Early Modern English Exercises

Read lines 49-85 of Act I Scene I of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida below. There are notes in the margin of this online version to help you with some of the vocabulary: http://www.shakespeareswords.com/Troilus-and-Cressida. Alternatively use Crystal & Crystal’s online glossary of Shakespearean English: http://www.shakespeareswords.com/Glossary

Listen to this scene on the following website and download the two supporting documents (a version with partially phonetic transcription and accompanying notes): http://www.pronouncingshakespeare.com/op-recordings

Then work in pairs and answer the study questions below the text.

TROILUS TC I.i.49 O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus – TC I.i.50 When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drowned, TC I.i.51 Reply not in how many fathoms deep TC I.i.52 They lie indrenched. I tell thee I am mad TC I.i.53 In Cressid's love: thou answer'st ‘ She is fair,’ TC I.i.54 Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart TC I.i.55 Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; TC I.i.56 Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand, TC I.i.57 In whose comparison all whites are ink TC I.i.58 Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure TC I.i.59 The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense TC I.i.60 Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me, TC I.i.61 As ‘ true ’ thou tell'st me, when I say I love her; TC I.i.62 But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, TC I.i.63 Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me TC I.i.64 The knife that made it. PANDARUS TC I.i.65 I speak no more than truth. TROILUS TC I.i.66 Thou dost not speak so much. PANDARUS TC I.i.67 Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as she TC I.i.68 is: if she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, TC I.i.69 she has the mends in her own hands. TROILUS TC I.i.70 Good Pandarus – how now, Pandarus? PANDARUS TC I.i.71 I have had my labour for my travail, TC I.i.72 ill-thought-on of her, and ill-thought-on of you; gone TC I.i.73 between and between, but small thanks for my labour. TROILUS TC I.i.74 What, art thou angry, Pandarus? What, with TC I.i.75 me? PANDARUS TC I.i.76 Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not TC I.i.77 so fair as Helen; an she were not kin to me, she would TC I.i.78 be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday, but what TC I.i.79 care I? I care not an she were a blackamoor; 'tis all one TC I.i.80 to me. TROILUS TC I.i.81 Say I she is not fair? PANDARUS TC I.i.82 I do not care whether you do or no. She's a TC I.i.83 fool to stay behind her father; let her to the Greeks, TC I.i.84 and so I'll tell her the next time I see her. For my part, TC I.i.85 I'll meddle nor make no more i'th' matter.

Study Questions

1. Find all examples of the second person pronouns (subject, object and possessive forms). How can you account for the variation in this text. (The following webpage should help you with your analysis: http://www.shakespeareswords.com/thou-and-you.)

2. What verb inflections accompany the second person pronouns? Find examples in the text.

3. What verb inflections are found in the third person singular? Can you account for any of the differences? Provide some examples from the text.

4. Find examples where the auxiliary verb “do” is used. Do they tally with Modern English? To answer this also check whether “do” is used where you would expect it in the text.

5. Look for examples of ‘an’, that are not the indefinite article. What do they mean and what part of speech are they?

6. Find examples of word order that differ from Modern English. Can you explain them in each case?

7. How have these words changed in meaning in Shakespeare’s time from when they first appeared/entered English and how has the meaning changed since Shakespeare’s day? In both cases, try to categorise the type of change in meaning that has taken place (cf. my lecture notes for the first class).

seizure (line 58), fair (68, 77-78, 81)

8. Listen to the text and determine which of the following differ from modern Received Pronunciation. Where there are differences, how are they different (use phonetic symbols)?

Long pure vowels: /iː/, /uː/ Short vowels: /æ/, /e/ Diphthongs: /aɪ/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ Consonants: /r/, /w/

9. Which of the above sound changes belong to the Great Vowel Shift (cf. Crystal 2003: 55)? How far had the changes gone if one compares Shakespeare’s day with Chaucer’s day?