4. Diction

Diction  
         Shakespeare began and ended His career trying to appeal to the popular audience but towards the end He cared more about the expression of that art. Over the course of eleven years as a play write Shakespeare constantly was learning His audience and what they liked. Naturally the diction in His plays represented what appealed to them as well as His genius twist on conventions. As mentioned beforehand in the section “Genre” under “The Closing Act", in 1610 Shakespeare had a more sophisticated popular audience interested more in the artistic forms of expression of society and Tragicomedy, Pastoral Romance, and Modern English. But it can also be contrasty seen that "Shakespeare never really shook his middle-class roots, He never showed signs of boredom at the small talk, trivial pursuits, and foolish games of ordinary people"(Greenblatt) and including what appealed to both the wealthy and poor in His plays shows that. Previously in this post it was established that Shakespeare did try to appeal to popular conventions of his day. The genre's that appealed in His later years had fairly strict conventions. Tragicomedy’s are serious plays with a happy ending or enough jokes to keep the mood light. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

         In a Winter’s Tale the first three acts are a tragedy and the last two have enough jokes to make it a comedy.  An example of light mood from joking is the "buffoonish" son of the Shepherd, the clown that makes his entrance midway through the play and remains a main character. Another example is the joking of the "roguish" peddler Autolycus, his greatest joke being "how good deeds are against his nature" in act IV.
       Pastoral Romance is a combination of the genre's pastoral and romance. The Pastoral genre that surrounds the a shepherds life, idealized manner for urban audiences. We see aspects of the pastoral Romance in A Winters Tale too. From the start of the play the word Shepperd is used. There is even a character called a Shepherd who's son is the village idiot in the play but the Shepherds life is idealized through the beautiful descriptions of His life in the play and how it fits in society.  
        The genre's of that time appealed to "more educated" popular audiences but Shakespeare still included middle class life in His play's through the character Autolycus. Autolycus,a main character and lower class man,  roams the countryside taking to people and con's every person that he can. Shakespeare depicts Autolycus as a likable person with his singing and dancing even with his lying and cheating. While yes its true that the play is designed for a better educated and more artistically inclined audience, it is also clear that from the character Autolycus, (among others) that Shakespeare also expressed His "middle class roots" in the play regardless of his audience from the small talk, trivial pursuits and foolish games of His middle class main charters. "Diversity in Shakespeare's plays is one aspect of his genius" and Shakespeare use of middle class is the depiction of diversity and is the twist Shakspeare put on the play. Another Twist Shakespeare uses in regards to the diction is the creation of new words.
      Occurring to the Oxford English Dictionary Shakespeare created over 200 new words. Among Shakespeare's greatest contributions to the English Language must be the Introduction of new vocabulary and phrases which enriched the language making it more colorful and expressive. When Shakespeare began to write his play's the English Language was rapidly absorbing words from other languages due to war, exploration, diplomacy, and colonization. Shakespeare didn't invent Neologizing or newly coining words or phrases but he did have a big part to play in it.