I
do not think’t.
-Claudius
Hamlet Act V, Scene ii, Line 293
Well, we’re at the last scene of Hamlet again. Been a while
since we’ve been here. So far in this play we’ve killed off Polonius and
Ophelia. Now in this scene we’re about to lose Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and
Claudius. Did I miss anyone? I do not think’t.
So before we leave for the day, just a few words about ‘think’t’.
Old Will turned a five syllable line into a four syllable line by turning ‘think
it’ into ‘think’t’. I can only assume that’s what he was doing. I don’t think
that ‘think’t’ was standard usage back then. But I don’t really know. Anyway,
there are multitudinous times throughout his writings that he does this with
all sorts of words. And I picked up on this trick and used it in my own book
(yes, this is a plug; here’s the website of the publisher of the book I wrote: www.pursuingwillbooks.com ). Did I use
this particular contraction in my own book? I'm not sure, but I do not think’t.
Here's the cover of the book. What do you think?
1 comment:
looks good
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