Error In Shakespeare: Shakespeare In Error

Description

The traditional view of Shakespeare’s mastery of the English language is alive and well today. This is an effect of the eighteenth-century canonisation of his works, and subsequently Shakespeare has come to be perceived as the owner of the vernacular. These entrenched attitudes prevent us from seeing the actual substance of the text, and the various types of error that it contains and even constitute it. This book argues that we need to attend to error to interpret Shakespeare’s disputed material text, political-dramatic interventions and famous literariness. The consequences of ignoring error are especially significant in the study of Shakespeare, as he mobilises the rebellious, marginal, and digressive potential of error in the creation of literary drama. Foreword......Page 7 Note on the Texts......Page 14 Contents......Page 15 List of Figures......Page 16 1 Introduction......Page 17 Works Cited......Page 27 2 Error and Figurative Language......Page 30 Metaphor as Error......Page 31 Decorum......Page 37 Shakespeare’s Error......Page 54 Falstaff: Error’s Witty Guide......Page 68 Works Cited......Page 74 3 Error and the Mother Tongue......Page 81 Natural Language, Native Language......Page 82 Mothers of the Nation......Page 90 Mistress Quickly......Page 95 The Mother’s Tongue......Page 111 The Mother Tongue and Errour......Page 117 Unnatural Tongues: A Bellyful......Page 120 Works Cited......Page 124 4 Error and the Nation......Page 131 The Elementarie......Page 132 Henry V Enfranchised......Page 137 The Dutch Courtesan......Page 144 Works Cited......Page 155 5 Error and the Text......Page 158 The Beginning of Error......Page 159 The Comedy of Errors......Page 166 Theatrical Error......Page 172 Readerly Error......Page 180 History of Reading......Page 189 Works Cited......Page 194 Index......Page 199