CHAPTER VIII - ABBREVIATIONS IN THE PROSE

Summary

Certain abbreviations are commonly used nowadays both in conversation and in poetry, as I'll, he'll, we'll, you'll, they'll, 'tis, 'twas, 'twere, I'd, etc. They of course occur frequently in Shakespeare; but in the early texts of his plays we find also the following in the prose as we have already found them in the verse:— y'are, you're, ha' (have), 's (us,- his), t' (to), i' (in), o' (of, on), th', i'th', o'th', to't and toot (to it), do't, in't, with't, for't, on't, by't, is't or ist, tane (taken), together with the unmistakable vulgarisms a for he and have (occasionally for it), on't for of it, and 'em for them. Also moe or mo occurs thirty-three times for more, twenty-six times in the prose and seven times in the verse. No doubt some of these forms (but surely not all?) were employed by Elizabethan gentlefolk in conversation, and it has consequently been supposed that Shakespeare introduced them not only into his prose but also into his dramatic verse, in order to render it more natural and life-like. We have, however, no evidence that they were used in dignified and formal speech, either in private or on public occasions. We ourselves fall into several locutions in familiar talk that are carefully avoided in such circumstances.