Shakespeares Language

SHAKESPEARE’S
LANGUAGE
Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare’s English
 Shakespeare did not write in Old English or

Middle English.
 Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English.
 Early Modern English is only one generation
of language from the English you speak today!

Shakespeare’s Contributions
 Shakespeare only had an 8th grade education.

 There were no dictionaries.
 Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English
Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000
words into the language.
 His vocabulary numbers upward of 17,000 words
(quadruple that of an average, well-educated
conversationalist in the language)
A Few Words By Shakespeare
 Accused  Disgraceful
 Addiction  To drug
 Admirable  Excitement
 Assassination  Fashionable
 Bloodstained  Fortune-teller
 Cold-blooded  Gloomy
 Coldhearted  Mimic
 Deafening  Obscene
Phrases Coined by Shakespeare
 As good luck would  Full circle

have it  Good riddance
 Be-all and the end-all  It was Greek to me
 Break the ice  Heart of gold
 Eaten me out of  In a pickle
house and home  Kill with kindness
 Elbow room  Lie low
 Fool's paradise  Love is blind
 For goodness' sake  Not slept one wink
 In the England of Shakespeare's time, English was

a lot more flexible as a language.
 The most common simple sentence in modern
English follows a familiar pattern: Subject (S),
Verb (V), Object (O). (Will caught the ball).
 However, Shakespeare was much more at liberty to
switch these three basic components
 Shakespeare used a great deal of SOV inversion
(Will the ball caught).
 Switching the S-V-O order to S-O-V made it easier

for Shakespeare to rhyme and to manipulate his
words to flow easily in poems and plays.
 Shakespeare could effectively place the metrical
stress wherever he needed it most by switching
word order
 Shakespeare also used an O-S-V construction (The
ball Will caught) for the same reasons.
Inverted Word Order
 Lady Montague:
 O where is Romeo, saw you him today?
 Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
 Translation:
 O where is Romeo; did you see him today?
 I am very glad he was not in this fight.

Inverted Word Order
 “Thou hast by moonlight at her window

sung.”
 Translation:
 You have sung at her window in the
moonlight.
 From A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s Language in Plays
 The language used by Shakespeare in

his plays is in one of three forms
 Prose
 Rhymed Verse
 Blank Verse
Prose
 Prose is writing which resembles everyday

speech
 Prose is often used by Shakespeare for lower-
class characters in his plays

 Prose lacks meter and rhyme and is informal
 Shakespeare blends prose with poetry in his
plays
Rhymed Verse
 The majority of Shakespeare’s plays contain

rhymed verse which looks like poetry
 Characters– especially of the higher classes--speak
in poetic form
 Their words have form, meter, and rhyme
 Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays is usually in
rhymed couplets, i.e. two successive lines of verse
of which the final words rhyme with another.
Iambic Pentameter
 Iambic pentameter is meter that Shakespeare nearly

always when writing in verse. Most of his plays
were written in iambic pentameter.
 Iambic Pentameter has:
 Ten syllables in each line
 Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed
syllables
 The rhythm in each line sounds like:
ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM
Iambic Pentameter Example
 Examples of Iambic Pentameter:

 If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on
 Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?
 Each pair of syllables is called an iamb. You’ll
notice that each iamb is made up of one unstressed
and one stressed beat (ba-BUM).
Blank Verse
 Blank verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter.

 resembles prose in that the final words of the lines
do not rhyme in any regular pattern
 There is meter: a recognizable rhythm in a line of
verse consisting of a pattern of regularly recurring
stressed and unstressed syllables.
 Most lines are in iambic pentameter.
Blank Verse Example
ROMEO: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
from Romeo and Juliet
Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?
 Juliet: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.

 It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
 That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
 Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree
 Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Blank Verse

 Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

 Sampson: No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,
sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
 Gregory: Do you quarrel, sir?
 Abraham: Quarrel, sir? No, sir.
Prose

 Full fathom five thy father lies

 Of his bones are coral made
 Those are pearls that were his eyes
 Nothing of him that doth fade
 But doth suffer a sea change
 Into something rich and strange.
Rhymed Verse


Shakespeares Language

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SHAKESPEARE’S

 Shakespeare did not write in Old English or

 Early Modern English is only one generation

of language from the English you speak today!

 Shakespeare only had an 8th grade education.

 As good luck would  Full circle

 In the England of Shakespeare's time, English was

 Switching the S-V-O order to S-O-V made it easier

 Right glad I am he was not at this fray.

 O where is Romeo; did you see him today?

 I am very glad he was not in this fight.

 “Thou hast by moonlight at her window

 You have sung at her window in the

 The language used by Shakespeare in

 Prose is writing which resembles everyday

class characters in his plays

 Shakespeare blends prose with poetry in his

 The majority of Shakespeare’s plays contain

 Iambic pentameter is meter that Shakespeare nearly

 Examples of Iambic Pentameter:

 Blank verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter.

ROMEO: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

 Juliet: Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.

 Abraham: Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

 Full fathom five thy father lies

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