Where would a non-Anglo non-native speaker start with Shakespeare?

Where would a non-Anglo non-native speaker start with Shakespeare?

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stagemilk.com/length-of-shakespeare-plays/
nfs.sparknotes.com/merchant
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His writing doesn't vary in difficulty too much, so start like an Anglo would. Romeo and Juliet, the four great tragedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream...

I will. Any specific order for the four tragedies that's the best?

stagemilk.com/length-of-shakespeare-plays/

I recommend reading the most popular plays at the bottom of this list and working your way up.

I only recommend you read the short ones because times I've tried to read French for too long I get a head ache. Although I've studied French for years, I just can't get used to reading a foreign language at length.

I only read Titus because i am an edgelord

King Lear, Hamlet, the Henry/Richard tetralogy

Hamlet just reads like a book of quotations now, its so ubiquitous

Yeh i'd read a translation first, and if you want read in English. It early-modern English so its not easy, your average anglo pleb cant read it at all btw

Aren't there editions with modern English and the original side by side?

I can read modern English without problems generally.

You're exaggerating a lot. I read Hamlet and Macbeth when I was 16, it really wasn't that difficult. (And english is my second language.) The fact that you get a headache from reading a foreign language doesn't mean everyone else does. In fact, I've never heard of anyone having such problems.

Great starting points: Venus and Adonis, Othello, Shrew, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, in that order of comprehension. What you'll have to understand when reading Shakespeare is that you're not going to fully comprehend the text hence you won't fully appreciate it even after three or four reads.

Step 1: Read the text (preferably in one sitting). Try to grasp a general plot-line, and a general feel for the characters.
Step 2: Re-read the text, but slower (less preferably in one sitting, but still recommended
Step 3: Re-read the text again
Step 4 or 5: Read some criticism
Step 4 or 5: Watch a film adaptation (research the best)
Step 6: Re-read the text, slower than ever, and considering each line.
Step 7: Enjoy re-reading from here on out and having the capability to, at any point in your life, call up a Shakespeare play in your mind and think through it.

please OP do not read Lear or god forbid a tetralogy to begin with (not that the histories are bad, on the contrary...). Richard III is open for beginners, but even then--save them.

Frim a fellow non English native speaker, begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth. Begin with Macbeth.

Macbeth is really good, very short, and really understandable. You'll get accustomed to the language with that play and you'll be able to read anything.
I'd recommend you to continue with Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Midsummer Night's Dream.

lol just read it. its not that hard

t. non native underage

I don't get why people would read Shakespeare before watching the plays. His works are meant for the stage - to be acted out, not for the bedside table.

Because stagings of Shakespeare are rare. Good ones, uncut and not modernized, with the original pronunciation (ie, how they were meant to be performed) even more so. That doesn't take into the account how confusing and difficult such a play would be to a first-time Shakespeare viewer.

So how did you do it? One day you just went to the theater, watched four hours of Hamlet and had a great time? That's how you got into Shakespeare?

You don't care about what people think of you? You just want to have a good time? Here you go:
nfs.sparknotes.com/merchant

>with the original pronunciation

No, it just sounds retarded and it adds nothing. It's just another barrier to understanding and completely arbitrary and has never been done until recently. Would you insist on hearing a Sheridan play in a reconstructed 18th century Irish accent?

I'd love that desu

on the other extreme we have romeo + juliet with leonardo dicaprio

Uh... It adds rhyme (pretty important for the sonnets), puns and adds to the metre (the -ed suffix for past tense verbs should be a syllable).
But I don't insist on it and never said that I do. I was just trying to find that "proper" way of experiencing Shakespeare, how William himself "meant it to be".

Veeky Forums is a christian board. You need to go back and leave us alone. You will never understand his work and you will never be whyte. Goodbye.

I'm whiter than Anglos, don't worry.