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.
Author(s): Alice Leonard
Series: Palgrave Shakespeare Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 209
Tags: Early Modern/Renaissance Literature
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
