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There is a prince. (Or some other person of high rank.) And there is that prince's good friend, who, naturally, holds a somewhat lower rank. There are two ways I could show the close relationship ...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/42541 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
There is a prince. (Or some other person of high rank.) And there is that prince's good friend, who, naturally, holds a somewhat lower rank. There are two ways I could show the close relationship between the two: 1. **They can maintain the rank distinction**. Horatio addresses Hamlet "good my lord" and "sweet prince". Sam addresses Frodo exclusively as "Master Frodo". Their close relationship is shown by other means. For example, Hamlet would not let Horatio speak ill of himself, and speaks to him openly about things that are close to his heart: > **Hamlet:** But what in faith make you from Wittenberg? > **Horatio:** A truant disposition, good my lord. > **Hamlet:** I would not have your enemy say so, > Nor shall you do mine ear that violence > To make it truster of your own report > Against yourself. I know you are no truant. > But what is your affair in Elsinore? > We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. > **Horatio:** My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. > **Hamlet:** I prithee do not mock me, fellow student; > I think it was my mother's wedding. > **Horatio:** My lord, it followed hard upon. > **Hamlet:** Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats > Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. > Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven > Ere I had ever that day, Horatio. 1. **They can throw rank distinction aside**. This too is not unprecedented. In _La Dame de Monsoreau_, Chicot routinely addresses King Henri III by his first name, and even by endearments, like 'Henriquet'. He also uses '_tu_' rather than '_vous_' in addressing him (see [T-V distinction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction)). This is all based on reality, according to wikipedia. In a fantasy setting (that is, a setting where I need not be bound by "what actually happened"), what are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?