A1S1
Begins in medias res
Prose dialogue
Middle of the action - indirect introduction of characters
Unguarded conversation
1.1.1
“If you shall chance”
1.1.39
“If the King had no son”
Subjunctive mood
Bookending - doubt and uncertainty
1.1.3 - 4
“Our Bohemia and your Sicilia”
Epithets (terms to describe characters)
Kingdoms instead of names suggests intrinsic link to duty
1.1.33 - 34
“Makes old hearts fresh” 1.1.36
“Be content to die?”
1.1.39 - 40
“If the King had no son, they would desire to live on crutches till he had one.”
Hyperbole
Interrogative - people will die happy because content Mamillius will take the throne
Foreshadowing/prophetic/dramatic irony - instability - unstable time for Jac aud. because QE1 died without an heir
1.2.1
“Nine changes of the wat’ry star”
Moon is a feminine symbol
Nine months - period of human gestation - foreshadows accusations of adultery
1.2.27
“Tounge-tied our queen? Speak you.”
Imperative - H follows L’s orders and accused of adultery
1.2.66
“Twinned lambs that did frisk i’th’sun”
Pastoral imagery
Clipped assonance
Soothing sibilance
Jac - nostalgic tone reflecting on halcyon days of youth
Fem - prioritising homosocial bonds over family relationships
1.2.72 - 73
“We should have answered heaven
Boldly, ‘not guilty’”
Biblical allusions - fall of man/original sin/prelapsarian world corrupted by women
Positions women as temptresses foreshadows H being labelled as a adulteress.
Foreshadows trial scene
Legal diction
1.2.75 - 76
“O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have since then been born to’s”
Binary views - women have to be pure to be accepted in patriarchy
Jux. deification of “sacred” with sexual maturity of “temptations”
Naturally sins come upon you
1.2.90 - 93
“Cram’s with praise, and make’s
As fat as tame things. One good deed dying tongueless
Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.
Our praises are our wages.”
Metaphor of livestock - feed with praise
Irony - sacrificed in trial scene because L jealousy
“Slaughters” - foreshadows H fate
Sincere desire to please L
Contrast “our praises” and “our wages” - women are economically inferior
1.2.100 - 105
“Why, that was when
Three crabbèd months had soured themselves to death
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand
And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter,
‘I am yours forever’”
Contrast to memory of childhood “twinned lambs”
“crabbèd” and “soured” - sour apples - biblical allusion
Emphasis on purity - white hands - motif of hands
Last time H said something smart was when she agreed to marry L
1.2.108
“Too hot, too hot!”
1.2.114
“Paddling palms and pinching fingers”
Iterative patterns
Plosive alliteration
Sexual imagery
Foreshadows accusations of H adultery
1.2.154
“Saw myself unbreeched In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled”
Phallic imagery - innocence before being “breeched” (in mens clothes) and reaching maturity, susceptible to sinning
“Green” - envy/jealousy
1.2.173 - 174
“How thou lov’st us show in our brother’s welcome; Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap”
Deceit - encouraging H to do what is fueling suspicion
Jux between what is said and meant
Give love freely
1.2.178 - 179
“[Aside] I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line”
1.2.193 - 194
“And his pond fished in by his next neighbour, by Sir Smile”
Extended fishing metaphor - catching a line and reeling them in
Pol (“next neighbour”) not have to pay for accused adultery, but H does
Graphic sexual imagery/derogatory metaphor - men blissfully unaware wives are cheating - women are fertile ponds to be fished in for heirs - dehumanising
Sinister/corruptive sibilance
1.2.185 - 187
“[To Mamillius] Go play, boy, play: thy mother plays, and I
Play too, but so disgraced a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave.”
Repetition of verb “play” - pun
Child’s play
Sexual play
Play the part of a cuckold
L primarily concerned about reputation
“Issue” - child
Sibilance/serpentine verb - Edenic snake - illegitimate child
1.2.190 - 204
“And many a man there is…
That little thinks she [his wife] has been sluiced in’s absence…
No barricado for a belly. Know’t,
It will let in and out the enemy
With bag and baggage”
Hyperbolic extension to all men
Sinister sibilance
Graphic sexual imagery - men blissfully unaware of wives cheating
Plosive alliteration
Militaristic language - dehumanises women as objects to be defended/only good for heirs
1.2.293 - 294
“Be cured
Of this diseased opinion”
Motif of disease
Pattern of language - views L’s jealousy and the beginning of his tyranny as “diseased”, wrong and unfounded
2.1.25
“A sad tale’s best for winter”
Motif of seasons
Foreshadows no happy ending for Mamillius
Imminent death
2.1.40 - 45
“A spider steeped, and one may drink, depart,
And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge
Is not infected; but if one present
Th’abhorr’d ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts. I have drunk, and seen the spider.”
Extended metaphor of knowledge - If L didn’t know of adultery things would be better
2.1.56 - 58
“[To Hermione] Give me the boy. I am glad you did not nurse him.
Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you
Have too much blood in him”
Irony - innate bond between mother and child/share half his DNA with her
Significance of names - Mamillius derived from word meaning breast
Mamillius’ last scene on stage
2.1.78
“She’s an adultress!”
Public declaration of L’s tyrannical and baseless opinion
2.1.146 - 148
“If this prove true, they’ll pay for’t. By mine honour,
I’ll geld them all; fourteen they shall not see
To bring false generations.”
Livestock metaphor - remove their ability to have children
Dehumanising
2.2.30 - 38
“The office
Becomes a woman best; I’ll take’t upon me … undertake to be
Her advocate to th’loud’st”
Metaphor - only a woman could complete the job of advocating H’s innocence
Sibilance - strength of their friendship
