I think that you are mistaken about Shakespeare.  He and the other
authors of the English Renaissance benefited from a return
to basic grammar that had been decreed by Henry VIII. In the fifteenth
century, grammatical instruction in the schools had suffered because
scholars were preoccupied with theoretical or speculative grammars that
raised some of the same philosophical issues as contemporary linguists
address.

Shakespeare's  basic textbook was Lily's grammar.  It is true that this is
aimed at Latin but it is based on grammatical concepts that are easily
transferred to English and have to be if they are to be understood. As a
Latinist, I can assure you that English speakers do not and cannot learn
about sentence subjects, prepositional phrases, participles, the passive
voice, or appositives in Latin without understanding what they they refer
to in English.  Shakespeare seems to me to be the clearest imaginable
example of author who benefits from a deep, conscious understanding of
grammar.  I suppose you could say that you he and the other
masters of the 17th century show that you don't need to STUDY ENGLISH
grammar, but that's only if you start Latin in the first grade, approach
it with a grammatical syllabus, and make it the main subject studied.



On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, Richard Veit wrote:


> >I don't doubt that many famous writers have done "quite well without
> >having studied grammar."  I am wondering though if you have some
> >documented instances in mind.  I think that it would be instructive to
> >contemplate some specific examples.  (I already know about Homer and the
> >other Greeks pre-Aristotle.)
>
> I don't believe that English grammar was studied--or even deemed worthy of
> study--until the eighteenth century. Volume I of the Norton Anthology of
> English LIt will provide a lengthy list of great writers who never studied
> English grammar, including whatsizname who wrote Hamlet. True, many of them
> studied Latin grammar, but the grammar of that Romance language is very
> different from that of our own Germanic offshoot. I'd also bet that half
> the writers on the NY Times best seller list (or any other random group of
> modern eminent writers you might name) would tell you they couldn't
> identify an absolute or an appositive, even though they use both beautifully.
>
> By the way, I support grammar instruction for a host of reasons. That it is
> essential in order to be a good writer happens not to be one of them.
>
> Dick Veit
> UNCW English Dept.

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