Shakespeare’s+language

= **// The Language of William Shakespeare //** =

By: Nolan H
The attribute that made William Shakespeare great was his command of language. When Shakespeare was writing, there were no dictionaries for him to study. Because of this, he had to know the definition for every single word that he wrote. He had a very strong vocabulary which only expanded with each passing day. Shakespeare is also well known for his advanced use of figurative language. First time readers can sometimes find it difficult to understand the meaning portrayed behind his words because of his extreme use of metaphors, similes, alliteration, and personification. Shakespeare, also used iambic pentameter in almost all of his writng. Iambic pentameter is when a piece of literature includes five sets of syllables per line. The syllable sets begin unstressed and then become stressed. In order to keep the iambic pentameter, shakespeare used accents to change the pronunciation of different words. He also changed around words so that they would fit his meter. Also, all of Shakespeare's sonnets had fourteen lines and concluded with a rhyming couplet. In addition, Shakespeare had a very large vocabulary many scholars agree that his vocabulary was around 30,000 words, and he used every bit of it when he felt that he needed to. Shakespeare also invented quite a few words, including //anchovy// and //zany,// and in addition to inventing many words, Shakespeare also used old words in new ways. Plus, Shakespeare used a variety of words, a list of the words and phrases that appeared in Shakespeare's plays could stretch on for pages. Many other words and phrases that Shakespeare liked, even though they were invented by others, Shakespeare heard them, liked them, and then used them in many of his plays. In conclusion, William Shakespeare influenced the English language more than any other individual. He coined new words and phrases, used old words in new ways, and helped shape the language that we speak today.

__Examples of Shakespeare's language from__ http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~lam37/romeo_juliet/page3.htm:

My love as deep; the more I give to thee The more I have, for both are infinite. (//Romeo and Juliet//) || #2) "My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease" (//Sonnet CXLVII//) || (//Hamlet//) || #4) ". . . And summer's lease hath all too short a date, Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd, . . . Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade," (//Sonnet XVIII//) || (//Romeo and Juliet//) ||^  || (//Romeo and Juliet//) || #7) "Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; " (//A Midsummer Night's Dream//) || (//A Midsummer Night's Dream//) || #9) "I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, " (//A Midsummer Night's Dream//) || Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell." (//MacBeth//) ||
 * #1) "My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
 * #3) "But that the dread of something after death,The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns,"
 * #5) "Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops."
 * #6) “Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty…That unsubstantial Death is amorous, and that the lean abhorred monster keeps thee here in dark to be his paramour?”
 * #8) "Where at, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast."
 * #10) "I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Ten everyday phrases from Shakespeare
( from http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/Appreciating-Shakespeare-s-Influential-Language.id-1149,subcat-LANGUAGE.html)

//Miranda.// How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in 't! (//The Tempest// 5.1.183–84) //Troilus.// When many times the captive Grecian falls Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, You bid them rise, and live. //Hector.// O, 'tis fair play. (//Troilus and Cressida// 5.3.40–43) //Iago.// Nay, this was but his dream. //Othello.// But this denoted a foregone conclusion. (//Othello// 3.3.429–30) //Gloucester.// Good my friends, consider; you are my guests. Do me no foul play, friends. (//King Lear// 3.7.30–31) //Prospero.// Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air. (//The Tempest// 4.1.148–50) //Casca.// But those that understood him smil'd at one another, and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. (//Julius Caesar// 1.2.278–80) //Marullus.// Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have sat The livelong day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. (//Julius Caesar// 1.1.38–43) //Macduff.// Did you say all? — O Hell-kite! — All? What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell swoop? (//Macbeth// 4.3.217–19) //Falstaff.// And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies; and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. (//Merry Wives of Windsor// 5.5.122–27) //Rosalind.// Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come sister, you shall be the priest and marry us. (//As You Like It// 4.1.116–18)
 * **Brave New World**
 * **Fair Play**
 * **Foregone Conclusion**
 * **Foul Play**
 * **Into Thin Air**
 * **It Was Greek to Me**
 * **The Livelong Day**
 * **One Fell Swoop**
 * **Rhyme and Reason**
 * **Too Much of a Good Thing**

Sources: http://www.bardweb.net/language.html http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=937 http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kermode-language.html