Why use "it" here? "Will’t please you rise?"

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar
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Obviously " Will’t please you rise? " refers to "Will it please you rise?"

But "it" seems redundant here.

Context:

Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Last_Duchess

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 2,744 • Replies: 5

[+3] - Lustig Andrei - 08/30/2011First, don't forget you are reading poetry. :) But the "it" here refers to the action of rising. So, saying "will [it] please you to rise?" is just another way of saying,...

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@oristarA,

First, don't forget you are reading poetry. Smile

But the "it" here refers to the action of rising. So, saying "will [it] please you to rise?" is just another way of saying, "Woud you like to rise?" (In other words, will this action of rising be pleasing to you?)

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@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

First, don't forget you are reading poetry.

But the "it" here refers to the action of rising. So, saying "will [it] please you to rise?" is just another way of saying, "Woud you like to rise?" (In other words, will this action of rising be pleasing to you?)

Good.
Thanks

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@oristarA,

Will’t please you sit and look at her?

I think that this might possibly be a spelling variant/mistake of a use of an older form of 'will' when English had a more robust case system.

Meaning - "Will you please sit and look at her?"

Quote:

thou wilt
an old phrase meaning “you will”

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/wilt_9

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Browning's "My Last Duchess", published in 1842, is set during the late Italian Renaissance, that is, around 1550. Of course the characters in the poem would have spoken contemporary Italian to each other, but Browning imagines them speaking English of that time. A polite request would have been phrased somewhat more fully in those days. "Will it please you" was a set phrase used to precede a request. In modern English it has shrunk to just the word "please". "Will it please you rise" means "please rise".

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@contrex,

I think it's all been said now.

I'm reminded of the French "S'il vous plait" which translates literally as "if it pleases you" and which is rendered in English simply as "please".

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Why use "it" here? "Will’t please you rise?"

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