What is Basic Faire Speech (BFS)

So You Wish to Speak Foresoothly

Joyston Brooks (Coniach McCleod)

Glossary of Ren Speak

This glossary is written to give you an idea of “proper” renaissance words and speech. A common misconception is that everyone spoke with thee’s and thou’s like Shakespeare’s play’s. That was fine if you were an early 17^th century semi-noble Englishman. (Shakespeare, like all great writers, wrote to his audience.) However, not everyone is of noble birth, so these terms and phrases are designed to be useful on many occasions. By the way, insults are a lot of fun so always look for ways to hide a jibe.

Anon	I will see you later	Wench	Girl under 12 or woman of little virtue
Avail	Do this for me	Ere	Are
Wasser	Water	Blatherskite	Man of little ambition
Good Morrow	Good day (Hello)	Git	Scottish for Weirdo
Perchance	Maybe	Gin	Once again
Wouldst	Would	Fop	Man with feminine qualities
Ye	You (Irish)	Attend	Pay attention
Ale	Beer (to some also food)	Beg of you pardon	Excuse me
Sup	To dine	Keeper	Bartender
Bread	Food	Huzzah	Hooray
Milord	Man of peerage or esteem	Vivant	Long Life
Milady	Woman	Taleteller	Liar
Fi	Expletive meaning F**k	Holy Day	Sunday
Steel	Sword	Leaf	Tobacco
Merde (fr)	Expletive “S**t”	Filk	Semi-Period song (usually a jest)
Bard	Storyteller	Special	Job
Merchant	Vendor (also Pirate)	Houser	Area Lord
Shire	Town	Stringer	Executioner
Keep	Castle	Fate	Faith
Camp follower	Prostitute

And Now En Francais…….
Common Expressions

Even if you aren’t of a French-speaking persuasion, you ought to be familiar with a few common expressions. The terms below have phonetic pronunciations attached. Note that French is an unaccented language, so generally speaking no syllable is stressed over another. Another note is that the “r” is pronounced like you were gargling, and the further north you are from in France the more is sounds like a German “ch”. It’s okay for a southerner to roll their “r” like a Spaniard. The other tricky thing is the nasal. Most combinations of a vowel and the letter “n” or “m” form a nasal sound. The “n” or “m” isn’t pronounced, and “sound is emitted through the nose and mouth by means of a lowering of the velum.” I have used [a] to represent the nasal sound in “tant, [o] for the nasal sound in “pont”, and [i] for the nasal sound in “pain” and [u] for the nasal sound in “un”. I lack special characters for many sounds, so the phonetic renditions are VERY approximate.

Bonjour (b[o]-zhur)	“Good day”
Bonsoir (b[o]-swahr)	“Good evening”
D’accord (dah-kor)	“Okay”
D’accord patron (dah-kor pah-tr[o])	“Okay boss”
Denier (der-nyay)	The coin we use for money, a small denomination
Monsier (m sy)	“My lord”, suitable for any gentleman
Monseigneur (m[o]-she-nyer)	“My Lord”, but with extra emphasis for a higher ranking gentleman, like a peer
Madame (mah-dahm)	“My Lady”, suitable for any adult gentlewoman
Merci (mair-see)	“Thank you”
Pas de quoi (pah-der-kwa)	Equivalent to “it’s nothing”, what you can say in response to merci
De rien (der ry[i])	Another thing you can say in response to “merci”
Non (n[o])	“no”
Oui (wee)	“yes”
Bien entendu! (by[i] [e]t[e]doo)	“of course!”
Soyez le bienvenu – (swa-yay ler by[i]-ver-noo	“you are welcome”, as a greeting (sometimes just “bienvenu”)
Qu est-ce que vous voulez? (kes ker voo voolay)(	“what do you want?”, as from barmaid to customer
Je voudrais <whatver> … (zher voo-dray)	“I would like ,<whatever>…”
… du vin (doo v[i])	“some wine”
… du cidre (doo seedr)	“some cider”
… de la biere (der lah bee-air)	“some beer”
… des saucisses (day saw-sees)	“some sausages”
… du potage (doo poh-tahzh)	“some soup”
… du pain (doo p[i])	“some bread”
… du fromage (doo froh-mahzh)	“some cheese”
… du sel (doo sehl)	“some salt” ou est <whatever>
Ou est … ? (oo ay)	“where is <whatever>…”
… le vin (ler v[i]	“the wine”
… la fille (lah feey)	“the girl”
… le garcon (ler gar-s[o])	“the boy”
… le garderobe (ler gahrd-robe)	Literally, “the wardrobe”, euphemism for the bathroom
Combine? (c[o]-by[i])	“how much?”
Donnez-vous le dementi a moi? (don-nay voo ler day-m[e]-tee ah mwa?)	“are you giving me the lie?”, a good way to start a duel
J ai une affaire avec vous dehors (zhay dayz ah-fairz ah-vek voo deh-or	“I have business with you outside”, e.g. an invitation to a duel
Assez! (ah-say)	“enough!”
Allons-y (al-l[o]-zee)	“let’s go”

INTRODUCTION

Understanding a people and their language

Elizabeth I came to the throne of England in the year 1558. The Middle Ages were over. Europe was at the height of a cultural re-birth known as the Renaissance but was divided by the turmoil of the religious reformation. It was a time of astonishing change, sea-born exploration, and artistic achievement. Elizabethans distinguished themselves as people of imagination, daring, and creativity. They excelled at letters and language, bringing a spirit of adventure to the printed page. Their words, images, and ideas live on in the plays and poems of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Johnson, and Spenser. They speak to us from the pages of countless pamphlets, broadsides, court documents, tax records, wills, histories, and herbals. They survive in the King James Bible and in the Book of Common Prayer.

The Elizabethans were enthusiastic participants in a verbal revolution. Thanks to the printing press, books were less costly and more available than they had been only a generation or two earlier. At the same time, religious reformers were advocating education and the ability to read the Bible in English. Some estimates suggest that nearly half of the English populace achieved at least minimal literacy.

What is Basic Faire Speech (BFS)?

The purpose of this guide is to teach you to speak Elizabethan English as a second language. You can become so fluent and conversational that you charm and delight our visitors from the twenty-first century, who come to our shire hoping to be convinced they are in a sixteenth-century market village.

We are all Elizabethans here in Shrewsbury. You have worked hard making your costume; you’ve developed the character you play. Now we are going to give you a voice.

English as it was spoken in Elizabeth’s day was a different language, nothing like the English spoken in England today. The actual words people used, the sentences they constructed, and the figures of speech are all easy to duplicate. Elizabethans were a literate, inventive people. The classiest act by far was William Shakespeare. His plays will help you learn to speak Elizabethan.

Twentieth century English is a dull, quiet, and unpoetic language. We are taught in school to write what we mean in as few words as possible, for the sake of clarity and precision. We speak the same way: we have to communicate quickly and efficiently, because we have so little time to talk to each other. We even learn to speak with streamlines exactitude: we have computers to program, after all.

The Elizabethans had far fewer reasons to rush about than we do. Certainly they had no television programs to hurry home to catch, and there weren’t any stereo headsets to help them wile away the long winter evenings. What did they do with all those hours of spare time?

They read, for one thing. They were the first generation with widespread literacy and widespread availability of books. They also wrote, about every imaginable topic, from books on growing strawberries to amateur histories of the world.

And they talked. They socialized, crowded around tables in taverns, discussing politics and history and the latest gossip from the town over the hill. They sat in their homes or went to their neighbors’ homes and compared notes on how their children were doing in school. They wondered how Goodman Smith managed to grow bigger pears than anyone else in the village, or why Master Eliot was absent from church three Sundays in a row. They compared what they’d heard in church: what this deacon, who was a Calvinist, had to say about salvation; as opposed to the last one, who had been a Lutheran. They couldn’t have imagined a world where people lived shut away from one another, a world without talking.

So you shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that one of the most admired qualities in anyone at this time was the capacity for good conversation. People enjoyed the company of someone with a “ready wit” – a person who could tell a funny story well, pass on the local news in an exciting way, and especially someone who had a talent with a well-turned phrase.

This went beyond polite conversation, too. In tavern brawls they were just as apt to pull out their weapons and kill each other as we are, but the opponent who came up with the most blazing, imaginative insults was usually judged the better man.

How to say it

Much of what we do at faire, and what our guests know of us, involves the noises we make when we open our mouths. Accordingly, we want to sound Elizabethan (for historical purposes), we want our guests to believe we sound Elizabethan (for theatrical purposes), and we want to be understood (for general purposes).

We do not, therefore, speak a 100% accurate 16^th century dialect. Frankly, our modern audiences just wouldn’t get it, for while the English of the period is referred to as “modern English” it is strange enough to our 21^st Century ears to be incomprehensible at times. Thus we speak with a BFA (Basic Faire Accent), a slightly relaxed Elizabethan that communicates most of the flavor of the period while allowing us to be understood. Compromise is always the way with theater; at Faire we are environmental theater on a grand scale, and compromise accordingly. Likewise, exaggeration of movement and expressions, are hardly period, but it is a fundamental part of theater. These things help us attain our entertainment and communication goals, so we do them – history be damned!

Here are the critical phrases you’ll need to deal with everything from the family car to using credit cards and still manage to sound Elizabethan.

Translations

21^st Century Elizabethan

Car Okay, everybody remember where we parked the car.

Marry, forget ye not where we do stable the horse and cart.

Photo Hey, could you hold still for a photo? Say ‘cheese!’.

Heigh ho, good folk, do tarry for a portrait. Sayest thou all ‘cheese!’.

=== Flemish painter ??? ===

Costume Where did you get that great costume?

How came you be those most fine and beauteous clothes?

Did you make your costume”

Faith sir: I know not costume—these be my clothes. But you wear

wondrous fine rainment, now. Be you from the Indies, or belike far

Cathay?

Bus Hey, does the number 10 bus stop here?

Pray pardon, does the coach to London come hither?

TV I want to get home in time to watch the Survivor.

I do want to return to town with time to see the pageant.

Massage My feet are killing me. Honey, how about a massage?

I’faith, my feet do ache most mightily. Prithee, my sweetin’, wouldst thou

stroke them.

Baseball Hey, buddy, how about those Yankees?

What think you, coz’, of that rounders team from York?

ATM Hey is there an ATM machine around here?

Pray, good sir (madam), where be the exchequer’s post?

Craft Where can I get one of those cool drinking cups?

Where be the pewter smith? The seller of tankards?

Credit Card I don’t suppose you take plastic, do you?

Dost thou accept the services of Mistress Visa? Master Card?

Food/Drink I’m starved. Let’s nosh.

Let us away in search of victuals afore I do perish.

So, where can I get a hotdog and a beer?

Where doth a soul procure a banger and a beer? Ale? Cider? Drink?

Is that real Wisconsin cheese?

Be that goodly cheese of the shire?

Water Where can I wash my hands? Where is a drinking fountain?

Where be water for to wash? For to drink?

Person Hey, where can we get a look at the Queen?

Where might I gaze upon Her Majesty, the Queen?

Schedule Excuse me, what times does the jousting begin?

Pray pardon, at what hour does the tournament commence?

What time will the Queen be here today?

Well now, (squint at the sun), I do make it half-past the hour of ten now,

and I did hear the court and all the grand folk lay at Berkhamstead

yesternight, so she hath a good ways to travel…I reckon Her Grace doth arrive at three of the clock today.

Telephone Where do they hide the telephones in a place like this?

Where be the Italian talking devices? Bless that Leonardo.

Time My watch has stopped. Does anybody know what time it is?

I see neither sundial nor clock. Pray, what hour be it?

Toilet Where are the bathrooms?

Pray pardon, kind sir, but where be the privies?

Departing Its time to leave. Goodbye everyone.

‘Tis time to sail to Roanoke with the Raleigh. Farewell, good folk.

Exit Okay, so which way is out?

Where lies the town gate?

Injury I think I sprained my ankle…please help me.

Hold on I’ll get a first aid team for you right away. (That is our subtle way

of telling you that you ALWAYS drop character in an emergency

situation!!!)

Syntax

Syntax – the manner in which we string words together – was significantly different in the 16^th Century. Rather than trying to memorize proper Elizabethan syntax, here are a handful of techniques that allow us to capture the flavor of the time, to sound foreign and period, even if every word we speak comes straight from the 21^st Century.

1. Use Elizabethan Noises – Proper sound

2. Exclamations—I think me, In truth, Forsooth, By my sword

3. Inversion—Never will I, So say I, Go you to see

4. Bombast/Doubling—Great grand, great huge, nay never, no nay never

5. Old stuff – My/mine, thy/thine, lest, writ, doth

Vocabulary

21^st Century Elizabethan

Yes aye

No nay

No way nay not

Pardon me pray pardon

Please prithee / pray / I pray you

Thank you grammercy / I thank thee / Many thanks, good sir

You know (?) know you (?) / trow you (?)

Honestly, really forsooth / in sooth / by my troth/ surely / verily / indeed / marry

I think/I guess I trow / I think me / methinks

Maybe, perhaps mayhap / perchance

You’re kidding Go to!

Wow! Far out! Marry! / I’faith!

Oh, no; Too bad alas / well-a-day / God-a-mercy/ God’s me / ‘ods me

Darn it! Alack! / Alas! / Fie! / Fie me! / Fie upon it!/ Out upon it!

Honey/Babe/Sugar Dear / Sweetest / Sweetin’ / Dearheart / Love / Turtle / Darling

It is ‘tis

It was ‘twas

It will ‘twill

Come here Come hither

Excuse me I cry you mercy. / I crave your pardon.

Contractions

Just say no!

Diction

Speak slowly & clearly!!!!! Choose words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. (Webster) This is excellent advice for the beginner, for a number of reasons. After all, this is the sixteenth century: life itself moved slowly and people had more time to think about things. You’ll make a nice dramatic contrast to your twenty-first century visitor who speaks in quick, slurred shorthand, ykknowhaddamean?

The other big advantage to speaking slowly is that it will give you time to think of something to say. If someone approaches you and asks a question you haven’t any answer for, you don’t have to blush and mutter “Gee, lady, I really don’t know.” Instead, you can scratch your head thoughtfully, squint at the sun, and finally say something like:

“Now, in good sooth, madam, I protest I know not…but that lad o’er yonder, now, belike he can tell you.”

People may ask you questions for which they need quick answers. Don’t make them wait all day. Have a little set of stock replies worked out for the questions people are most likely to ask you. Be witty if you will, but the important thing is to be pleasant and informative.

Enunciation…

Does the thought of hitting the shire streets with your new found tongue still sound painful? Is there a roadblock somewhere between your brain and your mouth? Don’t give up. Here are a few words of advice that may ease you on your way.

Prepare

Study this guide. Refer to it often. Read Elizabethan literature aloud. If it’s tough at first, it will get easier. Watch the videos. A little preparation goes a long way. More preparation goes even farther.

Goest Thou Easily

Relax. Even the most fluent speakers were, at one time, beginners. Start with a few key phrases. Introduce others a little at a time.

Goest Thou Slowly

If speed sends your tongue careening off the Elizabethan highway, then slow down. Hey, life moves slower in the 16^th century so why shouldn’t you?

Be not Afraid to Hesitate

Someone runs up to you and asks: “Are you the queen?” Don’t panic. Stall. But stall with style. Scratch your chin pensively, gaze skyward for a little divine intervention, look downward in defiance of the devil and then, with a cocksure grin masking your uncertainty, say: Well now, in sooth, uh….I do think me, uh…Madam, verily, uh….NAY NOT! You’ll knock ‘em dead.

Stock up on answers

People attending living history or theatrical events will ask you the same questions. Food? Many fine victurals await thee o’er yon hill, sir. Bathroom? Aye, madam, for the privies, walk thee down that road and to thy right. You get the idea.

ROB From the Rich

That’s right: Steal. Cut the purses of the word wealthy Elizabethan poets and playwrights. Trust me, Will Shakespeare won’t complain if you quote him. Then listen to others who are talking Elizabethan. Take what works and make it thine.

Make Merrie!

Be creative. Have fun. Experiment. Develop a character, a style, an attitude. Remember: Trial and Error is your friend. And be assured: With every line thou utterest, thou wilt sound more and more the better.

WHO AM I TALKING TO? (Titles & Greetings – Social Classes)

It is easy to say hello and good-bye in the manner of Olde England. Simply pick a phrase and add a title. Titles are provided for royalty, nobility, middle class and peasant. Of course, 21^st century phrases such as Later, dude or What’s up Doc? Should be avoided like the plague (which, by the way was a pretty serious threat back then.) Regardless of YOUR social class, this is how to address others:

Time Phrase Title Social Class

Morning Good morrow your majesty The queen

Give you good morrow your grace

God give you good morrow my lord Nobility

God ye good morrow my lady

Afternoon Good day noble sir

Give you good day noble madam

God give you good day sir Middle class

God ye good den madam & peasant

Evening Good even master

Give you good even Master John

God give you good even mistress

God ye good e’en Mistress Mary

Glad to see you! Well met…! Master Smith

How ya’ doin? How now…! Mistress Smith

See you later. I shall see you anon Goodman Jones

Anon Goodwife Jones

Goody Jones

Good-bye God be with you maid unmarried girl or woman

Good keep you wench peasant girl or woman

God save you mother older peasant woman

Fare you well gammer grandmotherly peasant

Farewell father older peasant man

Adieu gaffer grandfatherly peasant

THEES and THOUS

Thou is the informal, or familiar, way to say you. It is used to address either social inferiors or your intimates…people such as your spouse, close friends, children, servants, employees, persons you are insulting, non-horse beasts, inanimate objects, and God.

When using thou, verbs generally change by adding –t or –st to the end:

Are à Art Thou art a grinning jack-an-apes and my true love.

Do à Dost What dost thou think?

Drink à Drinkest Drinkest thou here the finest of ales.

Eat à Eatest Thou eatest more than any three men.

Go à Goest Where goest thou so soon?

Have à Hast What hast thou?

Make à Makest Thou makest a good friend and a fearsome enemy

Say à Sayest Sayest that thou dost love me.

Shall à Shalt Thou shalt eat, drink, and merry be!

Walk à Walkest Thou walkest as a man in his cups.

Will à Wilt Thou wilt stay awhile. Wilt thou walk with me?

Thee is generally the object of a sentence. In other words, thee receives the action. It is used when you mean to say: of, for, with, by or to thou.

I do thank thee, fair lass

We do have fine ales for thee.

I would a word with thee, sweet wench.

I do desire to sit beside thee.

Thy and thine are the equivalent of your.

Thy is used before words beginning with a consonant:

Thy music is most well played.

I want to hold thy hands.

Thine is used before words beginning with a vowel:

Thine apples are the finest.

Let me stare into thine eyes.

You is considered a formal word. It is used to address social superiors and strangers to whom you wish to be polite…people such as the Queen, your employer, your parents, those above you in rank, those you are flattering, and horses.

Ye is usually the plural of you in formal situations.

Hear Ye! Hear ye!

Come all ye faithful.

Ye is sometimes a shortened form of you as in God ye good morrow (God grant you a good morning). It never means the as in Ye Olde Antique Shoppe.

Pronunciation (Sounds)

WANT: You, as an American, probably pronouce this word as “waunt,” but in Elizabethan times the a in want was sounded like the a in the words flat, fat, or wax. So want now rhymes with pant. Likewise, water rhymes with hatter. Try this sound with words like father, salt, air, was, fall, halt, hark – not aw but aa.

MAKE: In Elizabethan, this word is sounded as “mek”. They tended to use a short e sound where we use a long a. So take becomes tak, table becomes teble, plate becomes plet. This sound should be drawn out, like the name of the river Thames: Te-ems.

You can see that the Elizabethans didn’t have the drawling aah sound their well-bred descendants use. None of that “Faththah, I’d rahthah naht goew to the cahstle,” here!

HEAD: This word is pronounced “haid.” Likewise, dead becomes daid, bread becomes braid, lead becomes laid. Where have you heard this sound before? In Appalachian America. Why? Because their ancestors came over from England shortly after Elizabeth’s time. They moved up into those mountains and stayed there, isolated from the sounds of the rest of the country until radio and television came along. They preserved the sounds of their ancestors’ speech, just as they preserved their customes and folklore.

I: This word is pronounced “uh-ee.” Anywhere the long I or y sound occurs in Elizabethan English, they are pronounced this way. So my is sounded muh-ee, die is duh-ee, fly is fluh-ee. Avoid the trap of rounding your lips on I and pronouncing it as oi: this is bad vaudeville-stage Irish.

BIT: This word is unchanged. The short I sound was used then just as it is now. It is still it, still is still still.

MERCY: Pronounced in modern American as “murcy.” In Elizabethan it was sounded more like it is written, which makes it come out maircy. Notice the very harrd pronunciation of the letter r. This is another Elizabethan holdover in American speech. We pronounce our letter r very clearly, whereas the modern Britons tend to slur and soften it into an ah sound.

With one exception…

Everyone knows how the old English pirates talked, right? “Arr, me hearrties, I be Long John Silverr and I knows where the trreasurre be…” We think of pirates sounding like that because of the late Robert Newton, who portrayed Long John Silver so memorably and so often that he managed to crowd even Wallace Beery out of people’s minds. Everyone since has used Newton’s particular accent when trying to do a vocal impersonation of a pirate. Think of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland: wall-to-wall Robert Newton impressions. But Robert Newton came from a very rural and conservative part of England where the spoken language hadn’t changed much since Elizabeth’s day. When he was cast as Long John Silver, he decided to do an old-fashioned voice characterization for the part, so he fell back on the country accents he’d grown up with.

FAIR: Ai is a dipthong. The a is the flat a as in was, and the I is the Elizabethan uh-ee sound. Also, the r is very severely pronounced. So the word comes out Faa-er.

NEITHER: EI is another dipthong. Short e, short I: it comes out as nayther.

DAY: Ay, yet another dipthong, this time with the Elizabethan long I and short a. Pronounced daa-ee.

LORD: The short o is pronounced with considerable lip-rounding, and the sound is drawn out. Lord becomes lord, word becomes word, come becomes coom, and so on.

DOWN: This vowel combination is pronounced uy-oo, and the word becomes duh-oon. Any ow or ou sound in Elizabethan is pronounced uh-oo. House, for example, is hu-oose. People in Canada still preserve this sound (suh-oond); so do people in parts of North Carolina.

CUP: The short u is drawn out and rounded – not uh but ooo. Thus, cup becomes coop, up becomes oop, cut becomes coot.

LOVE: Modern America sounds this o as uh, exactly like the short u in cup. But again, the Elizabethans draw the sound out, and it is pronounced the same way the Beatles pronounced it—luv.

SWEARING AND INSULTS

Whatever your favorite 21^st Century expletive is, it’s a safe bet they didn’t use it in Elizabethan England. When you are in character, leave the four-letter kind of words out of your speech. As an Elizabethan, be colorful and creative. A sharp tongue, coupled with a razor wit, were (and are) powerful and much admired weapons. You may want to be bawdy but you NEVER want to be obscene.

Modern verbal abuse is pretty monotonous. A few four-letter words in various repeated combinations are all we seem capable of. But get a load of these examples of invective from Shakespeare’s day:

Falstaff says, “Rogues, hence, avaunt! Vanish like hailstones go! Trudge, plod away on th’hoof, seek shelter, pack! And his henchman Pistol retorts: “Let vultures gripe thy guts!”

To a constable: “You blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner, you starved bloodhound.”

General: “You poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate!”

“Away you scullion! You rampallion! You fustalarion!”

“Standest thou there the lyingest knave in Christendom!”

“Thou are a boil, a plague-sore, or embossed carbuncle.”

Swearing – not insult or abuse, but actual oaths to lend force to one’s speech – was widely practiced. Men swore by:

God’s death

God’s wounds

God’s teeth

Or they swore by the ancient Roman gods and mythic characters, not by the Greek ones. The English at this time considered the Romans to have been nobler than the Greeks. They also popularly believed they were descended from the noble Romans, thanks to some imaginative history written by Geoffrey of Monmouth. There wasn’t any other pagan stuff.

Men also swore by their beards, by their swords, by their honors—all that macho stuff—or by the tools of their trades, if they were commoners. A smith might swear “By my hammer and tongs!”

Men and women could swear by the saints, especially their patron saints. The saint they invoked might depend on the circumstances of the conversation.

Soldier St. Michael Patron Saint of soldiers

Bearkeeper St. Ursula Patron Saint of men who worked with bears

Archer St. Sebastian Patron Saint of arrows

Cook St. Lawrence

Surgeon Cosmas & Damian

Musician St. Cecilia

Find a copy of Lives of the Saints by Butler and dig out some useful saints and attributes to swear by.

Women did not swear as much; their oaths were fairly mild. A woman might swear by her honor, or perhaps by her modesty, chastity, or maidenhead.

If your character is obviously lacking in one or all of these, such an oath can be used to very funny effect. The same would go for a man obviously lacking in beard, sword, or bravery.

Previous vocabulary efforts have given the impression that most of Elizabethan conversation consisted of insulting or propositioning one another. Mind you, it was a fine language for these purposes. Mind you, it was a fine language for these purposes; and if you want to specialize in either of these pastimes you can consult Shakespeare’s Bawdy, a book by Eric Partridge. It goes in and out of print, but a good library should have a copy.

DON’T and BAD

Don’t use the contraction “ain’t”. It hadn’t developed yet. We think it came in with the Victorians.

Don’t use the famous exclamation from old Musketeer movies: “Zounds!” The word as it actually existed was S’wounds!—short for “God’s wounds,” that is, the five fold wounds of Christ.

Don’t use modern Americanisms such as Yeah, Sure, Nope, Uh-huh, Y’know, Okay. Or whatever may yet infiltrate our popular language.

Don’t use the word “Sire”. You might address your king as sire, but there isn’t one on the throne right now. You do not use it as a substitute for sir. Anyway, it sounds medieval.

Don’t use Sirrah. This is not a form of the word sir. It is an insult, and you use it on bad little boys, lazy servants, and any male you wish to infer is a lying rogue.

Don’t use the word Fellow. Innocent as this word sounds to us, the average Elizabethan male appears to have felt insulted being addressed merely as fellow. Apparently it had the same general meaning as dude or pal.

Never drop the beginning “h’s” on words. No ‘Enery, “Iggins, ‘err, thank you very much. That’s Victorian Cockney.

Never use sh for st sounds. Americans tend to turn a t followed by a y or I sound into a ch sound, so that “Got you” becomes “gotcha,” “I bet you” becomes “I betcha,” and the word “Righteous” becomes “Richuss.” Don’t do this! On the whole Elizabethans spoke much more slowly and clearly than we do.

BAD: “Oi” where you mean to say “uh-ee.”

BAD: “M’lord” where you mean to say “Muh-ee lOUrd”

BAD: “G’day” where you mean “Good Morrow.”

BAD: “Zounds” when you mean to say “S’wounds”

BAD: Dropping “R” like modern British

BAD: Any part of Modern British, Cockney, Australian; Monty Python

BAD: Using BFA in an emergency or urgency situation, or where a guest is in any kind of distress. Likewise, BFA becomes NFA – No Faire Accent – Backstage

BAD: Leaping from one melodramatic pose to another; shouting about the pleasant weather. If this BIG stuff gets out of hand, people are going to be annoyed with me for ever mentioning it. BIG is not HUGE. HUGE is BAD.

Contractions: T’was; T’is; is’t; e’ev (“both,” or even and evening); o’er; ne’er’ t’were. Do not use modern contractions – say both words instead.

Double negatives and double superlatives, such as “I have not got no shoes,” “The most unkindest cut of all,” “she is more beautifuller,” were not only correct grammar at this period, they were considered refined.

The use of be to replace is, am, and are, as in the immortal “I be long John Silver, ar, ar, ar,” or “We be loyal Englishmen all.”

Gratuitous use of the word do before a verb: “If I do go to the tavern this day, I do think me I shall meet with thieves.” Or “She did go to market, but did find naught there that did please her.”

When engaging in conversation, where you might say “So then I said—“ or “So she said to me—“ you can use the lovely old word quoth. Example: Now Richard,’ quoth I, ‘thous hadst best get on thy way before daybreak.’ ‘Faith,’ quoth he, ‘only let me sleep another hour.’”

WALK LIKE AN ELIZABETHAN: THE RULE OF BIG

Ok. Sixteenth century English people probably didn’t walk like this, or do any of the other things recommended in this section, but we should. Why? This is theater. We are being watched from a distance, all the time, even if we are talking to a friend near at hand. The key concept here is for our Elizabethan-ness to carry, and for this to happen we must be slightly larger than life. Just like a tree looks smaller at a distance, so do our actions, posture and expressions appear smaller from the vantage point of a guest. Remember, in theater BIG=normal. Act BIG, and you will seem lifesize; act lifesize and you will disappear.

Some BIG things to make yourself appear lifesize:

Good Posture Shoulders back, head up slightly

Open Posture Feet shoulder’s width apart, face the audience

Long Arms Gesture at the full reach of your arms; and DO gesture

Loose Legs Change distance from the ground and angle of stance

Rubber Face Exaggerate facial expressions; communicate to people far

away, smile, wink, smirk, raise the eyebrows, open eyes.

10 Foot Voice Project; not a lot, but talk to people 10 feet away.

Squeak and Growl Use the full range of your voice to add expressiveness

The ten foot voice is most easily achieved by deepening your tone and raising your volume (from the diaphragm) slightly. Practiced enough, you may find that it becomes impossible to demonstrate BFA for a friend at work, say, without your words echoing in such a relatively quiet place as an office.

Of course, we do not want to appear theatrical at every moment of the Faire. But it is necessary to be somewhat bigger than life to appear life-size through the hoards of interested visitors. A useful concept to use is that in environmental theater we can consider our audience to include everyone within about 10 feet (hence the “10 foot voice”). We always want to play to the back of the house, the person sitting ten feet away.

One quick note about “gig courtesy;” if something is going on on a stage, or someone is doing a street gig nearby, it is polite – not to mention good environmental theater – to shrink back to normal size temporarily so as not to compete. Of course, if you’re invited into the gig to play, wellll, swell right back up and give ‘em your best BIG self! Just be aware of what is going on around you, and adjust your volume and size accordingly.

Uh, Uhm, Er & Ulp!

Opening day has arrived! The crowd roils through the front gate like angry water over a dam. Excited, expectant, (sober) they rush to be entertained (and secretly educated) – to experience the Elizabethan England we have created for them. Standing by the Maypole you smell cinnamon buns and horse tourney on the wind. You smile at a small child, who immediately runs at you laughing, arms overhead. Upon reaching you it shrieks in mirth – and hits you, laughing still. You spot the brat’s parents ten feet away. One is furiously zooming the video camera, the other is coming to rescue you, flashing a shrug and wry smile. Clearly, you are expected to say or do something for the camera, for the parent, for the child. The intense flush of annoyance you feel has, however, blocked everything you ever learned about BFA. You are speechless, and worse, caught out of character. Fear not; you can do one or more of the following things:

Smile (BIG)

Wink (Conspiratorially)

Look surprised (BIG)

Laugh (kindly or in pleased surprise)

Gesture, invitingly

Wave

In fact, if you do ALL of these things in approximately this order, even if you never say a word, you will have both communicated and entertained (not to mention that you will have gracefully escaped if you walk away as you wave).

These actions are also useful when you can’t stop to chat, even if you have something to say. For example, while cavorting in a parade or following Her Majesty in stately progress, if you make eye contact and do any of the above you can bring a guest into the event, rather than allowing the event to merely pass by. Likewise, walking through the crowd on some errand, one may not wish to stop and chat, but these simple acts allow quick personal contact with many quests, and keep us BIG and interesting.

CONVERSATION

People of the sixteenth-century had jobs, family, and friends. They celebrated, played, and fell in love. They worried about war, the economy, and illness. To initiate a conversation, you need only:

Seek advice on a personal, business, or domestic problem

Complain about your spouse, relative, friend or master

Discus the Queen’s marriage prospects

Ask someone to mediate an argument

Mistake someone’s identity

Discuss the possibilities of war with Spain

Describe far-off fantastical places that you’ve heard about

Attempt to “sell” something to passers by

Espouse some extreme and comical belief

Tell a story or a joke or ask a riddle

Your Elizabethan speech will truly come alive if it is linked to a characterization and when it is used in an exchange with another character or an audience. Use speech that is appropriate to your character’s place in the Elizabethan hierarchy.

The Bottom Rung

If you portray a peasant laborer, shepherd, street monger, seadog, or other character from the lower ranks of society, be extreme in your use of Elizabethan. Speak with a strong accent. Use the most colorful grammar and syntax variations. Employ an earthy vocabulary.

Social Climbers

If you portray a middle-class merchant, craft-person, military officer, or well-to-do land holder, be less extreme in your choices. Speak with a distinct accent but be more judicious in your use of grammar and syntax variations. For example, you may want to use the gratuitous do before verbs but avoid replacing am and were with be. Employ an expanded vocabulary, saying peradventure instead of mayhap. Insert a few classical references and continental influences into your speech.

Top of the Heap

If you portray a noble person or member of the court, be moderate in your use of grammar and syntax variations. Avoid the more rustic options. Use a mild accent. Employ a broad vocabulary, making generous use of classical references and continental influences. Be more ‘genteel’ in your approach to cursing and swearing.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Unfortunately, the best way to develop both verbal and non-verbal communications skills is to practice. There are three basic things strongly recommended to help you practice:

Read and re-read this guide. In it you will find much good information on actual proper Elizabethan construction, as well as many nice lists of words. Use that information with the techniques presented here, and I daresay you will be quite entertaining and historical.
Speak the speech away from the Faire. Now I don’t mean annoy your parents or boss by “yea”-ing and “nay” –ing all week. Again, the car is a good place just to talk to yourself in Elizabethan. At a loss for words? Read street signs out loud, in BFA. Recite (or sing) modern song lyrics in BFA. (“I would fain sleep with thee in the desert night…”) You get the idea;
Make faces in the mirror. Watch yourself pose and posture and gesture as you speak. Not only will you better understand what is required to communicate across the ten foot environmental stage by non-verbal signals, but the more you are used to seeing yourself using your full range of facial expressions and body English, the sooner you will get over the feeling that you look silly doing it.

CONCLUSION

With a little imagination and practice you can translate just about any situation into sixteenth-century terminology. Not only is it a useful exercise, it’s fun!

Now we’re going to turn you loose with a recommended reading list, most of which consists of one name: Shakespeare, that great and powerful wizard of words, Will Shakespeare himself. Read anything you can find by Shakespeare, but in particular study the language of his common people: the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (and in fact all the servants in that play); Bottom and the other laborers in Midsummer Night’s Dream; the gravedigger in Hamlet. And Shakespeare’s best play of all is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to become familiar with the works of other Elizabethan poets and playwrights such as Ben Jonson (The Alchemist: Bartholomew Faire; Volpone), Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus), Thomas Dekker (The Shoemaker’s Holiday), Robert Greene (Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay). It is also worth locating a copy of Gammer Gurton’s Needle by an anonymous “Mr. S” and the Anatomie of Abuses by the puritan, Phillip Stubbes.

It’s not about ancient Romans or Italian noblemen or princes of Denmark. It’s about ordinary English people living in a little country town, about the year 1574. They’re all excited because the court is staying nearby! Meanwhile life goes on as usual: servants gossip, housewives worry about their children, young lovers sneak off to woo, the village doctor has gotten into a quarrel with the village schoolmaster; and at the village tavern a certain fat and disreputable old knight is wracking his brains for a way to pay his bar bill.

Nearly any character you could wish to play at Faire is here: simple countryman, honest merchants, fops and fools, liars and rogues, wise and witty ladies, servants and nobleman. Each is drawn in detail for your study, each one with her or his own distinctive way of speaking. You’ll find it incredibly useful. It’s also a funny play, full of practical jokes.

Here are some other books and videos you may find useful:

BOOKS:

The Portable Elizabethan Reader, published by Viking Portable Library

The King James version of the bible

English Life in Tudor Times, by Roger Hart

Shakespeare of London, by Marchette Chute

A Visual Guide to Shakespeare’s Life and Times, by Louis B. Wright and Elaine

Fowler

The England of Elizabeth by A.L. Rowse

Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartlett

The Story of English by Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil

A Shakespeare Glossary by C.T. Onions (revised by Robert D. Eagleson)

Shakespeare’s Bawdy by Eric Partridge, Routledge, London & New York

Shakespeare’s Book of Insults, Insights, & Infinite Jests by John W. Seder

Shakespeare’s Insults by Wayne F. Hill & Cynthia J. Ottchen

Brush up Your Shakespeare! By Michael Macrone

The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson

Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, by M. St. Claire Byrne

The Elizabethan Renaissance, by A.L. Rowse

The Elizabethan World by Lacy Baldwin Smith

Elizabethans at Home by Lu Emily Pearson

The England of Elizabeth by A. L. Rowse.

Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley

The Elizabethan Journals by G. B. Harrison

Every One a Witness: The Tudor Age by A. F. Scott

Life in Shakespeare’s England by J. D. Wilson

The New Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse by Emrys Jones

The Portable Elizabethan Reader by Hiram Hayd

Latin for Scholars, Clerks and the overtly pretentious

Amo, Amas, Amat and More by Eugene Ehrlich

The Anchor Book of Latin Quotations by Norbert Gutterman

Latin for All Occasions by Henery Beard

VIDEOS:

Much of Shakespeare has been translated into motion pictures and television features and is available on video tape for the home. Also on video tape are other films that feature the language in a documentary or dramatic context. It doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on your local Public Television station (PBS) as they often run many of our suggestions. Don’t miss the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Shakespeare series if it runs again.

Excalibur, John Boorman; Nicol Williamson, Patrick Stewart

Long John Silver, Goodtimes Video; Robert Newton

Treasure Island, Disney with Robert Newton

The Story of English, PBS

The Six Wives of Henry VIII, BBC

Elizabeth R, BBC

Shakespeare:

Much Ado About Nothing, Kenneth Branaugh; Emma Thompson

Hamlet, Franco Zeffirelli; Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Ian Holm

Henry V, Laurence Olivier

Henry V, Kenneth Branaugh

Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli, Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey

The Taming of the Shrew, Franco Zeffirelli; Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton

Richard III, Laurence Olivier

Available at video stores are numerous other versions of Shakespeare’s plays. Video purchase of some items is available at the time of writing from such catalogs as Signals (public television stations), Wireless (public radio stations), the Shakespeare Catalog (The Writing Company, Culver City, California), and some other video catalogs. They may also be available at your local public library, or on the Internet from places such as Amazon.com.