{"id":9373,"date":"2017-04-27T08:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=9373"},"modified":"2017-04-27T08:55:13","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:55:13","slug":"should-shakespeares-language-be-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=9373","title":{"rendered":"Should Shakespeare’s Language Be Updated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark O’Connor suggests Shakespeare fans (and the more casually interested) don’t understand as much as they may think of the great bard’s language. He thinks a modern translation would help.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here, for instance is Thersites in \u201cTroilus and Cressida\u201d berating another character: \u201cLet thy blood be thy direction till thy death! then if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I’ll be sworn and sworn upon’t she never shrouded any but lazars.\u201d<\/p>\n

A modern English version might run: \u201cMay the itch in your blood be your guide through life! Then if the old woman who lays you out thinks you make a pretty corpse, I’ll be sure she’s only done lepers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O’Connor isn’t advocating a wholesale rewrite of these classics, but a measured translation that attempts to capture all the spirit of the text as well as its meaning. Will you think so?<\/p>\n

“I think our fellows are asleep<\/a>.” (via Prufrock News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark O’Connor suggests Shakespeare fans (and the more casually interested) don’t understand as much as they may think of the great bard’s language. He thinks a modern translation would help. Here, for instance is Thersites in \u201cTroilus and Cressida\u201d berating another character: \u201cLet thy blood be thy direction till thy death! then if she that … Continue reading Should Shakespeare’s Language Be Updated?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2555,3187],"class_list":["post-9373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-publishing","tag-shakespeare","tag-translation"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}