Net54baseball.com Forums - Confused about grading vs. authenticating

Posted By: MWJulie –- Your "black and white" statements such as "Shakespeare is not Middle English, but Elizabethan English" or "Chaucer is Middle English" or "Shakespeare is modern English, not Middle English" are not only contradictory, they just aren't accurate. To frame an entire word with an apposition tends to obscure important facts and trivialize the English language. Imagine if one were to say, "The 1933 Goudey set IS pre-war baseball" or "Graded cards ARE crap." It just wouldn't be accurate (unless you are referring to "certain" grading companies). Sure, there are some collectors who "love" 1933 Goudeys and detest slabbed cards, but by making such generalizations, one tends to ignore other important information and exclude everything but his or her point of view. I have never claimed that "Shakespeare" IS of a particular style of language. What I HAVE written, however, is that "Middle English" can be seen throughout his works. "Methinks" is one example, "bedew" (Henry VI), "withal" (Richard III), "hildings" (Romeo and Juliet), "alack" (King Lear), "furlong" (The Tempest), "depute" (Othello), "damask" (Twelfth Night), and "jowl" (All's Well That Ends Well) are other examples. In fact, there are thousands of words and literary devices used in Shakespeare's works that have "Middle English" origins or etymologies. Of course, Shakespeare did also use words such as "a", "and", and "the" as well as "to", "if", and "with." Obviously, these are still words we use today, but don't forget that even many of THESE words have Middle English etymologies (i.e., "a", "and" and "the" are from the end of the 11th century). Don't forget that words had to come from somewhere. They didn't invent themselves and Shakespeare, although a literary genius, didn't invent them all either. Where else would Shakespeare have gained his vocabularly? Talk radio? Perhaps it would surprise you to learn that Shakespeare, as a youth, studied Chaucer extensively and later used some of these literary devices in his plays and sonnets. Let's not rewrite the history of the English language, Julie <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>