Shakespeare's influence

William Shakespeare's influence extends from theatre to literature to the English language itself. Widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist, Shakespeare transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Shakespeare's writings have also influenced a large number of notable novelists and poets over the years, including Herman Melville and Charles Dickens. Finally, Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the history of the English-speaking world and many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages.

The Changing Status of the English Language

The sixteenth century saw the establishment of English as a respectable language alongside French and Latin. Prior to this, legal matters in England were conducted in French, Latin had been used to write history, philosophy and theology, and for the most part writers did not write in their native tongue. The English language had second class-status: the untutored spoke it, while French had been established as the language of the educated after the Normans conquered Britain beginning in 1066. Three hundred years later, English was the linguistic stepchild. English was thought of as being crude and unstable for scholastic purposes, and it was argued that the vocabulary was too limited and the grammatical structure was too simple for the sophisticated user.

The rise of the literary phenomenon was primarily influenced by the printing press. Until the end of the fifteenth century, the majority of oral communication was conducted in English, whereas the majority of written communication was done in Latin. The mass production and widespread distribution of books tipped the scales in favor of the vernacular. As more people began to read, writers noticed that English had become a practical means of reaching the public. A rise of nationalism also contributed to the rise of the vernacular. As England ascended as a force in European politics, first with Henry VIII and then with Elizabeth I, educators and writers began to associate the English language with English values and national pride. A need to change the structure and vocabulary of the language began to arise.

Changes in English at the time

Early Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux. When William Shakespeare began writing his plays, the English language was rapidly absorbing words from other cultures due to wars, exploration, diplomacy, and colonization. By the age of Elizabeth, English had become widely used with the expansion of philosophy, theology and physical sciences, but many writers lacked the vocabulary to express such ideas. To accommodate, writers such as Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare expressed new ideas and distinctions by inventing, borrowing or adopting a word or a phrase from another language, known as neologizing. From nouns, verbs and modifiers of Latin and Greek and other modern Romance languages, it is estimated that between the years of 1500 and 1659 30,000 new words were added to the English language.

Words used by Shakespeare

In all his plays, Shakespeare reveals his interest for the evolving ideas, words and literary traditions of his time. It is widely assumed that Shakespeare himself introduced more words into English than all the other writers of his time combined, over 1,700 by some estimates. However, calculating the number of words Shakespeare coined is difficult. First, one must define the meaning of coinage. Should variations of existing words or existing words to which he gave new meaning be counted? Should one consider compound words? Also, one must take into account that a word might be considered of Shakespearean origins only because his works have been more thoroughly scrutinized than others of his time. A word might also have existed in oral communication long before Shakespeare set it to paper.

Shakespeare’s own contribution to the expansion of the English language was noticed as early as 1598, when commentator Francis Meres, applauding English literature in relation to the classics, placed Shakespeare among the writers who had dignified the language. Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, critics and scholars began to doubt whether Shakespeare had a significant effect on the expansion of English vocabulary. This is mainly based on the neoclassical image of him as a poor Latinist. In the early twentieth century, there was an overreaction to this, so that one critic credited William Shakespeare with having coined nearly 10,000 words.

Although it is often difficult, if not often impossible, to determine the true origin of a word, for many words, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) lists a quotation from Shakespeare as its earliest example. However, proceeding from this to the conclusion that Shakespeare invented the words or additional senses is dubious at best. The editors of the OED did not search through every surviving text for every word to find the earliest quotation. Not only would this be an impossible task before the digitization of all surviving texts, but they were interested in quotations that were illustrative of the word's meaning. Furthermore, in their reading programme, they explicitly instructed their volunteer readers to search in the Elizabethan period for words not in the concordance to Shakespeare. The earliest citations in the OED by Shakespeare should not be taken as earliest usages but rather as examples of editorial bias. Further information can be found in the following sources: Lexicography and the OED edited by Lynda Mugglestone, Documentation in the OED by Jürgen Schäfer, and Empire of Words by John Willinsky.

Influence on theatre

Shakespeare's works have been a major influence on subsequent theatre. Not only did Shakespeare create some of the most admired plays in Western literature (with Macbeth, Hamlet and King Lear being ranked among the world's greatest plays), he also transformed English theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization, plot, language, and genre. Specifically, in plays like Hamlet, Shakespeare "integrated characterization with plot," such that if the main character was different in any way, the plot would be totally changed. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare mixed tragedy and comedy together to create a new romantic tragedy genre (previous to Shakespeare, romance had not been considered a worthy topic for tragedy). Through his soliloquies, Shakespeare showed how plays could explore a character's inner motivations and conflict (up until Shakespeare, soliloquies were often used by playwrights to "introduce (characters), convey information, provide an exposition or reveal plans").

Characters

Shakespeare's plays portrayed a wide variety of emotions. His plays exhibited "spectacular violence, with loose and episodic plotting, and with mingling of comedy with tragedy". In King Lear, Shakespeare had deliberately brought together two plots of different origins. His closeness to human nature made him greater than any of his contemporaries. Humanism and contact with popular thinking gave vitality to his language. Shakespeare's plays borrowed ideas from popular sources, folk traditions, street pamphlets, and sermons etc. Shakespeare used groundlings widely in his plays. The use of groundlings "saved the drama from academic stiffness and preserved its essential bias towards entertainment". Hamlet is an outstanding example of "groundlings" quickness and response. Use of groundlings' enhanced Shakespeare's work practically and artistically. He represented English people more concretely and not as puppets. His skills have found expression in chronicles, or history plays, and tragedies.

Shakespeare's earliest years were dominated by history plays and a few comedies that formed a link to the later written tragedies. Nine out of eighteen plays he produced in the first decade of his career were chronicles or histories. His histories were based on the prevailing Tudor political thought. They portrayed the follies and achievements of kings, their misgovernment, church and problems arising out of these. "In shaping, compressing, and altering chronicles, Shakespeare gained the art of dramatic design; and in the same way he developed his remarkable insight into character, its continuity and its variation". His characters were very near to reality.

"Shakespeare's characters are more sharply individualized after Love's Labour's Lost". His Richard II and Bolingbroke are complex and solid figures whereas Richard III has more "humanity and comic gusto". The Falstaff trilogy is in this respect very important. Falstaff, although a minor character, has a powerful reality of its own. "Shakespeare uses him as a commentator who passes judgments on events represented in the play, in the light of his own super abundant comic vitality". Falstaff, although outside "the prevailing political spirit of the play", he throws insight into the different situations arising in the play. This shows that Shakespeare had developed a capacity to see the plays as whole, something more than characters and expressions added together. In Falstaff trilogy, through the character of Falstaff, he wants to show that in society "where touchstone of conduct is success, and in which humanity has to accommodate itself to the claims of expediency, there is no place for Falstaff", a loyal human-being. This sentiment is so true even after centuries.

Shakespeare united the three main steams of literature: verse, poetry, and drama. To the versification of the language, he imparted his eloquence and variety giving highest expressions with elasticity of language. The second, the sonnets and poetry, was bound in structure. He imparted economy and intensity to the language. In the third and the most important area, the drama, he saved the language from vagueness and vastness and infused actuality and vividness. Shakespeare's work in prose, poetry, and drama marked the beginning of modernization of English language by introduction of words and expressions, style and form to the language.

Influence on literature

Shakespeare is cited as an influence on a large number of writers in the following centuries, including major novelists such as Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and William Faulkner. Examples of this influence include the large number of Shakespearean quotations throughout Dickens' writings and the fact that at least 25 of Dickens' titles are drawn from Shakespeare, while Melville frequently used Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies, in Moby-Dick. In fact, Shakespeare so influenced Melville that the novel's main antagonist, Captain Ahab, is a classic Shakespearean tragic figure, "a great man brought down by his faults." Shakespeare has also influenced a number of English poets, especially Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge who were obsessed with self-consciousness, a modern theme Shakespeare anticipated in plays such as Hamlet. Shakespeare's writings were so influential to English poetry of the 1800s that critic George Steiner has called all English poetic dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes.

Influence on the English language

Shakespeare's writings greatly influenced the entire English language. Prior to and during Shakespeare's time, the grammar and rules of English were not fixed. But once Shakespeare's plays became popular in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, they helped contribute to the standardization of the English language, with many Shakespearean words and phrases becoming embedded in the English language, particularly through projects such as Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language which quoted Shakespeare more than any other writer. He expanded the scope of English literature by introducing new words and phrases, experimenting with blank verse, and also introducing new poetic and grammatical structures.

Pre-Shakespearian English

The literature of Shakespeare was based on the works of poets such as Chaucer, Spenser, and Sidney. It is also important to note the setting of Shakespeare's language. In 449 A.D., the Germanic tribes- the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes- had moved to Britain to side with the Celts in order to help them defeat their northern neighbors. After their victory, however, the Germanic tribes gradually pushed the Celts into what became Wales and Cornwall. The tribes introduced Anglo-Saxon, more commonly known as Old English language (Mario Pei). Anglo-Saxon survived, despite the Roman and the Norman invasions of 579 A.D. and 1066 A.D. The invasions introduced French to England and strengthened Latin's existing power. These events marked the beginning of the Middle English period. Around 1204 A.D., bilingualism developed amongst "Norman officials, supervisors, [and] bilingual children [resulting from] French and English marriages". English was, however, still not in common use, at least in matters of the state and clergy. King John Lackland's death indicated the end of Norman rule. The decision of the Norman proprietors and Edward I's (Henry III's son) conquest of Wales all contributed to increased usage of the English language. French/Norman cultural supremacy in England waned. The increase in the use of English resulted in the "smoothing out of dialectal differences [and] beginning of standard English based on London dialect". Nevertheless, French remained the official language until around the 14th century. It was not until 1509 A.D., however, that English was recognized as the official language of England. Until 1583 A.D., the rhetoric of the English language was deeply indebted to Chaucer. Otherwise, given the relative lack of written records, "the innovation of the language was uncertain". The late 15th and early 16th century marks the approximate shift from Middle English to Early Modern English, the language of the Renaissance. "Before the arrival of Shakespeare to London, there was little hope for the future of English but by 1613, when Shakespeare's last work was written, the literature of modern English was already rich in varied achievements, self confident and mature".

Vocabulary

One of Shakespeare's biggest contributions to the English language is the introduction of vocabulary and phrases which enriched the language making it more colorful and expressive. Shakespeare used around 20,138 new words in his work, sometimes borrowing from the classical literature and foreign languages. His exceptional experimentation with words "also resulted in formation of expressions and phrases". Many of his phrases like "All's well that ends well", "To be or not to be", etc. have become an integral part of the English language and have been used as quotes. The addition of these words gave his style distinctness.

Shakespeare introduced style and structure to an otherwise loose, spontaneous language. The Elizabethan era language was written as it was spoken. The naturalness gave force and freedom since there was no formalized prescriptive grammar binding the expression. Lack of prescribed grammar rules introduced vagueness in literature, but expressed feelings with vividness and emotion. It had "freedom of expression" and "vividness of presentment". It was a language which expressed feelings explicitly. Shakespeare used the exuberance of the language and decasyllabic structure in prose and poetry of his plays to reach the masses and the result was "a constant two way exchange between learned and the popular, together producing the unique combination of racy tang and the majestic stateliness that informs the language of Shakespeare". It was a two way process in which literary language gained force and freedom of popular speech whereas eloquence of the language reached the general masses. His contribution in making the language popular with the masses was immense. His plays played an important role here.

Is Shakespeare's language conservative or innovative for his times? It is true that in Shakespeare's works generally occur all the English words and grammatical structures of his era. A prominent example is the usage of the personal pronouns thee, thy, thou etc. Nevertheless, it is obvious that his language is very innovative for his times, as he introduced new words, phrases and grammatical structures and also picked up words that were new and fashionable at the time. The Oxford English Dictionary records over 2000 entries that have a supporting quotation from Shakespeare's works and his quotation often is the earliest source available.

Blank verse

Shakespeare's first plays were experimental as he was still learning from his own mistakes. It was a long journey from Titus Andronicus and King Henry VI to The Tempest. Gradually his language followed the "natural process of artistic growth, to find its adequate projection in dramatic form". As he continued experimenting, his style of writing found many manifestations in plays. The dialogues in his plays were written in verse form and followed a decasyllabic rule. In Titus Andronicus, decasyllables have been used throughout. "There is considerable pause; and though the inflexibility of the line sound is little affected by it, there is a certain running over of sense". His work is still experimental in Titus Andronicus. However, in Love's Labour's Lost and The Comedy of Errors, there is "perfect metre-abundance of rime [rhyme], plenty of prose, arrangement in stanza". After these two comedies, he kept experimenting until he reached a maturity of style. "Shakespeare's experimental use of trend and style, as well as the achieved development of his blank verses, are all evidences of his creative invention and influences". Through experimentation of tri-syllabic substitution and decasyllabic rule he developed the blank verse to perfection and introduced a new style.

"Shakespeare's blank verse is one of the most important of all his influences on the way the English language was written". He used the blank verse throughout in his writing career experimenting and perfecting it. The free speech rhythm gave Shakespeare more freedom for experimentation. "Adaptation of free speech rhythm to the fixed blank-verse framework is an outstanding feature of Shakespeare's poetry". The striking choice of words in common place blank verse influenced "the run of the verse itself, expanding into images which eventually seem to bear significant repetition, and to form, with the presentation of character and action correspondingly developed, a more subtle and suggestive unity". Expressing emotions and situations in form of a verse gave a natural flow to language with an added sense of flexibility and spontaneity.

Poetry

He introduced in poetry two main factors - "verbal immediacy and the moulding of stress to the movement of living emotion". Shakespeare's words reflected passage of time with "fresh, concrete vividness" giving the reader an idea of the time frame. His remarkable capacity to analyze and express emotions in simple words was amazing: In the sonnet above, he has expressed in very simple words "complex and even contradictory attitudes to a single emotion".

The sonnet form was limited structurally, in theme and in expressions. Liveliness of Shakespeare's language and strict discipline of the sonnets imparted economy and intensity to his writing style. "It encouraged the association of compression with depth of content and variety of emotional response to a degree unparalleled in English". Complex human emotions found simple expressions in Shakespeare's language.

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