Shakespeare and Language

Abstract

When Shakespeare and his contemporaries thought about language, they thought of speech: breathy, ephemeral sounds cast into the air.This very ethereality was taken as a proof of one of the key Renaissance ideas about language: in as much as it allowed humans to make evident their ability to reason, it was a divine gift, distinguishing humanity from, and elevating it above, the rest of creation.The gift of language could raise the monstrous to the level of the human, as it does Caliban, and the voluntary abandonment of language suggested a descent: as when the arrogant Ajax, swollen with pride at the prospect of single combat with Hector, loses his ability to distinguish social rank, along with his humanity, to a mumbling silence: THERSITES The man's undone for ever, for if Hector break not his neck i'thÕ combat he'll break't himself in vainglory.He knows not me.I said, ÔGood morrow, AjaxÕ, and he replies, ÔThanks, AgamemnonÕ.What think you of this man that takes me for the General?He's grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster.... heÕll answer nobody.He professes not answering.Speaking is for beggars.[...]He wears his tongue inÕs arms.

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