I gather Shakespeare will be celebrating his birthday soon. Congratulations, old boy! (Really old boy…Really dead old boy.)
I confess I’m not his biggest fan. We studied his plays every year in high school English. I knew, in the very first lesson, that I was in for a long, hard road. The man wrote in English but we still needed an interpreter. Our teacher would analyse practically every… single…line. The characters talked in a weird way; a sort of hybrid between poetry and normal speech. The only times I didn’t mind Shakespeare’s work was when we saw film versions of his plays. (Taming of the Shrew , Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet were the standouts.) I always did extremely well in English (the only subject I got As in every year) but I did so by keeping my aversion to the bard a dark secret.
Now I’m older I’ve come to realise that studying Shakespeare so intensely for five years has had a lasting effect on me. His stories, his phrases, his view of the world, have sunk down into my subconscious like lemon syrup seeping into a tea cake.
I recently saw a small collection of some of the phrases Shakespeare invented. Here are a few: good riddance; seen better days; what’s done is done; vanish into thin air; with baited breath; a wild goose chase; to lie low; love is blind; off with his head; in a pickle, and knock, knock, who’s there. And, there are plenty more!
What did people say before Shakespeare invented ‘off with his head’?
‘Remove that man’s cranium’?
‘May his head and shoulders be permanently separated’?
‘Say goodbye to your feet’?
It really says something about a person’s talent, when they have contributed so many new expressions to the language. What is more, it’s been nearly 500 years and most of them are still in use! Sadly, I do think, with texting and people’s appalling lack of understanding of grammar and spelling, many of those phrases are soon to become extinct. But, hey, what a great innings! Every writer I know would give their eye-teeth (did Will think up that one, too?) to have such a lasting effect on the language, and for their works to remain popular and influential for centuries.
So, I guess I’m a fan after all. (But, I’d still rather see the movie than read the play.) Happy birthday, Will.
PS: In response to last week’s post about my regular spammers I received 67 spam comments. Hahahaaaaaa
However,
I realised the same thing about the movie ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ the other night… lol. Funny what sticks eh? Was 67 spammers a record?
Robin Williams/William Shakespeare… Maybe there’s something about the name: William. And, no, I think the record was something like 150. 🙂
Of course you would rather see Shakespeare performed than read it. It’s drama. It’s a play. Educators don’t seem to get that. We should all say to teachers:
Don’t make people just read it, Thou mangled earth-vexing scullian!
Which is the other thing Shakespeare gave us. Really good insults.
The action and visual clues in the films (and stage performance) certainly helped my understanding but for quite a long time it felt as if I was watching a foreign film. Olde English has a cadence, a rhythm, that is different to modern speech. One has to fine-tune one’s listening to pick things up. I find the same difficulty with some English TV shows. The accent is so thick and the rhythm is so fast, if I don’t concentrate I don’t understand what they’re saying. As for the insults: in my experience the only person who has come close to Will for excellent insults is Paul Keating.
Thanks for letting us know of all the sayings Shakespeare created. I never realized how often I quote shakespeare. How edificated am I???
And to think – they’re just a small sample!
Either they changed the language (which I doubt – coz it was the Globe Theatre Company), but when Cal and I saw Henry V, we really understood it. It was not done in the stuck up, snobbish style, but rather in an engaging and comedy style. Gotta see at least one more show before we leave England.
I’m sure my perceptions as a young person was tainted by the poncey/arty-farty productions I was forced to watch. Lucky you, getting to see the real deal.