{"id":1176,"date":"2022-07-28T23:51:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T07:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1176"},"modified":"2022-07-28T23:55:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T07:55:15","slug":"of-shakespeare-and-king-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1176","title":{"rendered":"Of Shakespeare and King James"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ok, I give. Not that I have a vote anymore, but I concede that if we are going to continue teaching Shakespeare\u2019s plays to high school kids, we need to provide them with modern English translations. Please understand, though, that this capitulation pierces my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to get a huge buzz whenever a high school student would read, comprehend, and appreciate something that Mr. Shakespeare, whoever he was, said in the original Elizabethan language. And I grieve too, for some of the beautiful phrases that have been corrupted by our modern speech patterns. Two examples: when Hamlet said, \u201cwhat a piece of work is man,\u201d he meant that a man is a magnificent creation. These days, we only use \u201cpiece of work\u201d in the bitterest sarcasm. When Hamlet spoke of a man as being \u201cin apprehension, how like a god,\u201d* he likely meant that man\u2019s capacity for understanding things was almost beyond the mortal ken. Now, of course, \u201capprehension\u201d is something that indicates a possible need for prescription medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And old King James. I am not a religious person these days, but having cut my teeth on the elegant language in his version of the Bible, I can still be moved to tears by some of its passages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider these two biblical passages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid\u201d vs \u201cThen an angel of the Lord appeared to them. A bright light from God shone all around them. That frightened them very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these two from Hamlet:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action. . .\u201d vs, say, \u201chumans are awesome.\u201d (I made that last part up.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, those of us who get a big bang out of phrases like \u201cI assure my good liege, I hold my duty as I hold my soul\u201d might be a vanishing breed. With a somewhat heavy heart, I agree that \u201cBoss, I won\u2019t let you down\u201d can get the same message across to a wider audience. However, if you ever want someone with whom to ponder the relative merit of phrases like \u201cman delights not me,\u201d or to giggle over some five-hundred-year-old jokes, then I\u2019m your huckleberry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*************************************************<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For your further edification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*There has, apparently, been a generations-long scholarly argument about the placement of the commas. English teachers love this stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hamlet what a piece of work is man original language – Bing images<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare’s Original Hamlet Text: Act 2, Scene 2 (nosweatshakespeare.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LUKE CHAPTER 2 KJV (kingjamesbibleonline.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 2 \u2013 EasyEnglish Bible (EASY)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m your huckleberry youtube – Search (bing.com)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, I give. Not that I have a vote anymore, but I concede that if we are going to continue teaching Shakespeare\u2019s plays to high school kids, we need to provide them with modern English translations. Please understand, though, that this capitulation pierces my heart. I used to get a huge buzz whenever a high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[465,464,21,53],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings-about-language-and-life","tag-im-your-huckleberry","tag-king-james","tag-language","tag-shakespeare"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1178,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}