We recommend that you read The Tempest straight through without worrying about your overall comprehension, just to get a feel for the flow of the narrative.
The Cambridge Shakespeare edition has extensive footnotes which contain several kinds of information: a) definitions of vocabulary terms b) information about textual inconsistencies c) short summaries of other interpretative debates. You will probably find the first kind of information useful; it’s ok if you skim over the second two.
We ordered this edition primarily because of the introduction; if you have a different edition of the play, please borrow the Cambridge edition from a classmate so that you can read over the assigned pages from the introduction for Monday’s seminar.
If you are unfamiliar with Shakespearean language, you may also want to look online or in the library for audio recordings that you can listen to while you’re reading; we encourage you to use multiple media to increase your comprehension.