This was great. I was always skeptical of those claims because it seemed like it would be hard for the audience to understand his plays if so many of the words were brand new to them. I loved reading the details about the OED. And that concordance. That had to be quite the labor of love.
Fantastic piece! Have you ever seen Upstart Crow? This forms the basis for one of the recurring gags in it (Will hears a word or phrase and says, "That's one of mine, isn't it?" and his companions all groan and say, no, people were saying that before you were born).
An excellent article! I have found the same problem with names Shakespeare supposedly created, such as "Olivia." Once the excitement from finding out that Shakespeare had created my name died down I realized that I had come upon the name in much earlier texts, and thus couldn't possibly be a coinage of Shakespeare!
Thanks, I never understood how he could’ve invented so many words when the plays were meant to be understood to a paying audience. It makes sense that to the extent he did coin words, it would be words that would be discernible in context and wouldn’t confuse audiences as the plays were performed. “Laughable” and “lonely” are good examples. You can understand what those mean in context, even if you never heard the words.
This was great. I was always skeptical of those claims because it seemed like it would be hard for the audience to understand his plays if so many of the words were brand new to them. I loved reading the details about the OED. And that concordance. That had to be quite the labor of love.
Fantastic piece! Have you ever seen Upstart Crow? This forms the basis for one of the recurring gags in it (Will hears a word or phrase and says, "That's one of mine, isn't it?" and his companions all groan and say, no, people were saying that before you were born).
An excellent article! I have found the same problem with names Shakespeare supposedly created, such as "Olivia." Once the excitement from finding out that Shakespeare had created my name died down I realized that I had come upon the name in much earlier texts, and thus couldn't possibly be a coinage of Shakespeare!
Thanks, I never understood how he could’ve invented so many words when the plays were meant to be understood to a paying audience. It makes sense that to the extent he did coin words, it would be words that would be discernible in context and wouldn’t confuse audiences as the plays were performed. “Laughable” and “lonely” are good examples. You can understand what those mean in context, even if you never heard the words.