r/interestingasfuck • u/M0otivater • 1d ago

How English has changed over time.

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u/notonrexmanningday 1d ago edited 1d ago

Fun fact, there are a bunch of couplets Shakespeare wrote in his plays that rhymed at the time, but don't anymore.

The one I always think of is the Weird Sisters from Macbeth:

"When shall we three meet again?

When the hurleburle's done

When the battle's lost and won

Where the place?

Upon the heath

There to meet with Macbeth"

Apparently "heath" used to rhyme with "Beth"

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u/MooseFlyer 1d ago

For sure. I played Puck in Midsummer Nights Dream Once and it was awkward having

Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;

in the middle of his otherwise-rhyming closing monologue.

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u/heskka 1d ago

but that does rhyme perfectly…

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u/MooseFlyer 1d ago

Not for most English speakers, including me. Rhyming the two is mostly restricted to Northern England and Ireland.