Mrs. Jones2014

The language used by Shakespeare in his plays is in

one of three forms: prose, rhymed verse or

blank verse, each of which he uses to achieve

specific effects.

To recognize these types of language and understand

how Shakespeare uses them in his plays, you need to

be familiar with a number of technical terms.

Prose refers to ordinary speech with no regular pattern of accentual rhythm.

If you are unsure if a passage is in prose or in blank verse, look for the following visual clue: a long passage in prose is typically printed in your text like an ordinary paragraph with right and left justification.

Iambic Pentameter -rhythmical pattern of syllables.

“Iambic” consists of a soft stress followed by a sharp one: da-DUM. (A good

example is toDAY or creATE or deLIGHT or caRESS or biZARRE.)

“Pentameter” means that the rhythm is repeated five times, for a total of 10

syllables for each line:

examples:

▪ I am a pirate with a wooden leg.

▪ But soft! What Light through yonder window breaks?▪ We hold these truths to be self evident.

People once wrote in iambic pentameter because they thought it was pleasing sounding to the ears.

Rhyme: have the same vowel ending and consonant sounds

(might -right, flight, delight) (crazy-lazy, hazy)

Off –Rhyme: where two words look like they should rhyme but don’t (like

again, complain)

Half-Rhyme: where words sound like they should rhyme, but don’t

(Where - stare, or late –straight or June-soon)

End-Rhyme: When the rhyme comes at the end of a line

Example:

There is a ball

Near the wall

And it might fall.

Rhyming Couplets - sets of two lines that rhyme with each other and no other line in the poem.

Humpty Dumpy sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpy had a great fall.

Heroic Couplets -sets of two lines that rhyme and that form a complete thought. Couplet does not rhyme with any other lines in the poem.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty back together again.

Rhyme Scheme - pattern of end-rhyme in a stanza or a poem.

Denoted with letters, each letter assigned a different ending sound.

EXAMPLE:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;

Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

Rhyme Scheme sample:

Weird-Bird by Shel Silverstein

Birds are flyin' south for winter.

Here's the Weird-Bird headin' north,

Wings a-flappin', beak a-chatterin',

Cold head bobbin' back 'n' forth.

He says, "It's not that I like ice

Or freezin' winds and snowy ground.

It's just sometimes it's kind of nice

To be the only bird in town."

Rhyme Scheme sample: Rain by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyesAnd looked up at the rain,And it dripped in my headAnd flowed into my brain,And all that I hear as I lie in my bedIs the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,I walk very slow,I can't do a handstand--I might overflow,So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

Sonnets - fourteen lines of iambic pentameter

Shakespearian Sonnet – a fourteen line poem written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme:

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Wrote about friends, aging, and immortality of poetry, lust, and strong feelings.

Why are sonnets important?

Many of Shakespeare’s long speeches in his plays are written in sonnet form, especially when the characters are in very serious or romanticsituations.

Shakespeare wrote a collection of 154 sonnets.

Enjambment -continuation of a thought or sentences from one line of poetry to the next one without a pause.

▪ She stopped and looked

at him. And he saw her

looking at him

and staring

and blushed because of it.

Happens when a period is found in the middle of a line.

Blank verse -unrhymed poetry.

Blank Verse is employed in a wide range of situations because it comes close to the natural speaking rhythms of English but raises it above the ordinary without sounding artificial.

Blank verse is used mainly for passionate, lofty or momentous occasions and for introspection.

- “Why didn’t he use plain English?”

▪ The answer is, of course, that he did! There weren't so

many words and people used a whole variety of ways to

spell them as dictionaries weren't available.

▪ (There are at least 16 different Elizabethan spellings of

Shakespeare’s name!)

▪ If Shakespeare was looking for a descriptive word, and

couldn't find one he made one up.

▪ Shakespeare is responsible for over 1700 words currently

used in the English language!

beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained

barefaced blushing bet bump buzzer

caked cater champion circumstantial cold-blooded

compromise courtship countless critic dauntless

dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged

dwindle epileptic equivocal elbow excitement

exposure eyeball fashionable fixture flawed

frugal generous gloomy gossip green-eyed

gust hint hobnob hurried impede

impartial invulnerable jaded label lackluster

laughable lonely lower luggage lustrous

madcap majestic marketable metamorphize mimic

monumental moonbeam mountaineer negotiate noiseless

obscene obsequiously ode olympian outbreak

panders pedant premeditated puking radiance

rant remorseless savagery scuffle secure

skim milk submerge summit swagger torture

tranquil undress unreal varied vaulting

worthless zany gnarled grovel

· All that glitters is not gold (Merchant …)

· Be-all and the end-all (Macbeth)

· Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)

· Eaten me out of house and home (Henry)

· For goodness' sake (Henry VIII)

· Give the devil his due (I Henry IV)

· Good riddance (Troilus and Cressida)

· It is but so-so(As You Like It)

· Kill with kindness (Taming of the Shrew)

· Knock knock! Who's there? (Macbeth)

· · Lie low (Much Ado about Nothing)

· Live long day (Julius Caesar)

· Love is blind (Merchant of Venice)

· Naked truth (Love's Labours Lost)

· Neither rhyme nor reason (As You Like It)

· Not slept one wink (Cymbeline)

· Play fast and loose (King John)

· Seen better days (As You Like It)

· Sick at heart (Hamlet)

· Snail paced (Troilus and Cressida)

· A sorry sight (Macbeth)

· Spotless reputation (Richard II)

· Stony hearted (I Henry IV)

· Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)

· Wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)

· What's done is done (Macbeth)

· Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

1564 - 1616

Stratford, England

Shakespeare's father was a prominent citizen.

Shakespeare went to grammar school. He studied

Latin/Rhetoric, therefore dealing with written and

spoken language 8/9 hours day 6 days a week.

In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway (she was 26 years old, he 18).

By 1603 he was at the top of profession. He was legally one of King James' servants and his company was most often chosen for court performances.

Died 1616.

Wrote a total of 37 plays.

Engraved on the flat stone covering William Shakespeare's burial place in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon is thought to have been written by Shakespeare himself :

GOOD FREND FOR JESVS SAKE FORBEARE, TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE! BLESTE BE YE MAN Y SPARES THES STONES, AND CVRST BE HE Y MOVES MY BONES .

The Four London theaters where all built outside the city limits

Plays were mostly performed during the 12 days of Christmas

Acting troupes often performed in the open (gathering places, village green, etc.) to avoid persecution

Because of religious issues, very few plays were published.

When plays grew in popularity, there was a growing tension

between the rich nobles who supported the plays and the

Puritans, who believed plays encouraged sin.

Shakespeare often wrote one or two copies and the actors memorized them.

The actors would sometimes perform up to 12 different plays within a month - all memorized!

The Globe Theatre: most famous of Shakespeare’s performance venues.

Could seat 3,000 people

Had no scenery, a trapdoor, a balcony, and ceiling rigging for “flying” scenes

The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high

In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof of the gallery

Burned by Puritans in 1642

Over 352 years later the Globe was reconstructed, finished in 1996.

The audience on the ground paid a penny to stand there

the entire play. They often brought peanuts to eat and

would throw them at the villains (hence “peanut

gallery”). They were uncovered and would stand in mud

and rain to watch a play.

Higher paying members of the audience would share a

bench in the balcony – and one could pay extra for a

cushion.

Written around 1595

Based on a 3,000 line Arthur Brooke poem (1562) about two star-crossed lovers from feuding Italian families.

Current adaptations: Westside Story, Tristan and Isold, Shakespeare in Love, High School Musical

Reading Shakespeare:

Watch for punctuation…when reading, one should not pause at the end of a line UNLESS there is a period there!!

Correctly finding and citing play lines:

(Act . Scene . Line )

(Capital Roman # . Lower Roman #. Regular #)

Example:

▪ I. iv. 5

▪ II. v. 77-82

▪ IV. i. 2-9