i mean...like, could you bag it just by reading the text with no footnotes or accompanying york explainer or teacher/tutor..?

i've only ever read macbeath and much ado, in school and college like....where you hand is held throughout the text.

can you do without?

it's just....i started reading king lear...and the opening line

'i thought the king had more affected the duke of albany than cornwall'....or something similar

is two lines at best.....but then half of the page is taken up by explaining these two lines

so my point is....is there any point?

it feels like i'm cheating every time i'm told what something actually means

i dunno

thoughts?