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.
...
Just Early Modern English showing its Germanic roots.
The romantics loved Milton too, though
Of course it's not correct, but it's not hard to understand what's said at all.
Some, yes. Blake comes to mind. But for the German Romantics (and their Anglo-American acolytes like Carlyle and Emerson), Shakespeare's "genius" was contrasted with Milton's "talent"
horatio is describing the countenance of the king. think of hamlet saying this:
>what, he looked [as if he were frowning]?
shakespeare inverts "he" and "look'd" to create imo a more fluid sentence, if a little difficult to understance in a modern context.
inversion is everywhere in poetry. think of this example from dylan thomas:
>The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
>Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
>Is my destroyer.
not the most grammatically desirable sentence, but in verse, and more generally, in literature, inversion creates fluidity and grace.
You're a brainlet for not knowing that Shakespeare was keen on fucking around with the English language to suit his needs and part of the reason that's a good line is because he's using "improper" English to transmit an idea clearly.
You are an absolute moron and so is everyone else in this thread.
The sentence is grammatically correct. It isn't "low-class" grammar and it isn't garbled to fit some user's imaginary meter.
>makes no sense in terms of tense
Apparently you don't even know what tense means.
Using "to do" to form questions is idiomatic. It's not required by the rules of English grammar at all.
Since you are a monolingual dumbass you don't realize that the sentence you posted in the OP is exactly how that same thought would be expressed in modern German.
don't read poetry
It's called hyperbaton, you mongrels. It's like none of you are aware that Latin syntax greatly influenced Renaissance writers. Read your Horace.
>does Shakespeare have terrible grammar sometimes?
Terrible, no. Improper, yes.
Shakespeare delighted in fucking around with language and speech patterns. He invented hundreds of words, many of which are still used today.
There are only a handful of records of him signing his name, and he spells it differently nearly every time. This is a guy that (rightly) knew that the written word/sentence is irrelevant as long as it has meaning
He wrote in Modern English you idiot