Exercise to the Early Modern English Period
Here we have a scene from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II, Act II Scene 4.
To get to know the context click here.
Pistol
Then to you, Mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.
Doll Tearsheet:
Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor
rogue, away! I am meat for your master.
Pistol:
I know you, Mistress Dorothy.
Doll Tearsheet:
wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, and you play
saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you
God's ligth, wiht tow points on your shoulder? Much!
Doll Tearsheet insults Pistol
intentionally.
unintentionally.
By calling into question his hygiene and trustworthiness, Doll Tearsheet attacks Pistol`s ... ?
Postitive face
Negative face
The use of words like to know shows that...
for us many of Shakespeare´s insulting comments are hard to understand because....
...we do not know enough English vocabulary
...even the Early Modern English audience did not understand them
...we do not know the bawdy connotation of them