Not Wisely But Too Well by Pauline Montagna

A novel can be more flexible than a play and has the space for more material. Nevertheless, while the aim is to keep as true as possible to Shakespeare’s text and intentions, a prose adaptation of a play is, by its very nature, a re-interpretation and re-imagining of the play for the modern reader. It is set in the same time and place as Shakespeare set it, with the same cast of characters, with the same names (even when those names seem out of place). You will find that this novel closely follows the story as set out in the play. However, if audiences can approach the play already familiar with its contents – its setting and plot, the characters and their motivations – they can hear the language in a familiar context which will allow them to understand the play and actually enjoy it, just as Shakespeare’s original audiences did. And, of course, they had the advantage of daily hearing and speaking the same variety of English they heard on the stage.įour hundred years later, in a world that has changed in every way imaginable since they were first performed, Shakespeare’s plays are not only set in times and places that are completely foreign to their audiences, but written in a language that is just as foreign. They would go home and re-tell the story or re-enact their favourite scenes. They were not likely to go home and repeat line after line of iambic pentameter apart from a few pithy phrases.

They were there to see and hear a great story. The audience did not come primarily for the poetry. They were written to be seen and heard by ordinary people standing in an open-air theatre. Shakespeare never wrote his plays to be objects of study by students and academics. This book would never have been written Preface

Introduction to ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ Other titles by Pauline Montagna on Smashwords:Įchoes and Other Stories Table of Contents

Not Wisely But Too Well by Pauline Montagna