A (Very) Quick Look at Renaissance English

After the Middle English period, we end up with what can only be called Modern English. The Great Vowel Shift (discussed in Chapter 11 of FR+H) has occurred and pronunciations (finally) begin to approximate our own pronunciations, although spellings often (but not always) still reflect pre-GVS pronunications. This, in fact, is at the heart of most of the difficulties of the current spelling system: our "short" and "long" vowels no longer have any link to the duration of the vowels, and now one vowel letter can stand (often) for two or more very different sounds. The spelling "a" (for example) now stands for [e] (the "long a" sound), [æ] (the "short a" sound), and sometimes [a], as in words like "father." It’s no wonder people find spelling to be difficult.

But other than the spelling issues brought up by the combination of rigidified spelling (largely a result of printing) and the GVS, early Modern English texts offer few difficulties for modern readers, except for the occasional archaic syntactical construction, or archaic lexical item.

Now, however, without further ado, I will simply present some more or less representative Rennaisance texts; A PDF version of this page is also available.

From Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe

This little book, written in about 1526, was printed in Europe for distribution in England, and served as part of the ongoing difficulties of the Reformation. It was, as a satire of the church, apparently a dangerous book to possess. Here is a brief passage from the preface:

By your laste letter dere brother in Christ I perceved that youre desyre was to have the lytle worke which ye sent wele examened and diligently put into prynt. Which thynge (the bond of charitie where with not alonly you and I but we with the whole nombre of Christis chosen flocke remanynge amonge oure nacion of englisshe men are knet together purly for the truthes sake pondered) I coulde do no lesse but fulfill and accomplysshe. For as moche as it is a thynge so necessary. Where of no doute shall spring grett frute vnto the fammisshed and lyght vnto theym which of longe season have bene fore blyndfolded.

Here perhaps I ought to note that capital letters and periods are here used to mark out structures that we today would not see as complete sentences. Note also the unusual word "alonly" for "only."

From A Counterblaste to Tobacco by King James I (of the King James Bible fame)

I think the title of this little book pretty much tells it all, as far as what its purpose and intended effect are concerned. It was published in 1604; here is a brief extract from near the beginning:

Now to the corrupted basenesse of the first vse of this Tobacco, doeth very well agree the foolish and groundlesse first entry thereof into this Kingdome. It is not so long since the first entry of this abuse amongst vs here, as this present age cannot yet very well remember, both the first Author, and the forme of the first introduction of it amongst vs. It was neither brought in by King, great Conqueror, nor learned Doctor of Phisicke.

With the report of a great discouery for a Conquest, some two or three Sauage men, were brought in, together with this Sauage custome. But the pitie is, the poore wilde barbarous men died, but that vile barabarous custome is yet aliue, yea in fresh vigor.

From The Faery Queene, by Edmund Spenser

Spenser’s poem is fairly well-known, although relatively difficult reading for the period. Here is a brief excerpt from Spenser’s letter to Walter Raleigh, which forms a preface to the work:

The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline: Which for that I conceived shoulde be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historicall fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter, than for profite of the ensample: I chose the historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former works, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspition of present time.

Except for a few small matters of spelling, this is very near to English of our time, in terms of the words used, although some of the structures here would be quite unusual today.

From Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1

Here is a bit of Falstaff’s famous speech from Act 4, scene 2:

I have misused the king’s press damnably. I have got in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen’s sons, inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns, such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such toasts-and-butter with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins’ heads.

Generally Falstaff’s language is seen as fairly "natural" as opposed to artificially "literary": Falstaff is a fat old drunkard, and supposedly speaks in the sort of language that would be normal and natural in Shakespeare’s time. In this passage, notice how objects are used with verbs differently than they are today: especially after the verbs "press" and "inquire." 

Problems in Renaissance English:

1. In the passage from A Counterblaste to Tobacco, describe (based upon your observations) what the rules are for when to use "u" and when to use "v" in spelling.

2. For one of these passages, list all of the syntactic differences from Modern English.

3. For one of these passages, examine all of the spelling differences from Modern English. Are there any patterns? What do the different spellings reveal about pronunciation?

4. Here is a set of problems I have asked in the past on the final in this class: Sometimes, the idiosyncrasies of an early writer’s spelling suggest a great deal about early pronunciation. The questions concern the following passage from "The Autobiography of Thomas Whythorne" (ca. 1576):

I kannot heer leav out or let pas to speak of an other sort that do lyv by miuzik and yet ar no miuzisians at all. And thos be thei, who after thei hav learned A littl to sing priksong, or els hav either learned by hand, or by ear, or els by tabulatiur, to play or souwnd on miuzikall instriuments, such miuzik az hath bin and iz mad by otherz and not by them bianby they will ywzurp on miuzik, and akkownt and kall them selvz miuzisians, of the which petifoggers of miuzik, ther be both skoolmasterz, singing-men, and minstrels.

The "iu" spelling.
a. What phonetic pronunciation does Whythorne use this spelling for? Justify your answer.
b. Discuss the pronunciation of this sound in the words "music" "instrument" and "tabulature." How are our pronunciations the same and different regarding this sound?

Whythorne’s plurals.
a. What do the spellings of the plural morpheme suggest about Whythorne’s pronunciation?
b. So far as is determinable from this evidence, what are Whythorne’s rules for pronouncing the plural morpheme? When does it take each form it takes?
c. How are Whythorne’s rules for pronouncing the plural morpheme different from our own?
d. Phonetically transcribe the following words from Whythorne’s text, as he would have pronounced them (Whythorne postdates the Great Vowel Shift):
miuzisians
instriuments
skoolmasterz

Other stuff in Whythorne
a. What does Whythorne’s word "bianby" tell us about his use of "i" and "y"?
b. What phonological rules apply to lead to Whythorne’s pronunciation of "bianby"?

5. John Donne’s "Song." The second stanza of this poem (published in 1633) begins:

If thou beest born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee