Sunday, February 16, 2014

What's That He Said?

It is day 16 of the Third Second Annual 30 Minus 2 Days of Writing challenge hosted by Nicky and Mike at We Work for Cheese and today's prompt is Shakespearean English.  Put on your best English accent and join us for a Shakespeare festival.

Hamlet anyone?

"I ask to be or not to be, that is the question."  What kind of question is that?  Either you are or you're not.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."  It's the Cheese!

"The rest, is silence."  Well that's [yawn] boring.

"Remember me."  Remember you...I don't know you.

"A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm."  What?  Now you're just trying to confuse me.

Even Gilligan got into Shakespeare.




Three Little Pigs - Shakespearean Style!

Here we look at how a simple children's story might have been written in Shakespeare's time, as told by John Branyan. It's a tad long, but it's worth it.  


10 comments:

  1. They liked to drink a lot back then I think...and since nothing was written, they could write anything they wanted and never had to worry someone already came up with it. Those were the days!

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  2. "They liked to drink a lot back then I think..."

    Judging by the number of posts and comments alluding to the indulgent use of alcoholic beverages, I would say not much hath changed.

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  3. I studied Shakespeare when I majored in English a very long time ago in university. I also studied Chaucer. If you think Shakespeare's language was odd try reading anything by Mr. Chaucer.

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  4. Frank Lee MeiDere2/16/2014 04:04:00 PM

    A quick guide to the Four Stages of English.

    (1) "What the -- that's not English" -- Old English (Beowulf).

    (2) "Uh, I recognise a word or two, but they're sure spelled funny" -- Middle English (Chaucer).

    (3) "Okay, I can read each word, but does the writer have to be so long-winded?" - Shakespearian English

    (4) "What the -- that's not English!" -- Text Speak.

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  5. HA HA HA I started to copy and paste my favorite so I could comment on it. I copied.. then kept reading, then copied, then kept reading. So basically ALL are my favorites... they made me laugh out loud!

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  6. Oh heck, Linda. I just don't get the appeal.

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  7. nonamedufus- I'll have to check that out!

    Frank- English comes full circle.

    Katherine- Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed them.

    Linda- "This above all: to thine own self be true"

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  8. Hi Linda - that was fun and I loved reading the comments.

    I can't believe we only 3,000 working words now and Shakespeare had 54,000 .. I expect that's a spoof too ... but fun to listen to - cheers Hilary

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  9. That was really fun to read..and that says a lot for me to find fun in Shakespeare.

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  10. Hilary- I have no idea how many words are in my working vocabulary.

    Cheryl- I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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