When you watch a movie of a Shakespeare play, or a filmed stage version, or listen to an audiobook what do most of the actors have in common? Most are British. Now I have nothing against the UK, but a lack of good Americans doing Shakespeare in the media poses a set of problems for students of Theatre and Shakespeare in the US.

What kind of problems? Life threatening? No. First off, it’s much more inspiring to see people who speak the way you do doing things you want to do. The average American when asked to speak something Shakespearean will put on a bad British accent and give you the few words they know from Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. Seeing nearly only Brits do Shakespeare subliminally into our heads, “Americans can’t do Shakespeare.”

This is of course not true. I remember when I was reading Romeo and Juliet during freshman year of high school, I spoke the text aloud in an English accent because I thought it sounded better. Poor ignorant little me. Americans don’t do Shakespeare because they don’t know how, not because it’s a British thing. Shakespeare wrote in English, we Yanks speak English too. Shakespeare’s language was a predecessor of both modern British and American English. A lack of education about The Bard is the real problem at hand. It’s sort of a vicious circle of not learning, never trying, and then not teaching it. What’s worse is that when Americans put into movies with British actors they look very out of place (i.e., Keanu Reeves in Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing )

There’s not a whole lot that can be done to change the educational system at the moment, so it’s up to individuals to educate people both in and out of school. And maybe more Americans should make Shakespeare movies, audiobooks, and putting on the plays and doing a good job. I’ll do my share when I get the chance. How about you?

“WHAT!?!?!?!” You ask? This is the longest word used in any of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s also the longest word in the English language that alternates consonants and vowels. Some think that it’s a meaningless word based on the context used in the play, but that’s not so!

Honorificabilitudinitatibus (n.) IPA Pronunciation:
the state of being able to achieve honours

COSTARD
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon.
- Love’s Labour’s Lost (V.i)

This word has a lot of baggage. Some have tried to rearrange the letters of what they thought was a made up word to create messages in latin to “prove” that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays. I won’t discuss that too much right now, personally I think it’s just trying too hard to create evidence for what some people want to believe. The facts are that this is plural form of the real medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas.

Now this isn’t a word you can use everyday. This isn’t even a word you need to know the definition of when you hear or read it, any long word could have taken its place, though I thought it’d be fun one to share. Practice reading it for a little while. How long does it take you to be able to pronounce it with ease?

Back to a random selection, because it’s fun.
younker (n.) IPA Pronunciation:
1. young man
2. greenhorn, juvenile

RICHARD
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm’d like a younker prancing to his love!
- Henry VI, Part 3 (II.i)

The meaning seems to be a little derogatory. The literal meaning is #1, a young man but the implied meaning is often one who is inexperienced, foolish, immature.

After quite a few mentions to this topic in the last few posts on The Shakespeare Blog – the first being For Readers’ Eyes Only – I thought I should join in on the discussion and give my three cents.

Everyone is, of course, entitled to their opinion about a piece of art… but those who claim that Shakespeare’s works are not meant to be performed just annoy me. If he wasn’t meant to be performed, I’m obviously not down a good career path!

The fact is that drama was did not have a widespread appeal as reading material until well after Shakespeare. George Bernard Shaw championed that cause to an extent. But until then, plays were written to be performed. Tons of them. Theatre was a very popular forms of visual entertainment in Shakespeare’s time… no TV!

Now one of the arguments brought up against Shakespeare being performed is that “language itself is so complex and rich that physicalization only serves to obfuscate the meaning of the text.” Yes, the language is complex. No, an audience won’t understand everything. BUT the significance of each individual word is of minute importance in relation to the entirety of a whole play. The important part is to understand the story to entertain, and to provoke thought. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to be much more entertained, understand more, and be more apt to think when I see a quality full fledged production of Shakespeare, rather than just reading silently. Yes, there are advantages to reading and studying the text on your own. But is Shakespeare not meant to be performed at all!? I don’t think so. No way.

Now just because we have TV and movies today doesn’t mean that we can put Shakespeare in a book and forget about the stage. Theatre is still a living art form. Shakespeare’s words don’t really LIVE unless they are spoken in performance, as intended.

Do you have any kecksies in your garden? It’s not a word, like the past few that you can use every day… but it’s good to know when you come across this word in a play.

kecksie (n.) IPA Pronunciation: /’keksi/
a type of hollow-stalked plant

BURGUNDY
…nothing teems
But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
- Henry V (V.ii)

You may have noticed that the last few words of the day are from Henry V. My word selection is no longer quite so random. I’m going through the plays and writing down the unusual words that I find interesting to share with you, the gentle reader.

I just came across this link on Shakespeare Geek. Thanks!

This was the funniest thing I heard all day! I love The Onion. Even more now for making a theatre joke.

http://www.theonion.com/content/radio_news/detergent_sponsored_version

This is definitely a word I’m going to start using on a day to day basis where applicable. With all these words of the day that I’m trying to use, one must imagine a conversation with me to be rather colorful. Don’t be disappointed if I prove otherwise.

shog (v.) IPA Pronunciation:
go away, leave, be gone

NYM
Shall we shog?
- Henry V (II.iii)

Also shog off. Now’s your time to shog and use it in a conversation. You will sound so wordly-wise.

Shakespeare is hard enough to understand with the hard grammatical constructions, and difficult vocabulary… so why is it that so many people make it harder for the listener to understand?

I’m sure no one would consciously torture an audience like that but it happens. How? Lack of good diction. In today’s film and tv entertainment dominated society we see actors whispering, mumbling, and speaking in a very conversational fashion that is easily picked up by large microphones and blasted back to the audience on a great big sound system. Even now with microphones being used in theatre, projection isn’t an issue for many. Still, actors seem to get the idea that not all their consonants need to be there. When talking a modern text it’s easier to get away with. But when you’re speaking classical drama – enunciation becomes much more important.

As I mentioned before, there’s enough in the listener’s ear that hinders their understanding. Having good diction is the foundation to telling the story effectively. The audience won’t understand the unfamiliar words some of the time, but you need to make sure they understand the familiar words too!

Shakespeare throws in a lot of lines that are hard to say, or some that make you move your mouth more than you’re used to (ie: Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths… – Richard III, I.i OR The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon – Henry V, III.vi), so be sure to practice speaking! It sounds kind of odd to think that you should practice speaking… it’s something you do every day right? Well, I doubt you have perfect diction. Go on and work on your articulatory ability!