Shakespeare in Southern works Shockingly Well


I love Shakespeare. Aside from writing when English was at it zenith, his characters are so rich and well developed, that one of them (at least!) is going through what you are right now.
They're incredibly relatable, but most folks don't seem to realize that since it's in "Old English".
That's another misconception, by the way. Actual Old English is Beowulf and stuff like that. Shakespeare, Milton, Marlowe, Bacon, and even the King James Bible, are well into the "Early Modern English" period, and thus very easy to read and understand even if you have to concentrate a little harder than normal.
Folks seemed to have a WAY bigger vocabulary back then, which is something we've lost as we text emojis and other hieroglyphics back and forth to communicate.

My theory is that American Southern is extremely similar to Shakespearean English because that style of writing has been preserved throughout the "Bible Belt" by King James Bible readers, a book that came out in 1611 (the same year as Shakespeare's The Tempest).

By reciting Shakespeare in "southern", it lends it a familiarity that some folks, certainly many Americans, may miss when it's performed in it's usual Received Pronunciation British English.

A couple of years ago I did a monologue from Richard lll in "southern" almost as a joke and posted it to Tiktok. A lot of people actually liked it, but when political commentator Ben Shapiro re-tweeted it, it got hundreds of thousands of views really quickly, and I started doing a lot more.

It's allowed me to connect with literature professors/teachers/lovers from all over the world, and I just love that.

If you haven't ever heard Shakespeare performed in Southern, check out the attached link!

Also, every library should have a copy of Shakespeare's complete works, even if it's just to keep on the coffee table so people think you're smart. Check out the affiliate link below for one of my favorite editions! https://amzn.to/3KRWxAu

 

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