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Originally Posted by jgray
I went ahead and purchased "Shakespeare After All". I'll let you know what I think of it.
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So far, I like "Shakespeare After All". It delves into the characters and their motives, as well as providing background information and relationships to other Shakespeare plays. It does not appear overly analytical or academic (so far).
My comments are provisional, as after reading the lengthy introduction, I did not proceed to the first play chronologically, I jumped ahead to "Henry V".
The one thing this book does not provide is an annotated reading of the plays. This would have been helpful. Let me cite just one example from "Henry V", which is what I am currently reading. In the prologue, the Chorus says "Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, assume the port of Mars;". Now, obviously "port" is not meant in the nautical sense. So, I'm left to wonder how it is meant. I thought that perhaps "portrait" was close, as a similarity in character between King Harry and Mars (the Roman god of war) is intended, but that didn't quite fit.
After looking on Google Books, I found a 1901 volume titled "The Richard Mansfield Acting Version of Henry V", which explains it thus: "That is, deportment, carriage. From the French porte'e".
Such explainations of what may at first appear to be simple words add immeasurabley to my understanding. Many such words are no longer common (at least to this American) and a dictionary lookup often does not produce the meaning meant by Shakespeare.
Joe