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Not only does this book make understanding Shakespeare much easier, but it came WAY earlier than expected and was in time for me to use in my class.
Love mine. I recommend this for anyone who has had trouble with reading Shakespeare line for line in the past. The side by side text is convenient.
I wish could buy an entire series of no fear shakespeare for all of his works. I've been using the free online resource version of this product and it has changed my life.
This is something that publishers should certainly attempt. If you like a more "adult", and more lightly annotated, text then try the RSC Shakespeare version edited by Jonathan Bate. Also, Shakespeare is being more exact than "no fear" here. "Perform" is too vague.
But not this kind of help. I'll use one line to show the problem with this text. It is certainly needed. Trippingly is used in a sense that might trip up students here, so they certainly need help. If you look 'trip' up in a good concise dictionary you are given the main literal meaning that Shakespeare is using as a metaphor. That is, using both (or all 10).
Note how 'no fear' translates 'as I pronounced it to you' as 'as I taught you', again losing Shakespeare's stress on vocalisation, and again wrongly translating something that should be left as obvious.'Musically and smoothly' is an even graver error. Many other lines have a similar problem. Students need help. But I digress, one meaning will do for the first run through in a 'non-honours' class. meanings of 'trip' in a multiple metaphor. That is: 'walk or dance with quick light steps'(concise OED).Then again, although this is the main meaning, Hamlet might be joking with the player. If you want heavyweight commentary then Arden might be best (though Oxford UP and Cambridge UP also publish detailed versions worth looking at).I gave an extra star for the attempt to make Shakespeare a smoother read for the general reader and school child. But this isn't a very good attempt.
Shakespeare has:"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,trippingly on the tongue."'No Fear' has:"Perform the speech just as I taught you, musically and smoothly."Do you really have to translate "Speak the speech" as "Perform the speech". But all 'no fear' does is confuse them. Check out the "Oxford School Shakespeare" series to see a better approach. If you can't understand "Speak the speech" then you need more help than any book can give (e.g., a very good teacher). But 'no fear' will do for no one.Shakespeare is hard. No it doesn't. Shakespeare is talking precisely about speech and pronunciation. Does trippingly literally mean musically and smoothly.
So poetic. I only started to actually understand, and therefore appreciate Shakespeare's stories when I had the no fear shakespeare books to give me a translation.Once I see the "English" version, I actually prefer Shakespeare's wording. What is there to say. If your a person living in the 21st century you probably have no idea the terms used in Shakespeare's time, so its basically hopeless reading the play without a guide such as this one.
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