Directions: Write a 1500 word essay on the following topic: How does the language in Romeo and Juliet support the widely accepted belief that Shakespeare is the greatest writer in the English language and the greatest playwright of all time?

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Shakespeare and the English Language
Shakespeare is without adoubt, one of the greatest contributors to the English language. What made the Bard one of the most influential men in the history of English language is the responsibility he had in the development of the Early Modern English. Most people do not realize how profound the influence of the playwright is in the English language. Our everyday speech is full of phrases coined by Shakespeare. In the Bard’s time, the language was shifting toward what it is today. The English of Chaucer was changing, and reflecting the new expressions and inflections that the language had acquired during the Renaissance. The language of Chaucer had been less flexible in terms of use, and when compared to the Shakespearean English, it lacks the expressive and discursive capabilities of the latter. When compared to other languages, the English language has undergone many changes, and it became a language with considerable expressive capacities. For instance, Shakespeare, noticing the lack of expression of his language, entered and adopted new words to the everyday lexicon.Words like “dauntless” to name one, were not used before the Bard gave them to life in his play Henry VII “To fortune’s yoke, bur let thy dauntless/mind/still ride in triumph over all mischance (Shakespeare III, 3). That kind of things were only possible in a changing language such as the English of …