General Question

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

Readers, performers, and fans of Shakespeare: how do you pronounce the name Jaques from As You Like It?

Asked by Hawaii_Jake (37734points) April 15th, 2013

He is the one with the famous speech beginning, “All the world’s a stage…”

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

12 Answers

zenvelo's avatar

Jay-kweez. That’s how I was taught when I took a Shakespeare for English Majors class.

zenvelo's avatar

Geez, I just looked it up on Google and there are about 7 different ways!

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I was also taught Jay-kweez, and I’ve had the same question about its pronunciation.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

This online short article says his name is pronounced Jay-kweez and means toilet! Interesting.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

This article also concludes that Jaques means privy, latrine, or toilet, and states that it could be pronounced like my name with an /s/ added: Jakes.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I found a Wikipedia article(writer) backing up the notion that jakes is old slang for toilet.

Response moderated (Off-Topic)
Response moderated (Off-Topic)
Dr_Lawrence's avatar

I prounce it as the French name Jacques.

Rarebear's avatar

It’s my second favorite speech in all of Shakespeare next to the opening of Richard III

Berserker's avatar

Jawk, but with a much softer J sound.

dxs's avatar

In my senior high school literature class, we pronounced it jay-queez as well. I just thought the teacher didn’t know how to pronounce french names but maybe I was wrong.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther