Shakespeare and Taking the Name of God in Vain: Oaths and Swearing on the Shakespearean Stage

This paper deals with Jacobean censorship and its internalising as a kind of new taboo for Shakespeare and other playwrights. In 1606, the Puritan influence on performances took an important step: the "Act to Restrain Abuses of Players" was issued, forbidding profanity on stage. A comparison of Quarto texts and the First Folio versions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Othello shows that expletives were cancelled, though not consistently; oaths and swearing are adapted to new spaces (Egypt) and times (British ancient history) in Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear. Anglican Britain does not feature in plays after 1606, which may be due to the necessity of avoiding references to God, substituted with pagan deities such as Jupiter and Apollo. In Shakespearean texts after 1606 language had to be modified according to the new Canon. Folio versions sometimes weaken the language, causing some loss of characterisation and power.