Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0026.  Monday, 15 January, 1995.
 
(1)     From:   E. L. Epstein <epstein@QCVAXA.BITNET>
        Date:   Saturday, 14 Jan 1995 12:33:19 EDT
        Subj:   RE: SHK 6.0014  Re: Dreams (Prep.)
 
(2)     From:   E. L. Epstein <epstein@QCVAXA.BITNET>
        Date:   Saturday, 14 Jan 1995 12:44:14 EDT
        Subj:   RE: SHK 6.0018  Re: *Rom*/*Oedipus*
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           E. L. Epstein <epstein@QCVAXA.BITNET>
Date:           Saturday, 14 Jan 1995 12:33:19 EDT
Subject: 6.0014  Re: Dreams (Prep.)
Comment:        RE: SHK 6.0014  Re: Dreams (Prep.)
 
I would like to thank Mr. Evett for his thoughtful reply to my comments. He is
right about varieties of English, but they are not different languages. They
are different *registers* and *dialects* of English, each with its own rules,
which are followed within each register and within each dialect. We can tell
when these rules are broken; we get an uneasy or ironic effect at that point.
As for the difficulty in agreement for Coral and Are, see Abbott(/) on
Shakespearean grammar; he points out that Shakespeare frequently makes verbs
agree with the *nearest* noun, whether or not that is appropriate, which makes
for difficulty in heavily inverted constructions. Which still leaves us with
the problem of *of* in the Tempest line. (I think the name of the author of
Shakespeare's Grammar is Abbott.) E. L. Epstein
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           E. L. Epstein <epstein@QCVAXA.BITNET>
Date:           Saturday, 14 Jan 1995 12:44:14 EDT
Subject: 6.0018  Re: *Rom*/*Oedipus*
Comment:        RE: SHK 6.0018  Re: *Rom*/*Oedipus*
 
I once had an odd thought in re Greek (ie Athenian) tragedy. It seemed to me
that the Athenians attitude toward tragedy has a rather gloating element about
it. "Sure, the king of Thebes killed his father and married his mother! What
else would you expect from such a place!" I think that the Athenian attitude
toward Thebes, and Argos, and other such places is that none of them are good
old Athens, where such things don't happen, with the unfortunate exception of
the doing to death of Hippolytus, which was just too bad. This would also shed
some light on hamartia, which could bear the nuance "the stupid things that
non-Athenians do." I see the Athenian attitude towards Thebes as something like
the Bostonian/ New York attitude towards Dallas. How about comment? Sorry,
Dallas guys--just reporting. E.L.Epstein