'To Be or Not To Be’. These famous six words have reverberated perennially around the hearts and minds of generations as far back as the 16th-century. Indeed, they have come to embody the very essence of Shakespeare and his unerring genius. Whether we lend credence to any of the rather far-fetched concomitant conspiracies (if we can label them as such) that have suggested Shakespeare was, in fact, a collective body rather than one individual man, the sheer influence and grasp he/she/they has/have/had on the English language is indisputable.
As we continue to race unhesitatingly down the path of linguistic evolution, let us not neglect the figure that so masterfully shaped the direction of that journey.
Shakespeare is responsible for over 1700 of our common words, having changed nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words completely original. This is no small feat/feet (not bad), considering how many of these words are in the everyday lexicon of millions of people worldwide.
In fact, roughly 1 billion people are now speakers of the English language, so one can only imagine how many times a word has been said for which Shakespeare is partly or indeed wholly responsible (it would actually be an unfathomably high figure in the trillions), and whilst the likes of Kanye West, Trump (sigh) and Corbyn may well claim to rival the Bard in global reach, there really is no match for Shakespeare where words themselves are concerned.
We would be quite right to describe Shakespeare as occupying the Throne of Words, one rather impossible to usurp.
‘Isn’t Shakespeare just like every other playwright of English tongue who has relentlessly inundated us with soliloquies, maxims, aphorisms and witticisms?’ one may ask. Well, yes and no. He may indeed bear similarities to countless other writers that succeeded him and emulated him, but we can assuredly say that there was no one quite like William Shakespeare before well, William Shakespeare. He is the epitome of the English playwright. It is no wonder that he has been featured on so many of our British passports (forget Brexit for now).
The sheer awe of Shakespeare’s writings lies in his ability to convey, seamlessly, the unpredictable ebb and flow of human existence in a mere few sentences:
‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages’.
The poignant effect of this passage is in how accurate it seems to be when one first consumes it intellectually; the absurdity and randomness of the events taking place around us is indeed like a theatre. One is arguably able to craft and manipulate their paths according to evolving whims, needs and requirements. This much-cited quote from the revered As You Like It - Act II Scene VII - reflects that bittersweet sensation of freedom that is at once intoxicating and liberating. Theme-wise, Sartre’s nausea runs in a similar vein.
There is nonetheless a distinct beauty in the thought that we can shape our existence according to situation, a testament to our free will as sentient beings endowed with a natural capacity for language; very few things are certain, very few things are stuck in motion and very few things are truly unchangeable in the nebulous realm of 'human affairs'.
From the two soliloquies alone referenced in this admittedly partial analysis of the great Bard, it is clear that Shakespeare's creations strike a chord with all of us because of their deeply human fabrics; it is a predilection for the affairs of the heart and the contradictory, often flawed, elements of the human condition that the playwright dissected and laid bare to the eye.
Unlike the profound depictions of the natural world that are woven into the literary tapestries of the romantic poets, for example, Shakespeare looked deep into the seas of the human soul, navigating its waters with endless decorum and sensitivity.
So as the great English language continues to evolve, mutate, ameliorate, bifurcate, unite and separate, let us never forget the universal importance and inspiration of that unrivaled Bard.
To be or not to be, then? With so many words still to learn, we may as well be.