to go onto? 

I think that if you enjoyed Hamlet, it would make a lot of sense to read the other ‘great tragedies’, of which Othello and Macbeth are more accessible than King Lear, which is a fantastic play but a bit of an unwieldy Goliath. You could add Romeo and Juliet to that list too. 

If you want to make a foray into the comedies, Twelfth Night is a good one for anyone who likes Hamlet. People also often recommend A Midsummer Night’s Dream and  Much Ado About Nothing as fun and accessible plays for Shakespeare beginners.

The Roman plays, the Histories and the so-called Romances I would leave until you’re reasonably comfortable with Shakespeare. Complicated plots and numerous characters (all historical plays) and convoluted syntax (Romances) are not an easy way in. 

[noshitshakespeare]

Ive never read Shakespeare, what should i pick up first?

That’ll depend on what kind of thing you like!

If you want to read a comedy, then maybe Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Twelfth Night would be a good starting point. If you want to read a tragedy, then Macbeth, Othello, or Romeo and Juliet would probably be a good place to start. I wouldn’t personally recommend starting with a history play; they’re great, but they can be a little complicated because of the number of (similarly named) characters, and the general complexity of the political plot.

I hope you enjoy your first Shakesperience!

[noshitshakespeare]

Hey, could you post/give some tips/links/etc. about studying shakespeare? How, where and what did you do with such graduation? Oh and perhaps tips for persons like me, which come from another country? A lot of questions :) Thank you for your help. Have a nice day.

Hello there! Thank you for your questions. Let’s see if I can help. 

How to study Shakespeare depends on what kind of person you are. It’s different for everybody so it’s difficult to provide an exact method. I don’t think my case is very interesting or useful: I started reading the plays as a child and had an interest in history and older literature all my life, but it wasn’t until I got to university that I started studying it very seriously. It’s difficult for me to give tips because it all came very naturally to me. In the end, I went the academic route at a University in England where I did a BA in English Literature and Philosophy (heavily focused on early modern and medieval literature), and went on to get an MA and PhD in Shakespeare. Since then I’ve been studying pretty constantly while teaching at a university. But this is total overkill for most people. 

My tip for students for whom English is a second language is first, to watch the plays. Watch different productions if you can. Then get a decent edition of Shakespeare and read the scenes you found most interesting. You don’t need to read and understand the whole play to start with, just concentrate on the bits you want to have a closer understanding of. A good bilingual edition of the plays might also help (these ones normally have the text in your own language on one side, and in English on the other side). Then try reading it out loud yourself, because saying it out loud often makes a lot more sense than trying to read it like a book. I run a reading group at my university and many international students have said it helps to read the plays out loud with others if that’s an option for you. This is going to be like learning a new language so it will take practice, patience and passion.

Here are a collection of potentially helpful Shakespeare tips I’ve blogged or reblogged over the years:

How to read Iambic Pentameter

Thee and thou

Someone’s more fun thee and thou post

The difference between verse and prose

Early modern verb conjugation

The difference between ‘ye’ and ‘you’

Early modern contractions

I hope that helps!

[noshitshakespeare]

In your opinion, what's the best way to fall in love with Shakespeare - reading him or watching a performance?

Hmm. That’s a difficult one. It largely depends on what kind of person you are, and I can’t guarantee that you will necessarily fall in love with Shakespeare at all.

All in all, I think that a performance tends to be the more accessible way of getting into Shakespeare, because a good actor can do a lot to break down the language barrier and make the text come to life. There’s also a lot more to enjoy in a performance: the set, music, costume, action… The biggest weakness of this approach, though, is that seeing a bad performance can completely ruin your experience and impression of a play.

Reading is a harder way in, because you have to do a lot of the interpretive work yourself, you’ll have to work quite hard to understand it all, and you have to rely on your own imagination a lot (a lot more than when reading a novel too). But it can be very rewarding, and it has the benefit of being relatively unaffected by others’ interpretations.

The third option I would add to this list is to study Shakespeare with a good teacher, because this can be a truly wonderful experience. You obviously need to put in the work yourself as in reading, but in a study situation you can discuss your ideas with your peers, and you can be guided by specialists. The added benefit of studying is that, more than reading by yourself or watching a particular performance, you get to consider and access multiple perspectives on the same play, which can expand your understanding and interests. The difficulty, of course, is finding an amazing teacher.