According to the Telegraph, an Australian expert well grounded in the contextual history of Shakespeare's time claims a recent shocker that many famous phrases credited to him might have been so attributed without solid basis outside the bard's fame. Dr David Mclnnis of the University of Melbourne claims that “[Shakespeare’s] words were mostly in circulation already or were logical combinations of pre-existing concepts”. His argument makes sense, for otherwise the concurrent audience of Shakespeare’s time would not have been able to understand never mind appreciate his plays in the first place. The revelation is not to accuse the playwright of plagiarizing—absolutely not. From personal conviction and textual investigation, I have always believed …show more content…
It appears to Mclnnis that the OED holds over 33,000 Shakespearean quotations of which 1,500 are concluded as original invention and 7,500 as original usage or meaning. However, recent evidence from the Australian expert encourages us to second doubt the point of reference we have taken for granted with a series of examples traceable to earlier works. Mclnnis dissents from the OED on a few contentions, including the inappropriate attribution that “a wild goose chase” first appeared in Romeo and Juliet. Per his findings, the phrase was used “at least six times” in the English poet Gervase Markham’s book about horsemanship published in 1593. That “eaten me out of house and home” sprang from Henry IV Part 2 was also invalidated by an earlier proof from 1578 now given access through a digital resource bank. Last but not least, the famous “tis Greek to me” from Julius Caesar predates Shakespeare in Robert Greene’s The Scottish History Of James The Fourth, where a lord pleaded a lady to love him at which request she replied “Tis Greek to me, my Lord”. That being said, the above does not exclude phrases that Shakespeare did genuinely make up
7. John Wisdom, Paradox and Discovery (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1969), p. ix.
Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Dublin: University of Oxford, 1710. Print.
Donnellan, Keith S. (July 1966). "Reference and Definite Descriptions". The Philosophical Review (The Philosophical Review, Vol. 75, No. 3) 75 (3): 281–304. doi:10.2307/2183143. JSTOR 2183143
Hamlet’s quote from his famous soliloquy “To be, or not to be?” (3.1.56) has been included in thousands of even the most unlikely modern media pieces. Sesame Street dedicated an entire segment of the show to the phrase to teach children the letter B (Soliloquy on B). Faber-Castell cleverly broadcasted the quote to sell pencils (Faber-Castell). It has even been used in the beginning of a Beyoncé song (Knowles). Shakespeare’s timeless works are often presumed to be affiliated with high culture, but if Shakespeare supposedly wrote such high-brow literature, then why are the works often quoted in low-brow modern media such as The Simpsons, Star Trek, and every other romance novel? Some artworks are heavily based on Hamlet, such as the Lion King.
By using just the right combination of words, or by coming up with just the right image, Shakespeare wrote many passages and entire plays that were so powerful, moving, tragic, comedic, and romantic that many are still being memorized and performed today, almost four centuries later. But the greatness of Shakespeare’s ability lies not so much in the basic themes of his works but in the creativity he used to write these stories of love, power, greed, discrimination, hatred, and tragedy.
Friar Lawrence is a humble and holy who is respected by the other characters. Figurative language and dramatic conventions give a well-grounded understanding of his motives, traits and values. His main motive is peace between the families he “All I had wanted to achieve was peace.” As a friar he respects the Montague’s and Capulet’s. The quote represents his motive that he wanted the feuding to stop. When he married Romeo and Juliet he wished for more then their happiness. He hoped that the marriage would bring families together. When witnessing the deaths he says in sorrow, “I’m a friar holy and peaceful.” “Oh lord the poor deaths that lie in front of me. Are due to my greed to resolve the feud.” The term friar represents his traits, being
Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. 1710. Ed. Kenneth Winkler. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1982.
When asking someone how much they value friendship and what friendship means to them, you may find that nobody will give you the same answer. Some may say that friendship is one of the most valuable relationships in life and that this should mean life or death. Other may think that simple arguments are worth losing long term relationships and friendship is something to be taken lightly. Shakespeare tackles the theme of friendship in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet by using figurative language, diction, and characterization.
Shakespeare’s ability to mold the English language into eloquently written poetry gave him the ability to affect the language as he did. Hundreds of clichés that are used daily by English speakers were invented in Shakespeare’s writings. Few people are aware, but expressions such as “dead as a doornail” (Henry IV, Part II) or “something wicked this way comes” (Macbeth) can both be accredited to Shakespeare. In The Story of English, Bernard Levin writes that “if [the reader] cannot understand my argument, and [declares] ‘It's Greek to me’, you are quoting Shakespeare” (McCrum, Cran, MacNeil 99). Levin is simply reminding the reader that much of common English speech can be traced back to idioms used in Shakespeare’s writing. Shakespeare even took the liberty to invent words of his own, supposedly inventing over one thousand commonly used words. Shakespeare was able to create words in multiple ways, including changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and coming up with words that were completely original (pathguy.com). Shakespearian words include “assassination” and even “obscene” (McCrum, Cran, MacNeil 99), and other such words that are used by English speakers daily. Although a number of writers have used the English language to their advantage, no writer has taken the language to the level that Shakespeare was able to do.
One of the main catalysts in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' is powerful, uncontrollable emotions; love, hate, wrath, infatuation, and outrage are all apparent in the play and have a direct impact on the tragic events that unfold. In act one, scene two, the strongest emotions conveyed are those of despair, love and sincerity. Shakespeare uses imagery, figurative language and powerful vocabulary to convey these emotions to the audience.
Generally, when people think of Shakespeare, they tend to associate him with old English and plays like Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet. They wrongly disassociate him from modern English terms used by youth. People inaccurately think Shakespearean English and modern English are two very different things. However, Shakespeare authored a number of today’s catchphrases. Countless people quote Shakespeare without realizing! While many people know that William Shakespeare’s way with words rose high above his peers’, few recognize that Shakespeare devised several of today’s popular phrases, including, “it is all Greek to me”, “break the ice”, and “too much of a good thing”.
Stumpf, Samuel Enoch, and James Fieser. The Origin of All Our Ideas in Experience. 1690.Philosophy: History and Problems. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. 197. Print.
Fieser, James, and Norman Lillegard. "7." A Historical Introduction to Philosophy: Texts and Interactive Guides. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. 339. Print.
Shakespeare has written vulgar, comical, hateful, abominable and cruel insults that his audience can enjoy and relate to. Shakespeare’s insults were usually hidden in a cleverly produced fashion. People today say if Shakespeare had not evolved and demonstrated such an abundant amount of literature he mastered, he wouldn’t have had much of an impact on the English language or works of literature today.
Shakespeare got much recognition in his own time, but in the 17th century, poets and authors began to consider him as the supreme dramatist and poet of all times of the English language. In fact, even today, no one can match his works or perform as well as he did. No other plays have been performed as many times as Shakespeare’s. Several critics of theatre try to focus on the language of Shakespeare and to take out excerpts from the literary text and make it their own resulting in various persons, poets, authors, psychoanalysts, psychologists and philosophers.