GIVE ANSWERS - English

100% GOOD (1 votes)ubesvaretLanguage Question
what is the meaning of this sentences’’for some other reasons, my grave sir,/ Which t’is not fit you know, I’ll not acquaint / My father of this business’’’ from The Winter’s Tale

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AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgJanuary 2022

An example rough first translation from Elizabethan English might be like this: ”I’m not going to let my father know about what has been happening for some other reasons, honourable Sir, which are not fit for you to know either.”


”which t’is not fit you know” could mean either ”none of your business” or ”it is bad that you know about them”. ”I’ll not acquaint” could either be with ”which t’is not fit you know” or ”My father of this business” or both. So it could be ”I’m not going to tell you why you should not know” or ”I’m not going to tell my father about what has happened”.

”my grave Sir” is almost certainly a word joke. ”grave Sir” had the sense and meaning of addressing the male as someone of higher status by using ”Sir” and implying respect with ”grave”. If said like ”my grave, sir” (a short pause between ”grave” and ”Sir”), then it would have the sense and meaning of ”if I told my father about this, then he would kill me (either literally or metaphorically)”, "my grave" = I am/would be dead  if....
 

So, there are a few jokes/meanings here. ”It’s none of your business and my father shouldn’t know about it either for various reasons” or ”For different reasons you don’t want to really know about it and I’m not going to tell you anyway. My father would also kill me if he ever found out about this matter”.

I'm sure I've missed other jokes/word plays that Shakespeare has made here.

Shakespeare is complicated big_smile.gif

KNitzsche profile picture KNitzscheJanuary 2022
In this case, just flip the sentence around. So, the person speaking isn’t going to tell their father about this matter and the reason for that is something the “grave sir” who’s being addressed here doesn’t need to know (none of his business)