Table Of Content‘Think on my words’
Exploring Shakespeare’s
Language
David Crystal
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Contents
Listoffiguresandtables pagevii
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
1 ‘YouspeakalanguagethatIunderstandnot’:
mythsandrealities 1
Thequantitymyth 2
Theinventionmyth 8
Thetranslationmyth 10
Thestylemyth 15
2 ‘Now,sir,whatisyourtext?’Knowingthesources 22
Texts 22
Printing 27
Manuscripts? 31
Shakespeare’slanguage? 40
3 ‘InprintIfoundit’:Shakespeareangraphology 42
Thealphabet 43
Capitalization 48
Space-savers 53
Spelling 58
4 ‘Knowmystops’:Shakespeareanpunctuation 64
Exclamationmarks 72
Parentheses 78
Apostrophes 83
Italics 88
Invertedcommas 94
Hyphens 96
5 ‘Speakthespeech’:Shakespeareanphonology 100
Thewaytheysaidit 101
Prosody 105
Whypentameters? 112
v
vi Contents
6 ‘Trippinglyuponthetongue’:Shakespearean
pronunciation 125
Theevidence 130
Insights 143
7 ‘Thinkonmywords’:Shakespeareanvocabulary 146
Easywords 147
Metricalconstraints 150
Difficultwords 152
Falsefriends 156
Oldandnewwords 159
Coinages 161
Clusters 165
Repetitions 168
Signposts 171
Collocations 173
Perspective 175
8 ‘Talkofanounandaverb’:Shakespeareangrammar 178
Similaritiesanddifferences 181
Nouns 184
Adjectives 186
Verbs 188
Pronouns 193
Wordorder 199
9 ‘Hearsweetdiscourse’:Shakespeareanconversation 207
Verseandprose 208
Metreindiscourse 219
Varietiesoflanguage 221
Alegalexample 224
Epilogue–‘Yourdaringtongue’:Shakespearean
creativity 230
Appendix:AnA-to-ZofShakespeare’sfalsefriends 234
Notes 245
Referencesandfurtherreading 247
Index 249
List of figures and tables
Figure1:ApagefromtheFirstFolio page28
Figure2:Shakespearesignatures:a,PublicRecord
Office;b,GuildhallLibrary,Corporationof
London;c,BritishLibrary;d,eandf,Public
RecordOffice 32
Figure3:Type-settinginstanceofShakespeare’sname
intheFirstFolio 34
Figure4:TranscriptofpartoftheShakespearean
sectionofSirThomasMore:BritishLibrary 36
Table1:Sharedlinesrelatedtothenumberofverse
linesintheplays 116
Table2:Proportionsofverseandproseintheplays 210
vii
Preface
The title of this book means what it says: it is an exploration of
Shakespeare’s language, not a comprehensive survey. It is an intro-
duction from a particular point of view. Books and anthologies with
the words Shakespeare and Language in the title are numerous, and
they represent a coming together of several traditions in theatre,
literarycriticism,philology,andlinguistics.Mineisbasicallyanuts-
and-bolts approach, governed by one basic principle – that one
should never examine a linguistic nut or bolt without asking
‘what does it do?’ And ‘what does it do?’ means two things: how
does it help us understand the meaning of what is said (a semantic
explanation),andhowdoesithelpusappreciatethedramaticorpoetic
effectofwhatissaid(apragmaticexplanation)?Ihavefoundmyown
understandingimmenselyenhancedbythekindofapproachIemploy.
IjusthopeIhavemanagedtoconveysomethingofthatinsightinthese
pages.
I have used three First Folio sources: the edition of the
plays held at the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia
Library, my copy of the 1910 Methuen facsimile, and the Norton
facsimile. For my statistical data, I have used the concordance
whichwascompiledtoaccompanytheShakespeare’sWordswebsite
(www.shakespeareswords.com).Thespellingofquotationsismodern
inChapters1and2,butafterthedescriptionofElizabethanorthogra-
phyinChapter3,mostquotationscomefromtheFirstFolioorcon-
temporarytexts.
HildaHulme,myShakespeareteacheratuniversity,saidinher
insightful book Explorations in Shakespeare’s Language: ‘it is not
easytoargueaboutShakespeare’smeaningwithoutbeingexcitedby
it’. Or explore it, even, now that we have such powerful electronic
ix
x Preface
searchcapabilities.EverytimeIdoeventhemostmenialsearchofmy
Shakespeare database, I discover something I have never noticed
before. It is an excitement open to anyone who wishes to increase
theirunderstandingofShakespeareandhisworks.
DAVID CRYSTAL
Holyhead,March2007
