Hi, there, and thank you so much for coming back to engVid with me, Benjamin. Today we
are looking at chat-up lines from the pen of William Shakespeare - one of the greatest
writers ever of the English language. Who might enjoy this lesson today? Well, the romantics
out there, looking to woo and impress their other half; or those with a real interest
in the English language, who enjoy Shakespeare's words. Now, we all can understand them with
a little bit of help.
So, let's start with Hamlet. Okay? So, Hamlet's been having a bit of a tough time in Denmark;
his Dad's been killed by his uncle; the Mom's now going out with the uncle; but he quite
fancies this girl called Ophelia. Some people doubt this love, though. What does he say
to them? "Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love thee." Okay, let's have a closer look at this. So,
the first thing I notice when I look here is we have a list of: "Do these three things".
Now, what we call this is the rule of three, because we've got three similar ideas in a
row. So I'll just write that up here. Rule of three. Okay? So it's where you list three
things for effect. "Doubt thou", so maybe you've watched my Shakespeare's insult video,
and we learnt that "thou" was "you". If you haven't seen that, do check it out. "Doubt
you". So: "I don't mind if you doubt that the stars are made of fire", but you'd be
a bit silly if you did doubt that. "You can doubt if the sun moves", okay? So: "doth"
means "does". Obviously, the sun actually stays still and it's the earth that moves
around the sun, but you know, he's a confused young man at this stage in his life. "Doubt
truth to be a liar. Doubt truth to be a liar", so what we're doing is we're kind of turning
truth into a human being, and saying: "You're a liar, truth. You're lying." Okay? Kind of
strange, but as I said, he's a confused young lad. "But never doubt I love thee." So, basically,
what he's saying: "You can say anything you like; you can say that I'm talking total nonsense,
but the only thing I'm totally sure of is that I love thee." Okay? Thanks, Hamlet.
Now, from a comedy, Twelfth Night: "If music be the food of love, play on. If
music be the food of love, play on." You may have heard of that before. Let's try
and get a deeper understanding of this. What is being used here is a metaphor. Okay? It's
a comparison. So, what's being compared? We've got love and we have food. So, let's draw
a box of sandwiches. Let's have a prawn sandwich in there. Prawn, mm-mm. Okay. "If music be
the food of love, play on." So, what he's saying is: "Music helps love to grow." Okay?
So let's draw a crotchet there. That's a crotchet. Okay? So, food helps us to grow. The music
is going to help love. So: "Music is like the food to love. Let's have more food, more
music; let's have a good time." Okay? "If music be the food of love, play on."
A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind, and therefore is wingèd Cupid painted blind."
"Love looks not with the eyes", so what's being said here is that... I can't remember
which character said this; probably Lysander or Demetrius, but they're saying: "It's not...
I'm not just liking you for your looks. It's not just about the looks; I really like you
as a person." Okay? But obviously we're saying it in a slightly more complicated way. "Love
looks not with the eyes. I don't just fancy you because you're pretty-I don't just like
you because you're handsome-but because of the mind, and therefore is wingèd Cupid".
So, Cupid is the Roman god of love. So, god of love. Yeah? When we see pictures of Cupid,
they can't see anything; they're just there firing their arrows to decide who falls in
love with who. So: "I love you because of the things you say."
Romeo and Juliet: "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?"
"I love thee, I love but thee, with a love that shall not die;
till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old."
I love the rhyme here of "cold" and "old"; it's so simple, but so effective. Okay. Okay,
so again, "thee" means "you". "I love you, I love but thee". So, "but" here means "just"
or "only": "I only love you with a love", so now we're describing... This is a noun;
here we've got the verb. Okay? The noun of "love". "My love for you shall not die". "Shall"
means "will": "My love will not die". So this is short for: "until"; just in screen, there.
"Until"... Obviously, if it was "until", you'd only have one "l". "...until the sun grows
cold". So: "My love for you is going to go a long, long time, and the stars grow old".
How long have the stars been around? Quite a long time. Thank you, Romeo and Juliet.
Okay, so Romeo and Juliet, you've got a pair of teenage lovers; they come together very
quickly; they have this very romantic meeting, and then Romeo knows that he has to escape
out of the Capulet house, otherwise he'll be killed or something nasty. So, what does
he say? "Parting is such sweet sorrow
that I should say good night until it be morrow."
What's he all about? "Parting", so saying goodbye. So, let's have a little hand, saying:
"Goodbye". "Parting is such sweet sorrow". So, "sweet" is something nice; and "sorrow"
is obviously pain - not so nice. So what we've got here is two different ideas joined together.
If you want the actual word for that, it is a... An oxy... Oxymoron. Okay? It's two different
ideas. I've just gone slightly out of shot, there, so let's write "oxymoron" down here.
It's an oxymoron. Okay? "Moron" is a word for someone who's, like, a bit weird; a bit
kind of from outer space. So, outer space people join two different ideas together.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I should say good night
until it be morrow." "That I should say bye-bye... I'm going to...
It's really sad for me to say goodbye, but at the same time I get to give you a kiss,
so it's kind of nice; so I'm going to say goodnight now and I'll see you tomorrow" is
what Romeo is saying to his Juliet, there.
This is something else that Romeo says. This actually comes a little bit earlier in the
play. He's just met... He's just met Juliet. "Did my heart love 'til now?
Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night."
Before he took a fancy to Juliet, Romeo fancied someone else called Rosaline. And at the beginning
of the play, he's moping around, feeling all sad. You might have watched the Baz Luhrmann
film of him, and he's just kicking around; feeling sorry for himself. And then suddenly
he wakes up and meets Juliet. "Did my heart love 'til now?" So he's realizing that the
strength of his feelings are much stronger for Juliet than Rosaline. Okay? So he says:
"Did my heart love 'til now? Was that...? Did I actually like that person? Because what
I'm feeling now is stronger". "'til", again, short for "until". "Forswear it, sight!" He's
talking to his eyes to how he sees. "Wake up, eyes. Forswear it, sight! Forget about
what I used to think. For I ne'er", this is short for "never". "For I never saw true..."
And it's... It is shortened because of... In a typical Shakespearean line, he writes
with 10 beats in each line, so sometimes words are slightly shortened. "Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night." I.e.: Juliet is numero uno.
Love's Labour Lost: "When love speaks, the voice of all
the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony."
Okay. So, what we've got here is this sort of picture of all the sort of classical Roman
gods up in heaven, having a nice time. And you've got a god that represents love, Cupid.
Whenever Cupid speaks, all the other sort of angels, gods go: "Ah, mm, that sounds nice."
Okay? Why? "When love speaks", okay? So this is sort of the god of love speaks: "the voice
of all the other gods makes heaven drowsy", this means sleepy. "...drowsy with the harmony";
with the nice sound; it sounds perfect.
Lastly, from Much Ado About Nothing. "Ado" means "to do". "Much To Do About Nothing".
Kind of strange title. "I love you with so much of my
heart, that none is left to protest".
Okay, so let's imagine that we've got a slice of cake. I love you with... And the cake represents
his heart. "I love you with so much of my cake, that only a tiny bit says: 'Oh, is this
a good thing to do or not?' that I'm going to love you." Okay? Most of me is saying that
is a really good idea. Okay? But it sounds really romantic and nice.
Quite hard, I know. Thank you for staying with it. Let's just quickly go over these
once more, and you can repeat after me to make sure you've got these sussed and you
can try them out later. See if you can say one of them two times before the end of the
day to someone else.
"Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love thee."
Repeat for me.
Next one: "If music be the food of love, play on."
Next: "Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind; and therefore is wing�d Cupid painted blind."
So we have to have a little bit of extra emphasis here to keep... Keep it in the beat. So: "wingèd".
Repeat after me. Like, just do it for yourself. Good stuff.
Let's go again. Say it with me: "I love thee, I love but thee,
with a love that shall not die; till the sun grows cold
and the stars grow old." Well done.
Stick with it. here. Again, say it along with me:
"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I should say good night
until it be morrow."
"Did my heart love 'til now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er
saw true beauty 'til this night."
"When love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy
with the harmony."
"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to
protest."
There we are. Right. Why not stay on this; keep pushing your English learning a little
bit further today? And I have a fantastic video for you, which is phrasal verbs of compliment
and criticism that I think you might enjoy. Until next time.