ABSTRACT
Linguistically one can feel a certain absence of pressure, as if the burden of incident and material, which weighs upon him continuously in the English history plays, had been removed. He seems rather to be looking back towards the language of the early comedies, and assessing its possibilities with a genially critical eye. He has reached some stage in his creative development that makes him as self-conscious in his employment, as he had been in Love's Labour's Lost, though less indulgent, and not in a troubled or fretful way. Throughout the history plays there are many conflicting purposes in the use of language, and ultimately, much uncertainty. Here, Shakespeare seems ever aware of the effects which his language is producing.
