How would we have spoken in Shakesperian Times

[malumbu]

The first of three film/TV related threads. Do indulge me.

I watched the film loosely based on Shakespeare's later life on Sat - All is True

The one thing that got me was the accents. Shakespeare was fairly neutral as was his youngest daughter. The eldest one and his wife (Judy Dench being about 30 years too old...) had some sort of folkie accent, loosely south west/Steeleye Span. I know that if I went back to the West Midlands 150 years ago there would be a familiar accent to today's ears, but 400 years earlier in Warwickshire would I recognise it?

The second point was they used the long vowels- parth rather than path, grarse rather than grass. Which would have been wrong at that time, certainly in the midlands. I looked on Wiki at the great vowel shift, thinking that would inform me, but it just confused me. Although it did seem to explain why in the South many would have spoken like the Queen, BBC circa 1950 or a Harry Enfield sketch.

[RichH]

Something between "Late Middle" and "Early Modern" English I'd suspect.

Lots of spoken examples available on Ye Olde Tube of You :)

[Spartacus]

Shakespeare was a cockney init, he built 'is t'eater on the banks of old father and I suspect Romeo and Juliet went

"Romeo Romeo where the bleeding 'eck is ya, get up me apples and get in me Uncle with your Hampton cos I'm gagging for it."

But one could be wrong couldn't one !

[DuncanW]

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, and lived there into early adulthood.

Is that what you think we sound like?

[Spartacus]

DuncanW Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, and lived

> there into early adulthood.

>

> Is that what you think we sound like?

🤔 it's the lounge Duncan, anything goes including bending the truth / fiction 😆

[DuncanW]

Is that limited to the Lounge? :)

[Spartacus]

Sadly , not always 😭

[JohnL]

Like Americans I heard once - can't be true.

[malumbu]

Just a bit of fun. But really interested if Shakespeare's accent would have been remotely like Duncan's.

[RichH]

DuncanW who posted here, or Duncan from Macbeth?

Probably neither.

[first mate]

[holloway]

I watched that film, I thought Sir Ian McKellen looked like a Cocker spaniel. Not a terrible film.

[skylorikeet]

Yes, what First Mate says. David Crystal and his son Ben have done a lot of research into how Shakespeare's plays would have been spoken (Original Pronunciation as it's known). Here is Ben with a Hamlet soliloquy:

edited for clarity