Shakespeare?

I find Shakespeare's plays to be tedious drivel, yet I can recite Sonnet 18 from memory even though we've never learned it... hrmm.

brummytom wrote: »

My main gripe with Shakespearian plays is that he was from the Midderlunnns.. he most likely had a Brummy accent instead of the toff the pillocks now speak with. Talk normally! Use his words but don't say it like you've got a plum up your arse.

Nobody really knows what English sounded like in Shakespeare's time, though. There is reason to think that a modern day American accent is closer to the 'English' accent of Shakespeare, British accents having changed over time due to the influence of continental Europe. Many Shakespearian passages sound far more natural in American accents than modern British ones.

pfft Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe is where it's at. Dead at 29 in a knife fight. Left behind a bunch of plays as big and as clever as Shakespeare, written at a younger age, including The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus. Legend

"How sharper than a serpents tooth it is, to have a thankless child"!

Did King Lear for the JC, got an A in English



My teacher was a ride!

Macbeth was the shiznitz.
The whole story is told from the point of view of the villain, brilliant.

Your Text Here wrote: »

Shakespeare was a dirty b0llox sooo many double meanings in the stuff he wrote!

Taken from Skins:
Naomi: Hamlet's basically a teenage boy. He's got all these desires and he doesn't have the bottom to reach out for them. So, he goes mad, **** off about Ophelia, and as it's so boring, somebody has to kill him.
Josie: I'm not sure that's right. Th-there's no **** in Hamlet.
Naomi: Mmhh yeah, there is. Loads. Only, they call it 'Soliloquy'.

Well. I studied Julius Caesar at school, many years ago now, and didn't have any problem with it that I can remember. However, I went to a production of The Merchant Of Venice, in Galway (Town Hall Theatre), and I thought it was SH1TE. Not slagging the acting performance at all, just didn't 'get it'. However, the actors were wearing modern suits and some props were watches, and other items of modern-day life. But I don't think that was the problem ...maybe it's just me !

Nobody really knows what English sounded like in Shakespeare's time, though. There is reason to think that a modern day American accent is closer to the 'English' accent of Shakespeare, British accents having changed over time due to the influence of continental Europe. Many Shakespearian passages sound far more natural in American accents than modern British ones.

Yes but the south African and Australian accent sound more like the British accent than the American accent. By extension we can say that the American accent is the biggest deviation from all the English speaking accents.
This makes sense as there was far more mixing up of European accents in America due to immigrants than there was in the UK, Australia or South Africa.

I always get p1ssed off when I see that film The Patriot by Mel Gibson. George Washington etc.. all would have had British accents.

Is it true that were it not for the written word and telecommunications that they would be speaking completely different languages across the pond by now?

Yea probably. As an example there is some unrecognizable English dialect exclusive to Wexford as far as I know. Find out how long they were in isolation and that gives you an idea of how long it takes for a language to change.
Plus most European languages are bastardized versions of Latin so it's definitely plausible.