Romeo and Juliet What language is it?

Early Modern English Shakespeare’s plays are a bit older than modern plays, but they’re not Old English.

This is Old English Fæder ure ðu ðe eart on heofenum si ðin nama gehalgod to-becume ðin rice geweorþe ðin willa on eorðan swa swa on heofenum. Urne ge dæghwamlican hlaf syle us to-deag and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgifaþ urum gyltendum ane ne gelæde ðu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfle. http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/oeterm.htm

How’d you make out with that? That was “The Lord’s Prayer” in Old English.

Maybe Shakespeare’s Middle English.

Nope. Here’s Middle English: "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour . . .."

Better, right? Those were the first lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Here’s a translation into Modern English: "When the sweet showers of April have pierced The drought of March, and pierced it to the root And every vein is bathed in that moisture Whose quickening force will engender the flower . . ..“ (Geoffrey Chaucer, General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, late 14th century. Translation by David Wright. Oxford Univ. Press, 2008)

Then what’s Shakespeare? Early Modern English. 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,

So… If you used to think Shakespeare was written in Old English, now you know it’s not even close…

HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon! oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas, syððanærest wearð feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þah, oð þæt him æghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan; þæt wæs god cyning!

Those were the opening lines… …of a famous Old English epic poem entitled Beowulf.