4. Diction

Diction

           The text book states that “the history plays (were written) for the socially diversified, though generally intelligent and well to-do-, audience”. Shakespeare’s plays easily transition between scenes of nobility and scenes of commoners which creates variety of different diction between the two castes. Shakespeare wanted His plays to appeal to rich and poor because both the rich and poor came to his plays. Shakespeare's use of words that would appeal to the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned proves that He was less interested in the art of His work than for it to be entertaining, well liked, and purchased by the theater. In the example below we identify how Shakespeare’s diction might have appealed to upper class in the play. In the two examples taken we see one person rebuking another. The first one is King Henry IV rebuking his son Prince Hal for being disrespectful in act4 scene 3. The second example is the rebuke of Mistress Quickly to Pistol for being disrespectful in act 2 scene 4.  Notice the vocabulary choice and the style in which it is expressed.

            In the first example, taken from a major turning point in the play, King Henry IV rebukes his son for being greedy for the crown and not loving him. In the play Henry IV is at fault because Prince Hal was in the other room sobbing because of the weight of the crown and we know later that he was a successful upstanding King in the play. However his father rebukes him saying:

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.

Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair

That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honors

Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth,

Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.

Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity

Is held from falling with so weak a wind

That it will quickly drop. My day is dim.

Thou hast stol'n that which after some few hours

Were thine without offense, and at my death

Thou hast sealed up my expectation.

Thy life did manifest thou loved’st me not,

And thou wilt have me die assured of it.

Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,

Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart

To stab at half an hour of my life.

As you read the text you notice high minded, eloquent speech like that of the Bible. In the castes of that time, Kings were considered just below God. You see that the Kings language is similar to the Bible, using words  such as thou, sealed up, thy life, Doest, and foolish. The diction used is clear, poetic, and mask a feeling of greatness. You see the use of larger words which would appeal to a more educated upper class when a short word could suffice such as “thy life did manifest thou lovedst me not”. The King could have said “the way you acted showed me you don’t love me”. But he used words like “manifest” and “loved’st”. He also used words associated with an aristocracy such as “honors” and “is held from falling”. Someone not associated or socialized in an aristocratic caste would not think or refer to those topics when talking to their son on their death bed because their son would not be gaining a “height” or “honors” at their father’s death. In the example below, we will identify how Shakespeare’s diction appealed to less educated and less wealthy.

            In act 2 scene 4 of Henry IV, we find Falstaff having dinner at the Boar’s Head tavern with Bardolph, Mistress Quickly, Doll Tearsheet and Pistol. Quickly has become sick with qualm and Doll and Falstaff are making jokes about it using her job as prostitute and comparing it to war. Eventually Doll gets upset after one such sexual innuendo is pointed in her direction and she tries to physically reprimand Pistol. This scene is not a castle like in the other scene but a tavern so Shakespeare uses words and actions common to a tavern. Notice the use of coarse language and the way the words become dirty in the example of the sexual innuendo below.

 PISTOL

I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets

 FALSTAFF

She is pistol-proof. Sir, you shall not hardly offend her.

 MISTRESS QUICKLY

Come, I’ll drink no proofs nor no bullets. I’ll drink no more

than will do me good, for no man’s pleasure, I

 PISTOL

Then to you, Mistress Dorothy! I will charge you

 DOLL TEARSHEET

Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What, you poor,

base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy

rogue, away! I am meat for your master.

 PISTOL

I know you, Mistress Dorothy.

 DOLL TEARSHEET  
Away, you cutpurse rascal, you filthy bung, away! By this

wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps an you play

the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal, you

basket-hilt stale juggler, you. Since when, I pray you, sir?

God’s light, with two points on your shoulder?

 PISTOL

God let me not live, but I will murder your ruff for this.

In the play a tavern is referred to as a place for low life’s and scoundrels. Prince Hal is considered “off-course” while he is frequents them. We do not see the eloquent speech we do with Prince Hal and King Henry IV but rude and coarse Language. In the scene in the tavern we see  dirty sexual jokes, not becoming of an educated man. In the example above, Mistress Quickly quickly becomes upset because Falstaff stays to “pistol” to “discharge upon her”. But a closer look shows that testicles were also referred to as “bullets” in that day. Falstaff is not saying discharge your bullets but discharge your testacies. They are not talking about war but as before stated it’s a sexual joke Quickly expense. Now that Quickly is upset she doesn’t try to calmly communicate why she didn’t like the joke but angrily calls Pistol a scurvy, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate, mouldy, rougue, and cutpurse among other things. She threatens to “thrust my knife” into many places in Pistol as if to physically threaten the man to respect her. Before the scene we see Quickly curse Pistol as well, calling him a “bastard” among other things. It’s almost as if Quickly understands Pistol’s vial nature of no respect for women and she must instill that respect with fear.  Pistol only becomes enraged and threatens Mistress quickly in return and a brawl is narrowly averted because others step in. The physical threatening and coarse language could be entertaining for the educated and upper class of Shakespeare's time but the lower class that frequented taverns would certainly be more familiar with that type of communication and would enjoy it much more. During the fight you see a lot of pros which appeal more to less educated and less sophisticated because it would be easier to understand than the blank verse, that the majority of the play is comprised of.