A new translation effort aims to make all of Shakespeare’s plays comprehensible to today’s audiences
Source: A Facelift for Shakespeare
I once interviewed an actor playing Hamlet who preferred using Shakespeare’s language in a production where the rest of the cast played a revised text. He felt the text was perfectly understandable if it was capably played, and that removing Shakespeare’s language constrained him from fully inhabiting the character.
I sympathize with McWhorter’s points insofar as reading the plays; but if I’m watching a performance, then I think the music of the words, and the actors’ skill (movement, intonation, characterization) will convey the meaning.
But the question remains: who would fardels bear??
Brownstudy's Blog 
I read this WSJ article, and it made me so angry that I decided not to post anything about it. Part of what McWhorter misses is that readers and audiences often like the challenge of meeting Shakespeare’s language and getting something from it. It’s not necessary to get every word to do so, which is part of the magic of S’s language (and I suspect it was that way when the plays were first performed).
I’d like to hear what Hobart Shakespeareans (fifth-graders) might say about McWhorter’s claims.
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