ABSTRACT
Pupils will tell us that Shakespeare wrote in ‘Old English’ and that he is therefore very hard, if not impossible, to read. They may well add that he also wrote about ‘old stuff’, and therefore is of no relevance or interest, so the struggle with the language isn’t worth the trouble. The short answer, I suppose is: ‘What – old stuff like love, death, mystery, treachery, loyalty, honour, anger, happiness, loss and gain, appearance and reality, murderers, ghosts, liars, lovers, wars, shipwrecks, fathers and daughters, rape, magic, courage, politics, etc.; which of these can’t we be interested in the twenty-first century?’ As to Old English, it’s worth showing them some, for instance a version of the Lord’s Prayer, so that they can see the difference:
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Si þin nama gehalgod. To becume þin rice gewurþe ð in willa, on eorð an swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. and ne gelæd þu us on costnumge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice.
