This page pulls together a bunch of Shakespeare translator resources from across the web to help you translate Shakespeare into modern English, and in some cases modern English to Shakespearean-style language.
Shakespeare wrote in early modern English, which means many of his words have evolved in their meaning over the last 400 years. At times this makes it difficult to fully understand his works…which is where sites like NoSweatShakespeare, and other Shakespeare translation sites come in. The resources below should help you understand Shakespeare at a much more granular level. If you’re aware of any other good translation tools, please do let us know in the comments section at the bottom of the page!
Shakespeare’s Words Translated:
- Shakespeare dictionary – find all of Shakespeare’s tricky words with an explanation in modern, simple English.
- Old EnglishTranslation allows you to translate words from old English (defined here as spoken between the 5th and 12th century in what is now England and Southern Scotland) to modern English, and vice versa. A straight-up English translator, highly recommended.
- ShakespeareWords.com is the online version of the well-known language companion, allowing you to search for any word or phrase in Shakespeare’s works to get its modern-day meaning, in their glossary.
Shakespeare’s Sentences and Phrases Translated:
- One of the few modern English to Shakespeare translators is LingoJam – type in your English and get fun translations into Shakespeare’s language.
- SpeakShakespeare claims to be a Shakespeare translator but the jury’s out as we’ve been unable to get any decent results from it.
Shakespearean English Translation Software:
- Want to translate Shakespeare on the go? This nifty app available from itunes is a Shakespeare translator for your iphone.
- Download Babylon Translation, a Shakespeare translator software that translates Shakespeare to English, but multiple languages.
And of course we have a whole lot of Shakespeare translation resources right here on NoSweatShakespeare!
- All about Shakespearean insults
Multilingual Shakespeare translator
Why was the English language so creative in Shakespeare’s time?
Shakespeare’s era was after old English and firmly in early modern English. Around this time there was a huge inflow of other European vocabularies into the English language as a result of Renaissance cross-pollination. This created new variations for English words, and allowed endless possibilities for Shakespeare.
In Love’s Labours Lost he is able to exploit multiple meanings of one word to create a sentence like ‘Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile.’ – ‘intellect,’ ‘wisdom,’ ‘eyesight’ and ‘daylight’. (It’s worth checking out this article on Shakespeare original pronunciation to understand the ways in which Shakespeare used pronunciation as well as the words themselves to get his characters’ meaning across.)
Thou art a villain
The reason that I have to love thee doth much exude the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain I am none. Therefore farewell I see thou knowest me not
I do protest I never injured thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.
And so, good Capulet—which name I tender
As dearly as my own—be satisfied
Thou appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
She never told her love
But let concealment like a worm I’th’bud
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with green and yellow melancholy
She sat like Patience on a monument
Smiling at grief’
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.
you are a saucy boy
Should I account thy love .Art thou afeard?
blood removed … own
ancient damnation! o most wicked fiend! is more sin to wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my Lord with that same tongue Which she hath praised him with above compare so many thousand times? Go, counselor! thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. I’ll to friar to know his remedy. if all else fail, myself have power to die