tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13529575.post250611745175402434..comments2008-05-03T14:48:28.033-04:00Duane Morinhttps://profiles.google.com/108055015572100370657noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13529575.post-30705515344105183212008-05-03T14:48:00.000-04:002008-05-03T14:48:00.000-04:00I always read "What" in that context as more of almost sarcastic remark. At least for Tybalt. It's used really commonly as you noted, throughout the plays, & it's rarely a "what?" as in "pardon? / repeat what you said?" the way we say it today.ren girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10776932784085029019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13529575.post-59399735237691728112008-04-30T13:19:00.000-04:002008-04-30T13:19:00.000-04:00"What" at the beginning of a sentence does seem to have an air of cluelessness about it. Two other English writers come to mind, each of them more widely read in India than Shakespeare, but for the most part unknown in the US: P.G. Wodehouse, the humorist and Enid Blyton the prolific writer of childrens's books. Apart from the ubiquitous "What ho?", Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster's uncle by marriage, Lord Worplesdon goes around spluttering"What? What? What? What?" when he's ticked off about something. Enid Blyton's Secret Seven series has the dimwitted constable whose favorite interjection is "Ere, what's all this then?".<BR/><BR/>RamAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com