Have you ever wanted to give Shakespeare a try, but soon realized you couldn’t understand anything on the page? Is your English teacher making you read Macbeth, but you’re unsure what you’re reading? Are you tired of missing the entire Shakespeare category on Jeopardy? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then No Fear Shakespeare is for you! No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete Shakespearean text on the left-hand side with an easy to understand translation on the right! APLD has fifteen Shakespeare plays in this format, as well as a book dedicated solely to his sonnets. The days of not understanding Shakespeare are in the past with No Fear Shakespeare! Get ready to impress your friends with all your Shakespearean knowledge! Check out the examples below of the titles we have available at the library! Click on a book cover to learn more!
Hamlet
Original Text
To be or not to be? That is the question-
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep-
No more- and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to- ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream.
Macbeth
Original Text
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two.
Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—
Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard?
What need we fear who knows it, when
none can call our power to account?—Yet
who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
Come out, damned spot! Out, I command you! One, two. OK, it’s time to do it now.—Hell is murky!—Nonsense, my lord, nonsense! You are a soldier, and yet you are afraid? Why should we be scared, when no one can lay the guilt upon us?—But who would have thought the old man would have had so much blood in him?
King Lear
Original Text
Turn all her mother’s pains and benefits
To laughter and contempt, that she may feel—
That she may feel
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child.—Away, away!
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
Let it be a wicked child who mocks the mother who cares for it. Make my daughter feel—make her feel how an ungrateful child hurts worse than a snakebite.—Now let’s leave. Go!
Julius Caesar
Original Text
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that “Caesar”?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name.
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
Men can be masters of their fate. It is not destiny’s fault, but our own faults, that we’re slaves. “Brutus” and “Caesar.” What’s so special about “Caesar”? Why should that name be proclaimed more than yours? Write them together—yours is just as good a name. Pronounce them—it is just as nice to say.
Romeo and Juliet
Original Text
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
But wait, what’s that light in the window over there? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Rise up, beautiful sun, and kill the jealous moon . The moon is already sick and pale with grief because you, Juliet, her maid, are more beautiful than she.
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Original Text
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind.
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
Love can make worthless things beautiful. When we’re in love, we don’t see with our eyes but with our minds. That’s why paintings of Cupid, the god of love, always show him as blind.
Much Ado About Nothing
Original Text
He that hath a beard
is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than
a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and
he that is less than a man, I am not for him. Therefore I will
even take sixpence in earnest of the bearherd, and lead his
apes into hell.
No Fear Shakespeare Translation
If he has a beard, he’s more than a boy; if he doesn’t have a beard, he’s less than a man. If he’s more than a boy, he’s not the one for me, and if he’s less than a man, I’m not the one for him. They say that women who die unmarried are destined to lead the apes to hell, and I suppose that’ll be my fate as well.
Check out our other No Fear Shakespeare titles!
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