Shakespeare’s Style:

Prose and Poetry

Words or ideas are arranged in no fixed

pattern of strong or weak beats Often used for “common” speech, by lower

class characters Example: Sir Toby says, “What a plague

means my niece to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care’s an enemy to life” (1.3.1-2).

Prose

Up until the late 1500s, all English plays were

written in verse (poetry). Hence, playwrights in Shakespeare’s day were

called poets. Audiences in Shakespeare’s day expected to

hear the actors speak in verse. Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be heard

(they weren’t published in his day, and most of the population was illiterate anyway)

This rhythm made it easier to follow

Background: Poetry

Place your right hand over your heart You’ll feel the familiar thump: DA-DUM, DA-

DUM, DA-DUM, DA-DUM This rhythm is called “iambic” in other words, the weak beat is first and the

strong beat is second: DA-DUM, DA-DUM

How the rhythm works: Iambic

Although Because Unless Today Perhaps For sure I think Indeed delight

Some words with iambic rhythm:

Trochaic rhythm puts stress on the first syllable: Happy Frightened Lovely Certain Starving Roasting Love it Bring it…. Shakespeare

Compare to trochaic rhythm:

“Pente” means “five” “Pentameter” means 5 strong beats per line In total, there will be 10 syllables per line (5

strong beats and 5 weak beats) u / u / u / u / u / But soft what light through yonder window

breaks? (Romeo and Juliet)… OR… Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent. I’ll serve this Duke;

How it works: Pentameter

Each line of iambic pentameter can be broken down

like this: How sweet (1) the moon (2) light sleeps (3) upon (4)

this bank! (5) If mu- (1) sic be (2) the food (3) of love (4) play on

(5) It is (1) to hard (2) a knot (3) for me (4) to untie (5) I wish (1) my class (2) would read (3) Twelfth Night

(4) at home (5) If on- (1) ly kids (2) could love(3) the Bard (4) like

me (5)

Iambic Pentameter

Iambic pentameter that does not rhyme is

called blank verse Example: She made good view of me; indeed, so much That sure methought her eyes had lost her

tongue, For she did speak in starts distractedly. She loves me, sure; the cunning of her passion Invites me in this churlish messenger.

Blank verse…

A 14 line poem Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets Sometimes characters’ lines combine to make

a sonnet

Sonnet

ROMEO [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest handThis holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready standTo smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,Which mannerly devotion shows in this;For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;

They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

Sonnet from Romeo and Juliet:

Two rhyming lines are called a rhyming

couplet A rhyming couplet will usually complete a long

speech or a scene

Example: To woo your lady… yet, a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife. (1.4. 41-42)

Rhyming couplet

Speech spoken by one person, seemingly to

himself/herself but really to inform the audience of his motives and to reveal true character. Often is it a kind of internal debate.

Example: Olivia, after Cesario departs in 1.5.297-301:

I do not know what, and fear to find Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe. What is decreed must be, and be this so.

Soliloquy

Actor’s comment or a short speech meant to

be heard by the audience and not by other performers

Example: Viola to the Duke: I’ll do my best

To woo your lady; [Aside] yet, a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.

(1.4.40-42)

Aside

Gibson, Rex, and Field-Pickering, Janet.

Discovering Shakespeare’s Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.

“Stressing Shakespeare.” Literary Cavalcade 54.7 (2002): 10. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 16 May 2013.

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