Drama you and thou or shakespearean passions

In modern English (I am now talking about the “language of the queen” or Received Pronunciation ), poking and vykane are controlled by the pronoun you, which makes the foreigners have a picture of the world: “oh, comfortable, not what we have!” Or “but now they poked me or what? " Let me tell you a secret: technically and for ideological reasons, the British have been vykat all over the past 500 years. Why it happened, and what they are - real Shakespearean passions - read under the cut.


The history of the relationship of thou and you draws not only on Shakespeare's drama, but also throughout the War of Roses . Initially, there were two neutral camps in English with the same status: thou [ðau] and thee [ðiː] were run by a single number - “you”, “you / you”, and ye [jiː] and you - plural - “you”, “you /you". And each rule its own feud, while Britain did not submit to the ancestors of the modern French.

New to know the language of the Aboriginal frankly does not complain, preferring its own in everything, which leads to strife. Under the influence of vous (“You”), ye and you seize power in a couple of centuries and redraw speech etiquette for themselves. So they begin to appeal to the lower person as a token of goodwill, to the level - as a sign of respect, and to the titled person - as a sign of respect. “You, sovereign,” repeated the courtiers and parliament to Elizabeth I. “You, the king,” said his subjects at the same time to Ivan the Terrible.
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Against the background of linguistic strife, thou and thee try to fight for survival in the language of the nobility, but they have nowhere to rush because there are only tenderness and familiarity free from competitors: confidential whisper ("pssst! What I will say now!"), Transparent hints of IT, rudeness and frank contempt ... and there and to the language of commoners is at hand! With the blessing of worldly etiquette after the saying “thou thouest me!” (You dared me to “poke”!), You should be punished by a brute, and the arsenal of means is rich - from punishment and duel to dirty tricks and silent revenge. As a result, the unfortunate thou find himself out of favor with almost all segments of the population of the capital.

You are being used more and more often because of the close resemblance to voux, and by the 17th century it displaces ye, thou and thee from the official language (yes, this is already 2 centuries like English!) Where no one will harm them: wilderness, in Saratov northern and western dialects, poetry and religious texts. The link turned out to be honorable: today all these forms are perceived as sublime and solemn appeals.

And now - human passions!

The language of the era of the English Renaissance was incredibly plastic and rich in itself. But it is in you and thou - the whole point of Shakespeare's drama: the relationship of the characters to each other, their emotions and personal hell.

Hell really begins with pronouns. According to the customs of the 16th century, children are told to their parents, servants to the patron, apprentices to the master, believers to the confessor, nobles to the nobles and the king; and thou is such a universal appeal to servants, children, spouses and dogs. But there must be as many means in a language as there are situations in life, therefore subtleties appear. For example, you are cold politeness and easy teasing, compliment and pretensions. This is a pet child, a servant, whose advice they value, and even your horse! And thou in the mouth and noble, and commoner - love and hate, bitter resentment or participation. This is a close friend, and a witch, and a ghost, and, by the way, the Lord God himself!

And now let's see how it really is there, in Shakespeare.

1. "King Lear." From tenderness to disappointment.

King Lear is ready to retire and give the kingdom to his children - three daughters. In exchange, he wants to be sure of their boundless love for him, and in order to get the biggest share, you need to talk very nicely. The younger one cannot cope with the task, although, unlike the sisters, she loves her father with all her heart, and a disappointed Lear drives her away. So it looks in Pasternak's translation. And in the original paint is thicker, because the youngest daughter is the king’s favorite daughter (he tells you only to her), and this is a mutual tragedy.

KING LEAR: what can you say to draw A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.	Lear: What do you say to get a share More extensive than sisters? Say
<Fail; gives a second attempt, the relationship to the daughter of the former>	<...>
How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes.	Cordelia, come to your senses and correct The answer is to not regret it afterwards.
<Fail again; he is offended and "pokes">	<...>
KING LEAR: But goes your heart with this?	Lire: Do you speak from the heart?

2. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. Spirit ... or is it a father?

The whole first act of Hamlet addresses the Phantom to “ you ” not only because it is the custom to appeal to supernatural beings. He does not believe that it is his father and king, but as soon as everything falls into place, the prince moves to you as an exemplary son.

3. "Henry VI", part III. How to wriggle out of a sentence and bring a person out of himself?

King Edward IV sleeps and sees Lady Gray as his queen. The lady is not thrilled, but the king simply cannot say no, therefore all hope of a dynamo is secular diplomacy. The English text is gorgeous in itself, and with the Russian translation it is clearly "something is wrong."

KING EDWARD IV Sweet widow by my state I swear to thee I speak my soul intends; And that is, to enjoy the love for my love. <king to the subject + rolls up>	King Edward Pretty widow, by the crown, I said that in my thoughts. I only wish to have you .
LADY GRAY And that is more than I will yield unto: I know your queen, And yet your concubine. <lady holds distance. P.S. Count de La Fer saw everything?))>	Lady gray What you want - I can not fulfill. I'm too void for a queen And too much for a concubine honest.
KING EDWARD IV You cavil, widow: I did, my queen. <angry, makes a formal offer, raising to himself>	King Edward You are not evil! I said: the queen.
LADY GRAY 'Twill grieve your grace. <another attempt to wriggle, hairpin in the topic of succession>	Lady gray You will be unpleasant, sir When my son calls you father.
KING EDWARD IV No more than when my daughters call thee mother. <pretends that everything is fine and his proposal not discussed, for the lady is again subject to>	King Edward No more than if my daughter Your mother will call you .

Thou in emigration and dialects

The beauty of the situation with you and thou is not that one “won” the other, but in a fair of extremes. As soon as the vykanie became the norm, there were rare lovers of poking everyone in a row - the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends). For them, you in the sense of “You” was a symbol of human pride and empty social attitudes, because “all people are equal before God” (c). In addition, from the point of view of grammar, it is much more correct to refer to one person to “you” than to pretend that there are many of them.

They wrote on this topic willingly and evil, for example:

“That isn’t it’s possible to make it so it’s possible to make it up?” ( Richard Farnsworth , The Spirit of Truth).

It was not sweet for them because of this, and many went for happiness to the New World. By thou and thee for the singular and ye for the plural, in our time it is possible to recognize the descendant of those Quakers themselves.

It has been noticed that the modern south of the states, where you, in your own way, feel a lack of pronouns - they (you) and you all (pl. H) are used there. English dialects still live their lives: in York and Lancashire you can hear thee and “tha knows” instead of you and you know.

And who knows, maybe this is a universal, polite you will ever really be divided into "you" and "you"?