2. Shakespeare’s English
Shakespeare did not write in
Old English or Middle English.
Shakespeare wrote in Early
Modern English.
Early Modern English is only one
generation of language from
the English you speak today!
3. Shakespeare’s Contributions
Shakespeare only had an 8th grade education.
There were no dictionaries.
Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English
Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000
words into the language.
His vocabulary numbers upward of 17,000 words
(quadruple that of an average, well-educated
conversationalist in the language)
4. A Few Words By Shakespeare
Accused Disgraceful
Addiction To drug
Admirable Excitement
Assassination Fashionable
Bloodstained Fortune-teller
Cold-blooded Gloomy
Coldhearted Mimic
Deafening Obscene
5. Phrases Coined by Shakespeare
As good luck would have it Full circle
Be-all and the end-all Good riddance
Break the ice It was Greek to me
Eaten me out of house and Heart of gold
home
In a pickle
Elbow room
Kill with kindness
Fool's paradise
Lie low
For goodness' sake
Love is blind
Not slept one wink
6. Shakespeare’s English
In the England of Shakespeare's time, English was a
lot more flexible as a language.
The most common simple sentence in modern
English follows a familiar pattern: Subject (S), Verb
(V), Object (O). (Will caught the ball).
However, Shakespeare was much more at liberty to
switch these three basic components
Shakespeare used a great deal of SOV inversion (Will
the ball caught).
7. Shakespeare’s English
Switching the S-V-O order to S-O-V made it easier for
Shakespeare to rhyme and to manipulate his words
to flow easily in poems and plays.
Shakespeare could effectively place the metrical
stress wherever he needed it most by switching word
order
Shakespeare also used an O-S-V construction (The
ball Will caught) for the same reasons.
8. Inverted Word Order
Lady Montague:
O where is Romeo, saw you him
today?
Right glad I am he was not at this
fray.
Translation:
O where is Romeo; did you see him
today?
I am very glad he was not in this fight.
9. Inverted Word Order
―Thouhast by moonlight at
her window sung.‖
Translation:
Youhave sung at her
window in the moonlight.
From A Midsummer Night’s Dream
10. Shakespeare’s Language in Plays
The language used by
Shakespeare in his plays
is in one of three forms
Prose
Rhymed Verse
Blank Verse
11. Prose
Prose is writing which resembles
everyday speech
Prose is often used by Shakespeare
for lower-class characters in his
plays
Prose lacks meter and rhyme and
is informal
Shakespeare blends prose with
poetry in his plays
12. Rhymed Verse
The majority of Shakespeare’s plays contain rhymed
verse which looks like poetry
Characters– especially of the higher classes--speak
in poetic form
Their words have form, meter, and rhyme
Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays is usually in
rhymed couplets, i.e. two successive lines of verse of
which the final words rhyme with another.
13. Iambic Pentameter
Iambic pentameter is meter that Shakespeare
nearly always when writing in verse. Most of his plays
were written in iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter has:
Ten syllables in each line
Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed
syllables
The rhythm in each line sounds like:
ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-
BUM / ba-BUM
14. Iambic Pentameter Example
Examples of Iambic Pentameter:
If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on
Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?
Each pair of syllables is called an iamb. You’ll notice
that each iamb is made up of one unstressed and
one stressed beat (ba-BUM).
15. Rhymed Verse in Iambic
Pentameter
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
- from A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
16. Blank Verse
Blank verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter.
resembles prose in that the final words of the lines do
not rhyme in any regular pattern
There is meter: a recognizable rhythm in a line of
verse consisting of a pattern of regularly recurring
stressed and unstressed syllables.
Most lines are in iambic pentameter.
17. Blank Verse
BLANK VERSE is employed in a wide range of
situations because it comes close to the natural
speaking rhythms of English but raises it above the
ordinary without sounding artificial
Rather than prose, blank verse may suggest a
refinement of character.
Many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches are
written in blank verse.
18. Blank Verse Example
ROMEO: But, soft! what light through
yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
from Romeo and Juliet
19. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
Juliet: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
21. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
Sampson: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at
you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
Gregory: Do you quarrel, sir?
Abraham: Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
23. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
25. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
NURSE: He was a merry man—took up the child.
―Yea,‖ quoth he, ―Dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not, Jule?‖ and, by my holy dame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said ―ay.‖
27. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
ROMEO:
Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear,
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
29. Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank
Verse?
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.