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64 The Renaissance 1485–1660<br />

‘To the manner born’ (Act I, scene iv)<br />

‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ (Act II, scene ii)<br />

‘I must be cruel only to be kind’ (Act III, scene iv)<br />

SHAKESPEARE, LATIN AND A DOUBLE VOICE<br />

Here is an example of the way Shakespeare exploits tensions between formal,<br />

Latin-derived vocabulary and more informal English vocabulary for<br />

purposes of dramatic effect. The extract is taken from Macbeth’s<br />

soliloquy in the last scene of Act I:<br />

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well<br />

It were done quickly. If the assassination<br />

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch<br />

With his surcease success – that but this blow<br />

Might be the be-all and end-all – here<br />

But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,<br />

We’d jump the life to come.<br />

The soliloquy contains two voices: the lexicon of Latin and the lexicon of<br />

English. The Latin words are deployed almost as if Macbeth cannot find<br />

an ordinary word for the act of murder he is considering. ‘Assassination’<br />

and ‘consequence’ are uncommon, unspoken words for uncommon,<br />

unspoken acts. Macbeth is caught between surface appearance and sordid<br />

reality and the two alternatives are expressed by two kinds of diction.<br />

Shakespeare satirised the over-use of formal, Latinate diction in the<br />

character of Holofernes in Love’s Labour’s Lost, but his main purpose<br />

is not satirical, nor is it simply to use Latinisms and new poetic<br />

compounds because they were fashionable. Throughout Macbeth the<br />

double voice is an essential element in the characterisation of Macbeth.<br />

RENAISSANCE POETRY<br />

They flee from me that sometime did me seek<br />

(Sir Thomas Wyatt, Thy flee from me)<br />

The Renaissance did not break completely with mediaeval history and values.<br />

Sir Philip Sidney is often considered the model of the perfect Renaissance<br />

gentleman. He embodied the mediaeval virtues of the knight (the noble warrior),

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