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2025 - Introduction to Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Language

Evolution of Language and The Play

Learning Targets

  • Today I will play with the language of Shakespeare and begin learning about the characters & themes in Much Ado About Nothing.
  • So that I can:
    • Learn about Old English, Middle English, and Modern English (Shakespeare’s English!)
    • Anticipate character interactions and themes in Much Ado About Nothing. 
  • I'll know I'm successful when I can explain why Shakespeare’s language is so tricky, share details regarding the evolution of the English language, and begin thinking about the themes in Much Ado About Nothing. 

Evolution of Language

 

Old English, Middle English, and Modern English

Directions: As you learn about Shakespeare's language through the presentation, please ask questions and take note of new information. 

Old English - Beowulf

Hwæt! We Gardena         in geardagum, 
þeodcyninga,         þrym gefrunon, 
hu ða æþelingas         ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing         sceaþena þreatum, 
monegum mægþum,         meodosetla ofteah, 
egsode eorlas.         Syððan ærest wearð 
feasceaft funden,         he þæs frofre gebad, 
weox under wolcnum,         weorðmyndum þah, 
oðþæt him æghwylc         þara ymbsittendra 
ofer hronrade         hyran scolde, 
gomban gyldan.         þæt wæs god cyning! 
ðæm eafera wæs         æfter cenned, 
geong in geardum,         þone god sende 
folce to frofre;         fyrenðearfe ongeat 

Middle English: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

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; 
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth 
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, 
And smale foweles maken melodye, 
That slepen al the nyght with open ye 
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages); 
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, 
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, 
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; 
And specially from every shires ende 
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, 
The hooly blisful martir for to seke, 
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke. 

Modern English: William Shakespeare's Sonnets & Plays

Directions:
  • Read the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet, linked below, as a class. What do you notice? 
  • If the language below is considered "modern English", then why is Shakespeare so difficult to understand? Complete the activity as a class. 

Shakespeare's Prologue to Romeo and Juliet

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-crossed lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love

And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

Which, but their children’s end, naught 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.