Confused about grading vs. authenticating

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Posted By: MW

Julie –

Anyone can "read" Shakespeare without a dictionary, but to understand him is something completely different. I don't need to confer with a Berkeley graduate to know that! Besides, if he (your son) has an argument on this matter, I'd really like to hear it. Sure, I could tell you that I just checked with a friend who teaches at Harvard or my former Shakespearean Literature professor and they both think you're nuts, but without a valid reason or line of argumentation, that rationale wears a bit thin

Your attempt to advance the argument that the language used by Shakespeare is "modern" and different than that used by Chaucer is misleading. First, Chaucer wrote in a completely different time period. Second, they had completely different styles. Also, I'd like to refer you to the following written by Harvard Professor and noted Shakespearean authority, Harry Levin (The Riverside Shakespeare 1974):

"But, though it is our great good fortune to have inherited the tongue of Shakespeare, we cannot claim that this is the dialect we speak and hear.... In any case, the primary source of confusion for the modern reader is not the rare or archaic term, which can be looked up as readily as the learned allusion, but terms which look familiar and sound strange because their meanings have shifted. Thus, when Shakespeare speaks of 'conceit,' he does not mean vanity, as we might; adhering to etymology more closely than we do, he means a conception or notion, or possibly the imagination itself."

"To understand the difference between Shakespeare's English and ours, we must allow for the process of semantic change, which has been continually eroding or encrusting his original meaning. For example, he uses the old word anon for 'right away,' whereas in our minds it has slowed down to mean 'by and by.'"

"On the other hand, fellow, which has friendly overtones for us, was insulting in Shakespeare's day. Phrases that were metaphors to him have often lost their coloring with us: since we seldom play the game of bowls, we overlook the concrete implications of 'There’s the rub' (an impediment on the green) or 'assays of bias' (a weight on the ball)."

Julie –- to deny the fact that Shakespeare used or borrowed much from the Middle English Language is to completely ignore some of his most famous works. Sure, because of Shakespeare's uniqueness, one could also argue that Shakespeare belonged in an "English class" of his own, but to say that Shakespeare is "Modern English" just isn't correct. Again, I repeat my original contention: "methinks" is a Middle English word and was used by Gertrude in "Hamlet."

Finally, let's not mislead everyone about Gertrude. Gertrude is indeed a character in "Hamlet" (Queen of Denmark and mother to Hamlet). Whether or not she has a "soliloquy" in the play is irrelevant, for she has 73 different speaking opportunities and she DOES utter the following, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." (Act III, Scene ii)