Another great article about Shakespeare’s language. Collin highlights how both English language and syntax were more flexible for Shakespeare.

Words were more malleable in early modern English. eg a noun could more easily be transformed into a verb without any complaint as in this line from Richard II:

‘Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.’(2.3.90)

Shakespeare could also drop the helping verb ‘do’ as in Hamlet’s retort to his mother:

‘“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.”’ (1.2.79).

Not ‘I do not know’ but ‘I know not’. This made it easier to write in a specific meter, although dropping the do signalled increased formality or intimacy.

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