Have you ever noticed that when you look at shakespear's writing, it has flowery words and meaning, and it was said that the avarage American today was ten to fifteen times more literate than the common man back then.

So why isin't our autors as "flowery" as shakespear?

Because we dont care... Its not in style. Theres no use... It seems to me that things are gravitating from long drawn out in depth novels to short, general action stories... like chapter summaries.

Yeah, Shakespeare lived about 400 years ago, don't forget. Things have moved on so much it is unreal. Poets and authors have no need to express themselves like that. Language itself is very different now than it was back then.

We are doing Hamlet at the minute in English Class, and I can tell you not one person in my large class can understand a single word of it, and we are all Grammar Students, lol!

Shakespeare was supposedly gay, and I absolutely hate stereotyping, but even the way he wrote was rather camp, no offence whatsoever to gay people, I love gay people. Apparently, all his poems were for men.

Only the wealthy people in those days got a good education, and he was not that wealthy. He was so well spoken and excellent at English because his mother had a huge passion for reading, and passed it on to her children, encouraging them to read as much as possible. So that is where he got his talent from.

Really, most people today can't be bothered.

I agree with Stellar and Star child on this. The written word has changed a lot and its meaning and mechanics.

And I'm sure it would be a challenge to write in the words of Shakespeare. You'd have to live up to the expectations of other Shakespeare experts.

And you would have to be enriched in a shakespearian culture to write like him right? I mean, without ever hearing of shakespear, or any other writer like him, would you write like Them, or write like the million dime store romance/action/horrer novels?

Has anyone noticed how similar modern day soaps and dramas are just like Shakespeares plays?
Loads of murders, banned lovers, twists to the story etc? He was an amazing poet and play writer, but all those really annoying TV shows just totally rip off all his work, by repeating the same stupid things over and over, and we end up not appreciating his work as much, as we are so familiar with those stupid shows.

Wow, your right! they have some cheesy twist and a comatose patient... and it does look like a classic play.

And why do high schools repeat the same plays over and over, and never make up thier own? I have been to seven schools, and I always did 'a mid-summer nights dream' or others, and never once did I do one that was origional.

lol. I'm a member of the Drama Group in my school, but I have never got to do a play, as I was too young for the last one . It is really stupid, we only have a play every four years or something, and juniors were not allowed to participate. I didn't go to see it, as people said it sucked. It was called 'The Snob' or something, I don't know who wrote it.

Thats horrible, but that name sounds .... neat. I was in a play, I don't remember the name but I was "The Wise Tree" And I kept forgetting my lines... Pretty wise huh?

Literacy doesn't equate to spoken language.

How many people in the world are illiterate and yet speak english fluently.
Shakespear wrote in the language of the time. A mix of the Courtly and the Common. Somewhat like his audiences If there wasn't a word for what he was trying to express or a word that didn't fit into the flow of the dialogue he would often invent one.

Language changes.Look at the difference between the common slang of the 60's in comparison to now and thats just 40 years!

Wizard! lol, had to say that. I use a lot of weird words, and my friends find it hilarious. I just say stuff like rad, awesome, narco and totally, which is weird coming from a wee Irish Chick, lol.

I agree, but why isin't anybody inventing words to put into stories today? I remember the rime of the ancient mariner, with "Swound" Appearing at least five times.

Shakespeare's Influence


The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. Below is a list of a few of the words Shakespeare coined, hyperlinked to the play and scene from which it comes. When the word appears in multiple plays, the link will take you to the play in which it first appears.


academe accused addiction advertising amazement
arouse assassination backing bandit bedroom
beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained
barefaced blushing bet bump buzzer
caked cater champion circumstantial cold-blooded
compromise courtship countless critic dauntless
dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged
dwindle epileptic equivocal elbow excitement
exposure eyeball fashionable fixture flawed
frugal generous gloomy gossip green-eyed
gust hint hobnob hurried impede
impartial invulnerable jaded label lackluster
laughable lonely lower luggage lustrous
madcap majestic marketable metamorphize mimic
monumental moonbeam mountaineer negotiate noiseless
obscene obsequiously ode olympian outbreak
panders pedant premeditated puking radiance
rant remorseless savagery scuffle secure
skim milk submerge summit swagger torture
tranquil undress unreal varied vaulting
worthless zany


If you are looking for more words invented by Shakespeare be sure to read the wonderful book Coined By Shakespeare by Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Mallessone. Each entry in the book comes with a history of the word.

Shakespeare also invented many of the most-used expressions in our language. Bernard Levin skillfully summarizes Shakespeare's impact in the following passage from The Story of English:

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare. (Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986).

One of my favourite Shakespeare quotes is "Alas, poor Yorick!". I said it once while holding a little skull. It means nothing to me, but it makes me laugh.

Because the Man was a genius!!!!!

Seriously.Thats a good point! I'm sure some authors are but the words never become common place.
Perhaps the fact that there are so many authors in comparision to Shakepeares's era when choice was limited they don't get the mass exposure.Only a small following.

Aha! Wow, thats a cool word too "Aha" but I think that with the number of todays writers, there would be at least a few who would invent a word that would become commonplace in everyday speech. But what word.. to what definition?

One word


"DOH!"

How many times have you heard that? Enough to know where it originates from.
See shakespeares plays were the "simpsons" of their time (please excuse the comparison)
The plays were seen often enough by enough people due to travelling companies of actors for words to creep into the every day speach.All over Europe.

If a word or phrase is repeated enough,or appeals to enough people it becomes part of the laungage.

There was until recently a Ex football manager turned commentator called Ron Atkinson working on British tv.
He came up with the extra ordinary phrase "Early Doors" Which in itself is nonsense but everyone knew what he was getting at. he meant To accomplish something as soon as possible.
It's crept into everyday language.