
Show Notes
John Heywood was a playwright and poet who made two important contributions to the history of English. He was a key figure in the emergence of modern English drama which led directly to William Shakespeare at the end of the century. He was also a proverb collector who assembled most of the common proverbs in English into a popular poem that serves as an important resource for modern historians of the language. In this episode, we examine English proverbs, the emergence of modern English drama, and words associated with comedy and humor in Tudor England.
TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 152
More from The History of English Podcast
As the English Civil War raged in the 1640s, English grammarians wrote about several developments in the language, including a new sound appearing in the word “vision” and new ways of describing future actions and events. The military conflict was also shaping the language by contributing new terms to the lexicon. And a new sense of “self” was emerging, which had far-reaching consequences for philosophy, politics, and the English language. In this episode, we explore how these developments shaped the language we speak today and provided a vision of the future.
During the decade of the 1640s, England was divided by Civil War. At the same time, the sound of letter of U was also experiencing its own division, ultimately resulting in two distinct ‘long’ sounds and two distinct ‘short’ sounds. In this episode, we explore those developments and examine how the English Civil War shaped the English language.
As we conclude our look at the 1630s, we explore the events leading to Civil War in England and the expansion of the English colonies along the eastern coast of North America. We also examine the evolution of syllable stress in English and the variation in stress patterns in Modern English.
In this episode, we explore the first large-scale migration of English settlers to North America in the early 1600s. The settlers arrived in the newly established Massachusetts Bay Colony. We explore the events that led to this migration, and we also explore the linguistic connections between New England and East Anglia in eastern England.
In this episode, we explore the influence of seafaring on the English language in the early 1600s. We also look at events in the latter half of the 1620s, which included the first permanent English settlements in the Caribbean. This period saw the arrival of Charles I as the new king of England and Scotland, so we also examine his early reign and his repeated conflicts with Parliament.