BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: mrdux
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 04:27 PM

Susan --

The '30's version of "Treasure Island" had Wallace Beery (born in Kansas City) playing Long John Silver. You may be thinking of Robert Newton (from the the town of Shaftesbury in Dorset) who played Long John Silver with that amazing accent in "Treasure Island" in the early '50s (and also in the sequel "Long John Silver," and the TV show "The Adventures of LJS").

michael

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 04:28 PM

When faced by accents or unaccustomed speech in plays or films, I think that, like McGrath, most of us comprehend what is meant, even though some words and phrases pass us by.
I am afraid that attempts at 'Elizabethan' accents would only decrease my comprehension.
One thing I hate in American TV (and increasingly in English, etc.) is the laugh track. I can understand that outward laughter by someone at a Shakespeare performance, not scripted for pauses for audience interaction, would be annoying.

I do not object to accent or colloquial language as such; I have been enjoying the Scottish TV series "Taggert" on cd. It would lose its impact if produced in standard English.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 04:45 PM

I think North Americans at least would find Shakespeare in "Elizabethan" accent easier to understand. I (a North American) often find that it takes all my concentration just to make out what words are being said when they're being declaimed in an exaggerated, hammed up RP accent ...

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 05:08 PM

? Exaggerated, hammed-up language always is deplorable except when used intentionally in parody.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 05:34 PM

Iambic pentameters can just about be made to work, with an extremely disciplined approach. But its tough, and it defeats actors who haven't been trained specifically to do this.

Shakespearian realism is poetic realism - rather the realism aimed at by method actors. the poetry has to be performed - and then the imagery and occasionally (if you're lucky) the meaning emerge.

If you piss about with this very demanding art form, you will only subtract from it.

this summer I saw an enormously talented group of american actors at the swan in stratford tackle love labours lost. in the production - parallels were drawn between the Beatles spititual quest with the Maharishi and the central triumvirate of characters forswearing of sex, and taking oath of celibacy.

It was an interesting conceit and it was performed with great energy, however the lines were often gabbled in the attempt to get on to the next bit of entertaining 'business'. Shakespeare is about the words:- their clarity, the imposed rhythm, the imagery which illustrates character and situation.

If you want to piss about with something using ridiculous accents - piss about with folksongs, where most of us are past caring about the fact that nobody the length and breadth of england communicates in such grotesque perversions of our language.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: CapriUni
Date: 28 Dec 06 - 04:40 PM

From Bill Haun: Interestingly, there is a place here in the U S---Smith's Island where the native people speak in Elizabethian dialect still.   It is off the coast of Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay area. Written up in National Geographic many years ago.

It's also said that they speak with Shakespeare's accent on Tangier Island, off the coast of Virginia (also in the Chesapeake bay). The reason is that the settlers to these islands did indeed come from Shakespeare's neighborhood at the time that Shakespeare was alive (we're celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 2007; Shakespeare was near the peak of his craft in 1607), and, being islands, the accents and turns of phrase were preserved (though mass television radio broadcasts are now diluting it).

So, I guess you really could say that Shakespeare spoke with an "American accent" (if you visit the right niches of America).

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Dec 06 - 04:34 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare plays in Elizabethan English
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Dec 06 - 04:51 PM

CapriUni--Also consider the "Hoi Toider" Dialect of the Carolina Barrier Reef--read the article and you'll see that none of this business is as clear cut as some claimed-