Taking A Look At No Fear Shakespeare

Being an aspiring high school English teacher, questions about how to teach certain books or subjects in class is something that has to be considered. One of the biggest issues with Shakespeare to students isn’t that its boring or a bad read, but reading old English is the difficult part. No Fear Shakespeare was created for just this reason, to allow students to be able to read the same story as Shakespeare wrote but in modern terms. While this is convenient and an easier way to understand the text, it shouldn’t be used as the only source of reading the story. The words that Shakespeare chose were chosen for a reason, and some of these “translations” from old English to modern English can take away from the story. An issue with translating

Learning the language of Shakespeare isn’t as important as the issues that he raises but the way that Shakespeare words things and getting all the information is. While reading the No Fear version there is no room for personal interpretation, where the original texts leaves a lot of room for you to be able to decide how to interpret it. One examples of this is when Miranda is speaking to Ferdinand: “ I do not know One of my sex, no woman’s face remember—Save, from my glass, mine own.”(III.I.48-50) One interpretation of this quote could be that Miranda doesn’t remember any woman’s face that she has seen in the past besides her own that she sees in the mirror while Sparknotes translates this as “I’ve never known any woman or seen a woman’s face—except my own in the mirror.” (III.I.48-49) This translation takes away the idea that she has seen other women's faces in the past, which she has because it is previously stated: “Had I not four or five women once that tended me?” (I.II.46-47) This is the problem with the translated text, if you read the No Fear Shakespeare version only you don’t get the story Shakespeare intended it to

Trinculo says to Stephano “A most scurvy monster” (II.II.131) During this time period, the disease Scurvy ,the sickening results from having a lack of vitamin C, was very popular with sailors because they were unable to bring things containing Vitamin C on the ship because they would just rot quickly. This resulted in the rotting of gums, the changing of the skin making it hemroid, and making the person basically horrid to look at. (U.S. National Library of Medicine) The No Fear translation of this is “A rotten, foolish monster) (II.II.131) and this just doesn’t do the story justice. Shakespeare wanted you to get the imagine of this terrifying person, not a foolish person. The just doesn’t do the story or word choice of Shakespeare