ABSTRACT

Nothing could well be more wide of the mark than Tolstoy's assertion that Shakespeare lacks the true dramatist's power to make different characters speak differently. On the contrary, it would be difficult to find another dramatist using individual style and individual language for the purpose of characterizing different persons to the same extent as Shakespeare. Hotspur does not speak like Prince Hal, nor Rosalind like Viola or Cordelia; Shylock has a language all his own, and the insincerity of the King in Hamlet is shown characteristically by a certain tendency towards involved sentences and avoiding the natural and straightforward expression. Even minor characters are often individualized by means of their speech, thus the gardeners in Richard the Second (Act III, Sc. iv) or Osric in Hamlet. But this has not always been noticed by commentators and editors, and I think a truer appreciation of Shakespeare's art in this respect will assist us in explaining at least one crux in his text.