The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.1770  Wednesday, 20 September 2000.

From:           Marcus Dahl <
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Date:           Wednesday, 20 Sep 2000 07:08:45 EDT
Subject: 11.1742 Re: Romeo & Juliet
Comment:        Re: SHK 11.1742 Re: Romeo & Juliet

No doubt others will disagree, but it seems to me that the modern
emendation 'open-arse' from Q1's 'Et caetera' (euphemism) and Folio's
'(elipsis) or' are at best crude and at worst a degredation of
renaissance text. For those wishing to understand the nature of S's
language the obvious modern rendering of a witty comment elucidates the
meaning of the rather obscure reference but in doing so reduces the
actual worth of Mecutio's wit to that of mere rhetorical violence. For
those interested in reading renaissance texts as they were produced the
emendation is mere textual violence. What ever happened to explanatory
footnotes?