History of the English Language

An Introduction to Shakespeare

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Old English

West Germanic invaders from Jutland and southern Denmark began populating the British Isles in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. The three groups of invaders were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.

Together they were called Anglo-Saxons. The words England and English come from the word Angle. They spoke a mutual language that is called Old English.

These invaders pushed the original, Celtic-speaking inhabitants out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, leaving behind a few Celtic words.

These Celtic languages survive today in Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland and in Welsh. About half of the most commonly used words in modern English have Old English roots.

Words like be, water and strong, for example, derive from Old English roots.

Middle English

William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 A.D. The new royalty spoke a dialect of Old French known as Anglo-Norman.

The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow. Beef, commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow.

Many legal terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the courts. Over time, the French nobles lost their loyalty to France and began to speak a modified English instead of Anglo-Norman.

In 1349, the Black Death began, killing about one-third of the English population. The middle class grew in economic and social importance, and along with them English increased in importance compared to Anglo-Norman.

This mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle English.

Early Modern English

The next wave of innovation in English came with the Renaissance. The revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the language.

Many students having difficulty understanding Shakespeare would be surprised to learn that he wrote in modern English. Many familiar words and phrases were coined or first recorded by Shakespeare;

Some 2,000 words and countless catch-phrases are his. Newcomers to Shakespeare are often shocked at the number of clichés in his plays until they realize that he coined them and they became clichés afterward.

“One fell swoop,” “vanish into thin air,” and “flesh and blood” are all Shakespeare’s. Words he bequeathed to the language include “critical,” “leapfrog,” “majestic,” and “dwindle.”

Two other major factors influenced the language and served to separate Middle and Modern English. The first factor was the Great Vowel Shift.

Long vowel sounds began to be made higher in the mouth and the letter “e” at the end of words became silent. In Middle English name was pronounced “nam-a,” five was pronounced “feef” and down was pronounced “doon.”

The last major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1476.

Books became cheaper, and, as a result, literacy became more common. Publishing for the masses became a profitable enterprise, and works in English, as opposed to Latin, became more common.

Finally, the printing press brought standardization to English. The dialect of London, where most publishing houses were located, became the standard. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the first English dictionary was published in 1604.

Late Modern English

The principal distinction between early- and late- modern English is vocabulary.

Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors.

The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. The second was the British Empire.

At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth’s surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.

Hindi, and the other languages of the Indian subcontinent, provided many words, such as pundit, shampoo, and pajamas.

Virtually every language on Earth has contributed to the development of English, from Finnish (sauna) and Japanese (tycoon) to the vast contributions of French and Latin.

Rulers of England

• The Normans

–In 1066, William the Conqueror conquered England and became its king. He was crowned William I.

•The Plantagenets

•In 1154, there was a dispute over the throne. Henry II replaced Stephen as king and began the line of the Plantagenet family.

•The Lancasters and the Yorks

•In 1399, there was a second dispute over the throne. The Plantagenet family split into two separate families, the Lancasters and the Yorks.

•A civil war broke out between the two families. It was known as the War of the Roses, because members of the House of York wore a white rose and members of the House of Lancaster wore red roses.

•Members of both families ruled during this time period, depending on which side was winning.

•The Tudors

•The War of the Roses ended when Henry VII, a Tudor, was crowned King of England. His son, Henry VIII, was most famous for his scandalous marriages.

•Henry VIII

•Henry VIII became king after the death of his father in 1509. In his desperate race to have a son, Henry went through six wives.

•Catherine of Aragon

•Henry married his brother’s widow, Catherine, the same year that he inherited the throne. Catherine gave Henry one child, Mary.

When Henry realized that Catherine was not going to have another child, he asked the Catholic Church for a divorce. The Pope, who had overseen the marriage, refused the grant the divorce.

Henry then began his own church, of which he was the leader. The first official act of the Church of England was to grant Henry and Catherine a divorce.

•Anne Boleyn

•Anne was already pregnant when Henry married her. A few months into the marriage, Elizabeth was born.

Three years later, Henry claimed that Anne had been having an affair and had her beheaded.

•Jane Seymour: Shortly after Anne was beheaded, Henry married Jane Seymour, who mysteriously gave birth only five months later.

Jane, who would always be Henry’s favorite wife, died giving birth to his only son, Edward.

•Anne of Cleves

•Henry agreed to marry the German princess Anne after seeing a beautiful portrait of her.

She was not as lovely in person, however, and the marriage was quickly annulled.

•Catherine Howard

•Just a few months after dumping Anne of Cleves, Henry married Catherine Howard. Catherine really did cheat on Henry, and was executed two years later.

•Catherine Parr

•One year after executing Catherine Howard, Henry married Catherine Parr. He and Catherine remained married until his death four years later.

The Tudors after Henry VIII

•Edward VI

•Henry’s son took over the throne when he was only nine years old.

He was betrothed to Mary, Queen of Scots, but died before he could ever marry. The sickly child was only 16 when he died.

•Lady Jane Grey

•While Edward was on his death bed, several dukes tricked him into signing a document that prevented his sisters from inheriting the throne.

The Anglican dukes were afraid that Mary, still a practicing Catholic, would destroy the Church of England. Edward signed the kingdom over to Lady Jane Grey.

Only nine days later, Jane discovered the plot and signed the throne back over to Mary. In spite of Jane’s honesty, Mary had her put to death.

•Mary I (Bloody Mary)

•As Queen of England, Mary tried to re-establish the Catholic Church in the country. She had all supporters of the Anglican church executed.

Thus, she was known as Bloody Mary. Mary married Philip II of Spain, who disliked England and rarely visited. She died only five years after her reign began.

•Elizabeth I (The Virgin Queen)

•Elizabeth inherited the throne after her sister Mary’s death. Shortly after her reign began, her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, tried to steal the throne.

Elizabeth was able to defeat Mary and had her put to death. Elizabeth finally led the country to a religious compromise – both Protestants and Catholics were welcome to practice their religions.

Because Elizabeth never married, she was known as “The Virgin Queen.” The truth behind this title, however, is highly debatable.

Life During the Elizabethan Period

• Classes–Although the middle class

had grown, there was still a definite line drawn between the social classes in Elizabethan England.

Within the nobility there was a distinction between old families and new. Most old noble families were Catholic, and most new noble families were Protestant.

The upper classes were exempt from the new oaths of allegiance to the Church of England, and many Catholic families maintained private chaplains.

•Food

•Meals were elaborate and large. Breakfast was simply a light snack, while the main meal of the day was dinner, which started at 11 o’clock and lasted three hours.

A smaller supper was usually at 6 o’clock. The lower classes had dinner at noon and supper and 7 or 8 in the evening. The poor ate off wooden vessels, or pewter, the rich off silver, glass, or delft from Holland.

China ware was unknown.

Food was cooked over open fires. Meat was cooked on a spit which was sometimes turned by a dog running on a circular treadmill attached to the spit end.

Baking was done in iron boxes laid on the fire or in a brick oven set into the side of the fireplace.

•Medicine

•One of the most common beliefs during this time concerned the humours.

It was believed that four humours or fluids entered into the composition of a man: blood, phlegm, choler (or yellow bile), and melancholy (or black bile).

According to this belief, the predominance of on humour over the others determined a person’s temperament as sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholy.

Furthermore, they believed that too much of any of them caused disease, and that the cure lay in purging or avoiding the humour, as by reducing the amount of blood by cupping or reducing the amount of bile by means of drugs.

•Theatre

•The first proper theatre was called The Theatre and was owned by the Burbage brothers.

The brothers lost their lease on the land where the theatre was located, so they took the theatre apart piece by piece and rebuilt it across the river. The new theatre was named The Globe.

In 1613, the roof of The Globe was accidentally set on fire by canon fire during a play. It was later rebuilt, but with a slightly different design.

The theatre could hold several thousand people, most standing in the open pit before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself.

Theatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. Women attended plays, but no women performed in the plays. Female roles were generally performed by young boys.

This illustration shows the general appearance of an Elizabethan public theatre. The buildings were round, square, or many-sided. All were open at the top. Poor spectators stood in the pit, while more wealthy patrons sat in the galleries.

Actors performed on the main stage, in the discovery space, and on the upper stage. The hut atop the roof contained machinery to produce sound effects and various special effects.

The flag would proclaim to the city which kind of play was about to be presented: black for tragedy, white for comedy, and red for history.

Drama Terms

• Drama: a story that is written to be acted for an audience

–Comedy: a story that ends happily; comedies usually end with a wedding

–Tragedy: a story that ends in the death of the main character or characters

–Aside: words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character but that are not supposed to be overheard by the others onstage

–Soliloquy: a long speech in which a character who is onstage alone expresses his or her thoughts aloud

–Setting: the time and place of a story or play

–Theme: the central idea of a work of literature; tells what the writer wants to reveal about the subject; is usually expressed in a sentence

–Motif: a repeated structure, contrast, or literary device that helps to develop the theme

–Allusion: reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, politics, sports, science, or pop culture

–Foreshadowing: the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later

–Comic Relief: comic scene or event that breaks up a serious play or narrative

• Character: person in a story, poem or play

–Static Character: a character who does not change much in the course of a story

–Dynamic Character: a character who changes as a result of a story’s events

–Flat Character: has only one or two traits

–Round Character: has many different traits, which sometimes contradict one another

–Protagonist: the main character in fiction or drama

–Antagonist: the character or force that works against the protagonist

–Motivation: the fears, conflicts, or needs that drive a character

–Foil: a character who is used as a contrast to another character

• Irony: a contrast between expectation and reality – between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected to happen and what really does happen, or between what appears to be true and what is really true

–Verbal Irony: a writer or speaker says one thing but really means something else

–Situational Irony: occurs when there is a contrast between what would seem appropriate and what really happens, or when there is a contradiction between what we expect to happen and what really happens

–Dramatic Irony: occurs when the audience or the reader knows something important that a character in a play or story does not know