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Pronominal Case in Shakespearean Imperatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Celia Millward
Celia Millward*
Affiliation:
Brown University
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Extract

Elizabethan English in general and Shakespearean English in particular frequently uses pronouns in imperative constructions. The use of these pronouns has no correlation with the age, sex, or social status of the speaker, although Shakespeare does employ certain types of such constructions to indicate dialectal or foreign speech. The pronouns always follow the verb. In the case of constructions with periphrastic do, the pronoun follows do and precedes the main verb, although adverbial elements may come between the pronoun and the main verb.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 42 , Issue 1: January-March , March 1966 , pp. 10 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 O. Jespersen, A Modern English grammar on historical principles 7.259 (Copenhagen, 1949).

2 Jespersen 7.261.

3 This theory has been elaborated extensively by some authors. For example, E. A. Abbott, A Shakespearian grammar 141 (London, 1872), explains such constructions as look thee and hark thee by assuming that look and hark are emphatic verbs, so that an unemphatic pronoun is employed for reasons of euphony. H. Poutsma, A grammar of late Modern English 2.201 (Groningen, 1914), asserts that the addition of the pronoun in constructions of the type look thee 'softens the imperiousness of the request*. W. Franz, Shakespeare-Grammatik 100 (Halle, 1900), assumes that the use of the pronoun in such cases is an extension from true reflexives.

4 The numbers given here are based on counts made by the author from H. Kökeritz (ed.), Shakespeare's comedies, histories, & tragedies: A facsimile edition of the first folio (New Haven, 1954). Hence figures from Pericles are not included. Because of the lack of act and scene divisions for many of the plays in the First Folio, divisions are listed here as in modern editions. The inevitable errors will be in the direction of smaller numbers than is actually the case. However, it is felt that none of these errors will substantially affect the conclusions reached.

5 Such constructions are included in what Curme calls the dative of interest. Cf. G. Curme, Syntax 107–8 (New York, 1931). I prefer to separate verbs of motion from reflexive verbs because (1) reflexive verbs also occur with -self forms, while verbs of motion do not, and (2) the verbs of motion form a closed class, while reflexive verbs do not.

6 The origin of aroint is unknown. OE tyrnan occasionally took a dative object; ME tornen frequently did. F. Voges, ‘Der reflexive Dativ im Englischen’, Anglia 6.317–74 (1883).

7 One example of Well fare you appears in Timon of Athens, I.1.

8 The example with take is suspect. See the discussion below of verbs that appear with both thou and thee.

9 Voges, Anglia 6.317–74.

10 Jespersen classifies such constructions as pseudo-imperatives.

11 This study was supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Linguistics. I wish to thank Professor W. Nelson Francis for directing my interest toward the problem and for his suggestions.