Shakespeare, was that how everyone spoke or did he actually put words together poetically?

Question

Did he put words together for dramatic effect or just write stories the way they spoke? Please be specific, If you don't know alot about Shakespeare then don't answer. Thank You.

Answer 1

A little of both...the kings English was poetic but not as much as Shakespeare used. Remember the King James Bible is close to being the same...just not as flowery in speech...which is why they called it the King's English.

Answer 2

There are actually over a thousand words that Shakespeare added to the English language that are now common words today. Some of these words are bedroom, compromise, dawn, amazement. Shakespeare wrote in a particular style called Iambic Pentameter. This is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Because of this fact, Shakespeare had to invent several words to fit his writing style. He was also influenced by the language of the times and by things of ancient lore. So all three things helped generate the language.

Answer 3

Shakespeare was a poet, as well as a playwright. In fact, in his day, people who wrote plays were more commonly referred to as "poets."

Shakespeare wrote in a particular verse form called Iambic Pentameter, which had already established itself (mainly through the work of Christopher Marlowe) as a poetic meter with great potential for dramatic literature.

There is a formality to the language that suits the subject matter and thematic concerns of the plays. But, the short answer to your question is: it's poetry, and was crafted very precisely for poetic effect.

Answer 4

Not everything Shakespeare wrote was poetry. Many of his plays, especially the later ones, contain significant amounts of prose. His lower-class characters often spoke prose when the upper-class ones spoke poetry. In Henry V, for example, Henry speaks almost exclusively poetry, and Pistol largely prose, even though Pistol sometimes deliberately mimics the flowery speech patterns of the upper-class characters.

Some of the ways that they spoke that seem poetic to our ears were simply forms that changed over time. "Thee" and "thou" sound formal to our ears, but at the time they were simply the familiar, friendly terms; "you" would be more formal. These days it's the opposite; "thee" sounds more formal and staid, precisely because it's out of date.

Nobody ever spoke in poetry in real life, but many of the prose speech patterns are similar to what people actually said. One caveat: anything that was written down was generally by somebody speaking from the upper class. Shakespeare's versions of lower-class speech are probably parodies, but it's hard to find precise examples of lower-class dialect from that period. Shakespeare would have been familiar with them, but may not have recorded them faithfully.

Answer 5

It's a bit of both.

The time was a poetic time. For upperclass people, this was all a native language. For the lowerclass, it was a bit harder to comprehend something like "What a strange infection has fallen into thine ear" but the acting made up for it.

Answer 6

actual words

Answer 7

both