Through complicated references to Cupid and his arrows and to Hercules (a mythological figure prominent both for his massive strength and for his helplessness when trapped by love), it also builds a world in which warfare and romantic love are intricately intertwined. Through military language- action (i.e., military engagement), sort (i.e., rank), and sworn brother (i.e., brother-in-arms)-it places itself in time, just at the end of a war. Much Ado About Nothing, for example, through references to Messina, Venice, and Padua, to “thick-pleached alleys” and “orchards,” creates a location on a wealthy estate in Italy. Some words are strange not because of the “static” introduced by changes in language over the past centuries but because these are words that Shakespeare is using to build a dramatic world that has its own geography and history and background mythology. In the opening scenes of Much Ado, for example, the word tax has the meaning of “take to task, criticize,” stomach is used where we would say “appetite,” halting where we would say “limping,” sad where we would say “serious,” and winded where we would say “sounded, blown.” Such words, too, will become familiar as you continue to read Shakespeare’s language. In Much Ado About Nothing, as in all of Shakespeare’s writing, more problematic are the words that we still use but that we use with a different meaning. Words of this kind will become familiar the more of Shakespeare’s plays you read. In the opening scenes of Much Ado About Nothing, for example, you will find the words squarer (i.e., fighter, quarreler), methinks (it seems to me), recheat (the notes of a hunting horn), baldrick (a belt for holding bugles, swords, etc.), and arras (a hanging screen of rich tapestry fabric). Some are unfamiliar simply because we no longer use them. Shakespeare’s WordsĪs you begin to read the opening scenes of a play by Shakespeare, you may notice occasional unfamiliar words. When we are reading on our own, we must do what each actor does: go over the lines (often with a dictionary close at hand) until the puzzles are solved and the lines yield up their poetry and the characters speak in words and phrases that are, suddenly, rewarding and wonderfully memorable. In the theater, most of these difficulties are solved for us by actors who study the language and articulate it for us so that the essential meaning is heard-or, when combined with stage action, is at least felt. Most of his vocabulary is still in use, but a few of his words are no longer used, and many of his words now have meanings quite different from those they had in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. More than four hundred years of “static”-caused by changes in language and in life-intervene between his speaking and our hearing. And even those skilled in reading unusual sentence structures may have occasional trouble with Shakespeare’s words. Others, however, need to develop the skills of untangling unusual sentence structures and of recognizing and understanding poetic compressions, omissions, and wordplay. Those who have studied Latin (or even French or German or Spanish) and those who are used to reading poetry will have little difficulty understanding the language of poetic drama. For many people today, reading Shakespeare’s language can be a problem-but it is a problem that can be solved.
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