I would just like to say here that English is my native language and to boot, I was an actress for several years, and I still have trouble with Shakespeare sometimes! I think it is because, despite S's contributions to the English language (I vaguely remember being told at some point that he added 40,000 words to the English language - roughly doubling the vocabulary of the 16th c.), it is still a bit of a foreign language: stuck somewhere between Middle English and Modern English. Add to that the fact that he made words up (40,000, I tell you!), it can make it harsh going. Many of the meanings of the words have changed considerably over the last 400 years. So, even though you may be reading a word that looks like a modern english word, it means something completely different than it means today.