Edgar adopts what critics call a southern stage dialect in his
confrontation with Oswald:
Edg. Chill not let go, zir, without
vurther [cagion].
Osw. Let go, slave, or thou
di'st!
Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and
let poor voke pass. And chud ha' bin zo long as 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th' old
man; keep out, che vor'ye, or Ice try wither your costard or my ballow be the harder. Chill be
plain with you.
Osw. Out, dunghill!
[They fight.]
Edg. Chill
pick your teeth, zir. Come, no matter vor your foins.
(4.6.235-45)
Critics have been puzzled
by Shakespeare's employment of a theatrical and comedic dialect in one of his darkest tragedies.
Edgar is a man of the court, having no provincial associations, but with the words of the broad
southern stage dialect on his lips he would have sounded like a rube from the country to his
audience. In fact, the 'che vor'ye' formulation “enjoyed a certain popularity as a shibboleth of
rusticity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries” (Kökeritz
99).
Two reasons appear to figure in Shakespeare's use of such
anomalous speech in Edgar. First, in a play marked by a preoccupation with language and power,
Edgar's adoption of a dialect identifies him as a man willing to associate with those outside his
aristocratic circle without losing his authority. Second, this dialect of a
rustic clown confirms Edgar as a master of disguise, both in form and language, thereby
increasing his rhetorical power in the play as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment