Forget pronounciation, that varied across the land at that time (and
spelling). The first dictionary of standard English was made by a printer
(was it Caxton?), later Sam'l Johnson (in 1755) wrote a definitive one.
English is a combination of dialects such that rural people in the north and
in the south might have difficulty communicating less than a hundred years
ago. I recommend the "companion book" to the PBS TV series called The Story
of English (McCrum, Cran and MacNeil). It is far from my only source, as I
was brought up the dialects and have read "Shakspere", Chaucer and Spenser,
and others, including many poems from that prolific "anon".
I agree that Spenser used words not used in Shakespear's plays, but
Shakespeare used one hell of a lot of words never heard before. There have
been linguists who have said that good old W.S. invented half the words he
used. An impossibility when you count the ands, ors, buts and the articles.
But the point is made. May I quote from the above book -
"Shakespeare and his contemporaries had experimented with the English
language as no other writers before or since. There was an air of childish
innocence in the ease with which they broke the rules and made the language
sing".
I might disagree a bit, Chaucer made the language sing in his own way, less
in the imagery than in the rhythm. But Chaucerian rhythms depend in part on
the old French spellings and pronounciations that were part of the English
of his time ("Aprille" vs. April vs. Avril).
The pronounciation of standard English words two hundred years ago (among
the people) probably better resembled the Cockney of London today that what
you hear on stage or screen (either BBC TV or the silver one). The
pronounciation of Elizabethan English might best be found (in the absence of
a time machine) by hearing the sounds of isolated enclaves in the colonies
(i.e, the Appalachians, some of the distinctive sounds of the East coast of
the U.S. and Canada).
I used to be a singer, until age and sin <g> took my voice. And that in the
Celtic and English parts of our language. I repeat my recommendation of the
above mentioned book (probably out of print, but it was Penguin 1987 (Viking
Penguin 1986)). Not definitive, but a damned good guide to estimated
pronouciation and the etymology of the language over the centuries that
starts with the early Celtic (Scots, Picts, Cymri, Britons) and runs into
the English of the Angles and Saxons, then to the Middle English of
Chaucer's day that included the Norman French language. And from there to
the present day (including RP, that to salve my Brit friends on this list).
Not a bible, but yet an excellent "single source".
Best, Jon
