Shakespeare: Language activist, world citizen – Part 2

Continued from yesterday

Shakespeare was one of the first writers in English and he took the responsibility of developing the language very seriously indeed, so seriously that he contributed no less than three thousand new words and phrases to the nascent English language. It is impossible, therefore, for anyone writing in English not to owe a big debt to Shakespeare and on the other side, it is almost unthinkable to speculate what the English language would have been like had Shakespeare not intervened in the development of that language.

Shakespeare was a dramatist of extraordinary power and range who wrote tragedies which brought tears to the eyes, comedies which brought tears of joy and exhilaration to the eyes, historical plays which transported the audience above the mundane concerns of the moment as well as other plays which were a breath taken mixture of the comical, tragical and historical. Shakespeare was not only a playwright but also a player and theatre entrepreneur who built the largest theatre in London at the turn of the 16th century and was one of the promoters of the theatre group, the Lord Chamberlain’s men which became the King’s men when their patron was King James. He was, therefore, a theatrical all-rounder who, to use his words. bestrode the world of London theatre like a colossus. To achieve this stature, Shakespeare took care not to be disturbed by the cares and responsibility of a pater familiars and left his family to look after themselves in Stratford whilst he wholeheartedly pursued his interests in London. It is said that he took his annual journey home during the 40-day season of Lent when all London theatres were closed for the season. And so, his achievements were not without sacrifice seeing that he was in spite of his lengthy absences, a man who put great store by his family which is perhaps why he retired from the theatre at a relatively young age in order to be a full time father and husband back in Stratford.

Part from the 37 plays which Shakespeare wrote, he was also the author of 154 sonnets, elegant 14 line poems dedicated to a so far mysterious young man known to history as the Fair youth, an unnamed and equally mysterious young woman now referred to as the Dark lady because she had dark hair and skin, probably because she was black, a proposition which is not far-fetched since a many as 20,000 black people were reputed to be inhabitants of Shakespearian London. He also had time to write some sonnets in honour of his fellow poets. These sonnets reveal a passionate side to the bard and give an indication of his human qualities which make him quintessentially one with the rest of us.

Unfortunately, Shakespeare is no longer very accessible to the modern reader, not it must be said because of any difficulty with his body of work but because reading Shakespeare’s English is as the language was spoken 400 years ago which means that meanings of many of the words encountered along the way have changed to such an extent that they need to be translated into what we can call current English.

Another difficulty is that plays need to be presented on stage before they can be fully appreciated by any audience which is why the failure of the performance of Shakespearian plays in this country is particularly galling. And it was not this way before as at Igbobi College of the 60s, we had a tradition of producing one Shakespearian play every year and these productions were immoderately enjoyed by the large audiences which turned up every year to be richly entertained. Such traditions, to the detriment of our social and societal development have now been abandoned, pushing our young people ever closer to the pit of philistine rot into which they wallow almost without any hope of redemption. Shakespeare has been translated into virtually every language and this is as it should be because there is scope for Shakespeare in every human language. His native language is now more or less the language of the world to such an extent that native English speakers do not have more rights over Shakespeare than other people including those inhabiting places like Outer Mongolia and beyond. It is because Shakespeare, with the little education he garnered from his local grammar school, promoted the English language as vigorously as he did that the children of Soweto blithely laid down their lives to defend their rights to be taught in English and it is the duty of every man with any modicum of education to get up close and personal with this man who lives on vigorously, four centuries after he breathed his last.

Lamikanra contributed the piece via Adebayo.lamikanra@gmail.com