Shakespeare
Joe Duncan wrote an article on Shakespeare. The Case for Preserving Culture. What the turbulent history of… | by Joe Duncan | Counter Arts | Aug, 2025 | Medium
He gives a nice history of Shakespeare’s works and how they have been received over the centuries.
I wrote a comment:
What kept Shakespeare alive in the U.S. was the King James Bible. In the 20th century the Bible has been translated into the modern language and Shakespeare is becoming gibberish to modern ears. A true pity.
I received two replies to my comment:
Paper Miroir wrote:
Ironically enough even the bible has turned into a fictional novel for some cultures, modern people cherry pick random parts of it to fit their new age agenda of manifestation.
David Dimitrie wrote:
Really, Do we really need to read the Bible in 16th Century English that is no more accurately translated than the best current versions. Try the Living Bible on for size. It was published as a paraphrase in everyday English for hippies and Jesus people.
Versions of Shakespeare’s plays in everyday English got me through high school and made me appreciate Shakespeare as a playwright and his works.
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Thinking on what I said is the last three words that have been misinterpreted: A true pity.
David is right there are numerous translations of the Bible, and I own a number of them. Right now, I like the New Living Translation. When I was in college and seminary the religion classes in college and Missionary Preparations in Seminary required memorizing quantities of scripture verses. At that time, I favored the New American Standard Bible and, in my books, if I quote the Bible in that translation. It’s a literal word for word translation. However, when memorizing scripture modern day language translations lack the poetic beauty of King James. It was ten times easier to memorize scripture in a writing style originally purposely written in an archaic form of vernacular as it’s in Elizabethan English not Jacobin.
This was at the dividing line of everything being spoken and written poetically when the common people could not read and needed to remember what the town crier read to the people. After the printing press prose takes over as books and pamphlets are cheap enough for the rising merchant class to own and read.
The Living Bible was a paraphrase, and it was easier to read, but not theologically sound. The New Living Translation, from the same people that came out with the Living Bible is much more theologically sound, while being in everyday language.
The discovery of texts of the books of the New Testament older than those Erasmus compiled in the fourteen hundreds have helped make the new translations more accurate.
The Bible for me is not a novel. I also don’t worship it. As Paul says in Timothy 3:16 It is a tool and is useful. The Bible is the tool those who wrote the different 66 books for me to understand and come to know my creator and savior. My belief is personal, and the Word helps me grow in my faith and try to live my life by its precepts. I have rejected the cultural indoctrinations of the Moral Mafia.
Shakespeare wrote in Elizabethan English which was the vernacular of the day. In English classes in high school Freshmen read, Romeo and Juliet, taking roles and reading it aloud in class. I was Mercutio. Sophomores read Julus Caesar, I was Brutus. Juniors read MacBeth, I was Macduff, and Seniors Hamlet, I was Cornelius.
In 9th grade in 1969 Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet was on the big screen with Michael York as Tybalt, and Olivia Hussey as Juliet. It was wonderful to watch the movie with the beautiful music score of something I’d just read in class. I still enjoy watching that classical movie. The Leo Decaprio one was pure trash! I turned it off after Mercutio drives up in drag.
The thing is that most of my classmates and I could understand the words because we grew up with the King James Bible and knew about all the “thee’s and thou’s.
I have watched the BBC’s project to produce all of the Bard’s plays and have watched those that made it across the pond. I’ve seen Charlton Heston’s Julius Caesar and Marlon Brando’s take on it. Kenneth Branaugh has done a number of the plays: Henry the Fifth was good as was his Hamlet, though at four hours long it was tiring. Mel Gibson’s Hamlet was pretty good.
Issac Asimov wrote a guide to Shakespeare, I had to order it in the library and could only read it for a month and then return it. It’s not available for sale. I was amazed that every play was full of Greek and Roman mythology.
I love Shakespeare and it is a pity that in today’s society and culture the Bards beauty is wasted. They don’t know what they’re missing.
