My favorite edition of Shakespeare isn’t the First Folio, the Globe Edition or even the Complete Pelican Edition. My favorite edition is No Fear.
Now, as someone studying English at IU, I’m sure this statement is likely to earn me some enemies, and maybe even some death threats from my fellow students — and potentially even professors.
I’m sure after the initial screaming, most of my fellow English lovers would ask, “Why would you ever think that?”
Admittedly, that’s a good question.
Personally, I love Shakespeare. He’s a masterful wit, and he writes some of the most magnificent monologues in all of literature. However, his writing is archaic.
That isn’t to say he isn’t relevant. His works have incredible commentaries on the human condition. The problem I have with Shakespeare is simply the outdated text.
Even the Sistine Chapel frescoes were refurbished just a few decades ago.
When it comes to reading and watching his plays, so many of his witty jokes end up soaring over the head of the average viewer, only to be caught by Shakespeare scholars and historians. But this isn’t the way the Bard wanted his plays to be viewed.
At the time, the average viewer — drunken groundlings included — would have appreciated the references and jokes he made, whereas the modern viewer simply doesn’t understand them.
While scholars will point to footnotes, in live productions these aren’t present. Not to mention, in texts, footnotes tend to explain away the humor.
Further, the centerpiece of Shakespeare isn’t his beautiful syntax or artistic flair — it’s his deeply human ideas.
He’s renowned as a playwright because of his stories and themes. A modern rendition doesn’t take those away, it just makes them more applicable to a modern audience. There are plenty of movies that have already taken this idea to heart, including “She’s the Man” and “The Lion King.”
The point is, Shakespeare’s art is so much more than his language, and at least for 21st century viewers, much of his language doesn’t do his art justice.
Now, let me clarify myself in saying that I don’t think No Fear is a good final product, but I think it’s a good step towards what we need — a Shakespeare translation. No Fear is far too simplistic and admittedly takes out some of the beautifully grand and sweeping phrases that are so distinctive to his plays.
What I think we need is someone with a powerful wit — and likely a massive ego — to undertake the project of reworking these plays for a modern audience, keeping the best of the old while translating the the obsolete.
At the same time, I don’t think we should completely let go of the old. It’s always worthwhile to study the traditional texts, and as an English student, I certainly plan to. All I’m asking for is a date night watching “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” without having to refer to my Elizabethan thesaurus.
