Shakespeare's Feet: Puns, Metre, Meaning. Issue 3 (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stagg, Robert
• Is Part Of: Literature compass. Volume 12:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Littérature -- Périodiques; Arts and Humanities -- Literature; Electronic reference sources; 805
• DOI: 10.1111/lic3.12218
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-4113

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>This essay attempts to explain one of <italic>Shakespeare</italic>'<italic>s</italic> strangest <italic>stage directions</italic>, at the end of <italic>Coriolanus</italic>. To do so, it looks at one of <italic>Shakespeare</italic>'<italic>s</italic> most‐used <italic>puns</italic>: the way a 'foot' can be an anatomical <italic>foot</italic> or a prosodic <italic>foot</italic>. In <italic>Shakespeare</italic>'<italic>s</italic> writing, this <italic>punning</italic> relationship between anatomical and prosodic <italic>feet</italic> speeds or slows <italic>verse</italic>, characterises personages like Iago, and even rescues poetry from the ravages of time. The reason, it transpires, this <italic>pun</italic> works so well in <italic>Shakespeare</italic>'<italic>s</italic> writing is that it speaks to the ways in which <italic>metre</italic> operates in a manner akin to <italic>pun</italic>: prising multiple interpretations from words in order to prize them.</p> </abstract>