Notes on the language

As mentioned above, it can be risky to rely too much on resources which translate Shakespeare’s plays into plain English. If you find yourself struggling with the language, it can be good to familiarise yourself with some of the more straightforward aspects of it, so you can focus on analysing the more nuanced and complex characteristics of the language rather than getting tripped up by the basics. A lot of this you will probably have figured out intuitively, but sometimes it can be really helpful to have it explained too!