Shakespearian Grammar

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Shakespearian GrammarPuns
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Shakespeares writing can be difficult to read
and understand because of -archaic words and
verbs-allusions we are unfamiliar with-unusual
sentence structure/word order
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Archaic words and verbs tenses

• Using thou, thee, and thine
• -Means you, ye, and yours
• Look at the archaic words handout

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Present and past tense verbs

• To be
• -thou art
• -thou wert
• To have
• -thou hast
• -thou hadst
• To do
• -thou dost
• -thou didst

• To allow
• Thou mayst
• notice the endings
• -est and st

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Sentence Structure and Word Order

• Current word order often follows the pattern
• Subject Verb Object
• Dogs do smell fear.
• Shakespearian word order can be any order.
• Fear dost dogs smell.
• Smell fear dost dogs.
• Dogs dost smell fear.

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Translating Shakespeare

• Read from punctuation piece to punctuation so you
  can translate manageable parts
• Look at the context of the sentence
• Complete the Translating Shakespeare Worksheet

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Puns

• Humorous use of a word that suggests 2 or more
  meanings sometimes used to create deliberate
  confusion or for rhetorical effect
• Usually used as a homonym (when 2 words sound the
  same but are spelled differently like soul and
  sole)
• OR
• if a word has more than one meaning like grave
  (serious or a burial place)
• Walter Redfern (in Puns, Blackwell, London, 1984)
  succinctly said
• "To pun is to treat homonyms as synonyms."

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Sum Puns

• I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger.
  Then it hit me.
• There was a sign on the lawn at a drug re-hab
  center that said 'Keep off the Grass'.
• He drove his expensive car into a tree and found
  out how the Mercedes bends.
• See Handout on PUNS

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(No Transcript)
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Shakespeare Puns
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Romeo and Juliet (Act I scene IV)Mercutio Nay,
gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.Romeo
Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoesWith
nimble soles I have a soul of leadSo stakes me
to the ground I cannot move.Context Romeo is
reluctant to attend a party because he is
suffering from a broken heart.