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Can anyone actually understand Shakespeare?
- Thread starter Cunth
- Start date
Cunth
Fingerlickin' Good!
Nothin
VibratingPeripheral
Banned
I tried to watch Much Ado About Nothing with Keanu and Branagh last month. I was enjoying It yet at least half of the puns, double entendres, and parlance were escaping me. I think acting helps with giving context. Plus words evolve and change.
Kinda lost interest and stopped half way through Much Ado. I could comprehend the plot, and if I have free time I might finish watching it soon.
Kinda lost interest and stopped half way through Much Ado. I could comprehend the plot, and if I have free time I might finish watching it soon.
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diffusionx
Gold Member
I never had this problem reading it, even in school, but yes, it is meant to be enjoyed with trained actors on the stage.
NecrosaroIII
Ultimate DQ Fan
Yes because I actually 0aid attention in English class
Punished Miku
Banned
Being totally serious, when you read old literature, you realize that tons of people were absolute geniuses.
People think intellect is a straight, linear line from the past to the present. In reality, tons of farmers in the 1600s were geniuses and figured out how to make shit work.
Technology advancing is the role of one lone genius in 200 years like Isaac Newton. It doesn't mean that there weren't geniuses far, far, far, far in the past. Truly top tier IQ people. Just read anything written, and it's usually far more sophisticated than stuff from today.
400 AD
??? BC
they're smarter than you
Squirrel Killer
Member
Seeing it acted by competent actors helps, paying attention helps even more.
Slings and Arrows
Banned
It's easy to understand when everyone around you speaks like that in your everyday life.
Good morrow Boswollox, has thoust foundeth in thine travels of yonder, looketh back and taketh thoust t' shops.
Good morrow Boswollox, has thoust foundeth in thine travels of yonder, looketh back and taketh thoust t' shops.
King of Foxes
Banned
I'm a huge Shakespeare fan, one of the few things i will buy as luxury for myself are different books/collections, i have 5 copies of Macbeth alone.
Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet are my favorites. A midsummer nights dream is also great for something not intense
Even if you cant stand to read them, Magneto does an amazing job as Macbeth if you need to see it in the comfort of your own home
Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet are my favorites. A midsummer nights dream is also great for something not intense
Even if you cant stand to read them, Magneto does an amazing job as Macbeth if you need to see it in the comfort of your own home
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Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Taxexemption
Member
I grew up reading the King James Bible, and I understood that perfectly but could not read much Shakespeare. Eventually I found that someone was making comic book versions of the stories that had notes that explained all the parts that were incomprehensible. I'm convinced almost no one literally reads Shakespeare. Macbeth is great.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Get thee to a nunnery!
Halo is Back
Member
Funny, because his plays were thought as mindless entertainment back in the day. As time passes, we view him as a genius
Tesseract
Banned
methought you lars rashly
i said not bad, this was an incredibly complicated man with a twisted love of irregular syntax
runons and such, bizarre sentence structure variation
TrainedRage
Banned
Being totally serious, when you read old literature, you realize that tons of people were absolute geniuses.
People think intellect is a straight, linear line from the past to the present. In reality, tons of farmers in the 1600s were geniuses and figured out how to make shit work.
Technology advancing is the role of one lone genius in 200 years like Isaac Newton. It doesn't mean that there weren't geniuses far, far, far, far in the past. Truly top tier IQ people. Just read anything written, and it's usually far more sophisticated than stuff from today.
400 AD
??? BC
they're smarter than you
I would love to see those plebs use an iPhone or VR. Stupid boomers.
Tesseract
Banned
i think newton would adapt to vr pretty quick, he was obsessed with optics
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Punished Miku
Banned
And Alchemy
#Phonepunk#
Banned
This reminds me I still need to watch the Hollywood golden age version of Midsummer Nights Dream
Cunth
Fingerlickin' Good!
lolol nice English you got there
HORRORSHØW
Member
Try reading The Canterbury Tales in middle English.
pennythoughts
Member
No, people did not speak in iambic pentameter back then.
They also do not speak in iambic pentameter now either, just to be clear.
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highrider
Banned
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Furlong
Banned
You speak Shakespeare every day.
- academe
- accessible
- accommodation
- addiction
- admirable
- aerial
- airless
- amazement
- anchovy
- arch-villain
- auspicious
- bacheolorship
- barefaced
- baseless
- batty
- beachy
- bedroom
- belongings
- birthplace
- black-faced
- bloodstained
- bloodsucking
- blusterer
- bodikins
- braggartism
- brisky
- broomstaff
- budger
- bump
- buzzer
- candle holder
- catlike
- characterless
- cheap
- chimney-top
- chopped
- churchlike
- circumstantial
- clangor
- cold-blooded
- coldhearted
- compact
- consanguineous
- control
- coppernose
- countless
- courtship
- critical
- cruelhearted
- Dalmatian
- dauntless
- dawn
- day’s work
- deaths-head
- defeat
- depositary
- dewdrop
- dexterously
- disgraceful
- distasteful
- distrustful
- dog-weary
- doit (a Dutch coin: ‘a pittance’)
- domineering
- downstairs
- dwindle
- East Indies
- embrace
- employer
- employment
- enfranchisement
- engagement
- enrapt
- epileptic
- equivocal
- eventful
- excitement
- expedience
- expertness
- exposure
- eyedrop
- eyewink
- fair-faced
- fairyland
- fanged
- fap
- far-off
- farmhouse
- fashionable
- fashionmonger
- fat-witted
- fathomless
- featureless
- fiendlike
- fitful
- fixture
- fleshment
- flirt-gill
- flowery
- fly-bitten
- footfall
- foppish
- foregone
- fortune-teller
- foul mouthed
- Franciscan
- freezing
- fretful
- full-grown
- fullhearted
- futurity
- gallantry
- garden house
- generous
- gentlefolk
- glow
- go-between
- grass plot
- gravel-blind
- gray-eyed
- green-eyed
- grief-shot
- grime
- gust
- half-blooded
- heartsore
- hedge-pig
- hell-born
- hint
- hobnail
- homely
- honey-tongued
- hornbook
- hostile
- hot-blooded
- howl
- hunchbacked
- hurly
- idle-headed
- ill-tempered
- ill-used
- impartial
- imploratory
- import
- in question
- inauspicious
- indirection
- indistinguishable
- inducement
- informal
- inventorially
- investment
- invitation
- invulnerable
- jaded
- juiced
- keech
- kickie-wickie
- kitchen-wench
- lackluster
- ladybird
- lament
- land-rat
- laughable
- leaky
- leapfrog
- lewdster
- loggerhead
- lonely
- long-legged
- love letter
- lustihood
- lustrous
- madcap
- madwoman
- majestic
- malignancy
- manager
- marketable
- marriage bed
- militarist
- mimic
- misgiving
- misquote
- mockable
- money’s worth
- monumental
- moonbeam
- mortifying
- motionless
- mountaineer
- multitudinous
- neglect
- never-ending
- newsmonger
- nimble-footed
- noiseless
- nook-shotten
- obscene
- ode
- offenseful
- offenseless
- Olympian
- on purpose
- oppugnancy
- outbreak
- overblown
- overcredulous
- overgrowth
- overview
- pageantry
- pale-faced
- passado
- paternal
- pebbled
- pedant
- pedantical
- pendulous
- pignut
- pious
- please-man
- plumpy
- posture
- prayerbook
- priceless
- profitless
- Promethean
- protester
- published
- puking (disputed)
- puppy-dog
- pushpin
- quarrelsome
- radiance
- rascally
- rawboned
- reclusive
- refractory
- reinforcement
- reliance
- remorseless
- reprieve
- resolve
- restoration
- restraint
- retirement
- revokement
- revolting
- ring carrier
- roadway
- roguery
- rose-cheeked
- rose-lipped
- rumination
- ruttish
- sanctimonious
- satisfying
- savage
- savagery
- schoolboy
- scrimer
- scrubbed
- scuffle
- seamy
- self-abuse
- shipwrecked
- shooting star
- shudder
- silk stocking
- silliness
- skim milk
- skimble-skamble
- slugabed
- soft-hearted
- spectacled
- spilth
- spleenful
- sportive
- stealthy
- stillborn
- successful
- suffocating
- tanling
- tardiness
- time-honored
- title page
- to arouse
- to barber
- to bedabble
- to belly
- to besmirch
- to bet
- to bethump
- to blanket
- to cake
- to canopy
- to castigate
- to cater
- to champion
- to comply
- to compromise
- to cow
- to cudgel
- to dapple
- to denote
- to dishearten
- to dislocate
- to educate
- to elbow
- to enmesh
- to enthrone
- to fishify
- to glutton
- to gnarl
- to gossip
- to grovel
- to happy
- to hinge
- to humor
- to impede
- to inhearse
- to inlay
- to instate
- to lapse
- to muddy
- to negotiate
- to numb
- to offcap
- to operate
- to out-Herod
- to out-talk
- to out-villain
- to outdare
- to outfrown
- to outscold
- to outsell
- to outweigh
- to overpay
- to overpower
- to overrate
- to palate
- to pander
- to perplex
- to petition
- to rant
- to reverb
- to reword
- to rival
- to sate
- to secure
- to sire
- to sneak
- to squabble
- to subcontract
- to sully
- to supervise
- to swagger
- to torture
- to un muzzle
- to unbosom
- to uncurl
- to undervalue
- to undress
- to unfool
- to unhappy
- to unsex
- to widen
- tortive
- traditional
- tranquil
- transcendence
- trippingly
- unaccommodated
- unappeased
- unchanging
- unclaimed
- unearthy
- uneducated
- unfrequented
- ungoverned
- ungrown
- unhelpful
- unhidden
- unlicensed
- unmitigated
- unmusical
- unpolluted
- unpublished
- unquestionable
- unquestioned
- unreal
- unrivaled
- unscarred
- unscratched
- unsolicited
- unsolicited
- unsullied
- unswayed
- untutored
- unvarnished
- unvarnished
- unwillingness
- upstairs
- useful
- useless
- valueless
- varied
- varletry
- vasty
- vulnerable
- watchdog
- water drop
- water fly
- well-behaved
- well-bred
- well-educated
- well-read
- wittolly
- worn out
- wry-necked
- yelping
- zany
O-N-E
Member
He's way too verbose and flowery. Romeo and Juliet is tremendously dumb. However, I do like Macbeth quite a bit. It has some of my favourite climactic dialogue.
MACDUFF
Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words.
My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!
MACBETH
...
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped.
MACDUFF
Turn, hellhound, turn!
MACBETH
Of all men else I have avoided thee.
But get thee back. My soul is too much charged
With blood of thine already.
MACDUFF
I have no words.
My voice is in my sword. Thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!
MACBETH
...
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield
To one of woman born.
MACDUFF
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped.
megalaserLAWS
Banned
No.
brap
Banned
TheInfamousKira
Reseterror Resettler
Methinks the Cunth doth protest too much.
Bullet Club
Banned
I understand Upstart Crow, does that count?
eot
Banned
I haven't read that one, but I have a different book in middle English and I found it more comprehensible than I'd expected. Knowing other languages helps though, and it's not exactly bed time reading.
nush
Gold Member
Exactly, This was the movie that finally made me "Get" Shakespeare.
It's still not something I particularly enjoy.
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#Phonepunk#
Banned
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Cutty Flam
Banned
D
Deleted member 1159
Unconfirmed Member
After two semesters of it in college, yeah, sorta. Kinda. If we studied that specific work and had it all explained to me...a little bit.
Potato Chip PRO
Member
Oohh man this is giving me high school flashbacks when I had to read Macbeth in Olde English.. Suffering at its finest.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
It's not bad if you "get into it" and get used to the language style. Yeah the first few paragraphs can be tough but it gets better.
The Hamburglar
Banned
You look like the kind of guy that has trouble reading the menu at McDonald’s. I’m not surprised you’re struggling with Shakespeare
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.1
Mostly under stable at first it’s sort of alien
Raven117
Gold Member
This. And read it beforehand
HarryKS
Member
CAESAR
I could be well moved if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks.
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world. 'Tis furnished well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion. And that I am he
Let me a little show it even in this:
That I was constant Cimber should be banished,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
I could be well moved if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks.
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world. 'Tis furnished well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion. And that I am he
Let me a little show it even in this:
That I was constant Cimber should be banished,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
GreyHorace
Member
This. Hearing the words acted out is the only way to really get it as opposed to reading them.
Incidentally, what's everyone's favorite film adaptation of the Bard's work? For me it's Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (original title 蜘蛛巣城, Kumonosu-jō ), his take on Macbeth. What I like is that while Kurosawa's keeps the same storyline and plot, he is not slavish to the material. He dares to change characters and omits entire scenes of dialogue to fit the Noh theater aesthetic he fit into the movie.