I think the trick is to not try to read it as fast as a book written in modern English. Go slow. Also don’t try to understand every single word or phrase, just get what you can out of it. Elizabethan English is a little different than modern English but you can mostly figure it out if you are patient and creative – its worth it!

P.S. – I don’t feel the need to talk to him; as far as I’m concerned he’s still alive and living through his incredible legacy of writings.

Partly this is so, if true, because I studied Shakespeare’s use of the arts of language for years, before I revived blank verse as an art form and then figured out most of his working methods as a dramatist.

His philosophy is Medieval–based in categorical character flaws–exactly like the nonsensical characters who populate public TV shows; but he developed his flawed central characters quite powerfully; and his imagery and language are varied, and deep by anyone’s standards.

Most people think of him nowadays as “old fashioned”. But what is new fashioned is low-grade and without much lasting worth. It takes a little getting used to before one can enjoy hearing his complex sentences spoken; I claim it’s worth the effort.

The two questions I would like to ask the Poet who wrote works under the names “Shakespeare” are: “What’s your biography, in brief–since you aren’t the half-educated Will Shakspur of Stratford”. And the second is, “How did you plan the image patterns/fonts/groups you drew on for the larger plays such as “Julius Caesar” or “Antony and Cleopatra”.

Yes, I would always choose a great writer, Shakespeare for on, since they are actually easier to approach. They are like painters who can paint anything–not rocks and birds only, whose oceans and faces are no good; they have no real weaknesses. That makes it easier to write about aspects of someone so important and prolific and whose ideas are still relevant today.