The Globe Theatre which opened in 1994
very near to its former site specializes
in original productions of Shakespeare
but it wasn't until 2004 that a play was
performed in the original pronunciation
known as Opie the play was Romeo and
Juliet
well the globe is known for its original
practices this is why it is here to try
and recreate the theatre as it was in
1600 and there abouts and when they
started it off they decided to do
original costume original music with
original instruments original movement
around the stage and so on but they
never did original pronunciation because
they thought quite wrongly but
understandably they thought nobody would
understand it it was a very very
successful occasion the seats were
packed for that weekend everybody loved
it and it was such a success that the
globe then decided to do a second
production the following year production
of Troilus and Cressida it transports
you back through the centuries it's a
very magical almost hair-raising
experience especially in this space to
hear that accent of space that's that's
sort of as close as we can get to 400
year old theatre and then an accent
that's as close as we can get to a 400
year old accent with a 400 year old play
it if anything it rounds the experience
of going to see a Shakespeare play out
any period in the history of the English
language can be studied from the point
of view of how it was pronounced at the
time Old English Chaucer and so on in
relation to Shakespeare we're talking
about the sound system or phonology that
was in use in a period called early
modern English and in the period
specifically round about the year 1600
now it's a period during which
pronunciation was changing very very
rapidly so there isn't just one kind of
Opie there's an Opie that that evolves
throughout the period for example early
on in the period people were pronouncing
the word musician as musician musician
later in the period
it had evolved into musician and of
course later still it became musician
David crystal and his son Ben regularly
work together to demonstrate how
original pronunciation differs from
modern pronunciation it's an interesting
accent to tune your ear into so we're
going to run through a few pieces of
Shakespeare first in a modern sort of
received pronunciation accent the accent
that you used to hearing Shakespearean
and then we'll switch into original
pronunciation and probably dad will do
some and I'll do some as well so you get
to hear it in a different voice their
first example comes from Henry the fifth
then gives the modern pronunciation and
David the O P o for a muse of fire that
would ascend the brightest heaven of
invention all for a muse of fire that
would ascend the brightest heaven of
invention a kingdom for a stage Prince's
to act and monarchs to behold the
swelling scene a kingdom for a stage
Prince's to act and monarchs to be older
swell insane then should the wall I
carry like himself assume the port of
Mars then should the warlike re like
himself assumed the Porta Mars and that
his heels leashed in work hounds should
famine sword and fire crouch for
employment and that his ales laced in
Lacombe should come in sword and fire
crouch for employment how do you know
that that was original pronunciation
well there are three kinds of evidence
that you look for when you're working
out the pronunciation of a stage in the
history of the language the first and
the most important piece of evidence is
the observation the observations made by
people who are writing on the language
at the time there were several people
who actually commented on how words
sounded which words rhymed and so on for
example how do we know that the r is
pronounced at such a time well Ben
Jonson the dramatist actually tells us
at one point he says we pronounce the R
after a vowel he actually calls it a
doggy sound Gurr
or something like that and so that kind
of evidence when you look at all the
sounds all the vowels all the consonants
you put it together and that's the first
kind the second kind of evidence is the
spell
things that people use at the time the
Spelling's were a much better guide to
pronunciation than than spelling is
today so at one point in Romeo and
Juliet the word film is spelt ph IL om e
therefore filum and that's a very
important indication with the third kind
of evidence which is absolutely critical
from a dramatic point of view is that
there are rhymes and puns which don't
work in modern english that do work in
op1 i remember that we did at the globe
here was the pun that suddenly left out
at us in the prologue to Romeo and
Juliet you do that with right right so
two outs holds both alike in dignity in
fair Verona where we lay our scene from
ancient Grudge break to new mutiny where
civil blood makes civil hands unclean
from forth affair loins of these two
foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take
their life whose misadventured piteous
overthrows doth with their death bury
their parents strife and is that is the
line is the lines from forth the fatal
loins are thing is loins was pronounced
loins and the word lines was pronounced
lanes so there is a pun double meaning
yeah a pun on lines and lines
genealogical lines on the one hand and
physical loins on the other which is
completely listed if you do it in in
modern English it's a good example David
and Ben have also discovered that nearly
two thirds of Shakespeare's sonnets have
rhymes that don't work in modern English
that do work in Opie it was a good one
one one one six one word I think you
know one one six interest is interesting
because lots of people have read their
weddings and they think of it as being a
very sort of you know highfalutin sonnet
left me not the marriage of true minds
admit impediments but it completely
changes in Oh peepers particularly
because of the rise love's not times
fool though rosy lips and cheeks within
his bending sickles compass come love
alters not with his brief hours and
weeks but bears it out into the edge of
dumb this be error and upon me proved I
never writ nor no man ever loved ya
crunch improved and loved oh it's lovely
hidden tea isn't it proved and loved
it's only doesn't work lately fall today
if this be error and upon me proved I
never writ nor no man ever loved that's
right doesn't quite work when Romeo and
Juliet was performed at the globe David
and Ben were advisers on the production
one of the most interesting things was
the way in which the actors all said
that the opie altered their performance
quite fundamentally you have to remember
the the play was being done in two
versions that year there was a modern
English version and an Opie version as
well the actors had to learn the thing
twice and it just changed the way they
perceive their characters didn't it it
did well I mean it's a lot faster the
accent you know this it with modern
Shakespeare it's often very reverential
in the way whether we pronounce it you
know it's assumed the port of Mars it's
much faster in opiate assume the port
Amar's
the Opie Roman jolly it was ten minutes
faster but it does something else to you
as well it'd be to me it drops my voice
I use my bottom register a lot more you
know that assume the port Amar's it
makes me sort of hunker down doesn't
sort of seem so cut off from the neck
you know four mules of fire and you did
it connects with the body a bit more for
some reason it's an earth fear accent
the experience of Romeo and Juliet also
demonstrated that far from making
Shakespeare more difficult to understand
it can actually make the original
meaning clearer
as can be seen in this extract from as
you like it and so from ora to or we
ripen right and then from or - or we rot
and rot and thereby hangs a tale it's
really really rude sex joke he's talking
about prostitutes and and and you know
the Kings evil and all that kind of
thing it's completely missed when you do
in modern a modern accent the last time
I saw as you like it the actor came to
the front and said and so from outer are
we rape and rape and from hour to hour
we rot and thereby hangs a tale anyway
you know the gag is completely missed
what we see is a
joke working that doesn't work in modern
English and it's all based on one very
simple sound shift the pronunciation of
hot [ __ ] as or you'll notice two things
about it the H drops at the beginning H
often dropped in the in early modern
English in that way and you get this
other change our in modern English
becoming or in the earlier version and
the combination of the two changes
together produces a coming together of
the two words and therefore a perfect
pump there's something about working our
way back to Shakespeare rather than
dragging them into the 21st century when
you're standing on the globe stage they
was like the theatre as if it's daylight
because Shakespeare's plays would have
been performed about two o'clock in the
afternoon and that means that you can
make direct eye contact with every
single member of the audience and then
suddenly Shakespeare going to see a
Shakespeare play becomes a two-way
dynamic a complicity it means that as an
actor as Hamlet I can come out and ask
you what should i do should I kill
Claudius you know I don't know what to
do everything's really confusing help me
you know that's what the Shakespeare's
monologues were about so if you can sort
of imagine that there's that extra
dimension when you're working in a space
like this you get a similar sort of
extra dimension when you use
Shakespeare's accent