How to understand the language in old books?

I don’t know about Jane Austin, but with any of William Shakespeare’s works like Romeo and Juliet the language is going to be harder to understand - he wrote in a specific style called “Iambic Pentameter” (not sure if thats how its spelt!), which can be rather confusing to read, and the words used can be a bit trying in this day in age.

Old flourish-style handwriting can be really hard for my generation to read, as can older works in general - I started reading the Iliad by Homer last year and found it tough going until I stopped trying to read it as a poem or in its broken up lines, and just treated it like someone had pressed enter in all the wrong places far too many times when typing it up. Remember, these works were written some time ago, when language was different, and even then they sometimes tried to be different for the day… and it didn’t catch on!

Well if it’s HOW they’re speaking like the traditional, thous, arts, speakeths, and other things then it’s generally easy. Just send me a few words you need to to translate into modern-day english from that style in a funmail and I’ll get it back to you as quickly as I can.

Shakespeare is rather difficult for modern readers to understand. You will appreciate it a great deal more if someone explains the humor, rhetoric, and context. If you are tackeling Shakespeare on your own try an annotated edition.

They have modern additions. Sparknotes.or Cliffnotes.

SORRY I DONT READ UNLESS NESSISARY