i. Shakespeare

Meet the Bard!

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the greatest writer to have lived in the English-speaking world. There can be no denying that the quality of his writing is simply brilliant: the complexity of his imagery, the breadth and specificity of his vocabulary, his control of pacing, the nuance inherent in his dialogue, and the universality of the themes he explores all combine to produce pieces of writing which are unparalleled in their beauty and elegance. The depth of his writing means that academics are still picking it apart even today, four hundred years after it was written. Take, for example, this interview with Sir Ian McKellen, one of the most famous current Shakespearean actors (although you might know him better as ‘Gandalf’) explain just a few lines of the play Macbeth:

Don’t worry: you won’t need to know any of Shakespeare’s works in this much detail (at least not yet)! You will be getting just a taste of a Shakespearean play this week. We will be studying this short story which is based upon Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Macbeth (Short story with original dialogue). The dialogue in the story is all taken from Shakespeare’s original play, but the rest has been rewritten in more modern English.

An Insight into Shakespeare’s Influence

Shakespeare isn’t just famous because he used the English language particularly effectively: he is famous because he was one of the principal people who helped to create modern English! The influence that he has had on the development of modern English is simply mind-blowing: