William Shakespeare may have had a bizarre ‘pirate’ accent with flecks of nearly every regional UK English dialect – a reflection of the ‘melting pot’ London he lived in.
To modern ears, he would have also sounded slightly American, and at times Australian, researchers claim.
That strange accent extends the actors who performed his plays. They would recite lines with a fast pace and in deep tones so they could be heard above the crowds.
Now, one voice artist has recorded exactly what Shakespeare and his actors sounded like 400 years ago.
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In a recital to a live audience, voice artist Ben Crystal reads the opening lines of Romeo and Juliet.
Today’s Shakespeare productions are often performed using modern, received pronunciation (RP), but Mr Crystal’s recital is very different.
He first reads the lines using RP, and then in what he calls Shakespeare’s ‘original pronunciation’ (OP).
‘There’s definitely been a change over the last 50 to 60 years of Shakespeare performance.
‘The trend I think has been to speak the words very beautifully…and carefully — and some might say stoically — and it’s very, very different than how it would have been 400 years ago,’ he told NPR.
The playwright’s legendary Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644.
At this time the capital was a ‘melting pot’ of accents from across the globe, Mr Crystal claims.
People moved to London from all over the UK, meaning that the city’s dialect was a diverse blend of regional tones and dialects.
The West Country accent was particularly prominent due to Bristol’s status as a major global port town at the time.
Bristol helped to introduce the Australian and American accent to London – traces of which can be heard in Shakespeare’s OP.
‘Wherever I go whatever age whether it’s eight years old or 80 years old and I say what accent does that remind you of and someone goes ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, Mr Crystal says.
Voice artist Ben Crytal (pictured) has revealed that Shakespeare’s plays would have been recited in a deep tone, with an accent drawn from regions across the UK, US and Australia
‘Shakespeare’s London was a melting pot of accents, people would come from Norwich and Wales and Scotland and Ireland and Midlands and Somerset and pirate country.
‘They come to London and their accents would all mix in together and then of course later on they’d go to Bristol and sail across to America and later still they’d be sent to Bristol and go down to Australia and that’s in part where those accents all come from.’
Mr Crystal says that actors in Shakespeare’s original productions would have spoken in a deeper tone than today’s recitals.
That deeper resonance helped actors project their voice in the open-air Globe theatre, which housed notoriously rowdy crowds.
Mr Crystal says that actors in Shakespeare’s original productions would have spoken in a deeper tone modern recitals. That deeper resonance helped actors project their voice over rowdy crowds. Pictured is a modern production of Romeo and Juliet at London’s Globe Theatre
Actors of Shakespeare’s time would have spoken faster than those performing using RP today, Mr Crystal says.
Shakespeare’s original productions would have been considerably shorter than modern versions due to the actors’ quick dialect
This means the playwright’s original productions would have been considerably shorter than modern versions.
While Mr Crystal’s video was first published to YouTube in 2014, it came to light again this week when it was shared by LaughingSquid.
Mr Crystal’s work is based on an experiment by producers working at the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, which opened on the south bank of London’s River Thames in 1997.
Actors performed a series of Shakespeare productions using OP in an attempt to recapture the original sound of the playwright’s work.
Despite producers’ fears that the accent would alienate audiences, the OP shows were a huge success.
‘If there’s something about this accent, rather than it being difficult or more difficult for people to understand..it has flecks of nearly every regional UK English accent, and indeed American and in fact Australian, too,’ Mr Crystal told NPR.
The playwright’s legendary Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644
‘It’s a sound that makes people — it reminds people of the accent of their home — and so they tend to listen more with their heart than their head.’
‘One of the most famous sonnets … Sonnet 116 … everybody has [it] in their weddings because it has the word marriage in it: Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments,’ he said.
‘When I started speaking this sonnet, it changed from something highfalutin and careful and about marriage and it became a real testament of love.”