Shakespeare and Social Dialogue : Dramatic Language and Elizabethan Letters (Paperback)

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. The Rhetoric of Politeness: 1. Politeness and dramatic character in Henry VIII; 2. 'Power to hurt': language and service in Sidney household letters and Shakespeare's sonnets; Part II. Eloquent Relations in Letters: 3. Scripting social relations in Erasmus and Day; 4. Reading courtly and administrative letters; 5. Linguistic stratification, merchant discourse, and social change; Part III. A Prosaics of Conversation: 6. The pragmatics of repair in King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing; 7. 'Voice potential': language and symbolic capital in Othello; Notes; Bibliography; Index.