William Shakespeare

&

The History of English Language

Intro to Shakespeare• Any discussion of Shakespeare's life is bound to be

loaded with superlatives. In the course of a quarter century, Shakespeare wrote some thirty-eight plays. Taken individually, several of them are among the world's finest written works; taken collectively, they establish Shakespeare as the foremost literary talent of his own Elizabethan Age and, even more impressively, as a genius whose creative achievement has never been surpassed in any age.

1- Historical ContextMovements in the language; Importance of the Renaissance; Shakespeare’s Roots

2 – PronunciationDifferences from ME > EMnE > ME; What it Would Have Sounded Like

3 – Word FormationCoinage; Functional Shifts; Compounds; Affixations; Loans; Problems

Historical Context• 5 – 7 Million native English speakers at the end of the 16th century

(today it is used by at least 750 million, perhaps 1 billion – about half as their mother tongue)

• London had become a large city of between 150,000 and 200,000

• Renaissance added 10,000 – 12,000 new words to the lexicon- Following considerable influx of French words in Middle English, and then Latin- Words in 1st native English, 2nd borrowed French, 3rd borrowed Latin:

end finish concluderise mount ascendgoodness virtue probityask question interrogatetwo second dualfire flame conflagrationfear terror trepidation

-Borrowing from Latin reached its climax during Shakespeare’s career and leveled off somewhat afterwards

-Legal loans common:“What think you – may we, with warrant of womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with and further revenge?” – (Merry Wives of Windsor)

- Getting closer to Modern English. Children living 450 years before Shakespeare’s time would have heard and spoken a language that Shakespeare would have barely been able to understand whereas we can understand him with less effort

Shakespeare’s Roots1564 – 1616

- Would have spoken a kind of Midlands English, Stratford lay at the crossroads of the three great regional speech areas of England – he could use them all

- Large vocabulary – 30,000 (educated person today has around 15,000)

- Loved to experiment with words

- Broke rules and played with the language

VersatilityShakespeare could write in the shoes of many characters in society, all classes of people in all sorts of situations - political, social, historical

“Irish: …tish ill done! The work ish give over, the trompet sound the Retreat.

Welsh: Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of war…

Scots: It sall be vary gud, gud faith, gud captens bath; and I sall quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I, marry.” – (Henry V)

Movements in our LanguageSpelling: standardization the vernacular-“Freezing” spellings from variable ones- lack of dictionaries, grammars, and an academy until the 17th century- all modern editions of Shakespeare’s works (except for ones that preserve archaism for scholars) regularlize the spellings of original texts to conform to newer standards

Grammar:- “bad grammar” not the same as it is seen today- still multiple ways of inflecting verbs; the possessive- variation and choice everywhere - Shakespeare and Elizabethans were bold and daring in this regard but were not doing anything fundamentally different that what native speakers were free to do

Style:-Renaissance rediscovery of Classical Literature;-The art of Rhetoric; -Long, heavily subordinate sentences

Punning-reflects the Renaissance’s recognition of the slipperiness of the language

“Thou / Thee / Ye/ You”- Second-person pronoun choice if affected by properness-King Lear uses “ thee” vs. “you” alternately to his daughters depending on which one he is talking to and how he feels about her

“Dost & Doth”-archaisms, each a different form of the verb “do” with specific grammatical meaning-Been replaced by “do” and “does”

“Ado”-came from mishearing the two words “at” and “to” as “at do” and produced “ado”

Multiple negatives:-still found frequently in Shakespeare“And that no woman has, nor never none / Shall mistress be of it, save I alone” (Viola in Twelfth Night)

Prepositions- “up with which we will not put” - Churchill-As You Like It

“Inkhorn Controversy”

The Age of Bibles• Tyndale: 1525• Coverdale: 1535• Mathew: 1537• The Great Bible: 1539• Geneva: 1560• Bishops’: 1568• Douay/Rheims: 1582,

1609• King James: 1611

Biblical Analogy:- faults the 16th century imputed to the speaker , 17th century blamed on the speech itself- 16th century: defects in man brought about confused speech - 17th century: confused speech brings about defects of man- In Shakespeare, character faults cause inadequate speech: Coriolanus is too proud and fails verbally with the people, Lear’s communication breaks down – no talking in the storm, Sonnets , Iago’s word on Othello. – Defects in the speaker corrupt language

“Shayks-peer” ?

“Shayks-pear” ?

“Shack-peer” ?

“Shacks-peare” ?

Pronunciation[pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuh n ]

-No single form of national received pronunciation in his day

-Regional accents were much more individual, we have had 500 years of orthographic and phonetic standardization

-Shakespeare came from an oral society primarily, “publication” of his plays was their oral delivery

- Very perceptible differences from today but not as great since the Great Vowel Shift

the nasal a (pronounced like the "ah" in apple) father, i want to wash i' the water with margaret gardener. art thou walkin' and talkin' with arthur and martha martin?

the o sound (pronounced "uh" as in shove): mother, brother doth want another brother verily much; but with such a brother, heaven above, give us not another!

the ow and oo blend (pronounced "owoo" as in owl)how now, brown cow? a lousey mouse now i' the house doth be down with the sow

the uh and ee blend (pronounced "uhee" like spice)my, thy fly doth fly high, cy. by and by my fly shall be thy fly. the fly is thine.

the short a and e blend (pronounced "eh" like said)make the baker bake a cake that i might take. hast thou ate?

long a and long e blend (pronounce "ea" like the a in day): see, she doth be belove'd o' lee stream. she seems please'd. he seizes secret delights. she leaps under freely.

pronouncing "ed" (pronounce it as an extra full syllable): he turne'd, stoppe'd, and aske'd "art thou angere'd?" she leane'd towards him and vowe'd his death, then walke'd and talke'd no more. had he tarrie'd they might be marrie'd. now he doth be burie'd. they were kille'd and trappe'd by hate, carrie'd away by evil.

the "zh" sound (pronounce "sure" as "zhure"): a measure o' pleasure doth be an earthly treasure. leisure doth be another measure o' pleasure.

special words: *surely* (ssurely, not shurely), *william* (willam) drake's father shall *ne'er* (drop the v) have the *patience* (pa-c-ience) or *affection* (a-ffect-c-ion) to take pleasure i' bein' *married* (marr-i-ed) now. sin' he doth be *perfection* (per-fect-c-ion), i *assure* (a-ssure, not a-shure) the his wife wants thy pity. a vile *association* (a-ssoc-i-a-c-ion)

Hamlet Transcriptions (2.2.527-546)

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!Is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceitThat from her working all his visage wann'd,Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,A broken voice, and his whole function suitingWith forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!For Hecuba!What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her? What would he do,Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have?

Ooh hwut a rroog and pezunt slayv um Eye! Iz it not monstruss thut thiss pleyr heer.But in a fikshun, in u dreem uv pashun, kud forrs his sole so to his own konseet That from his wurking orl his vizadj wand, Teerz in iz eyez, distrakshun inz aspct, A brokun voyss, and is hole funksun shooting With forrms to his konseet? And orl 4 nuthing! For Ekyouba!Hwotz Ekyouba to him or hee to herr That he shud weep 4 herr? Hwot wud hee doo Had hee the motiv und the kew 4 pashun That Eye hev?

What Did it What Did it SoundSound Like? Like?John Barton reads from Henry V:

(from “Language and Character” in Playing Shakespeare – for BBC-TV)

Chorus: Now entertain conjecture of a time When creeping murmur and the poring dark Fills the wide vessel of the universe. From camp to camp through the foul wombof night The hum of either army stilly sounds, That the fixed sentinels almost receive The secret whispers of each other's watch:

What Did it What Did it SoundSound Like?Like?

Sonnet 145: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im3cXZPenzQ

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/pronunciation.html#fn_falstaff

In Henry IV, Part One, Falstaff tells Hal, seemingly inexplicably, "If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion." There is a pun here, but the modern audience would be hard-pressed to notice it, unless "reason" were pronounced in the Elizabethan manner, which would sound something like "raisin." The pun then becomes obvious, and the line makes much more sense. In Julius Caesar, Cassius puns on "Rome" and "room"-- and again the words were pronounced alike.

Other Lost PunsOther Lost PunsGaunt: “Call it a travel that thou tak’st for pleasure” (used to

sound like travail)

Feste: “Let her hang me. He that is well hanged in this world needs to fear no colors.” (used to sound like collars)

Siward: “Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death.” (used to sound like heirs)

Word Formation● Coinage

● Functional Shift

● Compounds

● Affixation

● Loans

● Problems

-Shakespeare invented totally new words

-Single greatest inventor of the English language

- estimates of his contributions range from 800 to more than 3000

- Easier for words to enter a language when writing exists

- Did not use often archaisms

- Was daring

Coinage

A Sampling of Words Coined by Shakespeare:

academe accused addiction advertising amazement arouse assassination backing bandit bedroom beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained barefaced blushing bet bump buzzer caked cater champion circumstantial cold-blooded compromise courtship countless critic dauntless dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged dwindle epileptic equivocal elbow excitement exposure eyeball fashionable fixture flawed frugal generous gloomy gossip green-eyed gust hint hobnob hurried impede impartial invulnerable jaded label lackluster laughable lonely lower luggage lustrous madcap majestic marketable metamorphize mimic monumental moonbeam mountaineer negotiate noiseless obscene obsequiously ode olympian outbreak panders pedant premeditated puking radiance rant remorseless savagery scuffle secure skim milk submerge summit swagger torture tranquil undress unreal varied vaulting worthless zany

Functional Shifts

Adverb > Verb “They… from their own misdeeds

askance their eyes” (Lucrece)

Verb > Adjective “Nor dignifies and impair

thought with breath” (Troilus and Cressida)

Adverb > Noun “Thou losest here, a better where to find” (King Lear)

Numeral > Verb “What man / Thirds

his own worth”

(The Two Noble Kinsmen)

Verb > Noun “Achievementis a command;

ungained, beseech (Troilus and Cressida)

Noun > Verb“Well moused, lion.” Adjective > Verb

“…with you should safemy going”

Pronoun > Noun“The shes of Italy…”

Noun > Adjective“Salt Cleopatra”

Body Part > Verb“But I will Beard him.”

A Distinctive function of the English language

Compounds

- Found mostly in Shakespeare’s earlier plays“rat-catcher”“fiery-footed”

“blood-stained”“high-reaching”

“ill-erected”“star-cross’d”“hot-bloods”

“widow-maker”“helter-skelter”

“hurly-burly”

Affixation

Forming new words by adding affixes to root words

• not like Old English where no part of the 2 words in a compound were lost (borrowing from French made this more difficult)

• - dislike, employer, intermingle, resound, surname, undervalue

• - no less than 93 1st instances of words beginning with “un”

• In Hamlet alone: “unaneled, unbated, uncharge, uneffectual, unfellowed, unfortified, ungartered, unhand, unhouseled, unimproved, unknowing, unmastered, unnerved, unpeg, unpolluted, unprevailing, unproportioned, unreclaimed, unrighteous, unshaped, unsifted, unsinewed, unsmirched, unwrung, unforced, ungalled, unkennel, unschooled, unyoke”

Suffixes: -able, -age, -al, -ance, -ant, -ed, -er, -est, -idity, -ified, -ing, -

ish, -ism, -ist,

Prefixes: be-, dis-, en-,im-, in-, mis-, o’er-, pre-,

re-, un-, under-,up-

Latinate Loans-Latin Loans at a peek during Shakespeare’s career

- Shakespeare used Latin words within a line where they coincide with heavy stress and achieve maximum emphasis:“When he himself might his quietus make / With a bare bodkin.” (Hamlet)“And what was he? / Forsooth, a great arithmetician.” (Othello)

- Often accompanied by synonyms or clues to meaning of new words“large and portly size” (Achilles); “obscene and most preposterous” “curious-knotted” “viewest, beholdest, surveyest, seest”

-Especially in histories – connection with textual history?

- Original meanings can be lost:Err =”wander” pregnant = “significant” vulgar = “ordinary” accident = “something that happens” Berowne: “Armando is a most illustrious wight, / A man of fire-new words, fashion’s own knight.”

“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare “It’s Greek to me,” you are quoting Shakespeare. . . if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch. . . if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made virtue a necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink. . . laughed yourself into stitches. . . had too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days of lived in a fool’s paradise. . . if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and the truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood. . . if you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate. . . for goodness’ sake! what the dickens! but me no buts – it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.” – B. Levin

• · All our yesterdays (Macbeth)• · All that glitters is not gold (The Merchant of Venice)• · All's well that ends well (title)• · As good luck would have it (The Merry Wives• · As merry as the day is long (Much Ado About • · Bated breath (The Merchant of Venice)• · Bag and baggage (As You Like It / Winter's Tale)• · Bear a charmed life (Macbeth)• · Be-all and the end-all (Macbeth)• · Beggar all description (Antony and Cleopatra)• · Better foot before ("best foot forward") (King John)• · The better part of valor is discretion (I Henry IV• · In a better world than this (As You Like It)• · Neither a borrower nor a lender be (Hamlet)• · Brave new world (The Tempest)• · Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)• · Breathed his last (3 Henry VI)• · Brevity is the soul of wit (Hamlet)• · Refuse to budge an inch (Measure for Measure • · Cold comfort (The Taming of the Shrew / King John)• · Conscience does make cowards of us all (Hamlet)• · Come what come may ("come what may") (Macbeth)• · Comparisons are odorous (Much Ado about Nothing)• · Crack of doom (Macbeth)• · Dead as a doornail (2 Henry VI)• · A dish fit for the gods (Julius Caesar)• · Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war (Julius Caesar)• · Dog will have his day (Hamlet)• · Devil incarnate (Titus Andronicus / Henry V)• · Eaten me out of house and home (2 Henry IV)• · Elbow room (King John; first attested 1540• · Farewell to all my greatness (Henry VIII)• · Faint hearted (I Henry VI)• · Fancy-free (Midsummer Night's Dream)• · Fight till the last gasp (I Henry VI) • · Flaming youth (Hamlet)• · Fool's paradise (Romeo and Juliet)

· Forever and a day (As You Like It)· For goodness' sake (Henry VIII)· Foregone conclusion (Othello)· Full circle (King Lear)· The game is afoot (I Henry IV)· The game is up (Cymbeline)· Give the devil his due (I Henry IV)· Good riddance (Troilus and Cressida)· Jealousy is the green-eyed monster · It was Greek to me (Julius Caesar)· Heart of gold (Henry V)· Her infinite variety (Antony and Cleopatra)· 'Tis high time (The Comedy of Errors)· Hoist with his own petard (Hamlet)· Household words (Henry V)· A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!· Ill wind which blows no man to good· Improbable fiction (Twelfth Night)· In a pickle (The Tempest)· In my heart of hearts (Hamlet)· In my mind's eye (Hamlet)· Infinite space (Hamlet)· Infirm of purpose (Macbeth)· In a pickle (The Tempest)· In my book of memory (I Henry VI)· It is but so-so(As You Like It)· It smells to heaven (Hamlet)· Itching palm (Julius Caesar)· Kill with kindness (Taming of the Shrew)· Killing frost (Henry VIII)· Knit brow (The Rape of Lucrece)· Knock knock! Who's there? (Macbeth)· Laid on with a trowel (As You Like It)· Laughing stock (The Merry Wives· Laugh yourself into stitches (Twelfth Night)· Lean and hungry look (Julius Caesar)

· Lie low (Much Ado about Nothing)· Live long day (Julius Caesar)· Love is blind (Merchant of Venice)· Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues· Melted into thin air (The Tempest)· Though this be madness, yet there is method in it· Make a virtue of necessity (The Two Gentlemen· The Makings of(Henry VIII)· Milk of human kindness (Macbeth)· Ministering angel (Hamlet)· Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows· More honored in the breach than in the observance· More in sorrow than in anger (Hamlet)· More sinned against than sinning (King Lear)· Much Ado About Nothing (title)· Murder most foul (Hamlet)· Murder will out (Hamlet)· Naked truth (Love's Labours Lost)· Neither rhyme nor reason (As You Like It)· Not slept one wink (Cymbeline)· Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it· [Obvious] as a nose on a man's face · Once more into the breach (Henry V)· One fell swoop (Macbeth)· One that loved not wisely but too well (Othello)· Time is out of joint (Hamlet)· Out of the jaws of death (Twelfth Night)· Own flesh and blood (Hamlet)· Star-crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet)· Parting is such sweet sorrow (Romeo and Juliet)· What's past is prologue (The Tempest)· [What] a piece of work [is man] (Hamlet)· Pitched battle (Taming of the Shrew)· A plague on both your houses (Romeo and Juliet)· Play fast and loose (King John)· Pomp and circumstance (Othello)· [A poor] thing, but mine own (As You Like It)

· Pound of flesh (The Merchant of Venice)· Primrose path (Hamlet)· Quality of mercy is not strained (The Merchant of Venice)· Salad days (Antony and Cleopatra)· Sea change (The Tempest)· Seen better days (As You Like It? Timon of Athens?)· Send packing (I Henry IV)· How sharper than the serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless· Shall I compare thee to a summer's day (Sonnets)· Make short shrift (Richard III)· Sick at heart (Hamlet)· Snail paced (Troilus and Cressida)· Something in the wind (The Comedy of Errors)· Something wicked this way comes (Macbeth)· A sorry sight (Macbeth)· Sound and fury (Macbeth)· Spotless reputation (Richard II)· Stony hearted (I Henry IV)· Such stuff as dreams are made on (The Tempest)· Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep ("Still waters· The short and the long of it (The Merry Wives of Windsor)· Sweet are the uses of adversity (As You Like It)· Sweets to the sweet (Hamlet)· Swift as a shadow (A Midsummer Night's Dream· Tedious as a twice-told tale (King John)· Set my teeth on edge (I Henry IV)· Tell truth and shame the devil (1 Henry IV)· Thereby hangs a tale (Othello)· There's no such thing (?) (Macbeth)· There's the rub (Hamlet)· This mortal coil (Hamlet)· To gild refined gold, to pain the lily ("to gild the lily") (King John)· To thine own self be true (Hamlet)· Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)· Tower of strength (Richard III)· Towering passion (Hamlet)· Trippingly on the tongue (Hamlet)· Truth will out (The Merchant of Venice)- And then some more. . .

Problems of Word Attribution:-“First recorded usage”

-Mixing senses or meanings of words

-Functional shifts

-Conservative fig. of word contribution: 800- 1,700 (still huge)

-Lexemes

- Archaisms

Archaic Coinages:-orgulous (proud), dole (sorrow),

-eke (also), bodkin (pin)-aidance, besort, commixture, deceptious,

precurse, rubious, bemonster, disroot, outprize,

-“First recorded usage” doesn’t mean it didn’texist -Other authors used many of the same words not long afterwards – perhaps a wider

community usage of the word. - Noconcordance of all the texts from the period

-Mixing senses or meanings of words

- Functional shifts – very shifty

Lexemes: the fundamental unit or base of a Word. The lexeme “go” – go, goes, going,gone, went. Shakespeare’s first folio wordsfor take include: take, takes, taketh, tak’n,

taken, tak’st, tak’t, took, took’st, tooke, tookst

Other Problems:

- Do we count words that already existed

that he used in a new sense?

- Do we count foreign words?

Onomatopoeia?

What Do the Plays have to Say About Language?

One of the first to poke fun at the idea that every letter should be pronounced in words:

“I abhor such fanatical phantasims. . . such rackers of orthography as to speak “dout”, sine (without) “b”, when he should say “doubt”; “det” when he should pronounce “debt” – “d,e,b,t”, not “d,e,t”. . . This is abhominable – which he whould call “abominable”. – (Don Armando in Love’s Labour’s Lost)

“How every fool can play upon the word!” – Lorenzo“They have been at a great feast of language and stol’n the scraps.” – Mote“O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.” – Costard

“Is not the king’s name twenty thousand names? / Arm, arm, my name!” (Richard II)

Fun Quotes• “A living language is like a man suffering

incessantly from small hemorrhages, and what it needs above all else is constant transactions of new blood from other tongues. The day the gates go up, that day it begins to die.” - H.L. Mencken

• “of unsurpassed richness and beauty, which, however, defies all the rules.” – Logan Pearsall Smith

• English is “gloriously impure” – Anthony Burgess

If You Want a Great Insult For:• You are fat:

“By my trowth, thou dost make the millstone seem as a feather what widst thy lard-bloated footfall!”

• You've got a big mouth:“In sooth, thy dank cavernous tooth-hole consumes all truth and reason!”

• You are ugly:“Thy vile canker-blossom'd countenance curdles milk and sours beer.”