Shakespeare did not write in Old English.
Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English. In fact, the proper term for the Renaissance is “Early Modern,” because there were lots and lots of renaissances over the course of several centuries. A renaissance is a “rebirth” of classical knowledge. It means that people are suddenly really interested in what the Romans and Greeks were doing, the local monasteries clean up their act like frat boys the night before Moms’ Weekend, and everyone starts using Latin a lot more. The Renaissance hit its height in the 16th century, but arguably spanned from the 14th all the way to the 17th century. To distinguish this über-renaissance from the rest of the renaissances, historians refer to this period as Early Modern.
So if Shakespeare is Early Modern, what constitutes Old English?
Let me give you a visual and an audio. If you click the link below each passage, it will take you to a YouTube video where you can hear the words pronounced. (Trust me, you’ll want to do this—Middle English may look normal-ish, but it sure doesn’t sound like it.)
4th to 11th century: Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon
hƿæt ƿe ȝardena in ȝeardaȝum,
þeodcyninȝa, þrym ȝefrunon,
hu ða æþelinȝas ellen fremedon.
oft scyld scefinȝ sceaþena
þreatum, moneȝum mæȝþum, meodosetla ofteah,
eȝsode eorlas. syððan ærest ƿearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre ȝebad,
ƿeox under ƿolcnum, ƿeorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æȝhƿylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
ȝomban ȝyldan. þæt ƿæs ȝod cyninȝ.
Just to clarify, the ȝ and ƿ should blend in size-wise with the rest of the text, but unfortunately there is no Unicode for these runes, so I had to copy-paste pictures of them into the text rather than be able to type them or insert them as symbols.
11th to early 15th century: Middle English
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The drought of March hath perced to the roote
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And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
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Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
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Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
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Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
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The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
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Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
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And smale foweles maken melodye,
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That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
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So priketh hem Nature in hir corages;
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Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
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And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
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To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
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And specially from every shires ende
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Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
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The hooly blisful martir for to seke
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That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
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Late 15th to 17th century: Early Modern English
To be thus, is nothing, but to be ſafely thus:
Our feares in Banquo ſtick deep,
And in his Royaltie of Nature reigns that
Which would be fear’d. ’Tis much he dares,
And to that dauntleſs temper of his Minde,
He hath a Wiſdom, that doth Guide his Valour,
To act in ſafety. There is none but he
Whoſe being I do fear, and under him
My Genius is rebuked, as it is said
Mark Anthonies was by Ceſars.
The weird squiggle (ſ) that looks like a fancy letter 'f' is an 's'; our normal letter 's' was used at the end of words, and the squiggle was used at the beginning and in the middle of words. And yes, that’s Ian McKellan. Judy Dench plays Lady Macbeth in the same Royal Shakespeare Company production.
The biggest difference between Middle English and Early Modern English, in my opinion, is the way in which words were pronounced. Middle English is spoken farther back in the mouth and sounds more German; Early Modern is pronounced almost like we pronounce words now. To get a really accurate idea of what Shakespeare's accent sounded like (even better than Gandalf can do), here's a neat YouTube video.
I stole parts of this post from a blog I had a few years ago. I figured the information had not changed and there was no point in tracking down completely different quotations and video links. So if you're having a sense of déjà vu, that's why.
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