How Shakespeare and his players REALLY sounded: Voice artist reveals the actors spoke in deep tones with bizarre 'pirate' accents formed from a melting pot of English dialects

  • Modern Shakespeare productions are performed using received pronunciation
  • But this is not how the plays were recited in the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Actors of the time would have had a strange accent that mixed several dialects
  • This is because London was a 'melting pot' of regional accents, one expert says 
  • Plays would have been performed with a deeper tone because the actors needed to project their voices over rowdy crowds 

By HARRY PETTIT FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

William Shakespeare may have had a bizarre 'pirate' accent with flecks of nearly every regional UK English dialect - a reflection of the 'melting pot' London he lived in.

To modern ears, he would have also sounded slightly American, and at times Australian, researchers claim.

That strange accent extends to the actors who performed his plays. They would recite lines with a fast pace and in deep tones so they could be heard above the crowds.

Now, one voice artist has recorded exactly what Shakespeare and his actors sounded like 400 years ago. 

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ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION 

- Drew from a mixture of different accents due to people from across the UK moving to London

- Had a deeper tone so actors could project over rowdy crowds

- Was faster than modern, received pronunciation

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In a recital to a live audience, voice artist Ben Crystal reads the opening lines of Romeo and Juliet.

Today's Shakespeare productions are often performed using modern, received pronunciation (RP), but Mr Crystal's recital is very different. 

He first reads the lines using RP, and then in what he calls Shakespeare's 'original pronunciation' (OP). 

'There's definitely been a change over the last 50 to 60 years of Shakespeare performance.

'The trend I think has been to speak the words very beautifully...and carefully — and some might say stoically — and it's very, very different than how it would have been 400 years ago,' he told NPR.

The playwright's legendary Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644.

At this time the capital was a 'melting pot' of accents from across the globe, Mr Crystal claims.

People moved to London from all over the UK, meaning that the city's dialect was a diverse blend of regional tones and dialects.

The West Country accent was particularly prominent due to Bristol's status as a major global port town at the time.

Bristol helped to introduce the Australian and American accent to London - traces of which can be heard in Shakespeare's OP.

'Wherever I go whatever age whether it's eight years old or 80 years old and I say what accent does that remind you of and someone goes 'Pirates of the Caribbean', Mr Crystal says.

Voice artist Ben Crytal (pictured) has revealed that Shakespeare's plays would have been recited in a deep tone, with an accent drawn from regions across the UK, US and Australia

Voice artist Ben Crytal (pictured) has revealed that Shakespeare's plays would have been recited in a deep tone, with an accent drawn from regions across the UK, US and Australia

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT PEOPLE SOUNDED LIKE 400 YEARS AGO?

These are several techniques that linguistic experts have used to decipher how people of Shakespeare's time spoke.

Mr Crystal told NPR in 2012 that researchers use three sets of data to figure out how 16th century London sounded. 

One way is through rhymes and poems - almost two thirds of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets don't rhyme when read in a modern accent.

'You can extrapolate those kind of rhyme schemes across the sonnets, and indeed some of the plays rhyme - that's one set of data,' Mr Crystal said.

People of the 16th and 17th century used to spell more like they used to speak, Mr Crystal said.

'So a word like film in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech is spelled philom in the folio, and we know that's a two syllable word like phi-lom.'

Linguists of the period also documented how words were pronounced in books.

'All of that data brings us to 90-95 percent right, which isn't bad for 400 years,' Mr Crystal said. 

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'Shakespeare's London was a melting pot of accents, people would come from Norwich and Wales and Scotland and Ireland and Midlands and Somerset and pirate country.

'They come to London and their accents would all mix in together and then of course later on they'd go to Bristol and sail across to America and later still they'd be sent to Bristol and go down to Australia and that's in part where those accents all come from.'

Mr Crystal says that actors in Shakespeare's original productions would have spoken in a deeper tone than today's recitals.

That deeper resonance helped actors project their voice in the open-air Globe theatre, which housed notoriously rowdy crowds.

Mr Crystal says that actors in Shakespeare's original productions would have spoken in a deeper tone modern recitals. That deeper resonance helped actors project their voice over rowdy crowds. Pictured is a modern production of Romeo and Juliet at London's Globe Theatre

Mr Crystal says that actors in Shakespeare's original productions would have spoken in a deeper tone modern recitals. That deeper resonance helped actors project their voice over rowdy crowds. Pictured is a modern production of Romeo and Juliet at London's Globe Theatre

THE ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION EXPERIMENT 

Mr Crystal's work is based on an experiment by producers working at the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, which opened on the south bank of London's River Thames in 1997.

Actors performed a series of Shakespeare productions using OP in an attempt to recapture the original sound of the playwright's work.

Despite producers' fears that the accent would alienate audiences, the OP shows were a huge success. 

'If there's something about this accent, rather than it being difficult or more difficult for people to understand ... it has flecks of nearly every regional U.K. English accent, and indeed American and in fact Australian, too,' Mr Crystal told NPR in a 2012 interview.

'It's a sound that makes people — it reminds people of the accent of their home — and so they tend to listen more with their heart than their head.'

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Actors of Shakespeare's time would have spoken faster than those performing using RP today, Mr Crystal says.

Shakespeare's original productions would have been considerably shorter than modern versions due to the actors' quick dialect

Shakespeare's original productions would have been considerably shorter than modern versions due to the actors' quick dialect

This means the playwright's original productions would have been considerably shorter than modern versions.

While Mr Crystal's video was first published to YouTube in 2014, it came to light again this week when it was shared by LaughingSquid.

Mr Crystal's work is based on an experiment by producers working at the modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, which opened on the south bank of London's River Thames in 1997.

Actors performed a series of Shakespeare productions using OP in an attempt to recapture the original sound of the playwright's work.

Despite producers' fears that the accent would alienate audiences, the OP shows were a huge success.

'If there's something about this accent, rather than it being difficult or more difficult for people to understand..it has flecks of nearly every regional UK English accent, and indeed American and in fact Australian, too,' Mr Crystal told NPR.

The playwright's legendary Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644

The playwright's legendary Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644

'It's a sound that makes people — it reminds people of the accent of their home — and so they tend to listen more with their heart than their head.'

'One of the most famous sonnets ... Sonnet 116 ... everybody has [it] in their weddings because it has the word marriage in it: Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments,' he said.

'When I started speaking this sonnet, it changed from something highfalutin and careful and about marriage and it became a real testament of love.''

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