To Modernise or Not to Modernise - Should we leave Shakespeare alone?

My mantra when working with people on their writing is “Keep it simple. Clear, concise, and easy to understand is the way to go.” If people can’t understand what you are writing, then they are not going to engage with it.

So why do I wince when I hear “The problem with Shakespeare is the language. It needs to be modernised so we can understand it.” It is the great literary divider. To modernise the language or leave it alone and I sit firmly in the camp of the ‘Leave Shakespeare alone!’ brigade.

The reason Shakespeare is still remembered, still studied IS because of the way he used language. It’s the whole point. He took words and made them sound like music. The experience is in the complexity and beauty of his phrasing and the way they enthral, enchant, and transport you right into the heart of his storytelling.

Come on, which works better?

“The big question is: should I keep going or should I just give up?”

or

“To be or not to be: that is the question”.

No contest. Would people still be remembering, and quoting:

The big question is: should I keep going or should I just give up?

I mean, life is so messed up sometimes, you know?

It’s like you’re walking on this path, and you don’t even know where it’s going.

And then there’s all these troubles that come your way,

And you’re just like,

Why bother, why keep fighting,

When dying would be such an easy way out?

Instead of this stunning, eloquent, and moving example of poetic, intricate language that has made Shakespeare’s works endure for so long.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;

To sleep; Perchance to dream.

Shakespeare’s language isn’t commonplace (I had to look up what an Orison was the first time I read Hamlet – it’s a prayer by the way) but then nor are his characters. The richness of the words and phrasing he uses transports us into a complex and multifaceted world that reflects the full range of human emotions and experiences. Universal themes that are still relevant today, such as love, jealousy, power, and ambition.

That’s what makes reading or listening to Shakespeare’s works so remarkable. The language may be complex, and it will probably take you a few minutes to get into the patterns and flow, but it is essential. Without it, his work would lose so much of its depth, its magic and I doubt we would still be using snippets of his work in our everyday language in the way we do now. Without him, we wouldn’t have the words “lonely,” “swagger,” and “uncomfortable.” And the phrases “love is blind,” “cruel to be kind,” and “wild goose chase.” Actually, he invented over 1,700 words and phrases. That’s more than anyone else in the English language and we still use many of them today, without having had to update them.

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I don’t think updated necessarily means better; you wouldn’t take a classic car, give it a bigger engine, slap a coat of paint on and call it an upgrade. But I understand that Shakespearean language is not for everyone and there are lots of books and films that are based on and even adaptations of his works where the language and characters are from our more modern world. And if these mean that more people get to appreciate his incredible storytelling then that’s all to the good - but for those of us who deeply love the eloquence of the bard, and think his works are perfect just the way they are (with sincere apologies to William Shakespeare)

"Hark! Shall we, by foul means, rob the Bard's words of their soul,

And for novelty's sake, change his language, our ignorance to extol?

Nay, let us not defile his craft, or his genius besmirch,

For his language is the very heart of his works,

And the very source of its worth."

So please, I beg of thee, leave our beloved Will alone.

Sandra

That Book Woman