Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Hamlet for the Shakespeare-Impaired

Hamlet for the Shakespeare-Impaired

So I am currently reading Hamlet for my ENG200 class. Yes shocking! I am actually doing homework! Even though this is My Daily Procrastination Blog, I thought this website was awesome and I had to share it! I actually do pretty well with Shakespeare surprisingly, I guess I've read enough of it over the years that between it and the footnotes I manage pretty well most of the time. But I was a little hazy about one passage in the opening scene of Hamlet. The guards were talking about a duel that had gone on with Fortinbras and that now they were patrolling so much and increasing the armament because it looked like he was going to attack to get some land that he wanted since he had been raising an army on the sly for that purpose. But I wasn't clear if he was trying to get Hamlet's inheritance or if Hamlet had taken his inheritance or what so I looked for a website that translated Shakespeare into more plain English to hopefully clarify this section. So I found this site and while the author clearly takes a few liberties to make it a little funnier it is very enjoyable and it does make it a lot clearer but having read the first section it is still pretty accurate so it worthwhile source. I got a laugh out of it. So my fellow Shakespeare and English Majors should enjoy this site.