The Folio version was Mill-ane, stressed equally on both syllables. Given that he probably had never heard it spoken aloud correctly, it's a reasonable assumption to make, for a bunch of jobbing actors.
Valentine: Sweet PROtheus, NO: Now LET vs TAKE our LEAUE: To MILLaine LET me HEARE from THEE by LETTers Of THY sucCESSE in LOUE; and what newes ELSE BeTIDeth HERE in ABsence OF thy FRIEND: And I likeWISE will VISite THEE with MINE.
Proteus: All HAPPiNESSE beCHANCE to THEE in MILLaine.
It's quite difficult to read as stressed equally on both syllables!
Reading the reference: it looks to me like "VR" was talking nonsense. A spelling is/was not a pronunciation, by a long chalk. Which is not to say that Mr Carroll was wrong to pronounce it "acceptable"!
Well, the soccer team is indeed stressed on the first syllable. Not that it existed in Shakespeare's times, but there you go.
(The city's name is indeed Milan in the local dialect, but the stress is on the second syllable -- as in the Italian version, Milano.)
The idea of a tidal river is harder to justify :-) There's barely anything that can be called a "river" (as opposed to "stream"); there are famous canals, but they're artificial; and the sea is about 200km away, and it's the Med anyway, probably the least tidal sea in the world after the Dead Sea...
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Sweet PROtheus, NO: Now LET vs TAKE our LEAUE:
To MILLaine LET me HEARE from THEE by LETTers
Of THY sucCESSE in LOUE; and what newes ELSE
BeTIDeth HERE in ABsence OF thy FRIEND:
And I likeWISE will VISite THEE with MINE.
Proteus:
All HAPPiNESSE beCHANCE to THEE in MILLaine.
It's quite difficult to read as stressed equally on both syllables!
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(The city's name is indeed Milan in the local dialect, but the stress is on the second syllable -- as in the Italian version, Milano.)
The idea of a tidal river is harder to justify :-) There's barely anything that can be called a "river" (as opposed to "stream"); there are famous canals, but they're artificial; and the sea is about 200km away, and it's the Med anyway, probably the least tidal sea in the world after the Dead Sea...
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