"Cliff Notes - Midsummer Night's Dream, A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,
(II, i, 74)

^^^^^^^^^^A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions were less standardized in Elizabethan English than they are today and so we find several uses in A Midsummer Night's Dream that would have to be modified in contemporary speech. Among these are

"in" for "on":

Or in the beached margent of the sea,
(II, i, 85)

"upon" for "by":

To die upon the hand I love so well.
(II, i, 244)

"on" for "of":

More fond on her than she upon her love:
(II, i, 266)

"against" for "in anticipation of":

And now have toiled their unbreathed memories
With this same play against your nuptial.
(V, i, 74-75)

and "to" for "in":

In least speak most, to my capacity.
(V, i, 105)

^^^^^^^^^^A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: MULTIPLE NEGATION

Contemporary English requires only one negative per statement and regards such utterances as "I haven't none" as nonstandard. However, Shakespeare often used two or more negatives for emphasis, as when Helena chides Lysander:

Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
That I did never--no, nor never can-
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
(II, ii, 131ff)

and Bottom agrees with Titania:

Not so neither;
(III, i, 141)

^^^^^^^^^^A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: POINT OF VIEW