Shakespeare has been a foundational part of my reading growth. When I was in the 6th grade, I tried to check out a copy of his work. The librarian refused to let me check it out because she thought I was not mature enough to understand it. I did NOT want Charles and Mary Lamb! Instead of checking the book out, I sat on the floor of the library and read the plays. It was a great beginning introduction to Shakspeare's writing and great writing in general.
I had a theater professor in college. He recited the Macbeth soliloquy, "Tomorrow and tomorrow", using the sounds as a death cart rolling along, hit stones and creaking away. The class was mesmerized. A few decades ago, Stratford came to town and performed Hamlet. I was struck by the rendering of certain lines. So, THAT'S what it means!
I am a non-native English speaking person and initially watched a free online streaming play with subtitles during lockdown in 2020 and fall in love with Shakespeare. I always think I am not be able to understand Shakespeare so I had never tried before to read/watch the plays (Looking back I think I had missed the best part of English culture). Now my life is filled with Shakespeare, reading the play (I use the Oxford version of Shakespeare, I didn't know the Arden series at the time ) listening to the radio play and watching the films and theater productions of DVD. sometimes I spend the whole month on one play to read, watch, read, watch many,,,,,,,,, many times until I understand it very well. Even as a foreigner I can enjoy the Shakespeare and feel the beauty of language in play, everybody can really.
Wow! That's so awesome :) You really took advantage of lockdown. I find that one doesn't need to understand many of the details of Shakespeare. His essence transmits across languages and culture. I can tell you have fallen in love with Shakespeare from your comment, and this makes me so happy :) Thank you for the amazing comment, Helen!
Members of the cast of the "King Lear" that was directed by Peter Brook and went on a worldwide tour said that the audiences in Central Europe were absolutely the most attentive.
I’m in Ben’s book club. I love reading Shakespeare maybe more than any other writer. But other than the occasional phenomenon like Kenneth Bragnaugh Henry V, Idon’t much like to see the plays on TV or in person. Because the words come at you so fast you don’t have time to reflect on them or grasp them. I wonder how much of that play people hundreds of years ago really got. Much or most of what they heard might have flown right over them. Brevity is the soul of whit. And he says so much in such a short space it would wear me out to try to keep up. I usually need to read each play twice to really understand it.
I once attended a production of 12th Night where the majority of the actors were women. It was hilarious to me, since I had read the play before and knew what was going on. Especially once you factor in the original productions would have been all men/boys playing these roles, it added another layer of hilarity to me. However several people with me had no idea what was going on. I’m so happy that I found this channel. I was an English major at University, but don’t have many friends who are interested. This is reviving my love once more!
I started reading Hamlet recently and was pleasantly surprised at the readability of this work. I thought Shakespeare would be unintelligible to me, reading by myself without the guidance of a seasoned teacher. However, that was not the case. I believe persistence and Googling the more archaic words could open up this work to anyone interested. Also, there is poetry here that I did not expect. And what wonderful imagery the dialogues conjure up in the "theatre of the mind". Beautiful. For context, Shakespeare was not part of my curriculum at school. So I flew into this one blind, fully expecting to give up.
The way to really appreciate Shakespeare is to watch a first class theatrical production, especially live. This past fall we went to a production of King Lear at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. It was a weekday matinee and we were at first dismayed to discover that half the audience comprised young teenagers -about 500 of them. We expected a lot of distracted talking and texting and, basically, a a group of sullen, bored adolescents who wished they were anywhere else. It was so gratifying to witness the most rapt audience I've seen in long time, culminating in a long standing ovation.
Stanislavsky said that the only difference between theater for adults and theater for children is that theater for children should be BETTER.@@Argonaut121
I have seen several productions of Lear. I think it is more difficult to perform than Hamlet. My favorite Lear featured Simon Russell Beale in modern dress with Lear as a dictator.
More than a few years ago, a cute French farce -- Huit Femmes or Eight Women -- was so enjoyable that I thought it would be fun to create a play based upon eight of Shakespeare's women. Unfortunately, I am not well suited to finishing things. I am reading Hamlet for the third time over many years, during which I saw 12 or 13 stagings of the play. With the second read, I saw why someone said Hamlet is the first murder mystery. I have seen the mutual desire Gertrude and Claudius had for each other. I would change poor Ophelia's death from suicide to murder. I just listened to Professor Sir Jonathan Bates on Julius Caesar. As an American, I can see how watching Julius Caesar then reading the play and recommending it to all who fear a certain candidate, just might help to preserve the Constitution.
I have been reading Shakespeare since my teenage and even though I wasn't as mature to appreciate some of his heavier works, the poetic tragedy of Hamlet is what stuck out to me the most. I still remember my first reading experience of the play vividly. And I used to consider Hamlet to be Shakespeare's masterpiece. That is, until I revisited King Lear only last year accompanied with the Arkangel Shakespeare audio performance. And well, it basically broke me. By the end I was left a sniffling, sobbing mess. I can't even remember the last time a piece of media had such a visceral impact on me. And it's just the biggest testament to Shakespeare's writing that even something written more than 400 years ago could make us feel that way.
Wow. Thank you for sharing. Your experiences sound very similar to mine. Hamlet always impressed me as demanding intense cognitive powers, whereas the demands of King Lear are overwhelmingly emotional. Finishing my reread of King Lear the other day, those final moments sent a chill right through me and tears threatened to break free. I'm not surprised you were a sniffling, sobbing mess! As you likely know, King Lear was performed for most of its theatrical history with a seriously adapted ending... I suppose audiences have always found the play too brutal.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I reckon in the first performance of King Lear, 1605, the same boy actor played both Cordelia and the Fool, because they are never on the stage at the same time. After Cordelia departs in the first scene, there is enough time for a costume change into the Fool. Also, the Fool disappears in Act Three, and there is enough time for another costume change back into Cordelia before she reappears in Act Four. Also, when Lear says, "And my poor fool is hanged," this makes the association between the two clear. We should see a production where the same actor or actress plays both roles. That might deepen our understanding of the play.
I was fortunate to see a performance of As You Like It, by Cheek by Jowl, here in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. And I cry every time that I read King Lear. It is the only work of literature that does it to me.
Coming from Germany; Shakespeare, or the German translation of his works, is one of the cornerstones of German language. Reading him in English is great, but reading the German translation from Schlegel is a jump into the history of German language. I want to say that the German Shakespeare is very big and I would recommend any German to first read the German translation before facing the English
Schlegel's translations are very impressive, I never thought that it would be possible to be so true to the style of original while remaining truthful to the content. I read Sommernachtstraum after A Midsummer Night's Dream and was impressed with how he managed to write almost everything in metre and rhyme but I was also a bit annoyed by it. The Bard used prose for many of these sections which Schlegel rendered with meter and rhyme. I much prefer to read Shakespeare in the original, because I love the philosophical challanges in his plays and many of the ambiguities and double meanings get lost in translation. And there is also something very cool about being able to say that one has read Shakespeare in the original editions.
@@die_schlechtere_Milch fair! I now read german-english. Whenever I don't get it in german, I switch to the english section and give it a re-read, which is quite helpful. In a way, I read it in both languages. Now I have the translations from Günther, those, they say, are the closest to Shakespeare original tone.
LOVED this video thank you!!!! True about the wrestling with his work, being a 19 year old non native speaker, haha. I'll keep all of this in mind, especially the three read method 💗
I’ve just discovered Benjamin’s channel and I look forward to traversing through his entire collection of videos. What a pleasure it is to watch this passionate and learned man share his love of literature in a way that is so clever, interesting and inspiring!
Superb video, a masterclass. If only I'd had a teacher like you when I was at school. But you have inspired to me re-enter the world and works of Shakespeare, so thank you.
I took a Shakespeare course back in my college days (mid '70s). The professor was great but, although I was a heavy reader, I found actually reading Shakespeare a chore. It was not until I discovered that the campus library had the plays on LP that they really worked for me. It was the next best thing to seeing them performed live -- which was not available to me, nor were videos. So I say, don't deny yourself just because one way is difficult. Find your own best way to enjoy them.
Thank you Benjamin, my close friend put me onto your podcast and I am absolutely loving Shakespeare - recently I read Hamlet and am I just starting King Lear. Macbeth was my favourite which I read at high school. I am amazed to find elements of my own psyche in the tragic protagonists
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you listening to the show and I'm grateful to your friend for putting you onto it! I'm thrilled that you're loving Shakespeare so much. It really is extraordinary how much of one's own psyche can be found in those sublime characters ☺️
Hi Ben: This small note is to thank you for furnishing the needed impetus/motivation to start on Shakespeare's oeuvre. I have now slow read : King Lear, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream....... I have started reading his Twelfth Night & covering his sonnets...... Feel enriched. Thanks a lot once again....
I'm Canadian and indigenous. English is non native to my family and there origin. Anyways I'm proud to have English as my first language. Due to the oppression native Americans have endured on behalf of the Queen thanks to her. I grew up to live outside the laws that govern ordinary men and it got me nowhere. You helped save my life. I am proud to be Ojibwe and Canadian. And happy to say it's English that I speak. Unfortunately I don't speak my own language. But, having this knowledge now makes up for it. Thanks daisk.
Completed reading "King Lear" the second time in a row (following the three read approach suggested by you Ben). In my first read, I started off nailing the plot act wise i.e. who does what from start to end, then got focusedly comfortable with each and every character and their relationships with one another followed by a slow read of the entire text supported by detailed footnotes (I used Signet Classics). In my second read a lot more got vivified with relative ease. I made it a point to make detailed digital notes in a nice format. In my third read I will try a speed read but want to memorise some of the great passages from the notes I prepared. Was the effort worth it? To me it is not even a question anymore. I have a sense of fulfilment and happiness. I also feel I have begun to understand the greatness of his work....
I have subscribed to your 'reading order' and just finished Hamlet. I followed your advice and watched the superb Lawrence Olivier version whilst reading Hamlet. I buy the beautiful, quaint, MacMillan Collector's Library edition. Horses for courses, if its written as a play watch it before reading and the pennies drop on what's happening betwixt the language we are not familiar with!
I haven't read Shakespeare since a-levels (25 yrs ago). I've been to performances 3 or 4 times down the years. But I've always felt somewhat reverent towards him. I had the idea that you're not supposed to read Shakespeare, but now you've inspired me. I've ordered the Arden edition of King Lear (along with Turgenev's Sportsman's; Dickens' Uncommercial; and Nietzsche's Zarathustra!). There is a bit of a queue forming though! I've got lined up Moby Dick; wuthering heights; Tess of the d'urbervilles; ..Dorian Gray; Germinal; Ficciones; War of the Worlds; Villette; Heart of Darkness; and some others I'm probably forgetting! So much rich, beautiful art to live with!
Hey Benjamin ! Love your videos. The first play I've read by Shakespeare was Richard the Third in high school and I loved it ! You've motivated me to read more from him - thank you !
Thank you, Ferouz! Richard the Third is tremendous fun. I particularly love Laurence Olivier's rendition. And I'm so glad you're motivated to read more :)
Thank you for this. I’ve been a recreational reader of Shakespeare but I’ve wanted to delve in deeper. This channel is just what I’ve been looking for.
Wow. That's so cool, and I'm so happy to hear that! Two of my favourite plays right there. If you haven't seen it already, you might enjoy the film adaptation of Macbeth with Michael Fassbender. Top stuff!
Oh, this is old Benjamin, but wow! So inspiring and heartfelt, as always. (I did look up “inspiring” in my dictionary and there was a picture of you 😂). Whenever I watch one of your videos I am just in awe of your intelligence and approachability. This one even more than usual. Other than the usual Shakespeare quotes and Hamlet’s soliloquy which have been a part of my mental landscape forever, I have not delved. I must delve. Thank you for loving him. ❤
Rarely do I ever comment on anything, but my gosh I Love your vids mate. Favorite channel by a long stretch. You are an old soul and I applaud the fluency of your passion for the great works of yesteryear.
Love the video! Do you think it's a shame that society's perception of Shakespeare's art has changed from art enjoyed by the masses, as was the case in Shakespeare's time, to art that belongs to high culture, which is largely the case today?
Thank you. Great question - I could likely make a whole video on that. I do think it is a shame. As you say, in his day, Shakespeare wrote for everybody. All backgrounds, every class, rich or poor. They all found his plays entertaining and thought-provoking on different levels. But the archaic language, plus the fact that our expectations of entertainment have changed so drastically, means it will, unfortunately, always be quite niche for the rest of history. I'll keep talking about his works to everyone, and hopefully more people come to him :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy english isn't my first language and I want to read the following: Macbeth, Hamlet and Julie Cezar. What publisher is best and cheep? Thank you!
@@johnmanole4779 Good luck! Great choices of plays. Arden is my top recommendation. You can buy secondhand copies quite cheap. And Penguin also has cheap editions of the plays. Happy reading :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy you love poems right? I am romanian, and our national poet, the symbol of romanian literature is Mihai Eminescu. I hope you will like him if you ever read him. He's considered (at least by us) as the last romantic poet. He too also ended like Nietzsche is a mental hospital. He's core poem is Luceafărul (The morning 🌄 star🌟 or something like that. Other are Letters 1 to 5...a few of my favourite poems of his is Strigoi (Ghosts/vampiers) Glossă. Memento Mori is a loooong poem of him. I hope you can find translation for them. For Luceafărul I am sure there are translations.
Benjamin I totally agree with you about Shakespeare’s plays having a place in the theatre of the mind. That’s very perceptive of you. Thank you for that. When I read and recite his monologues or sonnets they come alive to me in a personal and intimate way, which makes me all the more awestruck at this genius.
I read Folger Library editions of individual plays. Probably not as complete as the Arden (?) volume you recommended but more affordable. I have been reading Shakespeare while listening to audio performances from TH-cam. It helps with my understanding and comprehension.
Believe it or not, I developed a real taste for Shakespeare (outside of school) from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. Weird? I guess. But I re-read them with a real enthusiasm. Lestat is known for quoting Othello's "put out the light then put out the light"
Hi, Benjamin! I would like to thank you for encouraging me to read Shakespeare. English is not my first language and I didn't have the chance to read him at school, so I had only read The Merchant of Venice once, on my own. That changed last year, when, after seeing some of your videos, I started to read his plays chronologically. After the fifth play, I threw the chronological order out of the window, because I fell in love. Basically, I found this one adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (a wild Hungarian musical, don't even ask 😂) and, suddenly, I was swept off my feet by ALL the characters in it. They were ALIVE, just like Merlin and King Arthur were real people in my mind, when I was a teen. Since I found that play, months ago, I've been living with Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Benvolio and even Paris on my mind, 24/7. I read the play (in Portuguese and English), then I went after A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew. This week I'm reading Hamlet. I even started writing, which I hadn't done in decades. So, thanks to your videos and some savage Hungarian actors and singers, I'm in love with all things Shakespeare now. And I must say, it is nice to be in love like this again! ❤
Thank you so much for sharing Benjamin!! I never really got into reading Shakespeare's books, sonnets or watched his plays because I didn't understand his written language!! I have however, heard of Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, Othello and Hamlett!! But now, I'm currently taking a "Survey of Shakespearean Literature" college course and really need to, and actually want to learn, understand and appreciate his works!! Looking forward to learning!!
You are so welcome! Thank you so much for watching!! Your 'Survey of Shakespearean Literature' course sounds absolutely fascinating to me. I would really love to know how you get on with his works ☺️
As a younger man I was (stupidly) very snotty about Shakespeare and then I read 'The Plantagenets', an adaptation for the RSC of the Henry VI's plays with all the dodgy bits cut out. It blew me away... Full of incredible poetry, spectacle, warfare, ambition, and psychological insight. One of the greatest and most cruel sagas in English history rendered with such majesty, wit and power. And if you want to see why Richard III is one of the most damaged - and magnetically watchable - villains in literary history, this is where you start.
What an incredible video I've just stumbled across. I've only recently gotten into Shakespeare and your passionate and nearly religious reverence for him is contagious! I'm reading Romeo and Juliet right now -- figured I'd start with a play I was semi-familiar with, thanks to the Standard High School Experience -- but I'm not sure where to go after that. Maybe Twelfth Night, since I read a retelling last month that completely blew me away and made me super excited for the source material. At any rate, I love what you had to say about finding oneself through the man; if I can get a bit esoteric, a perfect moment to me is lying in the grass with the sun beating down on me, and so far, reading Shakespeare and his adjacent works make me feel like that. I'm looking forward to checking out more of your videos!
I am currently reading my way through The New Oxford Shakespeare The Complete Works. They are in chronological order. I am reading the plays aloud and referring to the footnotes. When reading the history plays I read history to check the basic facts. It is slow going but satisfying. I intend to go back and study my favourites. In retrospect I think the history plays would probably be better read in the historical order, for example Shakespeares adaptation of Henry 6 part 1 was written after his parts 2 and 3.
I just saw a performance of Measure for Measure last night and I was absolutely blown away by how engaging it was. I think I've been tired of Shakespeare for a while because many companies only put on the Big plays (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, etc.) and I didn't realize just how genuinely complex and interesting some of his other plays are. The way the villain of the play is arguably the state is a very excitingly radical idea and it really makes me want to see and read more!
I will say, I think the fact they took creative liberties with that play in the performance I saw lent itself well to drawing contemporary audiences like me into the work. Was it what Shakespeare originally intended? Maybe not but I think it's sort of beautiful that we can interpret and reinterpret and reinvent Shakespeare all these years later. Dry repetition is how literature dies.
I loved this video. I just found your channel a couple of days ago and love it. Just in the few videos of your I have watched, I’ve learned so much. My first experience with Shakespeare was reading Romeo and Juliet in my junior year of high school in English class. Our teacher was amazing and he sparked my love for Shakespeare. I laughed when you said not to get the big fat all in one books- I do have them because they’re pretty on the shelf, but I do get the individual books for ease of reading. Thank you for your amazing content!
Thank you, Susan. You have made my day with your lovely comment. Romeo and Juliet is such a great entrance play for Shakespeare. Thank goodness for your great teacher! The right teacher can be the difference between loving and hating Shakespeare. Happy reading, and thank you for being here! :)
I’m nearly…. ahem… half a century of rotations and I’m embarrassed that I barely know anything of WS, i only remember vaguely 2 or 3 plays back in high school many, many moons ago… but last week I saw a YT video that inspired me so I went looking and bought …and today, just today, I received my very own copy of The Complete Works of WS… a secondhand but beautiful HUGE leather bound and gold-leafed edition that only cost me $30… and by golly, I’m gonna read it! I’m so excited (even tho I got halfway through your video and you didn’t recommend it, but it was too beautiful a book to turn down, especially for that price!)
Hamlet, Taming of The Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Henry the fourth parts one and two, Julius Caesar, and Tempest are the plays I've been exposed to. I found each one to be very brilliant.
I agree with McEvoy that reading is the better experience. The challenge for performers lies in the fact that no one in the present of the past actually spoke in long poetic monoloques and no one else would would suffer them to ramble on that long. For the stage the dialog is too over-worked, too clever, too artificial to be delivered with authenticity. So what you usually get is an actor who has to hold each emotion for relatively long periods of time, eg longer than any human would. Setting most of the plays in monarchies helps us accept the deference which other characters must feign while listening to the leads but as the saying goes "All acting is reacting" so actors are tied down. They have to react to what is being said but stretch that reaction out long enough to match the length of the other's lines. Reading the plays eliminates most of those issues. Looking at the bad quartos shows us how much polish was put on the Folio versions. The same things that make Shakespeare difficult to stage flip over and conversely make it print and read very well! The structure of the lines becomes visual on the page and that is an enormous aid to digesting it. In China there are 5 major dialects that share a common written language. I think this points us toward a similar dynamic in 1623 England. Research was done recently that suggests people in Warwick in 1788 were not understood by Londoners. That's 150 years after Shakespeare gets printed! So standardizing the language is a long process and printing the Bible and Shakespeare in English are key steps in that standardization. The social dynamic of the printed word is that it gets accepted as more authoritative, its more rigid and enduring than spoken language. The French they speak in Quebec is archaic because until 1960 they were required to teach and use Bibles that are printed in Old French. IOW the text locked their language and kept it from evolving the way it did in France. I have heard a range of views on how the closing of the playhouses helps or prompts or shapes the Folio and its legacy. The more extreme argument is that we have Shakespeare today ONLY because it reads so well. The lucky or perhaps, determinate, timing of the 1623 publication also benefits from every other major event in that period of English history but especially 1) the advent of machine-printed English which codifies and standardizes the language, 2) the subsequent spread of literacy in England and her Anglophone satellites, 3) the wide printing and reading of the Geneva and King James Bibles in English (not coincidentally in the same format and size as the First Folio), 4) the thwarting of the Spanish marriage and the rivalry of Spain and England which prompts England to prioritize literature and to coin national heroes, especially secular ones. IOW Shakespeare can be seen as part of the larger effort to find English replacements for both the Catholic church and for foreign literature, such as Cervantez, and the cultural envy that it can engender.
I read some Shakespeare at like, 16, as a challenge to myself, and since English is not my native tongue and I wasn't as critical in my readings, I didn't get that much out of it (I like the Histories more because I was into the Tudors and the War of the Roses). Then like 3 to 4 years later I re-read Richard II and I was just blown away. I also got to see it on stage. I'm reading Othello right now. And yeah, reading the Bard is great to improve your english.
I'm doing all media versions of all the plays chronologically. For my understanding and enjoyment I have found: Audio books (without character names before their dialogue) < reading the text < play performances on TH-cam < Movies and BBC televised adaptations.
Shakespeare was never my cup of tea. Granted by bias was being forced to read Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth as a kid and not knowing what the hell I was reading. Left a sour taste in my mouth. I did giggle at the line "Draw thy tool. My naked weapon is out." From time to time I debate revisiting as an adult. Perhaps I will pick up a play at the second hand shop tomorrow.
Finally I can comfortably read Shakespeare -the iPad app allows easy/quick/comfortable tapping on the underlined words at needed points. It helps so much with the pacing. Also, I find I prefer subtitles with recorded performances.
I can totally vouch for those everyman's editions, got them all and oh what a pleasure they are to read. nevertheless, I truly agree with you on the fact that introductions to Shakespeare have now shifted from critics who would have loved Shakespeare to those who write about him only to critique him. starting Shakespeare after reading such criticisms would somehow hamper the unblemished first read that any reader would have cherished otherwise. At the most what a first time reader would need to start with Shakespeare would only be a brief reading about the elizabethan age and there you go, the whole world of Shakespeare is before you to see, visualise and indulge in.
I'm glad you've noticed it too, Ruma! You're right - that's all the first reader needs, then send them off to enjoy :) Luckily, Shakespeare cannot be harmed by these criticisms. He's like this huge leviathan. The critics come at him with little swords, and they bend, rather than penetrate, when coming to contact with his skin. He will survive :)
I want to read Shakespeare in English. But as a non-native speaker it is quite the challenge. But after finishing Moby Dick recently, which I loved, I am willing to give it a go.
That's so awesome to hear! Congratulations on finishing Moby Dick. I'm so glad you loved it. I think you'll love Shakespeare too. I'd vote for starting with Macbeth!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I'm between Macbeth and King Lear, because I watched two movie adaptions from Akira Kurosawa (Throne of Blood & Ran), which both stuck with me. I watched quite a few of your videos in the past few days and I must say, that your knowledge and passion for literature is amazing. I think I found my teacher for English literature here on TH-cam :)
I like to read his plays before going to see them. That way I’m savvy with the plot and dialogue which can go by too fast for my brain otherwise at performance speed. Then, after I’ve read one or two, I like to binge on a few others while I have a hang of the language.
Based upon how you describe Shakespeare, he does sound a lot similar to Nietzsche in the sense that Nietzsche gets interpreted as being many different things, aristocrat, communist, socialist, anarchist. Some read him spiritually others purely as a materialists some read him as a darwinist or a lemarckian evolutionist, a transhumanist etc Given that Nietzsche didn`t use characters to explore his philosophy. I do find this very impressive I am personally a poet, but i wanna start writing plays and the only dramatist i have read is Sophocles. So i intend to read Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde too get more into plays
I'm a few days old now in my Shakespearean fanaticism phase which should last the rest of my life, and today i've seen this video and someone on a site saying not to overdo it on the helps editions like Arden has. But i do like having them, i feel i need as much help as i can, because i want to know as much as i can, through a multitude of resources it wouldn't be just getting one take.
My first time reading for Shakespeare was a translated work in arabic language and I really really liked it and I became so interested in him and his writing but I didn’t try to read his work in English until I started studying poetry in college.
Hey!!!!your new subscriber here.... I fell in love with the bard from my College education and I adore his plays BTW can you upload a video about your views on poetry??? I'll really appreciate that. Love from India ❤️
Hi Abhra :) Thank you for sharing. So great to have another Shakespeare lover here. What a coincidence - I have one on poetry that has just gone up! Thank you for watching over in India :)
Best acting performance I’ve ever seen was Simon Beale as Hamlet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Germans totally fluent in English all seem to prefer the German translation. Apparently more Shakespearean than Shakespeare. In general I find the anachronistic language painful to struggle through.
Thank you for sharing, John. I just read about Beale's performance in some articles and sounds like a great one. That's interesting about Germans preferring the translation. More Shakespearean than Shakespeare... Well, this is the country of Goethe!
I found Jonathan Bate’s Soul of the Age to be very helpful. Bate must be a Shakespeare scholar, but more than that he well knows Elizabethan Tudor history and psychology. Shakespeare gave full voice to each of his protagonists, and his classical education in Latin and rhetoric helped him keep his head on his shoulders when many about him were losing theirs!
Very late to this video, but... Have been building a library of largely classics (modern and good ol') and didn't have any Shakespeare. Honestly, I was worried about the accessibility of the language. Then i read a little Faulkner... Eventually, curiosity leads me to discovering that "The Sound and the Fury" is a reference to Shakespeare (a line from Macbeth or Hamlet, can't remember which). That, with knowing from your other videos that Herman Melville was inspired by Shakespeare, as well as countless others, made me finally pick up a handful of plays. Hopefully coming to understand and appreciate Shakespeare will open doors I never would have known how to open myself, and a few I might never have known were closed in the first place. I appreciate you and what you do.
As a non-native English speaker, what draws me to Shakespeare again is the HBO (now is max)hottest television series Westworld. There are numerous quotes from Shakespeare in different scenarios, uttered by the protagonist and antagonist. They are mysteriously intriguing and very important clues integrating the whole story’s theme plot by plot. I knew William Shakespeare from my English textbooks many years ago. At that time, some of his pieces were recommended on the“middle school student must-read classics”list, which was part of our homework that required to read and write reviews for the books.I had read some translated pieces, and tried the original version but struggled to understand due to the ancient English grammar and vocabulary. Now it’s my second try to read the original version, hope I succeed this time.
Hi Ben, loved the video. Curious: Where are you seeing this trend for increased appreciation of Shakespeare? Obviously all of our intuitions are anecdotal, but I was just wondering.
Thank you, Alan :) Ah, yes, there is a heaping of anecdotal intuition, but I'm seeing it mainly on two fronts - firstly, just how many people are talking to me/asking me about Shakespeare, and secondly, the content and media I'm seeing surrounding Shakespeare. I think perhaps readers came to Shakespeare during the lockdown last year, along with other great works?
Hello and thank you for such an inspirational video, I clicked on it because I figured there's no time for me anymore to postpone starting reading Shakespeare seriously. As I am not a native speaker I believe it will be a challenging start so I would like to ask you two questions hoping the answers could help me to embark successfuly on this journey: 1. What's your opinion on "No fear Shakespeare" editions? Those are the ones with contemporary translations along the original text, aimed at helping the reader better understand the difficult language. 2. You've said one might ask someone for a list of the best Shakespeare's works in order to avoid reading the worse ones at the very beginning. What would be your list of the best works if you have one? Thank you in advance.
One of my real pet peeve’s is how they try to make him “easier “ by modernization of the language what is needed is one like the penguin 🐧 edition with note’s to check also watching a performance 🎭 to get the action as well in conjunction with reading 📖 like the 3 read method
I, personally, attribute the resurgence of interest in Will to a combination of (i) David Mitchell in BBC’s ‘Upstart Crow’ and (ii) interest in a certain group of actors - Hiddleston, Hopkins, Cumberbatch, Blanchett, Branagh … (you can figure it out)😉✌️… ps. and maybe interest in that Shakespearian-like line uttered by ‘Loki’ … “you mewling quim”.😅
I'm a big fan of you. I'm a non-English speaker. I read hamlet in original text but only understood like 50% of it. That's why i took help from the modernised version. Now I'm thinking about reading his other plays. What do you think would be better ? To read them in modernised version or translated in my own language? Btw, love you sir 💓💓💓
That's amazing! Understanding 50% is very impressive. Many native speakers won't understand that much. I think both approaches work very well. Some languages have beautiful translations of Shakespeare. So you might want to investigate the reputation of translation in your language and go for that. Or you could try combining both approaches. That would be rewarding! And thank you so much for your kind words, my friend. I really appreciate you :)
Excellent video, Ben! I’ve been inspired to give the plays another go. Like a lot of people, school ‘cured’ me of ever wanting to read him again. I’ve just ordered Romeo and Juliet and The Sonnets (I already love the Sonnets) in the Arden editions. Thought I’d start on familiar ground. Thank you. Sharon x x
Thank you, Sharon! I'm so thrilled to hear it. The sonnets are a great access point, especially for those who are jaded from school Shakespeare. I was lucky to have an endlessly passionate and highly influential sixth form English teacher, whose love of King Lear moved me. But had it not been for him, my exposure to Shakespeare would have been the furthest thing from inspiring. I'll have to talk about this at some point - the way schools teach Shakespeare is so wrong! Romeo and Juliet is a great one to start with, and, coincidentally, I'll have some stuff coming out about that one which may aid a little :)
Thanks for your video I have read one of his book it was "macbeth" it has been translated in to kurdish but unfortunately it was a very poor translation, I felt bad about that and I just did not have the ability to complete it because i was not understanding it... That hurts me a bit coz he it a very famous writer and my feelings till now says to me that he has amazing writes .. And I am new here Form Kurdistan 🤍
Interesting! Macbeth in Kurdish - I would love to read that. Do you have any recommendations for Kurdish Literature? And welcome to the channel - thank you for watching :)
I discovered the three way reading by accident. I am fond of the 2005 American film of Pride and Prejudice. I had seen it twice when it came out and wanted to see it again. I watched it on TH-cam about a year ago. Then, I picked up the book which I had tried to read at 15, but, could not because I could not stand lizzie's parents. I loved it. Although I disliked the 1998 BBC television series, I decided to rewatch it. I counter the notion that the 1998 was closer to the book because Mr. Darcy never fenced nor swam in his pond (an overrated bit of stage craft if there ever was one). I came close to turning if off about 3/4s of the way through. I just left it for the next day. I still dislike it but not as much. Then, I watched the 2005 film and read the book again. I just finished The Hobbit in preparation for rereading the trilogy. I decided to read all of Shakespeare's plays and all of Jane Austen's novels. However, rather than read each author separately, I would read through them in this order: Tolkien, Austen, Shakespeare. Would you work on speaking more slowly?
I recently attended much ado about nothing Shakespeare in the park here in Tennessee and was sad to have it so experimental as to be reset in the 1970s with girl power theme and the action being interrupted by 70s music and the setting changed to Nashville it was very jarring to enjoy the Shakespeare and have it interrupted by the other stuff not really Shakespeare in the park
Question: Would Shakespeare want us to foremost appreciate his themes/stories/plots which reveal themselves as we watch/turn the pages OR the brilliance of his 'screenplays' via the written word? thus stories vs grammar, to put it simplistically
These astonishing offerings are most invigourating and so generous of you. Thank you for your time and thoughtful efforts. Bravo! May I inquire as to your take on the question of the true authorship of Shakespeare's works? This perhaps might be addressed in your Q & A format. If you have seen the engaging video of Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance , bith distinguished actors steeped in those famous plays and sonnets, their sensible respectful sharing of Doubt About Will is incredibly fascinating and intriguing. A grand mystery to sort out and explore. With your knack for voracious reading I would imagine you have delved into the maze of potential candidates (Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe, and so forth) in your reading travels. As Jacobi says, perhaps it isan amalgam of writers. though the point seems to be to keep an mind to the subject. To many it is blasphemy to do so. I think not. ...and you?
Like you, Ben, I'm a huge 'fan' of both Shakespeare and Cervantes - have you discovered the joys of Montaine, the third member of this contemporary triumvirate? In Montaigne's 'Essays' one finds humane wisdom and kindly wit - no deprecating or cruel satire - rather a non-judgemental and wise friend for life.
Absolutely! A day doesn't go by without my reading Montaigne along with Cervantes and Shakespeare. I recently enjoyed a fantastic biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell - highly recommended if you haven't already enjoyed it, Richard :)
Can you please answer my question??? I adore Shakespeare's works..... can you please tell me what's the best way of reading him??? SHOULD I BUY THE INDIVIDUAL PLAYS OR THE COMPLETE WORKS? PLEASE HELP
How do you think shakespeare would feel if he saw the way his plays were being taught? Ive heard some say he would be rolling in his grave at the thought of how his work has become a chore for some but this video makes me think maybe he values the complexity and the lack of comprehension the audience can have when performing his plays and taking on his work in general.
That's a really interesting question. I think he would be a little bemused because our theatrical conventions have changed so drastically. He was a smash hit during his own time, but even he would surely be surprised that he's being studied 400+ years later!
Shakespeare has been a foundational part of my reading growth. When I was in the 6th grade, I tried to check out a copy of his work. The librarian refused to let me check it out because she thought I was not mature enough to understand it. I did NOT want Charles and Mary Lamb!
Instead of checking the book out, I sat on the floor of the library and read the plays. It was a great beginning introduction to Shakspeare's writing and great writing in general.
And to think if you were in the 6th grade a few hundred years ago, you'd be reading the Aeneid in Latin; amazing the drop in standards.
I had a theater professor in college. He recited the Macbeth soliloquy, "Tomorrow and tomorrow", using the sounds as a death cart rolling along, hit stones and creaking away. The class was mesmerized.
A few decades ago, Stratford came to town and performed Hamlet. I was struck by the rendering of certain lines. So, THAT'S what it means!
"the theatre of your mind" oh wow!
Glad you liked the concept :) It's a cool one!
I am a non-native English speaking person and initially watched a free online streaming play with subtitles during lockdown in 2020 and fall in love with Shakespeare. I always think I am not be able to understand Shakespeare so I had never tried before to read/watch the plays (Looking back I think I had missed the best part of English culture). Now my life is filled with Shakespeare, reading the play (I use the Oxford version of Shakespeare, I didn't know the Arden series at the time ) listening to the radio play and watching the films and theater productions of DVD. sometimes I spend the whole month on one play to read, watch, read, watch many,,,,,,,,, many times until I understand it very well. Even as a foreigner I can enjoy the Shakespeare and feel the beauty of language in play, everybody can really.
Wow! That's so awesome :) You really took advantage of lockdown. I find that one doesn't need to understand many of the details of Shakespeare. His essence transmits across languages and culture. I can tell you have fallen in love with Shakespeare from your comment, and this makes me so happy :) Thank you for the amazing comment, Helen!
Have you read “is Shakespeare dead” by Mark Twain? Its good.
Wonderful! It can be available to all of us with dedication.
Members of the cast of the "King Lear" that was directed by Peter Brook and went on a worldwide tour said that the audiences in Central Europe were absolutely the most attentive.
wow! amazing xxx
I’m in Ben’s book club. I love reading Shakespeare maybe more than any other writer. But other than the occasional phenomenon like Kenneth Bragnaugh Henry V, Idon’t much like to see the plays on TV or in person. Because the words come at you so fast you don’t have time to reflect on them or grasp them. I wonder how much of that play people hundreds of years ago really got. Much or most of what they heard might have flown right over them. Brevity is the soul of whit. And he says so much in such a short space it would wear me out to try to keep up. I usually need to read each play twice to really understand it.
You have no idea, how much I adore listening to you.
I once attended a production of 12th Night where the majority of the actors were women. It was hilarious to me, since I had read the play before and knew what was going on. Especially once you factor in the original productions would have been all men/boys playing these roles, it added another layer of hilarity to me. However several people with me had no idea what was going on. I’m so happy that I found this channel. I was an English major at University, but don’t have many friends who are interested. This is reviving my love once more!
I absolutely love Shakespeare. The way he puts words together itself is brilliant. And their meaning and beauty is infinite.
I started reading Hamlet recently and was pleasantly surprised at the readability of this work. I thought Shakespeare would be unintelligible to me, reading by myself without the guidance of a seasoned teacher. However, that was not the case. I believe persistence and Googling the more archaic words could open up this work to anyone interested. Also, there is poetry here that I did not expect. And what wonderful imagery the dialogues conjure up in the "theatre of the mind". Beautiful.
For context, Shakespeare was not part of my curriculum at school. So I flew into this one blind, fully expecting to give up.
After you've had a parent diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, "King Lear" is a DIFFERENT play.
The way to really appreciate Shakespeare is to watch a first class theatrical production, especially live. This past fall we went to a production of King Lear at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. It was a weekday matinee and we were at first dismayed to discover that half the audience comprised young teenagers -about 500 of them. We expected a lot of distracted talking and texting and, basically, a a group of sullen, bored adolescents who wished they were anywhere else. It was so gratifying to witness the most rapt audience I've seen in long time, culminating in a long standing ovation.
Stanislavsky said that the only difference between theater for adults and theater for children is that theater for children should be BETTER.@@Argonaut121
King Lear is his greatest tragedy hands down😢😢😢
I have seen several productions of Lear. I think it is more difficult to perform than Hamlet. My favorite Lear featured Simon Russell Beale in modern dress with Lear as a dictator.
George III
More than a few years ago, a cute French farce -- Huit Femmes or Eight Women -- was so enjoyable that I thought it would be fun to create a play based upon eight of Shakespeare's women. Unfortunately, I am not well suited to finishing things.
I am reading Hamlet for the third time over many years, during which I saw 12 or 13 stagings of the play. With the second read, I saw why someone said Hamlet is the first murder mystery. I have seen the mutual desire Gertrude and Claudius had for each other. I would change poor Ophelia's death from suicide to murder.
I just listened to Professor Sir Jonathan Bates on Julius Caesar. As an American, I can see how watching Julius Caesar then reading the play and recommending it to all who fear a certain candidate, just might help to preserve the Constitution.
I have been reading Shakespeare since my teenage and even though I wasn't as mature to appreciate some of his heavier works, the poetic tragedy of Hamlet is what stuck out to me the most. I still remember my first reading experience of the play vividly. And I used to consider Hamlet to be Shakespeare's masterpiece.
That is, until I revisited King Lear only last year accompanied with the Arkangel Shakespeare audio performance. And well, it basically broke me. By the end I was left a sniffling, sobbing mess. I can't even remember the last time a piece of media had such a visceral impact on me. And it's just the biggest testament to Shakespeare's writing that even something written more than 400 years ago could make us feel that way.
Wow. Thank you for sharing. Your experiences sound very similar to mine. Hamlet always impressed me as demanding intense cognitive powers, whereas the demands of King Lear are overwhelmingly emotional. Finishing my reread of King Lear the other day, those final moments sent a chill right through me and tears threatened to break free. I'm not surprised you were a sniffling, sobbing mess! As you likely know, King Lear was performed for most of its theatrical history with a seriously adapted ending... I suppose audiences have always found the play too brutal.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I reckon in the first performance of King Lear, 1605, the same boy actor played both Cordelia and the Fool, because they are never on the stage at the same time. After Cordelia departs in the first scene, there is enough time for a costume change into the Fool. Also, the Fool disappears in Act Three, and there is enough time for another costume change back into Cordelia before she reappears in Act Four. Also, when Lear says, "And my poor fool is hanged," this makes the association between the two clear. We should see a production where the same actor or actress plays both roles. That might deepen our understanding of the play.
I was fortunate to see a performance of As You Like It, by Cheek by Jowl, here in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. And I cry every time that I read King Lear. It is the only work of literature that does it to me.
That's amazing. What an awesome company - I've just looked them up :) King Lear is a tearjerker for sure. It turns me Inside out!
Coming from Germany; Shakespeare, or the German translation of his works, is one of the cornerstones of German language. Reading him in English is great, but reading the German translation from Schlegel is a jump into the history of German language. I want to say that the German Shakespeare is very big and I would recommend any German to first read the German translation before facing the English
Schlegel's translations are very impressive, I never thought that it would be possible to be so true to the style of original while remaining truthful to the content. I read Sommernachtstraum after A Midsummer Night's Dream and was impressed with how he managed to write almost everything in metre and rhyme but I was also a bit annoyed by it. The Bard used prose for many of these sections which Schlegel rendered with meter and rhyme.
I much prefer to read Shakespeare in the original, because I love the philosophical challanges in his plays and many of the ambiguities and double meanings get lost in translation. And there is also something very cool about being able to say that one has read Shakespeare in the original editions.
@@die_schlechtere_Milch fair! I now read german-english. Whenever I don't get it in german, I switch to the english section and give it a re-read, which is quite helpful. In a way, I read it in both languages. Now I have the translations from Günther, those, they say, are the closest to Shakespeare original tone.
LOVED this video thank you!!!! True about the wrestling with his work, being a 19 year old non native speaker, haha. I'll keep all of this in mind, especially the three read method 💗
Thank you :) That's amazing you're reading Shakespeare as a non-native - keep up the great work!!
I love Shakespeare!!!❤️ Cannot get enough. Unfortunately I don't know one person who enjoys his work. So I just may join the Patreon. ☺️
I’ve just discovered Benjamin’s channel and I look forward to traversing through his entire collection of videos. What a pleasure it is to watch this passionate and learned man share his love of literature in a way that is so clever, interesting and inspiring!
Thank you so much!! That's incredibly lovely of you to say. You have completely made my day and I'm so thrilled you're here :)
Superb video, a masterclass. If only I'd had a teacher like you when I was at school. But you have inspired to me re-enter the world and works of Shakespeare, so thank you.
Thank you, Gary! I really appreciate that, and couldn't be happier that you're reentering Shakespeare's world :)
I took a Shakespeare course back in my college days (mid '70s). The professor was great but, although I was a heavy reader, I found actually reading Shakespeare a chore. It was not until I discovered that the campus library had the plays on LP that they really worked for me. It was the next best thing to seeing them performed live -- which was not available to me, nor were videos. So I say, don't deny yourself just because one way is difficult. Find your own best way to enjoy them.
Thank you Benjamin, my close friend put me onto your podcast and I am absolutely loving Shakespeare - recently I read Hamlet and am I just starting King Lear. Macbeth was my favourite which I read at high school. I am amazed to find elements of my own psyche in the tragic protagonists
Thank you so much! I really appreciate you listening to the show and I'm grateful to your friend for putting you onto it! I'm thrilled that you're loving Shakespeare so much. It really is extraordinary how much of one's own psyche can be found in those sublime characters ☺️
Hi Ben: This small note is to thank you for furnishing the needed impetus/motivation to start on Shakespeare's oeuvre. I have now slow read : King Lear, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream....... I have started reading his Twelfth Night & covering his sonnets...... Feel enriched. Thanks a lot once again....
I'm Canadian and indigenous. English is non native to my family and there origin. Anyways I'm proud to have English as my first language. Due to the oppression native Americans have endured on behalf of the Queen thanks to her. I grew up to live outside the laws that govern ordinary men and it got me nowhere. You helped save my life. I am proud to be Ojibwe and Canadian. And happy to say it's English that I speak. Unfortunately I don't speak my own language. But, having this knowledge now makes up for it. Thanks daisk.
Completed reading "King Lear" the second time in a row (following the three read approach suggested by you Ben). In my first read, I started off nailing the plot act wise i.e. who does what from start to end, then got focusedly comfortable with each and every character and their relationships with one another followed by a slow read of the entire text supported by detailed footnotes (I used Signet Classics). In my second read a lot more got vivified with relative ease. I made it a point to make detailed digital notes in a nice format. In my third read I will try a speed read but want to memorise some of the great passages from the notes I prepared. Was the effort worth it? To me it is not even a question anymore. I have a sense of fulfilment and happiness. I also feel I have begun to understand the greatness of his work....
I have subscribed to your 'reading order' and just finished Hamlet. I followed your advice and watched the superb Lawrence Olivier version whilst reading Hamlet. I buy the beautiful, quaint, MacMillan Collector's Library edition. Horses for courses, if its written as a play watch it before reading and the pennies drop on what's happening betwixt the language we are not familiar with!
I just got Hamlet yesterday! So this comes in perfectly!
Nice :) I hope you enjoy it!
As an Engligh Lit major, I was so excited to study Shakespeare - until I discovered that my lit prof hated him. It was such a disorienting experience.
Oh no! That's a heartbreaking experience, Bethany!
I haven't read Shakespeare since a-levels (25 yrs ago). I've been to performances 3 or 4 times down the years. But I've always felt somewhat reverent towards him. I had the idea that you're not supposed to read Shakespeare, but now you've inspired me. I've ordered the Arden edition of King Lear (along with Turgenev's Sportsman's; Dickens' Uncommercial; and Nietzsche's Zarathustra!).
There is a bit of a queue forming though! I've got lined up Moby Dick; wuthering heights; Tess of the d'urbervilles; ..Dorian Gray; Germinal; Ficciones; War of the Worlds; Villette; Heart of Darkness; and some others I'm probably forgetting! So much rich, beautiful art to live with!
Hey Benjamin ! Love your videos. The first play I've read by Shakespeare was Richard the Third in high school and I loved it ! You've motivated me to read more from him - thank you !
Thank you, Ferouz! Richard the Third is tremendous fun. I particularly love Laurence Olivier's rendition. And I'm so glad you're motivated to read more :)
Thank you for this. I’ve been a recreational reader of Shakespeare but I’ve wanted to delve in deeper. This channel is just what I’ve been looking for.
Thank you so much, Doug! I'm so happy to hear that :)
Because of this channel and videos like this I’ve now read MacBeth and Hamlet. Surmised the life out of myself.
Wow. That's so cool, and I'm so happy to hear that! Two of my favourite plays right there. If you haven't seen it already, you might enjoy the film adaptation of Macbeth with Michael Fassbender. Top stuff!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy done, I will hunt it down and read along with it. 👍 Thanks Benjamin.
Oh, this is old Benjamin, but wow! So inspiring and heartfelt, as always. (I did look up “inspiring” in my dictionary and there was a picture of you 😂). Whenever I watch one of your videos I am just in awe of your intelligence and approachability. This one even more than usual. Other than the usual Shakespeare quotes and Hamlet’s soliloquy which have been a part of my mental landscape forever, I have not delved. I must delve. Thank you for loving him. ❤
Rarely do I ever comment on anything, but my gosh I Love your vids mate. Favorite channel by a long stretch. You are an old soul and I applaud the fluency of your passion for the great works of yesteryear.
Love the video! Do you think it's a shame that society's perception of Shakespeare's art has changed from art enjoyed by the masses, as was the case in Shakespeare's time, to art that belongs to high culture, which is largely the case today?
Thank you. Great question - I could likely make a whole video on that. I do think it is a shame. As you say, in his day, Shakespeare wrote for everybody. All backgrounds, every class, rich or poor. They all found his plays entertaining and thought-provoking on different levels. But the archaic language, plus the fact that our expectations of entertainment have changed so drastically, means it will, unfortunately, always be quite niche for the rest of history. I'll keep talking about his works to everyone, and hopefully more people come to him :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy english isn't my first language and I want to read the following: Macbeth, Hamlet and Julie Cezar. What publisher is best and cheep? Thank you!
@@johnmanole4779 Good luck! Great choices of plays. Arden is my top recommendation. You can buy secondhand copies quite cheap. And Penguin also has cheap editions of the plays. Happy reading :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thank you! Stay awesome! Love your channel!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy you love poems right? I am romanian, and our national poet, the symbol of romanian literature is Mihai Eminescu. I hope you will like him if you ever read him. He's considered (at least by us) as the last romantic poet. He too also ended like Nietzsche is a mental hospital.
He's core poem is Luceafărul (The morning 🌄 star🌟 or something like that. Other are Letters 1 to 5...a few of my favourite poems of his is Strigoi (Ghosts/vampiers) Glossă. Memento Mori is a loooong poem of him. I hope you can find translation for them. For Luceafărul I am sure there are translations.
You are so true. I have fallen in love with Shakespeare. Your talks are superb. 😍
Benjamin I totally agree with you about Shakespeare’s plays having a place in the theatre of the mind. That’s very perceptive of you. Thank you for that. When I read and recite his monologues or sonnets they come alive to me in a personal and intimate way, which makes me all the more awestruck at this genius.
I read Folger Library editions of individual plays. Probably not as complete as the Arden (?) volume you recommended but more affordable. I have been reading Shakespeare while listening to audio performances from TH-cam. It helps with my understanding and comprehension.
Believe it or not, I developed a real taste for Shakespeare (outside of school) from Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. Weird? I guess. But I re-read them with a real enthusiasm. Lestat is known for quoting Othello's "put out the light then put out the light"
Hi, Benjamin! I would like to thank you for encouraging me to read Shakespeare.
English is not my first language and I didn't have the chance to read him at school, so I had only read The Merchant of Venice once, on my own. That changed last year, when, after seeing some of your videos, I started to read his plays chronologically.
After the fifth play, I threw the chronological order out of the window, because I fell in love. Basically, I found this one adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (a wild Hungarian musical, don't even ask 😂) and, suddenly, I was swept off my feet by ALL the characters in it. They were ALIVE, just like Merlin and King Arthur were real people in my mind, when I was a teen.
Since I found that play, months ago, I've been living with Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Benvolio and even Paris on my mind, 24/7. I read the play (in Portuguese and English), then I went after A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew. This week I'm reading Hamlet. I even started writing, which I hadn't done in decades.
So, thanks to your videos and some savage Hungarian actors and singers, I'm in love with all things Shakespeare now. And I must say, it is nice to be in love like this again! ❤
Thank you so much for sharing Benjamin!! I never really got into reading Shakespeare's books, sonnets or watched his plays because I didn't understand his written language!! I have however, heard of Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, Othello and Hamlett!!
But now, I'm currently taking a "Survey of Shakespearean Literature" college course and really need to, and actually want to learn, understand and appreciate his works!! Looking forward to learning!!
You are so welcome! Thank you so much for watching!! Your 'Survey of Shakespearean Literature' course sounds absolutely fascinating to me. I would really love to know how you get on with his works ☺️
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I appreciate that Benjamin!! 😊🙏🙏
As a younger man I was (stupidly) very snotty about Shakespeare and then I read 'The Plantagenets', an adaptation for the RSC of the Henry VI's plays with all the dodgy bits cut out. It blew me away... Full of incredible poetry, spectacle, warfare, ambition, and psychological insight. One of the greatest and most cruel sagas in English history rendered with such majesty, wit and power. And if you want to see why Richard III is one of the most damaged - and magnetically watchable - villains in literary history, this is where you start.
What an incredible video I've just stumbled across. I've only recently gotten into Shakespeare and your passionate and nearly religious reverence for him is contagious! I'm reading Romeo and Juliet right now -- figured I'd start with a play I was semi-familiar with, thanks to the Standard High School Experience -- but I'm not sure where to go after that. Maybe Twelfth Night, since I read a retelling last month that completely blew me away and made me super excited for the source material. At any rate, I love what you had to say about finding oneself through the man; if I can get a bit esoteric, a perfect moment to me is lying in the grass with the sun beating down on me, and so far, reading Shakespeare and his adjacent works make me feel like that. I'm looking forward to checking out more of your videos!
Superb video. Now I feel more confident on where to start my reading journey with Shakespeare. Looking forward to watching more of your videos.
I am currently reading my way through The New Oxford Shakespeare The Complete Works. They are in chronological order. I am reading the plays aloud and referring to the footnotes. When reading the history plays I read history to check the basic facts. It is slow going but satisfying. I intend to go back and study my favourites. In retrospect I think the history plays would probably be better read in the historical order, for example Shakespeares adaptation of Henry 6 part 1 was written after his parts 2 and 3.
He goes right over my head; I don’t understand him at all, but I am going to try, thanks to finding this channel.
I just saw a performance of Measure for Measure last night and I was absolutely blown away by how engaging it was. I think I've been tired of Shakespeare for a while because many companies only put on the Big plays (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, etc.) and I didn't realize just how genuinely complex and interesting some of his other plays are. The way the villain of the play is arguably the state is a very excitingly radical idea and it really makes me want to see and read more!
I will say, I think the fact they took creative liberties with that play in the performance I saw lent itself well to drawing contemporary audiences like me into the work. Was it what Shakespeare originally intended? Maybe not but I think it's sort of beautiful that we can interpret and reinterpret and reinvent Shakespeare all these years later. Dry repetition is how literature dies.
I loved this video. I just found your channel a couple of days ago and love it. Just in the few videos of your I have watched, I’ve learned so much.
My first experience with Shakespeare was reading Romeo and Juliet in my junior year of high school in English class. Our teacher was amazing and he sparked my love for Shakespeare.
I laughed when you said not to get the big fat all in one books- I do have them because they’re pretty on the shelf, but I do get the individual books for ease of reading.
Thank you for your amazing content!
Thank you, Susan. You have made my day with your lovely comment. Romeo and Juliet is such a great entrance play for Shakespeare. Thank goodness for your great teacher! The right teacher can be the difference between loving and hating Shakespeare. Happy reading, and thank you for being here! :)
I’m nearly…. ahem… half a century of rotations and I’m embarrassed that I barely know anything of WS, i only remember vaguely 2 or 3 plays back in high school many, many moons ago… but last week I saw a YT video that inspired me so I went looking and bought …and today, just today, I received my very own copy of The Complete Works of WS… a secondhand but beautiful HUGE leather bound and gold-leafed edition that only cost me $30… and by golly, I’m gonna read it! I’m so excited (even tho I got halfway through your video and you didn’t recommend it, but it was too beautiful a book to turn down, especially for that price!)
Hamlet, Taming of The Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Henry the fourth parts one and two, Julius Caesar, and Tempest are the plays I've been exposed to. I found each one to be very brilliant.
I love the Folger Shakespeare books that have notes on the facing pages.
Pete Postlethwaite as Lear - oh my, that would be an unforgettable experience.
I agree with McEvoy that reading is the better experience. The challenge for performers lies in the fact that no one in the present of the past actually spoke in long poetic monoloques and no one else would would suffer them to ramble on that long. For the stage the dialog is too over-worked, too clever, too artificial to be delivered with authenticity. So what you usually get is an actor who has to hold each emotion for relatively long periods of time, eg longer than any human would. Setting most of the plays in monarchies helps us accept the deference which other characters must feign while listening to the leads but as the saying goes "All acting is reacting" so actors are tied down. They have to react to what is being said but stretch that reaction out long enough to match the length of the other's lines.
Reading the plays eliminates most of those issues. Looking at the bad quartos shows us how much polish was put on the Folio versions. The same things that make Shakespeare difficult to stage flip over and conversely make it print and read very well! The structure of the lines becomes visual on the page and that is an enormous aid to digesting it. In China there are 5 major dialects that share a common written language. I think this points us toward a similar dynamic in 1623 England. Research was done recently that suggests people in Warwick in 1788 were not understood by Londoners. That's 150 years after Shakespeare gets printed! So standardizing the language is a long process and printing the Bible and Shakespeare in English are key steps in that standardization. The social dynamic of the printed word is that it gets accepted as more authoritative, its more rigid and enduring than spoken language. The French they speak in Quebec is archaic because until 1960 they were required to teach and use Bibles that are printed in Old French. IOW the text locked their language and kept it from evolving the way it did in France.
I have heard a range of views on how the closing of the playhouses helps or prompts or shapes the Folio and its legacy. The more extreme argument is that we have Shakespeare today ONLY because it reads so well. The lucky or perhaps, determinate, timing of the 1623 publication also benefits from every other major event in that period of English history but especially 1) the advent of machine-printed English which codifies and standardizes the language, 2) the subsequent spread of literacy in England and her Anglophone satellites, 3) the wide printing and reading of the Geneva and King James Bibles in English (not coincidentally in the same format and size as the First Folio), 4) the thwarting of the Spanish marriage and the rivalry of Spain and England which prompts England to prioritize literature and to coin national heroes, especially secular ones. IOW Shakespeare can be seen as part of the larger effort to find English replacements for both the Catholic church and for foreign literature, such as Cervantez, and the cultural envy that it can engender.
I absolutely adore him 😍
Read Julius Caesar in school and fell in love with the bard.
" Et Tu Brute"
Remarkable lecture. Thank you.
I read some Shakespeare at like, 16, as a challenge to myself, and since English is not my native tongue and I wasn't as critical in my readings, I didn't get that much out of it (I like the Histories more because I was into the Tudors and the War of the Roses). Then like 3 to 4 years later I re-read Richard II and I was just blown away. I also got to see it on stage. I'm reading Othello right now.
And yeah, reading the Bard is great to improve your english.
I'm doing all media versions of all the plays chronologically. For my understanding and enjoyment I have found: Audio books (without character names before their dialogue) < reading the text < play performances on TH-cam < Movies and BBC televised adaptations.
Shakespeare was never my cup of tea. Granted by bias was being forced to read Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth as a kid and not knowing what the hell I was reading. Left a sour taste in my mouth. I did giggle at the line "Draw thy tool. My naked weapon is out." From time to time I debate revisiting as an adult. Perhaps I will pick up a play at the second hand shop tomorrow.
Finally I can comfortably read Shakespeare -the iPad app allows easy/quick/comfortable tapping on the underlined words at needed points. It helps so much with the pacing. Also, I find I prefer subtitles with recorded performances.
What a wonderful video, Benjamin! You said so many important and interesting things here. Much appreciated.
Thank you, Steven :) And a very warm welcome to the Book Club! It's so great to have you onboard!
I can totally vouch for those everyman's editions, got them all and oh what a pleasure they are to read. nevertheless, I truly agree with you on the fact that introductions to Shakespeare have now shifted from critics who would have loved Shakespeare to those who write about him only to critique him. starting Shakespeare after reading such criticisms would somehow hamper the unblemished first read that any reader would have cherished otherwise. At the most what a first time reader would need to start with Shakespeare would only be a brief reading about the elizabethan age and there you go, the whole world of Shakespeare is before you to see, visualise and indulge in.
I'm glad you've noticed it too, Ruma! You're right - that's all the first reader needs, then send them off to enjoy :) Luckily, Shakespeare cannot be harmed by these criticisms. He's like this huge leviathan. The critics come at him with little swords, and they bend, rather than penetrate, when coming to contact with his skin. He will survive :)
What version of the text has Hamlet in the Everyman’s Library edition? Folio, quarto or conflated? Thank you.
I want to read Shakespeare in English. But as a non-native speaker it is quite the challenge. But after finishing Moby Dick recently, which I loved, I am willing to give it a go.
That's so awesome to hear! Congratulations on finishing Moby Dick. I'm so glad you loved it. I think you'll love Shakespeare too. I'd vote for starting with Macbeth!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I'm between Macbeth and King Lear, because I watched two movie adaptions from Akira Kurosawa (Throne of Blood & Ran), which both stuck with me.
I watched quite a few of your videos in the past few days and I must say, that your knowledge and passion for literature is amazing. I think I found my teacher for English literature here on TH-cam :)
I like to read his plays before going to see them. That way I’m savvy with the plot and dialogue which can go by too fast for my brain otherwise at performance speed. Then, after I’ve read one or two, I like to binge on a few others while I have a hang of the language.
The Folger Shakespeare Library also publishes quite good, cheap editions.
Based upon how you describe Shakespeare, he does sound a lot similar to Nietzsche
in the sense that Nietzsche gets interpreted as being many different things, aristocrat, communist, socialist, anarchist. Some read him spiritually others purely as a materialists
some read him as a darwinist or a lemarckian evolutionist, a transhumanist etc
Given that Nietzsche didn`t use characters to explore his philosophy. I do find this very impressive
I am personally a poet, but i wanna start writing plays and the only dramatist i have read is Sophocles. So i intend to read Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde too get more into plays
I'm a few days old now in my Shakespearean fanaticism phase which should last the rest of my life, and today i've seen this video and someone on a site saying not to overdo it on the helps editions like Arden has. But i do like having them, i feel i need as much help as i can, because i want to know as much as i can, through a multitude of resources it wouldn't be just getting one take.
My first time reading for Shakespeare was a translated work in arabic language and I really really liked it and I became so interested in him and his writing but I didn’t try to read his work in English until I started studying poetry in college.
Hey!!!!your new subscriber here.... I fell in love with the bard from my College education and I adore his plays BTW can you upload a video about your views on poetry??? I'll really appreciate that.
Love from India ❤️
Hi Abhra :) Thank you for sharing. So great to have another Shakespeare lover here. What a coincidence - I have one on poetry that has just gone up! Thank you for watching over in India :)
Another approach is to watch a performance and *read along* with it.
Great tip!
Titus Andronicus gave me nightmares worse than any horror movie!
Best acting performance I’ve ever seen was Simon Beale as Hamlet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Germans totally fluent in English all seem to prefer the German translation. Apparently more Shakespearean than Shakespeare. In general I find the anachronistic language painful to struggle through.
Thank you for sharing, John. I just read about Beale's performance in some articles and sounds like a great one. That's interesting about Germans preferring the translation. More Shakespearean than Shakespeare... Well, this is the country of Goethe!
I found Jonathan Bate’s Soul of the Age to be very helpful. Bate must be a Shakespeare scholar, but more than that he well knows Elizabethan Tudor history and psychology.
Shakespeare gave full voice to each of his protagonists, and his classical education in Latin and rhetoric helped him keep his head on his shoulders when many about him were losing theirs!
I really appreciate your passion for literature
Very late to this video, but...
Have been building a library of largely classics (modern and good ol') and didn't have any Shakespeare. Honestly, I was worried about the accessibility of the language. Then i read a little Faulkner... Eventually, curiosity leads me to discovering that "The Sound and the Fury" is a reference to Shakespeare (a line from Macbeth or Hamlet, can't remember which).
That, with knowing from your other videos that Herman Melville was inspired by Shakespeare, as well as countless others, made me finally pick up a handful of plays. Hopefully coming to understand and appreciate Shakespeare will open doors I never would have known how to open myself, and a few I might never have known were closed in the first place.
I appreciate you and what you do.
As a non-native English speaker, what draws me to Shakespeare again is the HBO (now is max)hottest television series Westworld. There are numerous quotes from Shakespeare in different scenarios, uttered by the protagonist and antagonist. They are mysteriously intriguing and very important clues integrating the whole story’s theme plot by plot.
I knew William Shakespeare from my English textbooks many years ago. At that time, some of his pieces were recommended on the“middle school student must-read classics”list, which was part of our homework that required to read and write reviews for the books.I had read some translated pieces, and tried the original version but struggled to understand due to the ancient English grammar and vocabulary.
Now it’s my second try to read the original version, hope I succeed this time.
Hi Ben, loved the video. Curious: Where are you seeing this trend for increased appreciation of Shakespeare? Obviously all of our intuitions are anecdotal, but I was just wondering.
Thank you, Alan :) Ah, yes, there is a heaping of anecdotal intuition, but I'm seeing it mainly on two fronts - firstly, just how many people are talking to me/asking me about Shakespeare, and secondly, the content and media I'm seeing surrounding Shakespeare. I think perhaps readers came to Shakespeare during the lockdown last year, along with other great works?
Just bought Macbeth today to get into Shakespeare and you uploaded this haha
Macbeth is a beautiful choice. Dark, brutal poetry. I hope you love it!
Hello and thank you for such an inspirational video, I clicked on it because I figured there's no time for me anymore to postpone starting reading Shakespeare seriously. As I am not a native speaker I believe it will be a challenging start so I would like to ask you two questions hoping the answers could help me to embark successfuly on this journey:
1. What's your opinion on "No fear Shakespeare" editions? Those are the ones with contemporary translations along the original text, aimed at helping the reader better understand the difficult language.
2. You've said one might ask someone for a list of the best Shakespeare's works in order to avoid reading the worse ones at the very beginning. What would be your list of the best works if you have one?
Thank you in advance.
Thank you so much, I really enjoyed this video.
Thank you, Patricia :) I'm so happy to hear that!
One of my real pet peeve’s is how they try to make him “easier “ by modernization of the language what is needed is one like the penguin 🐧 edition with note’s to check also watching a performance 🎭 to get the action as well in conjunction with reading 📖 like the 3 read method
BTW, The Bard was also responsible for the first "yo mama" joke "villain I have done thy mother!"
Thank you very much... For this video ❤️
Thank you for watching, Sanyam :)
I claim this reading 🙏😇🌻🌺🌼💐
I agree--better read than watched, esp. today!
I’ve only read Titus Andronicus once and don’t intend to ever read it again!
I relate to that! I'm definitely not in a hurry to return to Titus!
I, personally, attribute the resurgence of interest in Will to a combination of (i) David Mitchell in BBC’s ‘Upstart Crow’ and (ii) interest in a certain group of actors - Hiddleston, Hopkins, Cumberbatch, Blanchett, Branagh … (you can figure it out)😉✌️… ps. and maybe interest in that Shakespearian-like line uttered by ‘Loki’ … “you mewling quim”.😅
I'm a big fan of you. I'm a non-English speaker. I read hamlet in original text but only understood like 50% of it. That's why i took help from the modernised version.
Now I'm thinking about reading his other plays. What do you think would be better ? To read them in modernised version or translated in my own language?
Btw, love you sir 💓💓💓
That's amazing! Understanding 50% is very impressive. Many native speakers won't understand that much. I think both approaches work very well. Some languages have beautiful translations of Shakespeare. So you might want to investigate the reputation of translation in your language and go for that. Or you could try combining both approaches. That would be rewarding! And thank you so much for your kind words, my friend. I really appreciate you :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy oh my god, thank you so much for replying. You're one of the best creator of literary contents of TH-cam now. ❤️❤️❤️
Excellent video, Ben!
I’ve been inspired to give the plays another go. Like a lot of people, school ‘cured’ me of ever wanting to read him again. I’ve just ordered Romeo and Juliet and The Sonnets (I already love the Sonnets) in the Arden editions. Thought I’d start on familiar ground.
Thank you. Sharon x x
Thank you, Sharon! I'm so thrilled to hear it. The sonnets are a great access point, especially for those who are jaded from school Shakespeare. I was lucky to have an endlessly passionate and highly influential sixth form English teacher, whose love of King Lear moved me. But had it not been for him, my exposure to Shakespeare would have been the furthest thing from inspiring. I'll have to talk about this at some point - the way schools teach Shakespeare is so wrong! Romeo and Juliet is a great one to start with, and, coincidentally, I'll have some stuff coming out about that one which may aid a little :)
Thanks for your video
I have read one of his book it was "macbeth" it has been translated in to kurdish but unfortunately it was a very poor translation,
I felt bad about that and I just did not have the ability to complete it because i was not understanding it...
That hurts me a bit coz he it a very famous writer and my feelings till now says to me that he has amazing writes ..
And I am new here
Form Kurdistan 🤍
Interesting! Macbeth in Kurdish - I would love to read that. Do you have any recommendations for Kurdish Literature? And welcome to the channel - thank you for watching :)
@Benjamin McEvoy when you say chant the sonnets, do you mean like the Eastern Orthodox chant the Psalter? Or do you mean read them slow? TIA.
The former mostly :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy thank you 🙏
I discovered the three way reading by accident. I am fond of the 2005 American film of Pride and Prejudice. I had seen it twice when it came out and wanted to see it again. I watched it on TH-cam about a year ago. Then, I picked up the book which I had tried to read at 15, but, could not because I could not stand lizzie's parents.
I loved it. Although I disliked the 1998 BBC television series, I decided to rewatch it. I counter the notion that the 1998 was closer to the book because Mr. Darcy never fenced nor swam in his pond (an overrated bit of stage craft if there ever was one). I came close to turning if off about 3/4s of the way through. I just left it for the next day. I still dislike it but not as much.
Then, I watched the 2005 film and read the book again.
I just finished The Hobbit in preparation for rereading the trilogy. I decided to read all of Shakespeare's plays and all of Jane Austen's novels.
However, rather than read each author separately, I would read through them in this order: Tolkien, Austen, Shakespeare.
Would you work on speaking more slowly?
I recently attended much ado about nothing Shakespeare in the park here in Tennessee and was sad to have it so experimental as to be reset in the 1970s with girl power theme and the action being interrupted by 70s music and the setting changed to Nashville it was very jarring to enjoy the Shakespeare and have it interrupted by the other stuff not really Shakespeare in the park
Shakespeare is the secular Bible.
Question: Would Shakespeare want us to foremost appreciate his themes/stories/plots which reveal themselves as we watch/turn the pages OR the brilliance of his 'screenplays' via the written word? thus stories vs grammar, to put it simplistically
Ok
I'll try the 3 reads
Great! I even Googled "how to appreciate William shakespeare books? read by chronological order?" --- and here I am. Thank you. 😉
These astonishing offerings are most invigourating and so generous of you. Thank you for your time and thoughtful efforts. Bravo!
May I inquire as to your take on the question of the true authorship of Shakespeare's works? This perhaps might be addressed in your Q & A format.
If you have seen the engaging video of Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance , bith distinguished actors steeped in those famous plays and sonnets, their sensible
respectful sharing of Doubt About Will is incredibly fascinating and intriguing.
A grand mystery to sort out and explore.
With your knack for voracious reading I would imagine you have delved into the maze of potential candidates (Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe, and so forth) in your reading travels. As Jacobi says, perhaps it isan amalgam of writers.
though the point seems to be to keep an mind to the subject.
To many it is blasphemy to do so.
I think not.
...and you?
....edit: "the point is to keep an open mind"...
Like you, Ben, I'm a huge 'fan' of both Shakespeare and Cervantes - have you discovered the joys of Montaine, the third member of this contemporary triumvirate? In Montaigne's 'Essays' one finds humane wisdom and kindly wit - no deprecating or cruel satire - rather a non-judgemental and wise friend for life.
Absolutely! A day doesn't go by without my reading Montaigne along with Cervantes and Shakespeare. I recently enjoyed a fantastic biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell - highly recommended if you haven't already enjoyed it, Richard :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Bakewell's 'How to Live'? Yes, it is excellent! :)
@@richardfairley9882 That's the one!
I love this.
Can you please answer my question??? I adore Shakespeare's works..... can you please tell me what's the best way of reading him??? SHOULD I BUY THE INDIVIDUAL PLAYS OR THE COMPLETE WORKS?
PLEASE HELP
Read bit Shakespeare them go a way from it and come back to it it not my cup of tea if you know what I mean
How do you think shakespeare would feel if he saw the way his plays were being taught? Ive heard some say he would be rolling in his grave at the thought of how his work has become a chore for some but this video makes me think maybe he values the complexity and the lack of comprehension the audience can have when performing his plays and taking on his work in general.
That's a really interesting question. I think he would be a little bemused because our theatrical conventions have changed so drastically. He was a smash hit during his own time, but even he would surely be surprised that he's being studied 400+ years later!