This essay first considers how Shakespeare and his works impacted the English Language, exploring Middle English through to Modern English. Focusing on the Early Modern English period in which Shakespeare wrote his world-renowned plays. I decided to research Shakespeare due to his phenomenal popularity and reputation as one of the world’s most influenceable writers, as D. H. Lawrence states “When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language.” (2013). Although having studied Shakespeare briefly I never did a close analysis; therefore, I began researching contextual factors that influenced his writing. I discovered the fascinating history of origin to the words he used and created, not realising just how many are used in the modern-day language.
Shakespeare was born into a middle-class family in 1564, social status had a very big impact during the 15th and 16th century, your class dictated your career and the ability to move upwards in the class system was very rarely seen during this period. Due to his social class, Shakespeare was well educated, and it is reported that “The boys increased their vocabulary, became aware of synonyms, and discovered different ways of expressing the same idea.” (Pogue 2012) This aided his ability to write and gave him an advantage as it is estimated that 95% of the population were lower class and illiterate.
The Renaissance was a period of re birth for Europe. From the 14th century Europe had no war, the upper class were flourishing, and this equated to a mass of art, music and literature being produced from all over Europe. When Queen Elizabeth 1st came to the throne in 1533, this period became known as the ‘Golden Ages’ in which Shakespeare was born, this era supported the production of plays and literature making a theatre trip a popular option for all classes. Queen Elizabeth enjoyed theatre so much that in 1595 the company of Shakespeare and Burbage was called to play at court three times (Harbage 1941), a private performance for the royals.
In 1440 the Gutenberg press was invented, this aided in the mass distribution of literature, allowing ideas to be re produced easily and more widely read. This resulted in a shortage of Latin and Greek based writings and increased vernacular languages such as English, as people wanted to read what they already knew. As this occurred just a century before Shakespeare’s birth, this would have helped Shakespeare to re produce his plays to a wider range of audiences and suggests why he was one of the first to write down many English words.
Before Shakespeare the middle English language was predominantly Norman French and Anglo Saxon following the Norman invasion in 1066, French was the official language of the courts and disputes were settled in French. John Gower a famous poet and writer published a piece called ‘Confessio amantis, Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz’ in 1390, a French written poem in a collection of French, Latin and English pieces.
Middle English would have been like a foreign language to the people of Shakespeare’s era, for example words such as ‘light’ meaning called and ‘eyne’ meaning eyes would have been considered archaic by 15th century people, some words go back to medieval English. These can be seen in Le Morte D’Arthur, written in 1485 an example of high-quality literature written in late middle English. In addition to the changing language The Great Vowel shift occurred between 1350-1600, making it incredibly hard to read pieces written before or during this period. Vowels moved up in the sound system, being pronounced higher up in the mouth, therefor people learning the new vowel system would struggle to pronounce the old vowels in the correct way.
It is often not realised just how many words Shakespeare coined that are still used in the modern day. Ben Johnson noted that Shakespeare was ‘not of an age, but for all time.’ (Cited in The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 1970) although, it is believed Shakespeare did not create all the neologisms that are first found in his pieces, that these could have been common words, but he was the first to publish them. Shakespeare re-created a lot of his words by changing the word class, add prefixes and suffixes and turning verbs to adjectives. The word ‘scuffle’ from his play Antony and Cleopatra originally stood as a verb, he writes ‘which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst’ (Shakespeare 1623) using the word as a noun, which is how we use it in the modern language. In addition, Shakespeare would not only change the class but take several words and combine them, in Timon of Athens he states ‘yet an arch-villain keeps him company’ (1623) Shakespeare added the prefix ‘arch’ meaning the more extreme version, he added this to the already known word ‘villain’ to emphasise the worst of them all.
Although Shakespeare created some words, they are not all used with the meaning he intended. In Romeo and Juliet (1597) He adds the prefix ‘un’ to ‘uncomfortable’ a common word used in the modern language, but in Romeo and Juliet he uses it to mourn Juliet stating ‘Despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d!- uncomfortable time!’(1873). This infers a deeper more emotional state of pain and grieving, whereas now it is used to describe a small pain or slight discomfort.
The change in meaning could be due to pronunciation, also an idea that David Crystal explores called ‘False Friends’ where we see a word either in English or a foreign language that looks like a word we are familiar with and assume it holds this meaning. In the comedy ‘As you like it’ (1603) Shakespeare describes the Duke as ‘Humorous’, we assume that this is the modern meaning to make laugh so question why a bad person is described as funny, but Shakespeare intended this to mean moody and temperamental.
Another problem with false friends is the use of foreign languages, During the renaissance foreign painters travelled to England to paint the rich and in addition trade was very high, so Shakespeare along with his good education, would have been introduced to many foreign languages. He takes these influences and uses them in some of his pieces, but as not everyone could speak another language these were often misinterpreted. Shakespeare uses the word ‘demander’ from French meaning to ask, whereas a lot of people associate this word with ‘demand’ and misread the sentence.
A lot of words in modern English have a French or Latin origin due to the languages taught at the time, Shakespeare uses for the first time ‘Impossible’ in Much ado about nothing.
With the ‘im’ originating from Latin, and English ‘possible’ with Old French he creates the word ‘impossible’, using it to describe a very difficult thing to do or attempt.
In addition to using words with an alternative origin, Shakespeare wrote large parts of some of his plays in French. Although, people have commented on the quality of French as J. M. Maguin states that he “presents the French language in a ridiculous light,” (J. M. Maguin cited in David Steinsaltz, 2002) This is seen in Henry V as they say to the captain ‘suivez-vous le grand capitaine’ (1599). Although people can interpret what he infers, Shakespeare means to state, ‘follow the great captain’ whereas the sentence he writes should be followed with a question mark, as putting the pronoun ‘suivez’ first he poses ‘do you follow the great captain’. whereas in French to correctly write this sentence the verb ‘vous’ should be placed first, reading ‘Vous-suivez le grand captaine’. Shakespeare included French in a lot of his plays, and even coined the word ‘Francoyes’ meaning a French man, thought to have come from the term French.
In addition to alternating between French and English in his plays, Shakespeare also included a lot of Greek mythology. This would have been a highly read topic during the 16th century as Greek was one of the main languages taught. Some words that Shakespeare included in his plays that are of Greek origin are still used today. The noun ‘Nymph’ refers to a natural spirit shaped like a beautiful young lady, still used in modern English to discuss Greek Mythology.
• To conclude I believe that without the impact of Shakespeare’s writings, we would have half of the vocabulary we have in modern English. Shakespeare not only coined new words but gave us context to every day words. Although some have changed meanings to adapt to the times, we still use words every day that if it was not for Shakespeare, we would struggle to describe the world around us. Our language incorporates not only English but other origins such as French and Latin due to his higher education and knowledge. Our language today would consist of many more French words if it was not for Shakespeare, as before him works were published in French and this was the dominant Language. Shakespeare created words that without these perhaps we would have no word for this meaning, for example by combining words we get ‘arch-villain’ this was not an essential word to the English language, but with his additions we can create better pictures and refine our ideas. As Orson Welles states “Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.” Shakespeare not only wrote down existing words within context but created new words for which we did not even know we needed.