4 ms·
I actually like the Elizabethan English in Shakespeare, but it's good to have a text with footnotes that explain some things. One thing we miss in modern times
by rootbear 4y ago
I actually like the Elizabethan English in Shakespeare, but it's good to have a text with footnotes that explain some things. One thing we miss in modern times is a lot of Shakespeare's puns. The words he punned on have shifted in pronunciation such that the word play is no longer clear. For example, one play had a pun on raisin and reason, which were pronounced similarly in Shakespeare's day. Some are bawdy puns, such as hour vs. whore. Some groups are putting on productions of his plays in reconstructed "OP" (Original Pronunciation) and I hope to hear one some day.
- NickRandom 4y agoIndeed. Hence the Nunnery reference I made. That one (being of school age at the time) made me chuckle
- I_complete_me 4y agoReasons vs raisins caught my interest. I read somewhere that the accent of Shakespeare's time was somewhat closer to what the Irish accent is/was than it is to RP (Received Pronunciation) and I have often heard "reason" spoken as a homophone of "raisin". Indeed a colleague of mine used to say "there are reasons for everything and raisins for cake" when he heard someone using one or t'other. Shakespeare punning on reasons/raisins (in the Irish accent sense) is not all that amazing when one considers that the avon in Stratford on Avon is related to the word abhainn or river in Irish. Ofc, I could be completely wrong about this.