23. Reading Skills Comprehension: SHAKESPEARE

SHAKESPEARE

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

1. My first tryst with Shakespeare several years ago was an enforced one. The Merchant of Venice was a prescribed book in class IX at school. I had read the wonderful Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and considered myself an authority on when I read the stories. I did not think it necessary to read the antiquated language or trudge through several seemingly abstruse paragraphs to get to the main point. To spend a whole year to decipher a play when I had understood the story in a few pages seemed to be a sheer waste of time. Yet, somewhere along the way, I was drawn into the world of the Merchants of Venice, their portly argosies, the signors and rich burghers and the news on the Rialto. The language yielded its riches slowly, the characters became well drawn, more rounded and the impassioned speeches of Shylock and Portia stirred up a flurry of unexamined questions. Since then, I read several other plays, saw a couple of theatrical performances and watched young Leonardo Di Caprio in a modern Romeo and Juliet film. Shakespeare has been around.

2. Shakespeare has shaped the writing and storytelling in the English language like no other writer has. He liberally borrowed bent and brought new words into the English language from addiction, bump, critic to worthless and zany. The phrases that he coined roll off our tongues as overused adages- All that glitters is not gold( Merchant of Venice), Jealousy is a green-eyed monster ( Othello) and the perennial All is well that ends well.’ He has influenced several writers and been quoted by many of them. One of my favourite authors P.G Wodehouse had the odd Shakespearean phrase popping up in whacky situations like the ‘milk of human kindness’ sloshing inside someone or references to Banquo and Macbeth explained to Bertie by the estimable Jeeves who knew his Shakespeare. The plays have been translated into most languages including several regional Indian bhashas. They have lent themselves to film adaptations including the Vishal Bharadwaj’sMaqbool( Macbeth) and Omkara ( Othello).

3. The tragedies and comedies of Shakespeare cover every possible theme and idea-love, greed, jealousy, racism, friendship, mistaken identities, murder, mutiny, politics, feminism and revenge. Like any other celebrity, he has been the subject of speculation and controversy. There have been several conspiracy theories afloat on the ‘real’ authorship of the plays including a recent claim by a professor in Sicily that Shakespeare was actually Italian. Despite everything, Shakespeare’s appeal is universal, the stories transcend language and nationalities. However more than 400 years after Shakespeare’s birth, I can’t help wondering if anyone will read his works in the days to come.

4. The average attention span in front of a television channel is about 4 seconds before clicking on the remote to move to another. It is perfectly acceptable to massacre the rules of grammar and syntax b4 u can say why dis kolaveri di. When you can tell a whole story in 140 characters, reading 14 sentences can be a chore. Who will have the desire or patience to delve into the viscous text of a Shakespearean play to dredge up the treasures that lie within?

5. Shakespeare’s works have proved to be sturdy, unshakeable through the centuries, moving with the times, lending themselves to newer forms. I hope they don’t get relegated to a few the-hard literature students or musty libraries. Who knows, we might yet have a different form of Shakespeare that will appeal to the Gen Next, a form that will induce them to approach an original play with a sense of anticipation, of beginning a quest to understand and appreciate a good story, well told.

Nothing of him that does fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

1. On the basis of your understanding of the above passage answer each of the questions given below with the help of options that follow:

(a) The writer says he considered himself an authority on Shakespeare after reading———

(i) Romeo and Juliet (ii) The Merchant of Venice

(iii) Lamb’s Tales (iv) All stories written by Shakespeare

(b) The most popular quote according to the writer is —————

(i) All that glitters is gold (ii) All is well that ends well

(iii) Jealousy is a green-eyed monster (iv) The milk of human kindness

(c) The professor from Sicily claimed that ————

(i) Shakespeare has shaped the writing and story-telling in the English language like none other

(ii) He borrowed, bent and bought new words into the English language

(iii) He has influenced several authors all over the world

(iv) He was an Italian

(d) Shakespeare is such a phenomenon because ————–

(i) His language is so rich (ii) His stories are so colourful

(iii) His themes are universal (iv) His characters are very interesting

2.Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(e) Why did the writer consider reading his class nine English textbook a waste of time?

(f) What does the writer mean when he says ‘Shakespeare has been around!?

(g) In what ways has Shakespeare enriched the English language?

(h) What are the two characteristics that make Shakespeare as interesting as modern day celebrities?

(i) What according to the writer is going to be the greatest threat to Shakespeare’s popularity in the future?

(j) According to the writer even if things change in the future what does she expect from Shakespeare’s literature?

(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:

(i) A private romantic meeting (para-1)

(ii) To go beyond barriers/boundaries (para-3)

Answers:-

1 (a) (iii); (b) (ii); (c) (iv); (d) (iii)

2 (e) Because he had read the abridged ‘Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare’. Since he already knew the story in a nutshell, he didn’t see the point of reading the whole play.

(f) He means that Shakespeare’s stories are accessible in many forms, like books, plays, and even movies.

(g) He has freely added several words and phrases that we use even today, inspired numerous later writers, and greatly impacted the art of story-telling.

(h) That he has been the subject of controversy and speculation, as well as continuing to be popular as a writer.

(i) The new generation has a very short attention span and may not have the patience to read and appreciate his writings.

(j) The writer expects that his works will continue to be popular, though in a newer, modern format.

(k) (i) Tryst; (ii) Transcend

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