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I actually like the Costner movie, despite his lack of an accent.
Something to keep in mind: The English of the 12th century did not speak with the same accents the English do today, so any "accent" in that movie is historically inaccurate.
The problem with Costner's accent in that movie is that it is in complete variance to all the other characters and seems to come and go from scene to scene.
I love Mel Brooks. YOUNG FRANKSTEIN is in my Top 5 of all-time favorite movies. But for the life of me I cannot enjoy ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS. It's painfully not funny. What happened, Mel???
I actually like the Costner movie, despite his lack of an accent. Just seeing the trailer for this new Robin Hood movie, I just assumed that it is supposed to be like the King Arthur movie that bombed last year.
Costner's accent was no more inaccurate than any other late-20th century actor would have rendered.
During the reign of Richard I, the English vernacular would be, except for some very short and simple sentences and the occasional word, incomprehensible to our ears. The language was early Middle English. Here's the first five lines of the prologue to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Bear in mind that this was written a full 150 years after the setting of Robin Hood. The Great Vowel Shift was centuries away yet. I mean, Costner's accent was no more inappropriate than the modern English in The Lion in Winter, wherein the English royal family in the 12th century would have spoken French - none of them would have been fluent in English.
When I first saw the trailers for the new Robin Hood, I thought from the costumes it was a sequel to Assains Creed the movie version.I can actually read and understand some of Chaucer's english. The first line in your quote Is When that April' with his showers sooth, and the drought of March has piericed to the root,and bathed every vine in rich liquor or liquid,of which greenery is engendered by the flower, and When Zephirus speak or seek with his sweet breathe. Think that's pretty close.My favourite Robin Hood is the movie with Errol Flynn, olivia de haviland and Basil Rathbone.
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