The Language of Science in Shakespeare's Time

This essay provides a review of different forms of scientific language in sixteenth-century England – and an idea of the impact such language might have had on an audience that was becoming wider and more popular. Scientific English proper is customarily said to begin in the seventeenth century with the rise of the Royal society: the essay begins with an outline of the development of forms of specialized English in the early modern period, drawing on recent research in order to discuss time frames and the possibility of broadening the scope of what may be recognized as scientific language in a diachronic perspective. Highlighting early linguistic practices in a crucial period of the history of science, the essay foregrounds some of the key scientific texts in English of the age, but also some lesser-known writings that testify to a conscious linguistic endeavour on the part of authors/translators, who, by adopting the vernacular for the transmission of knowledge, were giving a voice to new ideas, or re-invigorating past ones, which may not have been lost on Shakespeare’s ears. Such texts show a growing awareness of the potential of English as a language able to express scientific and technical concepts, one that no longer needed to be in awe of the perceived elegance and perspicuity of Latin, - an awareness that paved the way for the rise of scientific English in the seventeenth century as well as its establishment as a global language.