title: Think On My Words: Exploring Shakespeare's Language
author:  David Crystal 
description: "In this authoritative and attractively written book David Crystal asks all the right questions about the language that Shakespeare used and the ways in which he used it. Here is a linguist who knows not only how words work but how they work in the theatre. Anyone who cares for Shakespeare will be informed and entertained by this intriguing and wide-ranging study." <br />Stanley Wells<br /><br />"Crystal is perhaps the world's foremost scholar of the English language -- and he is certainly the most enjoyable, learned and prolific author writing about the language today...Throughout [this book] Crystal's characteristic conversational tone helps make lucid the sometimes murky waters of linguistic analysis...Essential." <br />D. A. Henningfeld, Choice<br /><br />"David Crystal once again offers an incredibly learned overview of linguistic issues in an accessible, engaging, and thought-provoking book on Shakespeare ... The book is invaluable, in that it is accessible, highly enjoyable both to the specialized reader and the broader audience; and in that it argues persuasively that it is impossible to get very far in appreciating Shakespeare if his language is not looked at within the context of early modern linguistic practices." <br />Iolanda Plescia, Memori Di Shakespeare
zlib_text: # THE EGO TRICK
  
  Julian Baggini
  
  ![](Images/image00160.jpeg)
  
  > For Antonia, _la mia vera anima gemella_ ,  
  >  with love and gratitude
  
  > > For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call _myself_ , I
  > always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold,
  > light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure, colour or sound, etc. I
  > never catch _myself_ , distinct from some such perception.
  >
  
  >> David Hume, _Treatise of Human Nature_ ,  
  >  Book 1, Part 4, Section 6
  >
  
  >> > Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play
  upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
  mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass: and
  there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you
  make it speak. ’Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?
  
  >
  
  >> William Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ , Act 3, Scene 2
  
  # Table of Contents
  
  Title Page  
  Dedication  
  Introduc