Lutz 2016
Shakespeare’s Language: Why Thou Dost Whine
While Shakespeare was writing at the beginning of the Modern English period, his language at times feels quite different from our contemporary use. Below are several of the linguistic differences that you will likely notice.
2nd Person Familiar Pronouns:
Thee: you, as an object (I give it to thee.)
Thou: you, as an inferior or an equal (How art thou?)
Thy: possessive, your (That is thy book.)
Thine: possessive, your, before a vowel (To thine own self be true.)
Goofy verb endings (inflections):
-est or –eth used with 2nd person familiar pronouns
Crazy sentence structures (inversions, omissions, and interruptions):
Subject / Verb Inversions:
Contemporary English: So we smiled.
Shakespearean English:So smiled we.
Contemporary English: He lost the ball.
Shakespearean English:Lost he the ball.
Contemporary English: I hit him.
Shakespearean English:Him I hit.
Contemporary English: John shook the green stick.
Shakespearean English:______.
Contemporary English:______.
Shakespearean English:He the ambitious Norway combated.
Write a short sentence in contemporary English:
______.
Now apply the Shakespearean inversions of subject and verb:
______.
Omissions:
To maintain the rhythm of the line or to make the language seem more comfortable between speakers, sometimes Shakespeare omitted letters, syllables or entire words. In the case of letters or syllables, he used an apostrophe to note the omission. We do the same thing in contemporary English.
(______) Heard from him lately?
(______) Eat yet?
No. (_____) You?
The question (_____) I asked was answered.
I can’(_)t come tomorrow.
(_____) Get out (_____) my face!
(_____) Sit down!
Shakespeare does the same:
I have entreated him along with us.
He peered forth the golden window of the east.
Interruptions:
To build emotion (like anger, passion, or tension) Shakespeare sometimes interrupts his sentences (often the subjects and verbs) with long strings of modifiers (adverbial or adjectival phrases).
Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married.
Here our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we (as ‘twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole)
Taken to wife…
Find the main structure of the sentence by crossing out the interruption:
Three civil brawls bred of an airy word
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets.