Online Shakespeare Course: Shakespeare After All with Harvard Faculty

What Shakespeare Sounded Like to Shakespeare: Reconstructing the Bard’s Original Pronunciation What did Shakespeare’s English sound like to Shakespeare? To his audience? And how can we know such a thing as the phonetic character of the language spoken 400 years ago? Shakespeare’s English is called by scholars Early Modern English (not, as many students say, “Old English,” an entirely different, and much older language). 1. 2. 3. Not everyone agrees on what Shakespeare's OP might have sounded like. You can hear an example of this kind of OP in the recording from Romeo and Juliet above. Whatever the conjecture, scholars tend to use the same set of criteria David Crystal outlines. If there's something about this accent, rather than it being difficult or more difficult for people to understand ... it has flecks of nearly every regional U.K. For more on this subject, don't miss this related post: Hear What Hamlet, Richard III & King Lear Sounded Like in Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation. Follow Open Culture on Facebook and Twitter and share intelligent media with your friends.

William Shakespeare Biography William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Synopsis William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Mysterious Origins Known throughout the world, the works of William Shakespeare have been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years. Early Life Though no birth records exist, church records indicate that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Located 103 miles west of London, during Shakespeare's time Stratford-upon-Avon was a market town bisected with a country road and the River Avon. Scant records exist of William's childhood, and virtually none regarding his education. Married Life William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Theatrical Beginnings Establishing Himself Writing Style Early Works: Histories and Comedies

Early Modern English Prior to and following the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603 the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. Modern readers of English are generally able to understand texts written in the late phase of the Early Modern English period (e.g. the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare), while texts from the earlier phase (such as Le Morte d'Arthur) may present more difficulties. The Early Modern English of the early 17th century forms the base of the grammatical and orthographical conventions that survive in Modern English. History[edit] English Renaissance[edit] Transition from Middle English[edit] The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing; it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English. Tudor period (1485–1603), English Renaissance Henry VIII[edit] Elizabethan English[edit] Elizabethan era (1558–1603)

Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre - Download free content from Oxford University