I bought this book as "homework" for myself before seeing the play performed at a Shakespeare festival. I read through the comtemporary English on the right hand pages, skimming the Shakespearean left pages so I would recognize the dialog when I heard it. I saw the performance later the next day and was delighted with how many of the details I was able to understand, especially compared to the previous year at the festival, when I hadn't read the play ahead of time and couldn't follow the dialog as well. In the future, I will buy No Fear guides whenever I have tickets to a Shakespeare play.