Home > Shakespearean Criticism > Broken English and Broken Irish: Nation, Language, and the Optic of Power in Shakespeare's Histories - Neill, Michael University of Auckland

Broken English and Broken Irish: Nation, Language, and the Optic of Power in Shakespeare's Histories - Neill, Michael University of Auckland

Broken English and Broken Irish: Nation, Language, and the Optic of Power in Shakespeare's Histories

Neill, Michael University of Auckland

[T]he English have always governed Ireland not as a conquered people by the sword and the conqueror's law, but as a province united upon marriage.…

Fynes Moryson, "The Commonwealth of Ireland"

So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a
  spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these
  kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league.…
     William Shakespeare, Henry V, 5.2.362-66

[T]he husbandman must first break the land, before it...

[The entire page is 18478 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the: