Shakespeare, Milton and their Contributions

 Shakespeare is one of the makers of English Language, a daring experimenter, whose language reflects the freedom and freshness and the energy and exuberance of the Elizabethan age. The most striking factor about Shakespeare's vocabulary is its amplitude. The vocabulary of the scholar poet Milton, is only one third of that of Shakespeare, who knew little Latin and Greek. 



Shakespeare's contribution to English vocabulary is remarkable. Many of the common phrases and expressions used by him have become the household terms. Examples are: life's fretful fever, t be or not to be, yeoman service, a sea change, a Romeo. Shakespeare has coined a number of new words with prefixes like em, en, un etc. enkindle, enrapt, unavoided, enmesh etc. many words make their first appearance in Shakespeare eg, dwindle, lonely, auspicious etc. This does not mean that he coined them, might have introduced them, might have introduced them from the spoken or learned languages. All the words and phrases coined by Shakespeare have not stood the test of time. Some words have been rejected by later generations and certain others have been discarded in the natural progress of the language.

Shakespeare makes dramatic use of certain dialectal words eg, in blood-boltered Banquo, the dramatist makes use of the West Midland dialectal word bolter with superb dramatic effect. In 'As You Like it' and 'King Lear', he incorporates provincialisms very effectively. A more significant achievement is the rustic dialect of Edgar disguised a s a peasant in King Lear.

Shakespeare gives new significance to ordinary words eg 'air' is used in the sense of aspect, manner, melody. Shakespeare was profoundly interested in the English language and in many of his plays like 'As you Like it' and 'Love's Labour's Lost. Most of Shakespeare's vocabulary is pure Anglo Saxon, for he knew the native words are richer in emotional content than the formal stately Latin words.

Milton

The mighty harmony of his poetry and his strong religious zeal made Tennyson hail him as the ''God Gifted voice of England." Wordsworth paid a glowing tribute to his lofty style and fierce independence in his sonnet on Milton "Thy soul was a like a star". However, Milton is one of the best examples to show that there is no relation between a great literary genius and his influence on the language.

Unlike Shakespeare, Milton has not made any substantial contribution to the common treasury of English vocabulary. Unlike Shakespeare who wrote for common man, Milton was a scholar poet and his works were meant for a fit audience, though few. Hence, his grand style, with its loftiness and sublimity appeals only to scholars. A few of his happy phrases have come down to us are the gorgeous East, barbaric pearl and gold, a pillar of state, heaven on earth, precious bane, darkness visible etc. The most famous of his original coinage is Pandemonium a hybrid word. Certain other words which make their first appearance in Milton are Anarch (chaos) gloom (darkness) irresponsible etc. Milton's love for Latin makes him use the Latin syntax in many of his poems. Though Milton did not set himself up a spelling reformer, he was concerned with the problem of spelling. He attempted to make the spelling conform to pronunciation eg. artic(arctic), iland (island)etc.. though many of his spelling devics didnot have any lasting influence on the language, they show his insensitiveness to the existing problem..

While many admire Milton for his grand style, many condemn him. "Our language sank under him." says Addison. Keats, considers Paradise Lost as a corruption of the language in spite of his admiration to him. But. Milton will always be remembered as one of the great greatest poets., who was a keen student of the language, has added a number of words and phrases to the literary vocabulary and who thought of spelling reform as early as the 16th century.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight

Image
  I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight Agha Shahid Ali The Poet Agha Shahid Ali was born in 1949: just one year or more after Independence, and also after partition. His birth was in Delhi, but he was raised up in Kashmir. Life in Kashmir was difficult in those days. The problems of partition, with India and Pakistan holding claim to the territories there, made the place a constant field of fights and tensions. The poet moved over to the USA in 1976. This poem forms part of a collection “The Country without a Post Office”. which came out in 1997. Agha Shahid Ali is a representative of diaspora. He has childhood memories of Kashmir. He spent his youthhood partly in Delhi, where he had his college education. Then he moved over to the United States of America, where he became a teacher and emerged as a noted poet. In most of his poems, Kashmir and its problems form the theme. The Poem “I See Kashmir From New Delhi at Midnight”, by Agha Shahid Ali, is a diasporic poem, where the poet h
Read more

Romeo and Juliet (Savouring the Classics)

Image
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) The Writer Shakespeare needs little introduction! A writer of plays - tragedies, comedies, and histories, and also the composer of poems and sonnets. He lived in Elizabethan England, in the sixteenth century. But he belongs not to any particular place or time. As his friend and contemporary writer Ben Jonson puts it: “He was not of an age, but for all time!” A Shakespearean drama, according to the Elizabethan convention, is divided into five Acts. Each Act may have a number of scenes. The Elizabethan stage had no curtains in the front. Hence, the writers arranged each section in a way all characters left the stage at the end of a scene. Even if there is a dead body, there will be someone to carry it away. Because there is no back curtain depicting any scenery or background, the plays will have lots of descriptions explaining what all can be seen. The Play “Romeo and Juliet” is one of the early plays from Shakespeare. The plot is develo
Read more

I'm Explaining A Few Things - Pablo Neruda

Image
  I'm Explaining a Few Things The Poem: English Translation You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs? and the poppy-petalled metaphysics? and the rain repeatedly spattering its words and drilling them full of apertures and birds?   I'll tell you all the news.   I lived in a suburb, a suburb of Madrid, with bells, and clocks, and trees.   From there you could look out over Castille's dry face: a leather ocean.            My house was called the house of flowers, because in every cranny geraniums burst: it was a good-looking house with its dogs and children.              Remember, Raul? Eh, Rafel?        Federico, do you remember from under the ground my balconies on which the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth?           Brother, my brother! Everything loud with big voices, the salt of merchandises, pile-ups of palpitating bread, the stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue like a drained inkwell in a swirl of hake: oil
Read more