[rootbear]

When I first learned about these OP (Original Pronunciation) productions of Shakespeare, from a BBC news article on-line, they commented that it sounded like the English of North Carolina! If you are interested in this, I recommend "Pronouncing Shakespeare" by David Crystal. It documents how he worked with the Globe company on an OP performance of "Romeo and Juliet".

[leoc]

Nice short video featuring the Crystals, the Globe and Shakespeare's OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiblRSqhL04 .

[amyjess]

I would imagine that they're not talking about general North Carolina English so much as the dialect of the island of Ocracoke, which has a number of conservative features that date back to Shakespeare's day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Tider