Here's the text I was working on for the salespitch on the back. Any suggestions may end up on a book that sells a few thousand copies at least, I hope. The first printing is for 1,000.
These two plays are two of the mightiest pieces of drama our civilization has to offer, yet few today understand them in their original language. Conventional wisdom is that the challenge to understanding Shakespeare is simply a matter of putting forth effort. This is untrue--the Elizabethan language is now so far removed from what we the living speak and understand, it’s become foreign. For hundreds of years, kings and queens, untold numbers of the world’s aristocracy, the great minds of law, science and the arts, presidents and judges, teachers, poets and astronauts, have all discussed these plays late into the night. This book unearths them, bringing the reader today into the company of all who have pondered them through the ages. Knowing these stories and the ideas they express transforms someone into something hardy as the lion.