Introduction

Abstract

Shakespeare is like food; we take both very much for granted. It is only when we come across a passage of particular intensity in a play that we question how the language has been employed to achieve that result, just as it is only for exotic dishes that we enquire about the ingredients. Most children are introduced to Shakespeare by about the third year at secondary school. From then on he forms a regular part of most school curricula and, of course, new texts are studied at O and A level. In addition visits to the theatre to see Shakespearian productions are arranged by schools and parents. At university a degree in English literature without a course on Shakespeare would seem inconceivable to the average student. To many, therefore, Shakespeare may well seem more familiar than most modern dramatists. This situation is accentuated by the assimilation of so many Shakespearian expressions in our daily language. Most people probably get to know the phrase ‘patience on a monument’ long before they come across it in Twelfth Night; and when they do read or hear it in the play it is like meeting an old friend. The play does not strike one as strange or new. This sense of familiarity encourages students to think they understand the language of Shakespeare’s plays, though when they are asked at university to translate a passage it comes as a shock to realise how much is uncertain.