Though Shakespeare’s texts are four hundred years old, the stories they tell are still as exciting and relevant as they were to Shakespeare’s audience. When you pick up of one of the texts, though, you may groan and complain that they are too hard and need translating from Old English into Modern English. However, Shakespeare’s English is actually very similar to the English that we speak today, and in fact isn’t Old English at all! What makes it difficult isn’t the grammar or the vocabulary as much as the fact that it is written in verse, and therefore most of the words, phrases, sentences and speeches have multiple meanings.

In the classification we have made of English language periods Shakespeare fits officially into the ‘modern’ category. His language is what is called Early Modern English. Old English is a completely different thing. Look at the following passage in Old English and try and read it:

‘Fæder ure þuþe eart on heofonum
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us to dæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge ac alys us of yfele soþlice.’

Do you recognise it? If not, try this one:

‘Oure fadir þat art in heuenes halwid be þi name;
yeue to us today oure eche dayes bred.
And lede us not into temptacion but delyuere us from euyl.’

Easier, and perhaps you recognise it now, but only just? Look at the next one:

‘Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters.

You have just seen a long evolution of the English language. The first is Old English and the most famous literary work written in that form is Beowulf . The Old English extract is, of course, taken from the Bible and is part of the Lord’s Prayer.

The second passage is from the Wyclif Bible of 1348, two hundred years before Shakespeare, and it is written in what is called Middle English. The most enduring and famous writer of that time is Chaucer.

The Third is from the King James Authorised Bible and it came out in the same year as The Tempest , in 1611. You have no difficulty with that extract, of course, because it is written in Modern English. You probably find that version of the Bible far easier to read than a Shakespeare text, although the language is the language all English people spoke in Shakespeare’s time. That is because it is not expressed in the concentrated form that poets used. It was conventional to write plays in verse during that time, so you would have the same difficulty with almost all of Shakespeare’s fellow playwrights.

6 replies
  1. Rachel
    Rachel says:

    This was really helpful because I’ve been wanting to know more about Shakespeare since I am reading “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in my PreAP Language Art class (and I can actually understand what it says), and I’ve been trying to speak in the same way. :)

  2. Jökullsmum
    Jökullsmum says:

    Cant believe how many words are similar to icelandic in the old english text (because old english and old norse are close in many ways and icelandic has hardly changed). Its strange to believe that this language im trying so hard to learn now is so similar to what they used to speak in my own country. Thanks for the post. very informative.

    • Crossleydd42
      Crossleydd42 says:

      Could the similarity be, in part, to the Viking raids which bedevilled England from 703 to around 1066? Many settled in England and would have influenced the indigenous language.


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