Shakespeare, Pericles,
and Language

ON SHAKESPEARE - by G.L. Horton

On the ICWP-L@LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG list, R writes: In fact, in Kathryn Hunter's production of Pericles (at the Globe, London, now) the narrator comments on the lack of resemblance between the short 'old' and tall 'young' Pericles, who are onstage at once. When they first appear, he tells 'Old Pericles' (Mark Rylance), 'You shrunk, Papa.' (8/04/05)

Gawd, I'd hate that! I might even boo!!!! Nobody in Shakespeare would say that phrase: it's not part of the language/grammar of the plays, any more than "You drunk, Papa" would be. It kicks you-- well, me!-- right out of the play's world, in the same way that the current modern dress Hamlet playing on Boston Common shatters the sense of Truth for the sake of a cheap laugh by having Hamlet read off to Polonius the "not a flotation device" warning on an air mattress (!).

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