Am I just a brainlet or does Shakespeare have terrible grammar sometimes?
>What, look'd he frowningly?
An example in Hamlet. If we translate to Modern English, it's "what, looked he frowningly?" which makes no sense in terms of tense. Shouldn't it be "Was he frowning?" or "Did he look frowningly at you?"
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What?
post'd he baitingly
I am a firm believer that the only reason anyone should learn grammar is to know the rules to break.
>Am I just a brainlet
Yes
The sentence I gave makes no sense grammatically. You can understand it easily enough, but it's ill-formed.
Shakespeare wrote for the lower classes so basically nobody gave a fuck about grammar. It's close to thinking 2pac and Nas were speaking perfect English when they are breaking grammar rules because that's how their audience speaks.
If 2pac had wrote a song using perfect grammar, his fans would have got confused. Same with this.
Well, he wrote in verse, so sometimes he had to manipulate sentences to fit the meter.
This is pretty much true actually. It was the Romantics who helped established the reputation of Shakespeare's plays. They liked Shakespeare precisely because he was not as polished as some of his contemporaries, like Jonson and little later, Milton.
Early Modern English is a different language any many ways.
Check out this seminar. In the first half the lecturer explains some of the differences between our English and the English you might find in the KJV (youtube.com
Its even pronounced differently and with its own in-jokes you don't find in Modern English. Here is the same lecturer demonstrating what it sounds like in the original language (youtube.com
Besides, you know whats its saying. cut the guy a break.