It’s going from Bard to verse (From Bournemouth Echo)

It’s going from Bard to verse

8:38am Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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ALONG with interpreting the Bible, messing about with William Shakespeare is a risky business.

But quite what Will would have made of local author Martin Baum's reworking of his language is anyone's guess.

Mind you, I'm fairly sure that anyone over the age of 21 is going to find "de geezas were well miffed with Falstaff" jarring.

To be honest, I'm a bit of a Philistine when it comes to the Elizabethan musings of Mr W. Shakespeare.

I had to put up with him for several years and I am only grateful that I was landed with the easiest of his plays to grasp - Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra - in my A Level years because anything more taxing would have had me struggling.

Martin Baum is right about Shakespeare's language not being terribly relevant for today's young students at a time when society and technology have combined to introduce an entirely different language, from textspeak to street talk.

But it's the themes of Shakespeare's tales that are the easiest to understand.

Hollywood has somehow managed to adapt the language to great effect, whether it's Brando as Caesar or Leonardo diCaprio's Romeo in Baz Luhrmann's excellent reworking of the love story.

They haven't even had to take the title to steal the ideas, from sci-fi favourite Forbidden Planet's take on The Tempest to Ten Things I Hate About You's version of The Taming Of The Shrew.

Ultimately, teaching young people about language is not about throwing away the rule book in favour of the trendy.

Heaven knows what teachers battling to introduce spelling, grammar and syntax to impressionable youngsters will make of "nobody knew the bloodfirsty minger like de bitch what gave birth to him"...

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