A WORDCRIME: EQUIVOCATION IN THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The article was triggered by Ludmila Egorova's book on equivocation in “Macbeth”, which contemplates upon the trope of equivocation as well as its social and political topicality in Jacobean England. This article continues the idea of equivocation as an ambiguous stylistic device and lifestyle of English Catholics, catholic priests, Jesuits in their attempt to survive persecution, trial and tribulation inflicted on them by royal judgment and governmental power. The article reads about R. Southwell and H. Garnet known as the authors of “A Treatise on Equivocation”, their lives and deeds. We also demonstrate how linguistic tendencies reflect human consciousness and vice versa.