The English Language
Throughout time, the English language
has gone through many changes.
 There are 4 major periods: Old English,
Middle English, Early Modern English, and
Late Modern English
 Which one are we in?


Old English: The Lord’s Prayer

Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum
si þin nama gehalgod tobecume þin rice
gewurþe þin willa on eorðan swa swa on
heofonum
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to
dæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we
forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys
us of yfele soþlice.
play a wav file of this Old English text (518Kb)
Middle English

Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi
name;
þi reume or kyngdom come to be. Be þi
wille don in herþe as it is dounin heuene.
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And foryeue to us oure dettis þat is oure
synnys as we foryeuen to oure dettouris
þat is to men þat han synned in us.
And lede us not into temptacion but
delyuere us from euyl
Early Modern English

Our father which art in heauen, hallowed
be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth as it is in heauen.
Giue us this day our daily bread.
And forgiue us our debts as we forgiue
our debters.
And lead us not into temptation, but
deliuer us from euill.
Late Modern English
Our father in heaven, hallowed be your
name. Your kingdom come, your will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive
us our tresspasses, as we forgive those
who tresspass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us
from evil

The Language of Shakespeare
Shakespeare wrote using Early Modern
English also called Elizabethan English
 EME is different from the way we speak
today, although it has many similarities

Iambic Pentameter

Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets are
written in iambic pentameter.
An “iamb” is the combination of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable.
 EX:
annoy, fulfill, pretend, regard, and serene

Iambic Pentameter
In each line of Shakespeare there are 10
syllables, and 5 iambs.
 Penta meter

 Penta
means 5
 Meter refers to the recurrence of a rhythmic
unit. This is also called a “foot”

A line written in iambic pentameter has 5
iambs or “feet” and 10 syllables
Examples
But, soft! what light through yonder
window breaks?
I will not fail: 'tis twenty years till
then.
I have forgot why I did call thee back.
Why Iambic Pentameter?
It closely mimics the natural speech
pattern in English.
 It made lines easier to remember for the
actors.

Other issues when reading
Shakespeare…
1. Unfamiliar Vocabulary: using
unfamiliar words or forms of words.

EX: “It was merely foolery, I did not mark it.”
“Foolery” means “foolishness”
 “Mark it” means “notice it.”
 Restate the line in your own words:


Strategies you can use to combat this issue:
Issues…
2. Grammatical Forms: archaic forms of familiar
words (mostly pronouns)
EX: “O judgment thou art fled to brutish beasts!”
“Thou art” means “you are”
EX: “Get thee to a nunnery!”
“Thee” means “yourself” or sometimes “you”
EX: “To thine own self be true”
“Thine” means “your”
EX: “Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?”
“Wherefore” means “why”
Strategies you can use to combat this issue:
Issues…
3. Grammatical Structure: different grammatical
structures than Late Modern English
EX: “I denied you not”
Translation: I did not deny you
EX: “Get you home!”
Translation: “Get home!” or “Go home!”
Issues…
4. Unusual Word Order
EX: “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”
Translation: “Did this seem ambitious of
Caesar?”
Strategies:
Issues…
Puns: puns are when homonyms are
used for effect
EX: “A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with
a safe conscience, which is indeed, sir a
mender of bad soles.”
The pun: he is a cobbler, who makes shoes
Souls v. soles “mends bad souls”
Strategies:
5.
Play on words
Similar to puns, a play on words is where
a phrase is misinterpreted as meaning
something other than the intended
meaning. Listen/ Look at “Who’s on First”
by Abbott and Costello. What is being
mistinterpretted?
 http://www.phoenix5.org/humor/WhoOnFi
rst.html
 ..\Who's on First.doc

Issues…
6. Allusions: a reference to a well-known
story in the Bible, Greek/Roman
Mythology, or a well-known person like
Queen Elizabeth
EX: “Why man he doth bestride the narrow
world/Like a Colossus”
Translation: An allusion to the giant
Colossus from mythology
Strategies:
End of notes
RECAP
Shakespeare writes in a form of English
called ______ _____ ______.
 He uses _____ ______ which has 10
syllables per line and five feet per line.
 Some issues when reading Shakespeare
are…
 Some strategies when reading
Shakespeare are…

Assignment

Read Sonnet #

Mark the unstressed and stressed syllables
in each line

Translate each line into Late Modern
English YOU WILL NEED A DICTIONARY
OR THESAURUS
Sonnet
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

It is uncertain whether the state of disgrace referred to in this
sonnet is a real or imaginary one, for we have no external evidence
of a dip in Shakespeare's fortunes which might have contributed to
an attack of melancholy and a subsequent castigation of fate as the
perpetrator. It is tempting to relate works to periods in an author's
life. Certainly the years in which Shakespeare wrote Lear and Timon
of Athens seem not to have been the happiest of times, but it is
almost impossible to correlate particular events in his life, and the
possible emotional crises that they could have produced, with
publication dates, or known dates of production of his plays. The
sorrow quoted here might be more rhetorical than real, being part
of the sonnet tradition, in which many misfortunes contrive to make
the lover unhappy. It also serves to highlight the great joy which
ends the poem, when he thinks once more on his beloved, as in the
psalms, and rises above the clouds.