Question - how do I begin to understand the language of Shakespeare (and English poetry at large?)

If it helps, English lessons in schools when they study Shakespeare also have no idea how to read it. Our exam papers are about our interpretations of what he means, which sometimes means just saying "he said this and I thought it meant this" cus being old english, nobody knows the truth Most natives struggle to read it too

Even native English speakers struggle with this. First of all, there's no requirement that you enjoy Shakespeare or poetry in general. I would say most native speakers also don't enjoy Shakespeare or early-modern English poetry in general, or at least don't engage with it regularly. Second, there are editions of Shakespeare that have notes explaining confusing phrases. Things like "No Fear Shakespeare" will help you understand when confusing phrases pop up. Third, like any skill, it takes practice and getting used to the context clues. Initially, it may take some getting used to, but eventually parsing those phrases will get easier. Remember Shakespeare is fitting words into specific meter and trying to make things rhyme, which means that his speech patterns are unusual compared to typical speech even of the time period. English has also shifted the way we pronounce vowels (the Great Vowel Shift) since his time, so older rhymes don't necessarily rhyme in modern pronunciation.

I’d start with poetry that is more current. Shakespeare wrote 500 years ago and his English, though technically “Modern English” is very difficult for most native speakers today. If you want to specifically study Shakespeare and his influence on English literature, I’d get a companion that can translate and explain it for you, straight reading will be very difficult without context.

I was taught to understand it in school. Maybe you could find some text books about it, like from an English Literature course. 

It would be so hard to learn the English necessary to grok Shakespeare from an ESL background. It's hard for English-speakers. English has evolved a LOT since Shakespeare was using it, and many words have completely different meanings. The Folgers editions have good footnotes, but, I dunno, it's not that fun to be drowning in footnotes. r/shakespeare might have better tips for you.

You can buy a version of whichever Shakespeare play with the original text on one side of the page and a "translation" on the other. I also recommend reading all the footnotes. Shakespeare's use of language is amazing once you can figure out what it means, but it's a struggle for native speakers too. Grammar, definitions, and culture have changed since Shakespeare's time.

Shakespeare is taught in schools a lot, so there is LOTS of commentary on these things because native speakers also don't understand these turns of phrase on first acquaintance. For example: [https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/hamlet/act-3-scene-1](https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translations/hamlet/act-3-scene-1) \-- this page has a translation into simple modern English. Basically, "your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty" means honesty and beauty should not be connected. And in the second quote, she means what better things could be connected. "admit discourse" meaning sort of "allow connection / transference between" and "better commerce" meaning what better \[thing\] to connect or exchange with, in this case. The other thing that works well for learning Shakespeare is watching it instead of reading it. They're plays, they're meant to be staged, and usually how the actors deliver their lines can give you a lot of info. Also sometimes the setting is shifted into a modern context which can help too -- some have the text modernized, some don't, up to you what you prefer. As he's a pillar of English literature there are tons and tons and tons of live and filmed adaptations.

Read annotated editions. They use them all the time in school, because an awful lot of native english speakers can't make heads or tails of Elizabethan English, either. (I happened to grow up in a religious denomination that used the King James bible a LOT, so I kind of had a leg up, as King James English is basically contemporaneous with Shakespeare). The annotations will proactively give you definitions for any unusual words, explain obscure Elizabethan slang, tricky concepts, etc.

Shakespeare can be difficult to read for anyone, even with a simple English translation. There are a lot available out there, in my classes we always had the original version and the modern, simple translated version. 1. I read this as “your honesty should cause no problems in how your beauty is regarded.” Discourse = arguments. 2. Here, I’m interpreting commerce as “trade,” so he is saying that beauty and honesty go together very well. (I am not a literature expert, if I have these wrong, please feel free to correct me. I studied some British literature in college but was never a big fan of Shakespeare.)

Shakespeare in particular, is written with many made up words and jokes, puns and play on words. It is hard even for native speakers to understand unless they have a better than average highschool level education. Some of the meanings have changed with time so even if you understand the words you could still not understand the intended meaning. There are 'translations' available that put the text in simpler English, and give footnotes to explain context if needed. Something like that will help you understand what is actually going on with the story, and that will also help with understanding the actual words and language. Try a search for "modern english translations of Shakespeare" and see if anything is helpful

Early modern English, especially what Shakespeare wrote is considered very hard to learn. He was simultaneously a genius and kind of a crazy person. Interpreting what he actually means is sometimes very hard. Most people myself included during the lectures about Shakespeare in high school were confused about a lot of it. Get translations were needed and interpret it they way you do, plenty native speakers need translations some can just read it but tbh that isn’t that common.

In the U.K., we study Shakespeare at school, using text books with extensive notes, then discuss the meaning of key phrases in class. It is possible to understand these two phrases by understanding each word. Admit - let in No discourse to - no discussion about Your beauty - … Get it? To have better commerce with - commerce means ‘dealing with’ something - in this case, ‘dealing with’. Get it? One person says - if you want to be honest, you won’t use / talk about your beauty. The other one says - the best way to talk about beauty is with honesty. No? A - honesty and beauty don’t go together well B - yes they do.

I’d recommend watching a performance while reading an annotated version of the play—the way the actors phrase things and other actor’s responses may help to get a feel for the overall action, while the annotations will help with the details. It is a very different way of saying things than what you have probably encountered. Letting the speeches just kind of wash over you may help. (Sometimes I watch movies in languages I don’t speak without subtitles though, so I may have more willingness to not know details than average.)

Honestly, just don't. You can find Modern English versions of his plays and not torment yourself by trying to figure out the language. I promise it's much more enjoyable

Specifically here 1. Honesty and beauty should be kept separated. They can corrupt each other. Specifically in the passage Hamlet is saying that Ophelia should be careful that her beauty does not corrupt her honesty, so her honesty (or purity/chastity) should not "talk to" (discourse with) her beauty. 2. Beauty has more success (for example when making a deal in commerce) than honesty. A pretty face can strike a better deal than just being honest.

You get yourself Brodie's Notes (or one of the similar alternatives) for the book in question. Honestly, it's essential. Read it alongside the notes. **I** read Shakey with Brodie's Notes open, and I'm supposedly a language expert! Example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brodies-William-Shakespeares-Merchant-Venice/dp/0330501879

1\. your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty admit = allow discourse = argument, discussion Don't let anyone say that you're ugly (implying you're gorgeous). 2. Could beauty have better commerce than with honesty? commerce = interaction, relationship (between two things) Is there any better pairing for beauty than honesty? I.e. beauty and honesty go well together. --- If you ever get stuck understanding something, and you've tried google and dictionaries, please ask here.

Can you read literature from over 400 years ago in your native language? I'm not implying that you can't, some languages have changed less than others as well, but some perspective helps. I personally don't have much trouble with the above phrases, but I definitely miss things and stumble in Shakespeare in general if I don't go over it very closely.

In English class, we used Sparknotes after reading the scene. No one who speaks modern English will intuitively understand that “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” means “Why are you Romeo?” in the sense that his name prevents them from being together because it puts them on opposite sides of the family feud. Another big help was using a graphic novel instead of just reading. It’s a play, after all.

In college I used CliffsNotes (or a similar study guide). Here is my tried-and-true method of using these guides to help you read and understand (NOT to help you skip the actually reading part!). * Each scene will have a section in CliffsNotes. Read the summary before you read the scene. If you have an idea of what is going to happen, it can help you understand some of the unfamiliar language, or at least think about what it MIGHT mean. * Read then scene. * Go back to CliffsNotes. Read the analysis of the scene. This will help with the nuances of what happened and what the implications are. It will also help with the "literary" part of the play--what the symbols are, what is actually meant, etc. Important quotations are often discussed. * Read the scene again.

Watch the plays! They’re meant to be performed live, plus the action onstage should make the story apparent through context. There are a million different performances on YouTube, and you can read along as you listen

I find it really helps to see Shakespeare performed. Gives you a lot more context. I mean, there are annotated editions that explain pretty much every line in modern English, but that's so slow and dry. Actually seeing a play or a recording of a play, you might not understand every word and some parts might seem complete gibberish but it all seems much more intuitive on stage. At least to me.

I’ll weigh in because I recently assigned a Shakespeare play to my fourth grader.  1. Read or watch a synopsis so you have an understanding of the plot first. I have a copy of John and Mary Lamb’s Shakespeare for children but there are plenty of others in print or online.  2. You don’t have to understand everything to enjoy it or have it be worthwhile. Are you understanding what’s going on? Great! Keep going even if you didn’t understand exactly what somebody said.  3. If you’re studying a play, watch the play. You can get a lot out of the acting that might not be obvious from reading it.  Yes. There are translations of Shakespeare to more modern English. No Fear Shakespeare is a popular one with the original text and a translation side by side. 

ELizabethan English like Shakespeare used is really a different language. It more different to us than the language of Chaucer was to the average Elizabethan. I worked at Renaissance Faires in the United States for over a decade, and we employed an ersatz (fake) dialect which employed a few Shakespearean phrases and some Elizabethan insults/quips... but we didn't go in for full on Elizabethan English because only English literature and Drama majors would understand it. If I were to say to you, "The eye of Minerva is staring down upon us," you would probably take that as a paranoid statement. But to an Elizabethan all it meant was 'The sun is out" And that's just what was considered flowery speech at the time. Last thought: modern english was established in the 17th or early 18th century, Unfortunately, Shakespeare lived in the 16th.

If you see a really good theater performance of a Shakespeare play, you will understand a lot more of what is going on through the tone and body language of the performers. If you are really intent on learning Shakespeare, then you can go back and read an annotated text once you have the gist of what is going on from the actual performance.

*No Fear Shakespeare* is nice. I like to read a scene in the original, go back to read it in current language, and then read it once again in the original.

Some suggestions -  There's a popular complication book called Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems. It's aimed to be accessible to all ages, but it's by no means "children's" poems.  Here are a few famous poets who are, at minimum, more accessible than Shakespeare. The specific poems I listed are common school reading so there should be lots of explanations and interpretations online. I'm also going entirely off of personal favorites which happen to mostly be American poets. Robert Frost:  - Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening  - Nothing Gold Can Last Walt Whitman: - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d - Oh Captain, my Captain Emily Dickinson: - A narrow fellow in the grass  - Because I could not stop for death Edgar Allen Poe - Annabel Lee - The Raven (this is a hard one but it's one of the most quoted poems I know of)  Shel Silverstein: Mostly humorous poems. Aimed for kids but good for all ages. Best known might be The Unicorn because it's set to music. https://youtu.be/pRSk38W-xIs?si=BbOoJEl5VCml5LmJ Maya Angelou  - Caged Bird Langston Hughes - Harlem Bob Dylan  - he's a musician, but he deserves a mention because he won the Nobel prize for literature.  William Wordsworth: - I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

Call him … why do you want to understand him !!!

In US schools, it's almost always taught by watching a video performance at some point. Sometimes more than one version. It makes more sense if you can see the actors doing things and showing emotions.

[https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/shakespearecentral](https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/shakespearecentral) Choose a play, then go to the scene list on the left side and read the summaries as you read the scene. Edit: also [sparknotes](https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/?scr=1) actually has line-by-line in modern English, but only as part of their "plus" subscription. The analysis is free, though, as far as I know.

Don’t. I’m a teacher and a very active reader and Shakespeare is not going to teach you anything useful about the language or how to use it, because we don’t speak or write that way and haven’t in at least a century. There are far more interesting and relevant things to read that will teach you a lot more about the language, writing, reading, and speaking it. And for anyone who would dispute this and say, “But Shakespeare is CLASSIC! You can’t just say it’s irrelevant now!” consider that many productions of Shakespeare now are in simplified, modernized English, and many Shakespeare readers appear in simpler versions, too. American schoolchildren have been force-fed Shakespeare’s plays far too young to enjoy them for generations. It just creates confusion, resentment, and the misconception that reading is boring or difficult.

Don’t feel too bad, Shakespeare is hard to read even for native English speakers. I see a lot of good advice in other replies, but I also recommend starting with his later works. His skill as a writer certainly improved over time, such that his “Julius Caesar” is much easier to read than his “King Henry VI.”

Old English like Shakespeare is literally a different language than English now. Sure, there are a lot of similarities, but there are also many, many differences. It's no stripes l surprise that you have a hard time reading it; so do millions of native English speakers.

It is another dialect. Most of us can’t read Shakespeare fluently.