did you know that shakespeare couldnt spell for crap, in fact a lot of the time he misspelled his own name?

Question

so if one of the greatest writers can get away with poor spelling than why shouldnt i be able to, and how important is spelling if millions of people still read and understood his stories

my source is the history channel, they had a thing about him a couple months back

Answer 1

For those in Shakespeare's time (and earlier), there wasn't written language in the way we have it now. We have standardized, universally-agreed-upon spellings for things, and we also have dictionaries. The English language was just starting to coalesce in those days, and they didn't have dictionary.com - they had to rely on phonetics (imagine the possibilities with a word like "Shakespeare") and they also exercised poetic license when it came to spelling too.

To answer the second part of your question, current theories of reading suggest that exact spelling isn't that important because the eyes scan information/letters into the brain quickly and the brain does some of the assembly work. Taht's why I can missplel a lot and you stlil reed quikcly.

Answer 2

Shakespeare spelled just as well as any other writer of his time. Spelling wasn't standardized until the 19th century (along with the advent of the dictionary), so people spelled phonetically. They spelled words in whatever way they thought their readers would be able to understand them. Spelling was the responsibility of the EDITORS in Shakespeare's time, at any rate, who transposed an author's handwritten ideas into type. Editors would spell words according to how many of each letter they had left (in the days of the printing press, type was compiled from single letter blocks), what length of word would fit on each line (because paper was at a premium, they tried to waste as little as they could), etc.

Even names were not standardized, so our recognition of Shakespeare's name as "Shakespeare" is because that is the name that happened to be printed most often (but not all the time) in association with his works. We could have just as easily come to know him as Shakespear, Shaksper or Shackspeare.

So no, I did not know Shakespeare "couldnt spell for crap". He spelled the way people read. And if you want to blame someone for your plight of being bound to correct spelling, blame the creators of "standardized spelling", or blame the inventor of "spell check". Don't single out one author who did the same thing that every other person who put pen to paper in the English speaking world did.

Answer 3

My complete call is continually misspelled and this is not even that troublesome. My first and center names are literally not that instantly ahead, yet they're not extraordinary (this is Leona Faye), yet for some reason, human beings both do not spell it good (they have a tendency to spell the first call as "Lenora" or "Leanne" and also have a tendency to go away the "e" off of "Faye") or can't pronounce it ideal. My very last call (which i'm not revealing right here) is spelled precisely like it sounds, yet human beings consistently misspell it till i'm status good there or write it out for them. Even then, they could't pronounce it and have a tendency to make it sound French by creating the "t" on the suitable silent (and that i'm not French).

Answer 4

Standard Edited American English, it the language of Money, Commerce and Power in America. People who do not master it rarely succeed. You do want to be successful? Don't You? In Shakespeare's time they hired a scribe and a writer to clean it up, much like an editor today. He was paid for his ideas and dialogue, not for his spelling. We read and understand his stories because someone cleaned them up. Its a priviledge of genius. So if you are genius and popular and everyone will pay for your brilliance , you will not have to learn to spell, but if you dont the chances of anyone really understanding you lessens which means your work will not be published , produced or seen by the public.

Answer 5

In the time of Shakespeare (aka Shakespear, Shakespeer, Shekespeare, etc.), MOST people did not have a standardized spelling to their names. Then again, most people in his day weren't literate anyway; most folks signing a legal document would've simply signed an "X" to represent themselves. And whoa, whoa, whoa--millions did NOT read and understand his plays--they saw them performed live in the theatre. Many of his plays weren't even published until after his death.

You can do that in our time, too--it's called being an artist! Think of Ludacris, Prince's 2 Bold 4 U, and a zillion other creative types who spell things "wrong" for the sake of getting their message across. U can du it 2 if u wanna, Steefin!

Answer 6

I think spelling is less important that proper gramattical structure.

I've read the same about Chaucer and Jane Austen. So, I will forgive poor spelling, but I'm sure their grammar was correct and that's more important, I think.

Besides, today you can use Spell Check, and if you are too lazy to do so, then I don't feel bad for you.

Answer 7

And your source would be . . . . ?

If you can provide me a reliable source, I'll believe you.

EDIT: A little more specific, please. I'm not going to sit and watch the History Channel all day.