Shakespeare’s punctuation Shakespeare’s words:

Shakespeare’s Punctuation

Shakespeare wrote his plays using prose, blank verse and rhymed verse. Therefore, the script of a Shakespearean play looks quite like a poem in places and very different to a modern play script. When you are reading a Shakespeare play, you need to get into the habit of looking at the punctuation, not the line break (where the sentence jumps down onto the next line). Just because a line finishes and the text moves to the next line, this does not mean that the sentence has ended. How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me? How lines look in the script How lines should be read PERFORMING Go to your activity book and complete the oral language tasks on reading Shakespeare’s punctuation (see pages 113–114). ACT IVITY Shakespeare’s Words Inventions If Shakespeare could not find the exact word he was looking for, he often invented words himself. In fact, Shakespeare was the most productive inventor of words for the English language in the history of the world, ever. There are 422 words in the Oxford English Dictionary that Shakespeare invented. So, how did he do this? Turn the page to find descriptions of the different techniques Shakespeare used to invent words.©The Educational Company of Ireland

Joining two words together

Modern examples

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Shakespearean example 1

arch-villain By joining these two words, Shakespeare made the description more extreme than just ‘villain’.

‘You that way and you this, but two in company; / Each man apart, all single and alone, / Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.’ – Timon Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene I

Shakespearean example 2

cold-blooded By joining the words ‘cold’ and ‘blooded’ together, Shakespeare created an image of a person that is cruel and unfeeling.

‘Thou cold-blooded slave, hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend upon thy stars, thy fortune and thy strength?’ – Constance King John, Act III, Scene I

Adding prefixes or suffixes Modern examples

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Shakespearean example 1

uncomfortable By adding the prefix ‘un’ to the word ‘comfortable’, Shakespeare created an opposite.

‘Uncomfortable time, why camest thou now / To murder, murder our solemnity?’ – Capulet Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V

Shakespearean example 2

fashionable By adding the suffix ‘able’ to the word ‘fashion’, Shakespeare created a useful adjective for everything that is popular or approved of in today’s world.

‘For time is like a fashionable host that slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, and with his arms outstretch’d, as he would fly, grasps the comer: welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing.’ – Ulysses Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene III©The Educational Company of Ireland

Changing nouns into verbs

Modern examples

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Shakespearean example 1

elbow By changing the noun ‘elbow’ into a verb, Shakespeare created a new way to hurt someone. Would it be possible to use a decorative photo here to fill the space available? –– Design ‘A sovereign shame so elbows him…’ – Kent King Lear, Act IV, Scene IV

Shakespearean example 2

champion By changing the noun ‘champion’ to a verb, Shakespeare created a new way to express that you supported or defended a person or a cause.

‘Rather than so, come fate into the list. / And champion me to the utterance!’ – Macbeth Macbeth, Act III, Scene I

Coining a new word Modern examples

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Shakespearean example 1

swaggered Swaggered comes from the word ‘swag’, meaning ‘to sway from side to side’.

‘An’t please your Majesty, a rascal that swaggered with me last night…’ – Williams Henry V, Act IV, Scene VII

Shakespearean example 2

manager The root of the word – the Latin ‘manus’ – means ‘hand’. So to be a manager is to have a hand in something, or to control something.

‘Where is our usual manager of mirth?’ – Theseus A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene I©The Educational Company of Ireland

ACT IVITY READING

Go to your activity book and complete the invented words task (see page 115).

WRITING

1 Find out three other words that Shakespeare invented. Look for the line and play they appeared in. Can you figure out what technique Shakespeare used to invent the word? 2 New words or invented words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary every year. Research three words that were added to the dictionary last year and try to work out how or why they were made up: oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com 3 Invent your own words! Try using one of Shakespeare’s word invention techniques to create new words for the following things:

An abnormally large fruit or vegetable An older person incapable of using any form of technology A person addicted to using their phone

A breed of hairless rabbit A car that uses rubbish as fuel

A naughty toddler who is always running off PERFORMING Get into a group of four and act out an interview improvisation scenario. The interview is for a job as a teacher in a secondary school. There is a board of interviewers and an interviewee. The interviewee tries to sound smart by inventing words in the middle of the interview and the interviewers react. Take some time to think about your character before you begin. If you are the interviewee, what words might you make up to impress the board? If you are on the interview board, are you the principal? The deputy principal? A subject teacher? Do you ask difficult questions or easy questions? Do you appear cold and frosty or warm and kind? ©The Educational Company of Ireland