SHAKESPEARE

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SHAKESPEARES LANGUAGE
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Shakespeares English

• Shakespeare did not write in Old English or
  Middle English.
• Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English.
• Early Modern English is only one generation of
  language from the English you speak today!

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Shakespeares English

• In the England of Shakespeare's time, English was
  a lot more flexible as a language.
• The most common simple sentence in modern English
  follows a familiar pattern Subject (S), Verb
  (V), Object (O). (Will caught the ball).
• However, Shakespeare was much more at liberty to
  switch these three basic components
• Shakespeare used a great deal of SOV inversion
  (Will the ball caught).

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Shakespeares English

• Switching the S-V-O order to S-O-V made it easier
  for Shakespeare to rhyme and to manipulate his
  words to flow easily in poems and plays.
• Shakespeare could effectively place the metrical
  stress wherever he needed it most by switching
  word order
• Shakespeare also used an O-S-V construction (The
  ball Will caught) for the same reasons.

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Inverted Word Order

• Lady Montague
• O where is Romeo, saw you him today?
• Right glad I am he was not at this fray.
• Translation
• O where is Romeo did you see him today?
• I am very glad he was not in this fight.

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Inverted Word Order

• Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung.
• Translation
• You have sung at her window in the moonlight.
• From A Midsummer Nights Dream

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Review

• Form Physical structure of the poem the length
  of the lines, their rhythms, their system of
  rhymes and repetition
• Meter Basic rhythmic structure of a verse or
  lines in verse
• Rhyme Similarity of sounds between words

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Shakespeares Language in Plays

• The language used by Shakespeare in his plays is
  in one of three forms
• Prose
• Rhymed Verse
• Blank Verse

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Prose

• Prose is writing which resembles everyday speech
• Prose is often used by Shakespeare for
  lower-class characters in his plays
• Prose lacks meter and rhyme and is informal
• Shakespeare blends prose with poetry in his plays

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Rhymed Verse

• The majority of Shakespeares plays contain
  rhymed verse which looks like poetry
• Characters especially of the higher
  classes--speak in poetic form
• Rhymed verse has form, meter, and rhyme
• Rhymed verse in Shakespeare's plays is usually in
  rhymed couplets, i.e. two successive lines of
  verse of which the final words rhyme with
  another.
• A Heroic couplet is a couplet in iambic
  pentameter.

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Iambic Pentameter

• Iambic pentameter is meter that Shakespeare
  nearly always uses when writing in verse. Most of
  his plays were written in iambic pentameter.
• Iambic Pentameter has
• Ten syllables in each line
• Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed
  syllables
• The rhythm in each line sounds like ba-BUM /
  ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM

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Iambic Pentameter Example

• Examples of Iambic Pentameter
• If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on
• Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?
• Each pair of syllables is called an iamb. Each
  iamb has one unstressed and one stressed beat
  (ba-BUM).

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Rhymed Verse in Iambic Pentameter

• 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.
• - from A Midsummer Nights Dream

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Blank Verse

• Blank verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter.
  
• resembles prose in that the final words of the
  lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern
• There is meter a recognizable rhythm in a line
  of verse consisting of a pattern of regularly
  recurring stressed and unstressed syllables. 
• Most lines are in iambic pentameter.

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Blank Verse

• 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
• Rather than prose, blank verse may suggest a
  refinement of character.
• Many of Shakespeare's most famous speeches are
  written in blank verse.

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Blank Verse Example

• ROMEO But, soft! what light through yonder
  window breaks?
• It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
•  Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
• Who is already sick and pale with grief,
•  That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
  
•  Be not her maid, since she is envious
• Her vestal livery is but sick and green
• And none but fools do wear it cast it off.
  from Romeo and Juliet

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Figuring it Out The Steps

• 1. How many syllables does the line have?
• If ten, it is iambic pentameter. This eliminates
  prose.
• If ten, but no rhyme Blank verse
• 2. Does it rhyme?
• If it rhymes, it is rhymed verse.
• Is rhyme in successive lines? Either couplet or
  heroic couplet.
• Successive rhymes but does not contain 10
  syllables Couplet
• Successive rhymes and ten syllables Heroic
  Couplet
• 3. Contains no rhyme and unique number of
  syllables?
• Prose

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• Juliet Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near
  day.
• It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
• That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear
• Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree
• Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

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• Blank Verse

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• Abraham Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
• Sampson No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you,
  sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
• Gregory Do you quarrel, sir?
• Abraham Quarrel, sir? No, sir.

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• Prose

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• Full fathom five thy father lies
• Of his bones are coral made
• Those are pearls that were his eyes
• Nothing of him that doth fade
• But doth suffer a sea change
• Into something rich and strange.

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• Rhymed Verse

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• NURSE He was a merry mantook up the child.
• Yea, quoth he, Dost thou fall upon thy face?
• Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
• Wilt thou not, Jule? and, by my holy dame,
• The pretty wretch left crying and said ay.

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• Blank Verse

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• ROMEO
• Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
• It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
• Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear,
• Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.

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• Rhymed Verse

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• 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.

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• Rhymed Verse

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Prose, Rhymed Verse or Blank Verse?

• ROMEO
• Here's goodly gear.
• BENVOLIO
• A sail, a sail!
• MERCUTIO
• Two, twoa shirt and a smock.

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• Prose