English 9 / Unit 5: Drama and Shakespeare
5.4 Reading Shakespeare's Language
Notes
Early Modern English looks strange at first, but a few patterns unlock it.
| Shakespeare | Modern |
|---|---|
| thou / thee / thy / thine | you / you / your / yours |
| art / hast / doth | are / have / does |
| wherefore | why |
| ere | before |
| anon | soon |
- Noble characters often speak in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. Servants and comic scenes often use prose.
- Shakespeare often flips word order: "Then have my lips the sin that they have took" means "Then my lips have the sin they took."
- Read to the punctuation, not the line end; paraphrase each sentence.
- Example: In Juliet's line "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" she asks why he is Romeo (a Montague), not where he is.
Practice
In "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" the word "wherefore" means:
"Wherefore" means why; Juliet wishes he were not a Montague.
Which is the best modern version of "Thou hast a gentle heart"?
Thou = you, hast = have.
Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called:
Blank verse has meter but no rhyme.
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