Features of Elizabethan English
Queen Elizabeth I was ruler of England from 1558-1603
The English language has changed a lot since the 1500 and 1600s when William Shakespeare was writing. This is part of what makes his plays so challenging to read. This is a guide to some of the conventions of Shakespeare's time.
Odd possessives: (“its” did not exist as possessive):
Various (very creative!) oaths and swear phrases:
Double negatives intensify rather than cancel each other out
General things to remember:
Below is a clip from "The History of English in Ten Minutes." It shows the part of our language's history that was influenced by Shakespeare. It's a little silly, but I think it gives you an idea of how influential he was as a writer. And, it shows you that though our language has changed a lot since Shakespeare, we still use some of his words and phrases.
Odd possessives: (“its” did not exist as possessive):
- “his” or “it” used in place of “its” (“it lifted up it head”)
- “his” used as possessive following noun (“the king his crown")
- “he is without” (“without” = outside)
- “deliver me of this evil” (“of” = from)
- “I am glad on’t” (“on’t” = of it)
- “withal” (an emphatic form: means something like “a lot”)
- “anon” (means “right away” rather than “in a minute”)
- “clown” (means generally a rustic, an uneducated laborer)
- “sirrah” (pronounced SEER-uh, a pejorative form of address to an inferior male)
Various (very creative!) oaths and swear phrases:
- “marry” (literally, “by the Virgin Mary”) – mild oath
- “‘zounds” (literally, “by God’s wounds”) – blasphemy
- “‘steeth” and “‘sblood” (by God’s teeth; by God’s blood) – blasphemy
- ’a instead of “he”— “what quoth ’a?”
- ’twere (“it were”) —“ as ’twere”
- i’ (“in”) — “too much i’ th’ sun”
- verbs are often simply omitted (“let’s to home”)
- inverted syntax (“go you to home?” instead of “are you going home?”)
- –eth and –s endings both appear for third person singular verbs — could use either (“he goeth” OR “he goes”) or both in the same sentence!
Double negatives intensify rather than cancel each other out
General things to remember:
- all punctuation and spelling in your book are modern editors’ work, for a modern reader’s ease in reading. Shakespeare’s age had no conventions of punctuation, spelling, or grammar (these were inventions of the 18th century).
- pronunciation in Shakespeare’s day was different from modern British (for example, “nature,” “feature,”and “father” all rhymed with “fatter”).
Below is a clip from "The History of English in Ten Minutes." It shows the part of our language's history that was influenced by Shakespeare. It's a little silly, but I think it gives you an idea of how influential he was as a writer. And, it shows you that though our language has changed a lot since Shakespeare, we still use some of his words and phrases.