How to Read Shakespeare

How to Read...

by Nicholas Royle

Intent upon letting the reader experience the pleasure and intellectual stimulation in reading these classic authors, the How to Read series provides a context and an explanation that will facilitate and enrich your understanding of texts vital to the canon. Approaching the writing of major intellectuals, artists, and philosophers need no longer be daunting. How to Read is a new sort of introduction--a personal master class in reading--that brings you face to face with the work of some of the most influential and challenging writers in history. In lucid, accessible language, these books explain essential topics such as Shakespeare's passion for complexity and his enduring ability to portray the power of love.

Nicholas Royle conveys the richness and complexity of Shakespeare's work by focusing, above all, on how to read and enjoy short passages and interpret specific words from the plays and poems themselves. Discussing poetry and the question of reading, to the nature of memory and forgetting, to the power of love, Royle covers many of Shakespeare's most prevalent themes. Attention is also given to important aspects of historical context and critical reception and debate, as well as to the effects of different interpretations and different media (stage, film, the Internet, and more). Royle's primary concern, however, is with letting the reader experience―anew or for the first time―the extraordinary pleasure and stimulation of reading Shakespeare.

Extracts are taken from a range of Shakespeare's works including Romeo and Juliet , A Midsummer Night's Dream , Hamlet , Twelfth Night , Othello , The Winter's Tale , and the Sonnets.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Drama, Literary Criticism

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2005

Reviews

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Word. This short book looks at seven plays focusing on one word in each play.

"Words in Shakespeare seem to take on an autonomous life or machine-like power. They are like little, search engines, meddling imps, strange creatures with wills of their own."

What delighted: word play, word exploration, making connections, aha moments.

Not so much: spelling out sexual connotations here, there and everywhere. This limits my recommendation.

The seven plays and seven words:

The Merchant of Venice: witsnapper
Julius Caesar: phantasma
As You Like It: love-shaked
Hamlet: mutes
Othello: seel
Macbeth: safe
Antony and Cleopatra: nod

A sampler:

"To nod is to make a downward motion of the head, understood as a gesture of assent or affirmation, greeting or command. To nod can also be to let the head drop in weariness or dozing, or to lean over as if about to fall asleep. A nod can be the movement of the head or a slight bow in accordance with such gestures. 'Nod' is a little word, a small movement, an apparently humble thing. Yet it accommodates a surprising range of connotations. It can be imperious or deferential, detached or intimate, confiding or cryptic, menacing or seductive, vigilant or sleepy. And it will come as little surprise to find that Shakespeare plays on all these possibilities."

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

How To Read Shakespeare is a slim volume, 120 pages. The author, Nicholas Royle, takes an interesting approach to this condensed study: he selects a single word from each of seven plays and shows how that word sets the tone or echoes and re-echoes through that play. This is an exercise in close reading of a particular kind: for Royle, Shakespeare's language is in a class by itself, and cannot be understood as simply good writing. Royle says that the language of Shakespeare's plays is 'shakespeared' language - it has been transformed and re-invented. In some cases ('witsnapper', 'love-shaked') it has literally been invented: Shakespeare's plays are full of neologisms. In other cases, a seemingly common and simple word is used in conflicting senses, adding irony or foreboding.

Each of the seven plays is treated in about 15 pages. The plays are: 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Julius Caesar', 'As You Like It', 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'Macbeth', and 'Antony and Cleopatra'. Royle's analysis of each play is clear and interesting. Ordinary readers such as myself have no hope of using these analyses as a guide, of course. 'Close reading' is seldom about paying close attention to what is on the page, but instead requires a prodigious memory (where has this word been used before? how has this idea been used elsewhere?), and a thorough knowledge of the critical literature. Most of us have not the time or the developed skills for that. But maybe we can learn to pay more attention to the small words and the small scenes, and gain a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare's plays.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small book, but one which is very interesting. Using a single word from numerous plays as a focal point, Royle explores the dynamics of the play with respect to that word, and provides numerous insights along the way.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In brief, it's a brief look at seven plays, using one word to explore the whole. Good take, worth the time.

[Caitlin Vaille · Rating 3 out of 5]

My last read for my Shakespeare class (hallelujah), but now I have to write an essay imitating the style of word analysis in this book, yaaaaay!!!

[Sungjoon Hwang · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the performance coming soon, kind of preview was believed to be necessary and hurriedly picking this was expected to show a short cut to Shakespeare. Unlike 101 or Dummies series, it’s not for beginners but for the ones who’ve read and yearn for getting between the lines.
You want an easy Shakespear? There’s no such a thing. Just pick any, read it and come back to this book which won’t be needed anymore. This is why this should be titled ‘how to understand’ rather than ‘how to read’.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1156427.html[return][return]Apparently this is part of a series of 'How to Read' books; other topics addressed include Foucault, Derrida, Hitler and the Bible. This must demand a certain variety of approach from the authors.[return][return]Royle takes seven short dialogues from seven Shakespeare plays (The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra) and hangs a short essay on each of them explaining what Shakespeare is doing in the dialogue, in the play, and more broadly in his work, in particular concentrating on the words that are used. It's a very good illumination of that particulat aspect of encountering Shakespeare, and I was particularly pleased that his take on Hamlet coincided pretty closely with my own (so he must be a very sensible chap).[return][return]However, he doesn't really make enough of the important consideration that these plays were not intended as texts to be read - indeed, the title of the book asks the wrong question. It's also rather striking that none of the English history plays are among the chosen seven. I would have been happier with the book if Royle had acknowledged these gaps.