Read Shakespeare

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO READ A SHAKESPEARE PLAY?

Shakespeare is a playwright few people attempt to read in the original for two obvious reasons. First of all, reading a play meant for the theatre is as weird as reading a movie’s screenplay – there is no comfort of the author supporting your reading by varying highly dramatic scenes with serene nature descriptions and alternating dialogue with thought-provoking reflections on a myriad of things. You have to strain ‘to see other people’s minds through the medium to events’ (George Santayana) and through the medium of their speech.

Let us take a conversation between Don Pedro, the Prince of Aragon, and Leonato, the Duke of Messina, from ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ as an example.

DON PEDRO Good Signor Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

LEONATO Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your grace, for, trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.

DON PEDRO You embrace your charge too willingly.

Is Don Pedro a man of a philosophical bent or is he someone with a tendency to ironize?

Is Don Pedro mistrustful, suspicious of others?

Is Leonato being sincere or is he merely fawning over Don Pedro?

The reader has to decide it for themselves as there are no helpful hints from the author.

Another challenge particularly true of Shakespeare’s plays is the language, which is sometimes referred to as Elizabethan English because it was the English spoken in the 16th century. The first thing that catches the modern reader’s eye and the one that is easiest to get the hang of is outdated grammar.

Let us read how Claudio, a young man in love with the beautiful Hero, asks his friend Benedick what he thinks about her in Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing.

CLAUDIO Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell me truly how thou lik'st her.

BENEDICK Would you buy her that you inquire after her?

CLAUDIO Can the world buy such a jewel?

It is surprising for the mordern reader that the two friends use different pronouns for addressing each other – Claudio uses ‘thou’ [ðaʊ] and ‘thee’ [ðiː] and Benedick ‘you’. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) English has lost a very convenient way of signalling personal attitude and the type of relationships between people. In Shakesperean time it was possible to come up with four different sentences.

1. You (subject of the sentence) think I am in sport. \ Thou (subject) thinkest I am in sport.

2. I pray you (object) tell me truly… \ I pray thee (object) tell me truly…

YOU both as the subject and the object of the sentence was polite and formal. Children used it to talk to parents to show respect and aristocrats used it to talk to each other to be demonstratively polite and well-mannered.

THOU (as the subject)\ THEE (as the object) was a more democratic pronoun and implied either warmth and intimacy or anger and contempt. Aristocrats used it to talk to those beneath them and common people used it to talk to each other. But, paradoxically, elevated poetic style also made use of THOU\THEE – that’s why one of the most famous lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets goes like this: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

What can we now infer from Claudio’s request ‘I pray thee tell me truly how thou lik'st her’ and Benedick’s answer: Would you buy her that you inquire after her?

We might say that Claudio uses a friendly, informal and winning tone because he is truly concerned about Benedick’s opinion of Hero. Benedick is somewhat distant though he remains polite.

Have some practice with THOU and THEE. Rewrite sentences 1-5 in modern English.

Example: Where thou art, that is home. (Emily Dickinson) – Where you are, that is home.

1. O earth, what changes hast thou seen! (Alfred Tennyson)

2. When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them. (Plato)

3. Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art. (Miguel De Cervantes)

4৳৳. Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant. (Socrates)

5. Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee. (William Penn)

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If you want to learn more about Shakespeare’s language and Shakespeare’s plays, wait for our upcoming posts.