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"!
Are we even sure Italians didn't pronounce it differently back then?
Meanwhile, how do we know the pronunciation from the Folio edition? This spelling doesn't necessarily imply two equal syllables.
They were hardly jobbing actors - more like top professionals, albeit not outstandingly wealthy. And Shakespeare would surely have met people who'd been there - although perhaps not by the stage in his career that Nicholas is presumably referring to. Perhaps "MILL-ann" was the English variant of the name at that time, just as we still say "Florence" today. I wonder whether other playwrights of the time treated it similarly.
It's definitely ane/aine, not ann - he rhymes it with twain more than once in The Tempest. Italians certainly have pronounced it differently over the years, but that's kind-of irrelevant, given how much creative licence WS was taking in most of his geography (see: tidal rivers). Some texts still spell it Millaine to make this clear.
We have clues from other uses in other plays - Milan was a very popular 'exotic' setting, although I'll agree it is sometimes only the first syllable that's stressed. (Not so in The Tempest or consistently in TotS, though.) And you can gauge pronunciation of most things in the Folio editions from the rhymes therein; we can't be absolutely sure that that's what WS originally wrote or intended, but it's the best we have
( ... )
Can you find a rhyme from the Tempest that clearly indicates a stress on both syllables rather than just the first?
I guess it depends what you mean by "jobbing". I'd quite agree on the education/languages bit, but the people playing larger parts would surely have had reasonably steady careers as actors, and stacks of experience.
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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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(VR being Vanessa Redgrave, playing Prospero, I doubt she was talking absolute nonsense, btw!)
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Meanwhile, how do we know the pronunciation from the Folio edition? This spelling doesn't necessarily imply two equal syllables.
They were hardly jobbing actors - more like top professionals, albeit not outstandingly wealthy. And Shakespeare would surely have met people who'd been there - although perhaps not by the stage in his career that Nicholas is presumably referring to. Perhaps "MILL-ann" was the English variant of the name at that time, just as we still say "Florence" today. I wonder whether other playwrights of the time treated it similarly.
Reply
We have clues from other uses in other plays - Milan was a very popular 'exotic' setting, although I'll agree it is sometimes only the first syllable that's stressed. (Not so in The Tempest or consistently in TotS, though.) And you can gauge pronunciation of most things in the Folio editions from the rhymes therein; we can't be absolutely sure that that's what WS originally wrote or intended, but it's the best we have ( ... )
Reply
Can you find a rhyme from the Tempest that clearly indicates a stress on both syllables rather than just the first?
I guess it depends what you mean by "jobbing". I'd quite agree on the education/languages bit, but the people playing larger parts would surely have had reasonably steady careers as actors, and stacks of experience.
Reply
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