Am I right in saying that the language used in Shakespear's plays was not the language spoken at the time?

Question

Didn't Shakespear write in pro's, what ever that is, and poetry. He used a much more flowery version of Enlish than would have been spoken by the common man. At the time many versions of English were spoken up and down the country, but non of them would have been like Shakespear. These old films that have everyone speaking Shakespearean are wrong.

Answer 1

You are perfectly correct in thinking that. He did tart it up a bit, cos he's writing poetry. All his plays are in iambic pentameter, which means there are 10 syllables per line (or there abouts). He also made up words (don't ask me which ones), most of which are still used today.

Answer 2

It certainly can be difficult to understand every little word in Shakespeare. This is because they were written so long ago and the way we talk has changed. Many of the words he used have either gotten new meanings or been pretty much eliminated from our language today. A lot of the jokes that Shakespeare wrote simply aren't funny anymore because we don't understand the references in them. Also, the use of a poetic meter can sometimes make words seem stilted and odd to modern ears. There are books available that are essentially dictionaries of words that Shakespeare used and what they meant in his time. These have proved VERY valuable when I have acted in Shakespeare plays. Of course, when you are reading a play rather than seeing it, you don't have an actor giving you clues as to which words are more important, etc. I would say that for the casual play/movie watcher, don't worry about understanding every little word. Try to simply get the basic understanding of what is going on and you should be fine. Many of his plays have interesting enough plots that they are entertaining at the basic level anyway. As you watch more and more (Repeated viewing help too) you'll pick up more and more and soon you'll be able to understand what is going on fully. I would also recommend looking at Shakespeare's sonnets. They are shorter (14 lines each), and therefore less to try to take in. But they will begin to give you a good idea about how he wrote.

Answer 3

Prose and poetry are actually the opposite--prose is what you use in everyday speech. And Shakespearean is pretty much how the people of the time spoke. Remember, he lived during the time of King James, and if you've ever read a King James version of the Bible, you know that the English of that time is not how we speak today. We've had new words develop since then, and old words go out of fashion or gain new meanings. For example, in Shakespeare's day, they didn't call them "fingernails"--they were "flesh spades." And a lewd priest was also known as a "smell smock."

Remember, Shakespeare was an actor, not an aristocrat, so he was familiar with the language of the people. Also, he was trying to pack a theater, not play to the elite. There are a lot of references that we might not get today, but they would have been obvious to the to the general public, and hilarious.

Answer 4

Well, its not pro's, its prose, which means ordinary speech or writing, without metrical structure.
Shakespeare DID write in the language spoken at the time. He wrote in "court language", the elegant, formal language spoken among the aristocrats, nobility and royalty. However, when his characters were common (soldiers, gravediggers, etc) he wrote their lines much differently. Its very difficult to tell the difference with just a quick look, but it is there. Many of Shakespeare's plays were performed at court, and he was subsidized by the Queen, and later the King of England, so it would have been only fitting that he use the more formal language. But, he did understand that his plays were also performed in public and there is to be found much less aristocratic language. Take a look at The Taming of the Shrew.
The common language of the people of the time was more informal, more like slang.Many different dialects owing to the many different origins of the people. Just like here and now in America. Southerners use the same language as Mid-Westerners use, but pronounce it differently. There are also words that are used that are specific to an area...y'all, yonder in the South, youse guys in the North, etc...its called colloquialisms. Our youth have always spoken in slang, advertisers do it, but when you go to see a movie, particularly a drama, the language is much more formal, technical (depending on the subject) and elegant.
And yes, some of his phrasing was antiquated...but his use of it was more for setting the mood of the play, sort of like setting a vocal image, because some of his subject matter was about events that were in the past.
Overall, the performances, either on television or stage or big screen, are absolutely accurate in speaking the language of the times.

Answer 5

First of all, he didn't write anything like Old English. That's just retarded. Secondly, yes he did write in the common language of the day, however, he also wrote much loftier than most people would have spoken in everyday discourse. That's because Shakespeare wanted his plays to appeal across a wide audience base (plus he needed the funding of the wealthy). This is the cause of both low-brow humor and fight scenes coupled with some of the same ideas found in the courtly love tradition. Thirdly, not all of his plays were written in poetic form. He did write in prose in some. So, yes, you are correct in saying that many versions of English were spoken up and down the country, however, thnaks to Chaucer, the major dialect of England had become Londonate and with Shakespeare it became even more so. I think that yes, he didn't necessarily write in the common form all of the time, however, I think that his style eventually influenced the common form of English, though it may not have entirely become the common form.

Also, see AM Frantz's comment. He hit the nail on the head.

Answer 6

You're mostly wrong about this.

If you look at Shakespeare's plays, you'll find he uses different dialects of English within the plays. Broadly speaking, his noblemen usually speak in verse and use a more formal language, which does closely resemble the English spoken in court and by the upper classes of the period, and a more colloquial language, almost always written in prose rather than verse, is used by the commoners. The contrasts between the language used by Falstaff and the soldiers vs that used by the gentry in the two Henry IV plays is a good example of this. The language spoken by the commoners represents roughly a typical London lower class dialect of the period, but there were in fact several regional dialects at the time.

Shakespeare's language is properly called early modern English, not Old English as another answerer has labeled it. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, and if you look at Chaucer in the original, you'll find it's substantially harder to read than Shakespeare, although not that much older. Old English refers to the language spoken before the Norman invasion of 1066. A few texts, notably Beowulf, still exist in that language, and are completely illegible to a speaker of modern English without special training.

Answer 7

You are both right, and mistaken.

The main plots of his plays were written in court language.

The sub-plots, colloquial English.

But there is a further subtlety.

One part of England in Tudor/Jacobean times could rarely understand each other. Their dialects and accents were varied. (Glance at some of the Mystery Plays for examples)

Then, on top of this, places like Cornwall/ Kernow (never really in England!) had their own distinct language altogether, one that had much in common with Welsh/ Cymric.

Which, I am sure, confuses you even more....

Think what it does to people trying to learn the language!

Answer 8

His language covers the whole spectrum from the ordinary conversational language of the time to highly poetic language with more meanings packed in than any one in his audiences could have got even then.

Answer 9

Well the common folk did not speak in IAmbic Pentameter if thats what you mean, but the basic concept was the same

Answer 10

Yes, he wrote in prose (flowery language.) The Brits of his time spoke common language much as they do today.