Say Hwaet?

Shakespeare did not write in Old English.

Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English. Yes, Shakespeare is modern. In fact, the proper term for the Renaissance is “Early Modern,” because there were lots and lots of renaissances over the course of several centuries.

A renaissance is a “rebirth” of classical knowledge. It means that people are suddenly really interested in what the Romans and Greeks were doing, the local monasteries clean up their act like frat boys the night before Moms’ Weekend, and everyone starts using Latin a lot more.

The Renaissance hit its height in the 16^th century, but arguably spanned from the 14^th all the way to the 17^th century. To distinguish this über-renaissance from the rest of the renaissances, historians refer to this period as Early Modern.

So if Shakespeare is Early Modern, what constitutes Old English?

Let me give you a visual ... and an audio. If you click the link below each passage, it will take you to a YouTube video where you can hear the words pronounced. (Trust me, you’ll want to do this—Middle English may look normal-ish, but it sure doesn’t sound like it.)

4^th to 11^th century: Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon

hƿæt ƿe ȝardena in ȝeardaȝum,

þeodcyninȝa, þrym ȝefrunon,

hu ða æþelinȝas ellen fremedon.

oft scyld scefinȝ sceaþena

þreatum, moneȝum mæȝþum, meodosetla ofteah,

eȝsode eorlas. syððan ærest ƿearð

feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre ȝebad,

ƿeox under ƿolcnum, ƿeorðmyndum þah,

oðþæt him æȝhƿylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,

ȝomban ȝyldan. þæt ƿæs ȝod cyninȝ.

Beowulf--opening lines

*Just to clarify, the ȝ and ƿ should blend in size-wise with the rest of the text, but unfortunately, there is no Unicode for these runes, so I had to copy-paste pictures of them into the text, rather than be able to type them or insert them as symbols.

11^th to early 15^th century: Middle English

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The drought of March hath perced to the roote

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

So priketh hem Nature in hir corages;

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

Chaucer's "Prologue" to the Canterbury Tales

Late 15^th to 17^th century: Early Modern English

To be thus, is nothing, but to be ſafely thus:

Our feares in Banquo ſtick deep,

And in his Royaltie of Nature reigns that

Which would be fear’d. ’Tis much he dares,

And to that dauntleſs temper of his Minde,

He hath a Wiſdom, that doth Guide his Valour,

To aƈt in ſafety. There is none but he

Whoſe being I do fear, and under him

My Genius is rebuked, as it is said

Mark Anthonies was by Ceſars.

Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act III scene i

By the way, yes, that’s Ian McKellan. Judy Dench plays Lady Macbeth in the same Royal Shakespeare Company production.

The majority of my studies this year will involve me reading Middle English, but next semester, I will also be taking a course on learning how to read and understand Old English. As to that Shakespeare stuff—that’s way too modern for me. ;)