Shakespeare's Non-Standard English: A Dictionary of his Informal Language

(Paperback)

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Most scholarly attention on Shakespeare's vocabulary has been directed towards his enrichment of the language through borrowing words from other languages and has thus concentrated on the more learned aspects of his vocabulary. However, the bulk of Shakespeare's output consists of plays and to make these appear lifelike he needed to employ a colloquial and informal style. This aspect of his work has been largely disregarded apart from his bawdy language. This dictionary includes all types of non-standard and informal language and lists all examples found in Shakespeare's works. These include dialect forms, colloquial forms, non-standard and variant forms, fashionable words and puns.

Reviews

Mention -Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, Tome LXX-2008
"The Athlone Shakespeare Dictionary series has done much to refine and focus our understanding of Shakespeare's language and its applications in various contexts...N.F.Blake's dictionary is an informative addition to the growing body of work on Shakespeare's language...[it covers] an impressive range of material, and deals with complex grammatical forms in a clear and user-friendly manner. It should prove a useful tool to scholar and general reader alike." - The Times Literary Supplement * Blurb from reviewer *
Blakes dictionarywith concise definitions, judiciously selected citations, and abbreviations marking forms 'found only in Shakespeare' and those 'first found in Shakespeare'could not have been entrusted to a keener eye the Arden Dictionaries have made an enormous contribution. While each volume impresses the reader with Shakespeares grasp of a particular topicwide, deep, and, as experts in various fields have noted, accurateit is impossible to view all of the dictionaries together and not come away with renewed awe at his commodious erudition. -- Deborah T. Curren-Aquino * Shakespeare Quarterly *

Author Bio

Norman Blake is Emeritus Professor of English at Sheffield University. Sandra Clark (Series Editor) is Professor of Renaissance Literature, Birbeck College, University of London