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Professor Chrsitopher Mulvey has been invited to write an article for English Review journal following his 2016 monthly English Project Shakespeare blogs.  The journal, published by Hodder Education, is aimed at A-Level English Literature Students.

Entitled ‘Past, present and future: Shakespeare and the Story of English’, Chris discusses the historical emergence of the English that Shakespeare would have spoken and notes its unspecial place among the many other languages in use at that time.  Throughout Shakespeare’s lifetime, however, the tide was turning and English was slowly beginning to come to prominance in Africa, Asia and America.

Chris concludes by examining how English rose to become a global language despite the fact that ‘there is nothing linguistically special about English and no intrinsic reason why it has achieved this commanding role.’

Read Chris’ article by clicking the attachment below:

Past, Present and Future – Shakespeare and the Story of English

Venus and Adonis was William Shakespeare’s first ‘big hit’ when the long poem was published in 1593. Funny and wry in its account of the older Venus’s erotic infatuation with the beautiful youth Adonis (who had other things on his mind) the poem had to be reprinted twelve times to satisfy its enormous popularity especially with students and women.

This abridged version from Cecily O’Neill, accompanied by specially commissioned illustrations by Kate Arnold, adapts the poem for small-scale staged productions. Supported by introductory articles to putthe poem into its literary and historical context (notably the relationship of Shakespeare with Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton to whom the poem was dedicated) it brings  this brilliant but often overlooked work to new readers, performers and theatre audiences.

‘A clever and exciting performance adaptation, which will bring this fascinating but unjustly neglected dramatic poem to the attention of a new audience.’
Professor David Crystal

‘It’s written in the vernacular … the erotic poetry which had been the province of scholars and gentlemen was suddenly being read by every housewife.’
Germaine Greer – Hay Festival 2016

Click here to buy the book from Amazon 

The English Project was delighted this week to receive copies of its first book to be translated into Chinese.  Authors of ‘A History of the English Language in 100 Places’, Bill Lucas and Chris Mulvey, were very excited at the potential size of their new readership!

The book examines the 100 places woldwide which The English Proejct believes to have had the greatest impact on the English language. Some represent historic firsts, some are tied to significant people and some have seen events that have shaped the future of English. Each one takes the reader on a journey into the rich past and potential future of the English tongue.

Of their 100 places, Bill and Chris list Beijing as number 99 and examine the claim of many that Madarin, currently a super-tongue, may overtake English as THE global language by 2050.

‘100 Places’ is also very much a travelogue, and with affluent Chinese tourists exploring many diverse corners of the Earth, it is hoped that sites which have influenced the English language will soon be figuring more strongly in their travel agendas.

English Project Trustee, Professor Chris Mulvey, has been invited to lecture in Paris as the city celebrates the 400th anniversary of the death of the bard.  Chris is delighted and honored to be addressing a prestigious audience at La Mairie du Septième Arrondissement on 25th May and has entitled his talk ‘William Shakeseare: A French Poet?  – A Parisian Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of his Death’.

Chris’ lecture will identify what is French in the language of William Shakespeare by focusing on two of his plays: Romeo and Juliet and Henry the Fifth. 

Romeo and Juliet is the most romantic of his tragedies. It is the most beloved of young people because of its union of love and death. Its verse flows as freely as kisses. Its lyricism is charged equally by sexual expression and sexual repression. The language of Romeo and Juliet has the energies of Shakespeare’s erotic narrative poems and the intensities of his courtly sonnets. 

The Life of Henry the Fifth is a play that rejoices in its hero king, Henry, warrior and wooer. Henry V not only defeated the French; he went on to win the hand of Katherine, the daughter of the King of France. Henry is powerful and kingly in battle. He is playful and winning in courtship. He invades Katharine as he invades France.

Chris explains: ‘French began to be an influence on the English language with the arrival of the French-speaking Norman kings in 1066. In the next five hundred years, English was massively refashioned by French so that by the time Shakespeare was born, English had become a fusion language, a mixture of the Germanic and the Italic. It would be to go too far to call Shakespeare a French poet, but without the French language Shakespeare’s poetry would be a very different poetry.’

Read the full synopsis of Chris’ lecture in English or in French.

Primarily aimed at students of A-level English Language, this thought-provoking material looks at two samples of World War I -related text: a soldier’s personal diary from 1914 and a recruitment poster from 1916.

Exercises encourage students to think analytically about the way that the diary is written and how this differs from our use of English today. There is also a focus on how the War was a catalyst for the coining of new slang and jargon – and how this process is still responsible for the creation of new words, the most ‘successful’ of which are added to the OED every year.

The recruitment poster was designed to encourage men to sign-up for military service before the introduction of conscription.  It is fascinating, both in its design and use of language, and students are encouraged to explore these aspects.

If you choose to use this material for teaching on or around English Language Day, or if you are student who used it as part of your studies, then please let us know what you thought about it (and respond to our challenge about words which you think have been influenced by war!).

The English Project is grateful to the Somerset Military Museum Trust and the Somerset Heritage Centre for their assistance and for permission to use these historical documents.

The material was designed by Marcus Barrett, Head of English at Richard Huish School, Taunton and Alissa Harvey, a student of English Language at Bay House Sixth Form, Gosport.

Download your copy of the teaching resource below:

English Language Day 2014: Language of War

In the course of research by The English Project into the colloquialisms used by soldiers during World War I for our new teaching resource, we came upon a fascinating WWI glossary credited to a Paul Hinckley.  His list of colloquialisms appears on several websites (including many Wikipedia references) which claim to reproduce the work with permission of the author – but our extensive searches for Paul revealed nothing. 

We contacted Dr David Tuffley an ICT lecturer at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, whose web pages carry the best reproduction of Hinkley’s work Battlefield Colloquialisms.  David told us the story of how in the 1990’s he had discovered the glossary on an early website of the kind which allowed amateurs to post hobby material for free.   It did originally include contact details but they have been lost over the years.  David also searched for Hinckley more recently without success; he concluded that Paul Hinckley might have had personal links with The Great War and could well have been elderly.  So it seems that David had rescued Hinckley’s work and continues to make it available.  We do know that Paul operated a website at www.oldcontemptible.com which was a highly-regreded WWI resource, but this disappeared in 2004.  We have also found the suggestion that Paul came from Bristol.

But the story doesn’t end here.  David Tuffley was inspired by Hinckley’s archive to refine and build upon it.  Using a wide variety of resources including: diaries from the trenches, slang dictionaries, military history journals and a personal account by his own grandfather Albert Money, a private in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (The Green Jackets), David has produced a very affordable and comprehensive book (£0.77 as and e-book)  Amazon Kindle , iTunes.

So we are no closer to finding the mysterious Paul Hinckley.  Do contact us if you have any information about him, we’d love to know how he came to compile his glossary.