Does William Shakespeare use the double negative in the speech below to yield a different meaning, or is it just for emphasis? (Merchant of Venice)

Question

....So can I give no reason, nor I will not, More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing...

~ Shylock answering to the Duke in the court

In the above extract from Merchant of Venice - Act IV, Scene I, does Shylock here say:

"So, I can give a reason that it is a deep-rooted hate and certain hatred",

due to the double negative? According to my research, double negatives make the statement positive. Example: "He did not say nothing", implies to saying, "He said something".

Or, does this double negative in the extract is just showing emphasis:

"So, I can give no reason, and I will never, but it is a deep-rooted hate and a certain hatred"?

See Since when was a double negative as an intensifier considered as non-standard and why? which has a similar Hamlet quote. — Laurel, Apr 24 '22 at 12:46
The two negatives in “nor will I not” could be taken to cancel each other, but syntactically they cannot cancel that of “no reason”. So the sentence could mean “I can give no reason, and I will [give no reason].” Hmmm. — Anton Sherwood, Apr 25 '22 at 05:21
The sentence as a whole could be paraphrased, “The only reason I can give is hate and loathing” — Anton Sherwood, Apr 25 '22 at 05:25
I read the "nor" as joining the two alternatives "I can give no reason" and "I will give no reason" so there is no double negative. What Shylock is saying, as I read it, is that there is no reason he can give for pursuing the pound of flesh from around Antonio's heart other than his (Shylock's) entrenched hatred and, if there were such a reason, he would not give it anyway. As I said, no double negative is involved. — BoldBen, Apr 25 '22 at 06:11
Does this answer your question? Since when was a double negative as an intensifier considered as non-standard and why? — Robusto, Apr 26 '22 at 19:59

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 26 '22 at 19:20

I believe that the use was emphatic. Until the 1700s, the double negative was commonly used in English. In "As You Like It," for example, Celia complains, "I cannot go no further." In most languages that I have studied, the double negative is still used and is a common form of emphasis. There was a previous discussion on Shakespeare's use of double negatives on this site : Is Shakespeare's Double Negative Grammatically Wrong?

Does William Shakespeare use the double negative in the speech below to yield a different meaning, or is it just for emphasis? (Merchant of Venice)

1 Answers1