#dailywritingtips

By Maeve Maddox

For me, April is Shakespeare’s month. I’ll be writing several Shakespeare-related posts this month, starting with Shakespeare in the movies.

According to tradition, William Shakespeare was born and died on Saint George’s Day, April 23. I find it poignant that one of his characters, Cassius, also dies on his birthday:

This day I breathed first: time is come round, And where I did begin, there shall I end; –Julius Caesar V, iii

A popular academic pastime has been–and continues to be–arguing that someone other than the man from Stratford wrote the plays because the “real” Shakespeare was too uneducated and homebound to have come up with such language, geographical references, and classical allusions. It’s one of the oldest conspiracy theories in existence.

The official Shakespeare canon includes 16 comedies, 10 histories, 12 tragedies, 154 sonnets, and five longer poems.

Writers have been mining the Shakespearean canon for 420 years and show no signs of exhausting it. Movie makers have been at it for 111 years. The first known film to make use of a Shakespeare play was a British production made in 1899. Only a two-minute scene survives, showing Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree acting the death scene of King John from the play of the same name.

Hollywood has produced at least 250 films based on the plays or on characters or plots from the plays. OfHamlet alone, close to 100 movie and TV adaptations have been made since 1907. Not just English-speaking movie makers raid the canon. Ran, for example, is a Japanese movie that sets King Lear in feudal Japan and turns Lear’s daughters into sons.

Here are some movie titles followed by the name of the Shakespeare play that inspired them:

A Double Life (1947) Othello A Thousand Acres (1997) King Lear All Night Long (1962) Othello Catch My Soul (1974) Othello Forbidden Planet (1956) The Tempest King of Texas (2002) King Lear Kiss Me Kate (1948) The Taming of the Shrew Let the Devil Wear Black (1999) Hamlet Men of Respect (1991) Macbeth My Own Private Idaho (1991) Henry IV and Henry V plays Ran (1985) King Lear Romeo Must Die (2000) Romeo and Juliet Scotland, PA (2001) Macbeth She’s the Man (2006) Twelfth Night Strange Brew (1983) Hamlet The Boys from Syracuse (1940) Comedy of Errors Tower of London (1939) Richard III Were the World Mine (2008) A Midsummer’s Night Dream West Side Story (1961) Romeo and Juliet Yellow Sky (1943) The Tempest

Summer cinema can be a bit hit and miss, but with Norwich’s most superficial and socially incompetent DJ and all-round celebrity bursting onto our screens this month, we can be sure of at least one bona fide blockbuster for 2013. Knowing me, The Wonderful Wordsmith, knowing him, Alan Partridge, one thing can be certain: cinemas full of people sinking into their seats with embarrassment for the man who once referred to U2’s political protest Sunday Bloody Sunday as a ‘great song’, probably while dismantling a Corby trouser press.

So, why am I rattling on about this year’s outing of Steve Coogan’s famously narcissistic alter ego? Apart from being quite keen to see the film myself (don’t tell my husband), my own favourite Partridge-ism was once again brought to my attention by this rather comprehensive list of small but expressive interjections.

Beautiful Words

Amorphous: indefinite, shapeless Beguile: deceive Caprice: impulse Cascade: steep waterfall Cashmere: fine, delicate wool Chrysalis: protective covering Cinnamon: an aromatic spice; its soft brown color Coalesce: unite, or fuse Crepuscular: dim, or twilit Crystalline: clear, or sparkling Desultory: half-hearted, meandering Diaphanous: gauzy Dulcet: sweet Ebullient: enthusiastic Effervescent: bubbly Elision: omission Enchanted: charmed Encompass: surround Enrapture: delighted Ephemeral: fleeting Epiphany: revelation Epitome: embodiment of the ideal Ethereal: celestial, unworldly, immaterial Etiquette: proper conduct Evanescent: fleeting Evocative: suggestive Exuberant: abundant, unrestrained, outsize Felicity: happiness, pleasantness Filament: thread, strand Halcyon: care-free Idyllic: contentedly pleasing Incorporeal: without form Incandescent: glowing, radiant, brilliant, zealous Ineffable: indescribable, unspeakable Inexorable: relentless Insouciance: nonchalance Iridescent: luster Languid: slow, listless Lassitude: fatigue Lilt: cheerful or buoyant song or movement Lithe: flexible, graceful Lullaby: soothing song Luminescence: dim chemical or organic light Mellifluous: smooth, sweet Mist: cloudy moisture, or similar literal or virtual obstacle Murmur: soothing sound Myriad: great number Nebulous: indistinct Opulent: ostentatious Penumbra: shade, shroud, fringe Plethora: abundance Quiescent: peaceful Quintessential: most purely representative or typical Radiant: glowing Redolent: aromatic, evocative Resonant: echoing, evocative Resplendent: shining Rhapsodic: intensely emotional Sapphire: rich, deep bluish purple Scintilla: trace Serendipitous: chance Serene: peaceful Somnolent: drowsy, sleep inducing Sonorous: loud, impressive, imposing Spherical: ball-like, globular Sublime: exalted, transcendent Succulent: juicy, tasty, rich Suffuse: flushed, full Susurration: whispering Symphony: harmonious assemblage Talisman: charm, magical device Tessellated: checkered in pattern Tranquility: peacefulness Vestige: trace Zenith: highest point

Ugly Words

Wether is a prime example of a word that will slip past the spell check. It is easily confused with two of its homonyms, whetherand weather. Flying fingers find it easy to miss the single letter that separates them. Unless you’re a farmer, you might not even know that wether is either a:

male sheep or ram (the Oxford Dictionary of Etymology traces its roots to Old English, Old High German, Old Norse and Goth)

or a:

castrated ram or billy goat (according to A Word A Day).

We all know that MS Word can be easily confused, but there’s no need for us to face the same confusion.

Weather, that stuff up there in the sky, is the ‘condition of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, calm or storm, etc’. That’s according to the Oxford Dictionary of Etymology.

Interestingly, when it was first used in Old English in the 12th century, weather always had adverse implications. In the 14th century, the term also referred to the wind direction, and its roots lie in various terms meaning either wind orstorm.

Weathering, derived from weather, is the result of exposure to wind and weather.

The frequently misspelled whether is used to introduce a question, often outlining a choice between options. Its roots lie in Old English and Old High German.

The words below are either obsolete, archaic, or old-fashioned, and though those in the latter category can still be found in modern writing, use all with caution. Sparing use keeps these words alive and adds a whimsical or quaint note, but too frequent recourse to such antiquities will have you sounding like a Renaissance Faire refugee. (Most are adjectives or adverbs or both; some can function as other parts of speech as well, as indicated.)

1. Anon (adv.): soon, or later (“They will arrive anon”; “I will reveal more anon”) 2. Aright (adv.): correctly (“Did I hear aright?”) 3. Athwart (adj., prep.): across (“The locked chest lay athwart the planks”) 4. Belike (adv.): probably (“Belike we are more similar than you think”) 5. Enow (adj., adv.): enough (“If I had loved enow, I would be a happier man”) 6. Fain (adj., adv.): willing, compelled, inclined, pleased (“Fain am I to hear you sing”) 7. Forsooth (adv.): indeed (“Forsooth, I do believe you envy him”) 8. Forthwith (adv.): immediately (“Carry this message forthwith”) 9. Froward (adj.): contrary, adverse (“His horse was forward, and threw him when he set his spurs”) 10. Heretofore (adv.): up to this time (“Heretofore, I had not believed it possible”) 11. Hither (adj., adv.): to this place (“Come hither when you are able”) 12. Hitherto: see heretofore 13. Lief (adj., adv.): beloved (“You are my lief friend”); willing (“I would as lief be beside you now”) 14. Mayhap (adv.): perhaps (“Mayhap we shall see them tomorrow”) 15. Meet (adv.): appropriate (“It is meet that you do so”) 16. Nary (adj.): not any or not one (“Nary a sign have I seen of him”) 17. Natheless (adv.): nevertheless (“Though it is dangerous, natheless will I go) 18. Needs (adv.): necessarily (“I must needs be heard so that all shall know”) 19. Nigh (adj., adv.; prep.): near, nearly, direct (“Those who pursue are nigh upon us”) 20. Peradventure (adj., adv., prep.): see mayhap (also n.: a doubt or chance) 21. Posthaste (adj., adv., n.): immediate (“Your posthaste reply is appreciated”); as quickly as possible (“We will arrive posthaste”) 22. Puissant (adj.): powerful (“She is a puissant adversary”) 23. Sith (adv.): since (“Sith that time, I have wept often over the memory”) 24. Strait (adj., adv.): narrow, or strict or rigorous (“I would have you be strait in your habits”) 25. Thither (adj., adv.): there, on the other or farther side (“Our host took us thither”; “What you seek is in the thither valley”) 26. Verily (adv.): certainly, truly, with confidence (“Verily, I did see it with my own eyes”) 27. Whereof (adv., conj.): of what (“Whereof have you seen in the world?”) 28. Withal (adv., prep.): besides, nevertheless (“Though you may be right, I withal must see for myself”) 29. Yare (adj.): agile, handy, ready (“She’s a yare vessel, all right”) 30. Yon (adj., adv., pron.): over there (“I ride to yon village”; “What do you see yon?”)

"I will reveal more anon,"