ABSTRACT
John Skelton's play Magnyfycence, written in the second decade of the sixteenth century, reveals major changes in the use of transgressive language as a dramatic device. Skelton's juxtaposition of various aspects of semiotic instability to stable signs of identity is consistent with this intellectual skill. This chapter concentrates on the complexity of the play episodes in Magnyfycence which reveal Skelton's most significant changes to the use of transgressive language in morality genre. First, it examines how Fansy's comic interlude illustrates Skelton's concern over the challenge posed by the humanists to the status of Medieval Latin and English. Second, it shows how he manipulates the conventions of transgressive language which create social and spiritual characterizations in the biblical plays and the Macro plays. Third, it examines the deception, downfall, and punishment of Magnificence as his increasingly obvious use of transgressive language dramatizes his spiritual corruption, and leads to his punishment through the legitimate use of abusive terms by a virtuous character.
