My Advice for Student Shakespeare Success
It’s September! Class has started! The fact that class is Friday afternoons is a cruel joke. On the off chance any of my students find this blog, I thought I’d offer some advice (though my Heated Rivalry post is probably more interesting).
My advice for those taking Shakespeare in 2026 is likely to be seen as out-of-touch with current economic realities for students. The economy is bad; the job market is worse. People are trying to save money. And on of the places students can save money is their textbooks: second hand is good; free is best.
Shakespeare seems like the ideal subject in this regard. The plays are available free online in multiple formats from a reputable publisher: the Folger library offers edited editions. Multiple other sites offer the plays coupled with side by side translations. It seems wild for somebody to suggest that students should have to pay for what they can get for free.
But that is the suggestion I make here: for success in a Shakespeare class, spend money on a good edition.
The edition assigned in the Shakespeare course last year was the Pelican, which retails for around fifteen dollars. I acknowledge that this is mathematically infinitely more money than free, and really does add up over the course of the year -- at the end of this post, I offer some recommendations for getting around this. The crucial thing to understand is that when you buy the book, you are not paying fifteen dollars for Twelfth Night -- that is, you are not paying fifteen dollars for the text of the play. You're paying for the notes.
A good edition of a Shakespeare play will come with a few things. It should have an explanation of the editing procedures -- the who and how and why of creating the text. "Original" copies of Shakespeare -- that is, the editions published in the late 1500s and the 1600s -- are messy documents: words are spelled in nonstandard ways, different copies have different lines, characters are listed who don't appear in the play. An edition should tell you how the original was "cleaned up" and consolidated. This, in my opinion, is that absolute minimum that any edition of Shakespeare should offer, and the fact that websites like LitCharts and SparkNotes don't seem to make this information available for their editions is part of the reasons I find them less suitable. (More on study guides later.)
A good edition will also come with a note explaining historical context and performance history. Shakespeare plays are drama, and thinking of the plays as performance clarifies things. It is nice when the edition provides a history of criticism or a thematic introduction. It can contain information on the sources of the text.
I acknowledge that some of the information in introductions can also be found online for free with a bit of work: Wikipedia, study guides, articles from a database provided to you by your library (or in the case of students, depending on the class: in the lecture or tutorial of your course). The benefit of a published introduction is convenience and scholarly repute. They're endorsed and well-supported (though not always perfect, and part of learning to study any topic is learning to spot the errors, bias and omissions in your texts.) I will not deny that all that is found in an introduction can be found at the cost of time and effort.
Where the time and effort argument falls apart is when you consider the notes. "Notes" in this case refers to what might otherwise be called footnotes: little pieces of information that are attached to the text as a whole.
These notes can define words, interpret complicated phrases, explain allusions and jokes, tell you where there is corrupted text in the original, and refer you to other research. This is what you are buying when you pay fifteen dollars. The information they contain can take years and multiple scholars to compile. Unlike an introduction, finding the equivalent information is simply not plausible with in a reasonable amount of time and effort. Stanley Wells did this work so I can have free time to play DnD, you know?
I'm not calling these notes footnotes because they are not always at the foot of the page. Some are, for example, on the left page of the page spread when the play is on the right page, as in the Folger (these notes are not available in their free versions). The Oxford editions divide the page in two so that the notes are arranged in two columns beneath the text of the play. The Norton uses a combination of margin annotations and footnotes for longer notes. The Norton system is, in my opinion, the best laid out for students from a design perspective: not too intrusive or overwhelming, and a readable layout. Their digital edition is also lovely. Norton is not paying me to say this, but if they’d like to, they should email me.
The notes can highlight things you didn't even you should be looking up. A word like "adoptious" is unfamiliar enough that you might look it up anyway. The word "solely" is deceptively familiar: in some contexts it means not "only" but "altogether" (as in All's Well That Ends Well 1.11.103). Likewise, words like "shiver" (shard or sliver); "thick" (quickly, in rapid succession); or "apology" (excuse). All of these definitions can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, but that requires realizing you don't know what they mean. How many people look at the word "thick" and think "I need to look that up"? A good note will both define the word, and by virtue of it existing, tell you something unexpected is happening.
In my history of teaching Shakespeare, I've deducted too many points from students for "errors of fact": that is, assertions which are simply incorrect. I have seen too many well-argued paragraphs that fall down because a student has improperly defined a word or failed to understand that a line contains an allusion. There is a correlation between students who are not using an edition with notes and the students making these errors.
An edition with notes will improve your understanding, making it more likely that you will both do well and have a more pleasant time, even if you never actually enjoy yourself. It will boost your grade. An edition with notes is worth the cost.
If the money is a barrier, I guarantee that the school library or a local library has an edited edition. The TPL stocks the Ardens, last time I checked: great option! If you're really struggling, ask your teacher. We have mysterious ways (multiple copies of plays accrued over the years that we can lend you).
Finally, the reason why I advocate for notes rather than a translation like "No Fear" or "Shakescleare": a note can do more, and it can highlight where meaning is uncertain. I know that translations can be useful and helpful: a note is more flexible and powerful. A translation might not be able to conserve a pun or a joke or explain an allusion. A note, for example, can explain the sonic relationship between "hours" and "whores" that existed in Shakespeare's time better than is possible in a translation. A translation will help capture the literal denotation of a phrase: notes can do denotation and connotation. Using them together is better than using just a translation, and a truly spectacular set of notes will render the translation unneeded. Be strategic in what you use. Targeted use of translations is not a bad thing, but reliance on them to the exclusion of notes is, I think -- on balance -- detrimental (depending on your goals).
In terms of what editions: use the ones in the syllabus. If you have the options and are a student at the undergraduate level, I really do like the Norton. When I'm writing something more in depth, I start with the Oxfords, but consult multiple editions. If I'm reading for pleasure and I have time, it's Oxford again; if I want a quicker experience, I use the Norton 3rd edition. I like the Ardens too, but they are slightly more expensive. Norton, Folger and Pelican are designed for students. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an e-book edition or app version I like: Norton's online edition is great but browser based. The ebook versions available that I have seen do not make the notes easy to access. The first publisher to figure this out (and it is sooooo easy to figure this out) will get a bunch of my money.
Featured photo is by Veronika Andrews via Pexels.