Shakespeare's Original Language (CD) by Ben Crystal
My rating:
Literature & LanguageI've studied, read, and watched a lot of Shakespeare over the years. Certainly enough to have noticed that some lines don't quite rhyme or scan properly in modern British pronunciation. So I was fascinated to get my hands on this recording and hear a reconstruction of Shakespearean language.
There's a nice selection here, from romantic sonnets tlo rousing battle speeches, all carefully pronounced as (academics think) Shakespeare would have done. It's not dramatically far removed from modern English, but different enough in places that I had to concentrate to pick out the meaning. Actually, it would have been nice if the sleeve notes had included the words, to make it easier to follow along.
A fun and informative recording, definitely worth a listen for language addicts and theatre fans.
2 comments:
Interesting. Being an American, this would probably be at once a little more useful and a little harder to follow.
Many people forget that Shakespeare wrote to the masses. He used comedy and some crude humor to draw in the crowds. The whole internationalization of the his plays, I think, takes away the magic (imagine intellectualizing James Cameron movies to that same degree).
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