Ask MeFi: Why is the dialogue in Rome all in quasi-Shakespearean English?

[skryche]

[more inside]

Comments

[skippykawakami]

The irony is that in Shakespeare's day, the British accent was likely much closer to the current American accent. So it's latin as represented by pseudo-Shakespeare as spoken today.

All that being said, as arbitrary as it is, I don't think it would sound right to me any other way.

[skryche]

But I'm not talking about just accents -- which I can get past. It's more this kind of crap.

[skippykawakami]

Ah, yes, but they don't speak like that. It's just a contraction-less British, not really Shakesperean.

[skryche]

Okay, next episode I'm going to take notes. And we'll just see if the only mangling is a lack of contractions.

[skippykawakami]

Well, I watched 2.1 (just out of curiousity, why the bitTorrent? Don't you actually have HBO?), and I gotta say, there's nothing to really complain about in the language. Formal English, but that's it. So quit your bitchin'.

[skryche]

I left HBO behind in the old apartment. And I suspect your definition of "formal English" (and why should it be that? It's not all speeches) is a stretch. But we'll see.

[skippykawakami]

Oh, of course, I forgot about the move, duh!

As for 'Formal English", well, yeah, not all the time. A line from last night: "My father's cock! How's that for 'tone'?"

Shakespeare would be proud (actually, he probably would, the little perv)