Webster’s English can, at times, feel like a
completely new language, even to the most proficient speakers of English. Here are several links to help you work through
the more ambiguous passages in The Duchess of Malfi.
First off, a general overview of English in the Early Modern period. This covers topics from the time span, to
vocabulary expansion, to the debate between “Inkhorn” and Purism:
http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/early-modern-english-an-overview/
Next, a purely grammatical look at the English of the Early Modern period:
http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/grammar-in-early-modern-english/
On this site, you will find more links to related topics of Early Modern English, including pronunciation and
adjectival comparisons:
http://www.lexilogos.com/english/english_modern_early.htm
Webster is not Shakespeare, but Shakespeare is a lot closer to Webster than we are now. This site could be a
good place to start before tackling a work like The Duchess of Malfi:
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-early-modern-english/
Lastly, we’d like to cover the difference between verse and prose. Here are examples of both. Can you identify
which is which?
|
Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman; the spring in his face is nothing but the engendering of toads; where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was imposed on Hercules . . . (Antonio, Act 1, Scene 2) |
He never pays debts unless they be shrewd turns, (Antonio, Act 1, Scene 2) |
If you guessed that the first column is prose and the second is verse, you are correct. An easy way to
distinguish between the two is to look at their appearance on the page. Does the text look like a normal paragraph? It’s
probably prose. Or does it look like it has strange breaks in the lines? That’s likely verse. It’s important to keep in
mind that verse does not necessarily need to rhyme, though sometimes, particularly at the end of an act, there will be
rhyming couplets, like this:
So to great men the moral may be stretched;
Men oft are valu’d high, when they’re most wretched.—
But come, whither you please. I am arm’d ‘gainst misery;
Bent to all sways of the oppressor’s will:
There ‘s no deep valley but near some great hill.
(Duchess, Act 3, Scene 5)