speakers of 17th-century English would have similar problems with modern English
Late Shakespeare is in the early 17th century. It can sometimes take a moment to get attuned to the way of speaking, but their speech is absolutely intelligible to us, and barring some of the more out-there slang I suspect the reverse would also be true. You gotta go way further back to get seriously unintelligible.
Late Shakespeare is in the early 17th century. It can sometimes take a moment to get attuned to the way of speaking, but their speech is absolutely intelligible to us, and barring some of the more out-there slang I suspect the reverse would also be true. You gotta go way further back to get seriously unintelligible.