Do you find reading Shakespeare challenging?

Just sitting down and reading it, yes. It's out of context, so it helps to have some sort of guide to explain how the meanings of certain words have changed and what's going on. I enjoyed studying Shakespeare at uni because they went into the language in depth and I got a lot more out of it than I had before.

by Jennifer Muirhead

Being English and born in the Old Country....no it comes easy to me....But I do know it can be hard for folk at times... :)

by jonaja

Ditto :-))

Ah, iambic pentameter. I love Shakepeare and have always had a complete works since I was about fourteen. I still have my brother's copy of Julius Caesar from England and my Twelfth Night from school plus dvds. "my fellows, are you mad, or what are you?"

by Rice

Aye.

by Vee

it is a different style. I have enjoyed Hamlet and MacBeth. But it was part of a group study. The discussion helped.

by bellabirth

No. I am lucky in that I had a really good teacher early on who loved Shakespeare and made reading him a wonderful experience. I've also worked in the Education Department at the Royal Shakespeare Company, helping them enthuse other young people about Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, so I know quite a few tricks on how to read it and make it come alive :)

by VerityG

:)

Did you meet any 'well known' RSC actors' or actresses' whilst there?

Yes I did. Though I already knew a few just from living in the area, they none of them had any airs or graces and everyone ate lunch together in the Green Room, sitting wherever there was a free chair and chatting to whoever was on their table. Also several actors would come on school workshops, so we worked with them as well.

Thank you, VerityG.......somehow I thought they'd just be 'normal' in their attitudes! Lovely to have that confirmed!
I got a most delightful letter from Dame Maggie Smith a few years' ago, & she apologised for taking 'so long' in replying to me! Wow, I thought that was just so marvellous!

Understanding Shakespeare is mostly relatively easy to decipher in terms of subtext and plot . I studied quite a few of Shakespeare's works during high school and at uni (in my early years I taught drama and therefore needed to be up to speed on my Shakespearean comprehension).

Although, I can thoroughly appreciate people's difficulty in understanding Shakespeare today.

by Annalisa Brown

Thoroughly enjoyed studying Shakespeare at School. Had 'Julius Caesar' for Grades IX-X, & 'Macbeth' for Grades XI-XII.
Also was studying, each year, different Grade, AMEB Speech & Drama.

So all went together quite nicely.
Still do much 'informal' study now I've the time, & this includes further studies' on Shakespeare & English Literature.

Never found any part of English Subject difficult at School; topped every year, but there were kids' who just couldn't make 'head nor tail' of it. I helped them, when asked to do so.

by donjo

I did when I was in school but not now

by Maria

Reading Shakespeare was not easy for me...
but... the ABC had a wonderful series on a few Sundays ago... could have been called Explaining Shakespeare, or similar. Just loved it, especially Jeremy Irons explaining one play to me. David Tenant played Hamlet in one of the many plays, but he just seemed like Dr. Who to me. Casting is all

by sandw

Oh yes, I loved that series! Except that Uma Thurman's exhusband . . . whose name I cannot remember . . . seemed like a clanger to me.

Boring

by Finy