John McWhorter sure thinks so, as he argues in “The Real Shakespearean Tragedy,” which would be, The Bard is awesome but only three people in the world can understand what the heck he’s saying. As a linguist McWhorter knows something about language and I think he makes an airtight case.
Ever since I was in high school way back when, I knew Shakespeare was something I should like and appreciate, but I could never get past your basic 16th Century English. I tried many times, but it just wasn’t worth it. I thought I must be some kind of dolt, but I never shared that with anybody lest I confirm my lack of ability to appreciate the greatest playwright ever. Now somebody with the stature and intellectual heft of John McWhorter comes along and says what most everyone who has ever tried to read Shakespeare or been to a play already knows: it’s indecipherable.
There is a link in the piece about something I had not been aware of called the Shakespeare Translation Project. I think I might actually now be able to read and understand what’s been inaccessible to me and most every other English speaking person in the world. Here is McWhorter’s conclusion:
The glory of Shakespeare’s original language is manifest. We must preserve it for posterity. However, we must not err in equating the preservation of the language with the preservation of the art. Perhaps such an equation would be the ideal—Shakespeare through the ages in his exact words. In a universe where language never changed, such an equation would be unobjectionable. In the world we live in, however, this equation is allowing blind faith to deprive the public of a monumental treasure.
We must reject the polite relationship the English-speaking public now has with Shakespeare in favor of more intimate, charged one which both the public and the plays deserve. To ask a population to rise to the challenge of taking literature to heart in a language they do not speak is as unreasonable as it is futile. The challenge we must rise to is to shed our fear of language change and give Shakespeare his due—restoration to the English-speaking world.
Thanks for informing us about this interesting project, Mike; and thanks, Kent, for your good work in this area.
I would greatly prefer, however, that instead of making Shakespeare accessible to moderns, we make moderns accessible to Shakespeare. In short, a national effort to return to the glorious English language of the Elizabethan era and rid us of the vile, debased gibberish that has replaced it during the past four centuries. That were indeed a consummation devoutly to be wished. Any prospects of this?
I suppose that I should put a smiley after the preceding, to indicate that I was joking while making a point about the inestimable value of elevated, positively expressive language–but that is probably not a thought that can be conveyed by a smiley. Which is exactly my point.
Kent, this is much needed, and I hope your work gets known far and wide in among the English speaking peoples.
I began the Shakespeare Translation Project about ten years ago after reading an earlier article by John McWhorter. I have completed five translations so far and believe them to be the most fully realized verse translations now available.
You can see excerpts from all five works at http://www.fullmeasurepress.com.
Kent Richmond