The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1894  Wednesday, 16 November 2005

[1] 	From: 	Gabriel Egan <
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 >
	Date: 	Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 19:31:26 -0000
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals

[2] 	From: 	Michael Egan <
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 >
	Date: 	Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 09:38:58 -1000
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Gabriel Egan <
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 >
Date: 		Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 19:31:26 -0000
Subject: 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals

Scot Zarela asked:

 >Should the nobs and gents have minded
 >their manners, and let their servants (after all) carry on
 >uninterrupted?

Shakespeare might have thought so:

BIRON For the ass to the Jude. Give it him. Jud-as, away.
HOLOFERNES This is not generous, not gentle, not humble.
(LLL 5.2.621-2)

With whom do you suppose the dramatist's sympathies lay: the smug toff 
or his victim?

Gabriel Egan

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Michael Egan <
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 >
Date: 		Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 09:38:58 -1000
Subject: 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals
Comment: 	Re: SHK 16.1885 The Rude Mechanicals

Peter Groves writes, re my comments about stylometrics:

I'm puzzled: what have "word-occurrence or usage" to do with the 
distinction between verse and prose [?]'

and then answers his own question:

'except in the trivial sense that  changing (say)  "This was the noblest 
Roman of them all" to "This was  the noblest demise of them all" turns 
pentameter into something else  (either prose or anapestic/dactylic 
tetrameter)?'

To labor the point, word-occurrence/usage affects (at the very least) 
rhyme, rhythm, sense, and aesthetics. Neither individually nor 
collectively do any of these variables strike me as trivial, especially 
when it comes to analyses which stand or fall by predicting 
Shakespeare's word-choices.

--Michael Egan

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, 
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the 
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the 
editor assumes no responsibility for them.