1 / 10

Latin and Shakespeare

Latin and Shakespeare. Lesson XXIII Linguistics 1010 March 30, 2005. Life of Shakespeare. Lived 1564-1616 Attended the King’s New School, Stratford-upon-Avon Tudor curriculum limited to Latin, Greek, math

dianne
Download Presentation

Latin and Shakespeare

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Latin and Shakespeare Lesson XXIII Linguistics 1010 March 30, 2005

  2. Life of Shakespeare • Lived 1564-1616 • Attended the King’s New School, Stratford-upon-Avon • Tudor curriculum limited to Latin, Greek, math • Shakespeare used a state-mandated Latin grammar, Lily’s A Short Introduction of Grammar (1540)

  3. Life of Shakespeare • Shakespeare refers both the Lily grammar and his Latin teacher, Thomas Jenkins, in Merry Wives of Windsor: Sir Thomas Evans: What is lapis, William? William Page: A stone. Evans: And what is ‘a stone’, William? William: A pebble. Evans: No, it is lapis... William:Lapis. Evans: That is a good William. What is he, William, that does lend articles? William: Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be thus declined, Singulariter nominativo, hic, haec, hoc... Evans: What is your genitive case plural, William ? William: Genitive case? Evans: Ay. William: Genitive: horum, harum, horum. (Act 4, Scene 1)

  4. Life of Shakespeare • Wrote 36 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 narrative poems • Member of The King’s Men, which owned its own theater, the Globe Theater, south of the Thames in London. • Drew on Latin sources: Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus, Antony & Cleopatra • Influenced by the works of Plautus (d. 184 BC), e.g., Comedy of Errors • Summary chart: Shakespeare’s life • Shakespeare quiz

  5. Shakespeare’s Use of Latin • Classes at the King Edward VI Grammar School were conducted exclusively in Latin. • Fluent in Latin, Shakespeare naturally used Latinate words with deference to their original meanings. • Thou, sapient sir, sit here. —Lear to the Fool, King Lear (Act II, Scene 6)

  6. Skepticism about Shakespeare’s Authorship • The works are too learned to have been produced by someone without a university education. • Shakespeare had training in classical literature, rhetoric, and oratory that was adequate for the composition of the works. • The plays show too much knowledge of foreign countries and aristocratic manners to have been written by middle-class, provincial writer.

  7. Skepticism about Shakespeare’s Authorship • This underestimates the social mobility of the period. • Local records in his lifetime do not identify him as a writer. • This is true but irrelevant. There was no reason why legal officials in Stratford should mention what he did in London. • Authors’ dedications indicate Shakespeare’s status as a literary figure.

  8. Shakespeare’s Latinate Vocabulary • My powers are crescent. • That they have overborne their continents. • The fortitude of the place is best known to you. • Whose white investments figure innocence. • …and of the truth herein this present object made probation. • As knots…infect the sound pine and divert his grain tortive and errant from his course of growth.

  9. Shakespeare’s Latinate Vocabulary • Abate the edge of traitors…that would reduce these bloody days again. • Cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks. • The presence of the king disanimates his enemies. • What to this was sequent Thou know’st already. • Tying her duty, beauty, wit and fortunes in an extravagant and wheeling stranger of here and every where. • Exercise I Lesson 24 (pp. 133-134)

  10. New Bases in Lesson 23 • No New Suffixes since Lesson XXI! • CORD • FLECT, FLEX • MAN(U) • PORT • STRU, STRUCT • TERMIN • VINC, VICT

More Related