July 21, 2010
from the comments
This reminds me of a passage in King Lear. Goneril asks Oswald (her steward) if he has written the letter she wants to send to her sister, Regan. When he says that he has, she tells him to deliver it : “Take you some company, and away to horse; inform her full of my particular fear, and thereto add such reasons of your own as may compact it more.” (I. iv)
Immediately thereafter scene V begins, and King Lear sends Kent to deliver letters he (Lear) has written. Lear shows a completely different kind of respect for precise communication. He wants his thoughts to be known: “Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. Acquaint my daughter no further with any thing you know than comes from her demand out of the letter.” (I. v )
I have always thought that Shakespeare set up this immediate contrast in order to develop the sense that moral action requires respect for precise language. What does it mean–to give one’s word–if one’s word is actually some other person’s thoughts that may be disavowed as needed? This is something that Sarah Palin should consider, particularly if she is going to speak of Shakespeare in a way that suggests she knows something about his plays.
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