Drunk and standing up maybe in the rain. Now that sort of explains why a lot of the plotlines seem a bit overly dramatic.

我读莎士比亚的时候, 觉得他有的时候里面的语言超级夸张, 超级戏剧化.

That's the only way you could keep their attention.

Imagine Shakespeare's writing for group of normally men who have been drinking all day. If they didn't like the play, they will be more than happy to start throwing food and start fights.

And back then remember that all men would carry a sword or dagger.

Wow, 所以大家去想象莎士比亚那个剧最开始在莎士比亚还活着的时候上演的, 这种场景绝对不是我们今天这种很有文化的感觉, 而是当时很多老百姓站在底下, 然后也都喝醉了, 大部分都是男的, 他们如果看不到那种打斗或者很精彩的这种很dramatic的剧情就会往上丢东西.

我们现在只是说 boo就是嘘人家下台, 他们那时候直接就东西砸上去.

I would say probably the closest equivalent is imagine being an actor and you’re performing in front of a group of gangsters who are very angry and very drunk.

I see. so that probably would give you a better idea of how Shakespeare's plays were originally performed.

Yes.

Now back to our course, our album.

How do we introduce his play in this course? 那可能很多小伙伴就想问, 刚才说的这么精彩, 让我也开始对莎士比亚的剧有点兴趣了. 在我们的莎士比亚扫盲班里，到底是怎么样分析这些剧的呢?

Because we're assuming that you're not drunk or violent as you listen to our course, we're a little bit more gentle in introducing Shakespeare's plays than it used to be in the past.

But we don't assume you know anything about it.

That's right.

We're gonna really break it down to you. First, starting with each play’s background.

首先我们是选了10部莎士比亚最有名或者是最有特点的剧, 不同时期的都有, 像大家都耳熟能详的, 比如说是Romeo and Juliet《罗密欧与朱丽叶》, the Merchant of Venice《威尼斯商人》, 还有像Macbeth《麦克白》 都在里面. 首先我们会介绍background, 它的背景.

Yeah, that's right.

So we'll describe the background, and describe a little bit of the history as well. So for example, with Romeo and Juliet, we discuss what it would have been like for Elizabethan women or women during Shakespeare's time;

And for the Merchant of Venice, we talk a little bit about the history of Venice, and also relationships with Jewish people.

And then usually 安澜 will walk us through the plot line. 接着就是安澜带着我们走整个的故事线, 每次都很为难安澜, 因为这个剧都比较长, 安澜会用比较简单的语言给我们总结一下, 把这里面的情节, 我也会在旁边帮大家梳理所有这些人物和剧情.

Yes, I will break down the plot. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible. I'll be focusing on the main plotlines, and making it as easy as possible for you to understand what the story is.

经常听我们节目的小伙伴都知道我们是英语占绝大部分. 不过在解释莎士比亚这个剧情的时候, 因为有很多的名字, 所以我也会适时的在中间补一些中文, 这样保证大家不迷路.

这个课程里面每一部剧我们都是分为上下集的, 上集讲完了这个故事和背景, 下集我们就会讲theme.

We focus on the theme, the conflicts, and also the impact.

As I was saying before, the themes of Shakespeare's plays are pretty timeless.

So they talk about power, they talk about love, betrayal, free will. This is what we're gonna be looking at as we delve deeper into the play. And then we'll be talking about the impact. So why is this play important? What impact as it had on culture, and also the impact on the English language as well?

And then we're going to share with you some famous quotes.

Exactly.

This would not be a Bluffer's Guide if we didn't add a few quotes for you to learn, and you can try to use them in conversation.

其实就是让你出去能 “装”一下的那种莎士比亚的quotes, 你能够去引用莎士比亚, 感觉很有文化的样子.

Yeah, we also understand the hardest thing about Shakespeare is the language, so we'll be breaking down the quotes, we'll be discussing what they actually mean in modern English and Chinese, and we'll only be choosing the most famous quotes that are recognized pretty much by any English speaker.

Any well-educated English speaker.

除了剧情解读的部分, 我还跟安澜专门来了一个 “飙戏”的板块.

That's my favorite bit.

So we chose some famous dialogues or soliloquize.

我们就从这十部剧里，每一部剧里面抽出了一些我们非常喜欢的一些片段, 然后我跟安澜来飙戏, 或者是带表情朗读, 所以如果你是那种喜欢跟读或者也喜欢带表情朗读, 自己也是个drama king or drama queen, 这个部分也不要错过.

Yes, I have to admit that I really enjoy doing that.

I know you did.

Now as we're drawing close to this intro to the new album, to the new course, I'm gonna ask you, you've been teaching language and learning language for all these years. How do you think this course for learning about Shakespeare would help a language learner?

I would say from two main aspects, language and culture. I know that many of you might think how can learning Shakespeare help with my English?

因为莎士比亚的语言就确实感觉有点奇怪, 对吧? 你不可能直接用来练口语.

Don't worry, we're not gonna teach you how to speak like Shakespeare. But we'll be focusing on a lot of the words and the expressions that come from Shakespeare. So many idioms, expressions, words, ideas come from Shakespeare, even an English speaker in many cases doesn't actually realize they are quoting Shakespeare. So for example, disappear into thin air.

Oh, that’s Shakespeare. 就这种突然消失了无影无踪. Disappear into thin air.

I do agree with you. A lot of these idiomatic expressions就现在很多习语其实是从莎士比亚那里来的, 只是很多人甚至包括英语母语者都已经忘了是从莎士比亚那来的了.

It's actually a little bit of a joke, that's people invent quotes from Shakespeare.

中文也是一样的. 我们经常会说鲁迅说的, 差不多. 因为莎士比亚对于英语语言的影响太大, 所以现在什么样的东西我们都会编说是莎士比亚说的, 但其实他确实是留下了很多英语的习语.

That's right. The second I would say is the culture.

A lot of references.

Lots and lots of references, lots of literature, lots of pop references actually come from Shakespeare. This is something that you would notice, particularly as you become more advanced in your English is how much Shakespeare is referenced, even in daily life, the impact he's had on our culture.

对, 就是英语国家, 你不管是看电视看电影, 还是说真正跟人家交流, 有的时候人家有一些文化, 那些梗, 其实都是莎士比亚戏剧里面出来.

It's amazing when you look at the number of films in recent years that actually are adaptations of Shakespeare. They just called different names.

Exactly. 另外一个就是莎士比亚的戏剧, 因为我们说了他很多的Theme是timeless, 它的Plot也是timeless. 所以不光有那种莎士比亚的改编版, 就是它告诉你是莎士比亚剧; 还有很多的剧, 其实是借鉴了莎士比亚的很多桥段, 它只是不叫做莎士比亚的原名, 但你究其根源, 它其实是有莎士比亚的影子在里面.

And most importantly, because this course is called the Bluffer's Guide. And we explained Bluffer's Guide is more so that you can learn a little bit about something that's actually very deep and profound. You can have a little bit of bragging rights, 就是可以学一点皮毛, 然后出去可以吹.

We're not gonna go through every part of the play because that would just be way too long. And remember that this is something people study at university, but we hope to reveal a little bit of the basics. So that's if you're speaking English, and you want to sound a little bit more cultured, yep.

Pretentious.

Or pretentious, you can say that as well. Then you can throw in a few of these references as well.

对. 我特别想说的就是我们的Bluffer's Guide的这一套课程, 包括以后我们这个系列会继续做下去. 有的小伙伴会觉得这个课程为什么不走得更深, 挺好的, 但是为什么没有走得更深? 这是因为这个课程本来的意义就在于让你在比较碎片化的时间, 能够最大限度的去了解跟这个相关的东西. 那么如果你特别喜欢某部剧, 可以激发你这种真正去细节的去阅读, 这也是为什么我们想做 the Bluffer's Guide, 而不是某一部剧的精读.

For me, personally, I would say the most important thing is I love Shakespeare, I really enjoy Shakespeare.

I know he has this reputation as being to elitist and kind of very like 高大上. But it really isn't. There is so much beauty. There's so much that you can get from reading Shakespeare; and even if you only understand the basics, hopefully it will inspire you to read more about Shakespeare, either in English or Chinese.

I have to admit, before making and developing this course, I've read quite a lot of Shakespeare because I was in English lit major.

However, I was never so into him, but through the making of this course, I really got deeper into his stories and I am fascinated; and hopefully through this course, you will find Shakespeare and his plays fascinating as well.

Yes.

所以喜欢的小伙伴千万不要错过【莎士比亚扫盲班】.

Thank you 安澜 for joining me in this intro to our new course, new album, the Bluffer's Guide to Shakespeare.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks everyone.

If you have anything to say, leave your comment in the comment section. We'll see you in酒馆.

Bye.

Bye.