101 Try out your Shakespearean English! Take turns reading the quotes from the original play below and match them to five of the summaries on the previous page. There are two summaries you won’t need. READING 28 Now sit back, listen and enjoy a performance of the excerpts on this page. Expand your vocabulary: Elizabethan English Shakespeare wrote most of his works during the ‘Elizabethan era’, named after Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1558 to 1603. The English used during this time was somewhat different from the Modern English we use today and is called ‘Early Modern English’ or ‘Elizabethan English’. Go through the excerpts from Romeo and Juliet on this page and find expressions with a similar meaning to the ones below. LISTENING 29 19 LANGUAGE 30 a Summarise the differences between Elizabethan English and Modern English that you found here. b a If they see you b your drugs c your relatives d have three times upset e Romeo should hurry away f caused by a thoughtless, trivial remark Romeo: With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do, that dares love attempt. Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. Juliet: If they do see thee, they will murder thee. A Romeo: Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! Here’s to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. C Prince: Let Romeo hence in haste, Else, when he is found, that hour is his last. Bear hence this body, and attend our will. Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. B Nurse: His name is Romeo, and a Montague, The only son of your great enemy. Juliet: My only love, sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me That I must love a loathed enemy. E Prince: Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets And made Verona’s ancient citizens Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments To wield old partisans, in hands as old, Cank’red with peace, to part your cank’red hate. D Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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