ABSTRACT
The food in Shakespeare’s plays, Shakespeare’s dramatic animals and ‘a Buddhist Shakespeare’ are just some, decidedly niche, examples of research into Shakespeare’s works. His plays have been translated into most Earthly languages as well as the Star Trek language Klingon, DNA code and even a wearable watch that bleeps Shakespeare’s sonnets in Morse code. As society became more pluralist, less reverent, it might have been expected there would be less slavish attention to the intricacies of early modern English and more attention given to what the peoples t it. Unsurprising, because it hadn’t. A further 30 years later, as heritage literature – the ‘classics’ – makes a return to English primary classrooms, and grammar drills become the focal point for understanding language at the expense of drama and creativity, it could be said that things still haven’t evolved far enough.
