8/15/2023 0 Comments Comedy words in english![]() ![]() ![]() “The dog bit the boy” and “The boy bit the dog” mean very different things although the individual words are the same. In an English sentence, meaning is quite dependent on the place given each word. The language of the play’s second scene creates the city of Ephesus as a center of commerce and trade with such words as the mart (i.e., the open marketplace ), o’erraught (i.e., cheated ), cozenage (i.e., deception, fraud ) and as a city famous for witchcraft and sorcery/trickery with references to sorcerers, witches, jugglers, and prating mountebanks. In the opening scene of The Comedy of Errors, for example, Shakespeare creates a world of violence and harsh judicial punishment with such words as fall (i.e., death, destruction ), doom (i.e., judgment, sentence ), outrage (i.e., violence ), mortal and intestine jars (i.e., deadly conflicts ) and then, in Egeon’s story, a world of sea trade and shipwrecks, with words like deep (i.e., ocean ), small spare mast (i.e., a piece of timber for a jury-rigged mast ), with such nautical terminology as making amain (i.e., coming at full speed ) and borne upon (i.e., thrust upon by the wind ), and with references to factors (i.e., agents ) and goods at random left (i.e., goods left untended ). Some words are strange not because of the “static” introduced by changes in language over the past centuries but because these are words that Shakespeare is using to build a dramatic world that has its own space, time, and history. In the opening scenes of The Comedy of Errors, for example, the word wanting has the meaning of “lacking,” default is used where we would say “offense,” heavier is used where we would say “more sorrowful,” happy where we would say “fortunate,” and doubtful where we would say “dreadful.” Such words, too, will become familiar as you continue to read Shakespeare’s language. In The Comedy of Errors, as in all of Shakespeare’s writing, more problematic are the words that we still use but that we use with a different meaning. Words of this kind will become familiar the more of Shakespeare’s plays you read. In the opening scenes of The Comedy of Errors, for example, you will find the words embracements (i.e., embraces ), plainings (i.e., crying ), hap (i.e., good fortune ), and defeatures (i.e., marred features ). Some are unfamiliar simply because we no longer use them. Shakespeare’s WordsĪs you begin to read the opening scenes of a play by Shakespeare, you may notice occasional unfamiliar words. When reading on one’s own, one must do what each actor does: go over the lines (often with a dictionary close at hand ) until the puzzles are solved and the lines yield up their poetry and the characters speak in words and phrases that are, suddenly, rewarding and wonderfully memorable. In the theater, most of these difficulties are solved for us by actors who study the language and articulate it for us so that the essential meaning is heard-or, when combined with stage action, is at least felt. Most of his immense vocabulary is still in use, but a few of his words are not, and, worse, some of his words now have meanings quite different from those they had in the sixteenth century. More than four hundred years of “static” intervene between his speaking and our hearing. And even those skilled in reading unusual sentence structures may have occasional trouble with Shakespeare’s words. Others, though, need to develop the skills of untangling unusual sentence structures and of recognizing and understanding poetic compressions, omissions, and wordplay. Those who have studied Latin (or even French or German or Spanish ) and those who are used to reading poetry will have little difficulty understanding the language of Shakespeare’s poetic drama. ![]() For many people today, reading Shakespeare’s language can be a problem-but it is a problem that can be solved. ![]()
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