Introduction

In medieval society some forms of language broke the rules which governed its use. New Historicism has encouraged us to examine texts for evidence of resistance to social authority, and the play texts reveal, through the use of transgressive language, many kinds of cultural behaviour which appear to resist that authority. The significance of language is always determined by the contexts in which it is used. Although transgressive language remains indebted to its social significance, in the biblical, moral, and political drama of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it is subject to the artistic endeavour of the dramatists. Wherever transgressive language is used it contributes to the interactive relationship between words, action, and audience which is unique to drama, and prompts complex audience responses. Dramatists created their characterizations using the moral significance of transgressive language in conjunction with prosodic style, costume, and action.