Translating Shakespeare

Language Changes Shakespeare’s plays were written more than 400 years ago. Like all things, language changes, as does knowledge, allusion, imagery, customs, and rules. (remember yesterday’s lesson on the history of the English Language?)

Shakespeare made up words Shakespeare added almost 20,000 words to the English language. Some words he just plain made up. Some words are “portmanteau” (combine two words to make a new one) barefaced, forefathers, leapfrog, snow-white, countless. Some are new inventions showing etymology from Latin & Greek (Renaissance drew on classical Rome and Greece)- homicide, obscene. Some are different forms of previous words (parts of speech) - lonely, excellent, monumental, majestic.

Pronouns and consonants The “th”, “t”, and “st” sounds in words are often different in Shakespearean English. Change those letters and they make words we know and use. Thou = you Hast = has / have Art = are Thee /thy = yours / his / my Canst = can’t Doth = do, does

Shakespeare’s contractions Contractions (using an apostrophe to show where two words have been combined and some letters removed) have changed format in the last 400 years. We’d = we would They’re = they are Wasn’t = was not Use common sense when you see an apostrophe- what could it mean? ‘tis = it is ‘twere = it were (it was)

Levels of Formality We’re used to common, everyday language. In some places, Shakespeare uses slang or very formal language to show class of characters. Elizabethan slang will be explained in notes. You may have to develop your vocabulary to learn new words (using dictionaries and thesauri). Notes may help to explain unfamiliar vocabulary. Nuptials = wedding Virtues = good traits

Shakespeare’s Poetry Shakespeare writes his plays in iambic pentameter, uses literary devices, sound devices, and figurative language. Allusions to classical myth, history, and other cultural understandings may be foreign to you. Notes may help to explain some poetry or allusions. Use your “close reading” skills from poetry to decipher important passages. Line re-arrangement to suit the poetry can be ordered to make sense.

Other problems? Elizabethan in- jokes, slang phrases, cultural references. Values & morals Do you think people will understand “Family Guy” 400 years from now? Source material and historical context- marriage customs, parenting, Pyramus and Thisby, etc. Use the notes provided in the play. Use online translations, summaries, and study guides.

Reading a Play This is a script of a play meant to be performed as live theatre. Imagine the action. Picture these people. Use your understanding of human behaviour. Read the stage directions. Read with attitude, tone, flair, ACTING! Drama has its own set of rules. Dialogue develops character- we learn about people by what they say. Who knows what and who hears what? (aside)

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. Odd sentence structure to make the rhyme fit Blue = vocabulary you might need help with Those weird contractions The change in “th” doth= do