Words; Their Use and Abuse

by William Mathews

Shakespeare rarely confounded the two words; for example, in “Coriolanus”:

“Cor. Shall remain!

Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you

His absolute shall?”

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

“Meno. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world?

Senator. He shall to the market-place.”

Wordsworth, too, who is one of the most accurate writers in our literature, nicely discriminates in his use of shall and will:

“This child I to myself will take;