1. SHAKESPEAREAN LANGUAGE ISN’T “OLD ENGLISH.”

Shakespeare writes using early modern English, essentially the same language we use today.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE KING JAMES BIBLE

If you think Shakespeare’s plays use the style of the King James Bible, you are right. Both Shakespeare and the Bible translators use iambic pentameter in their writings.

CONTRACTIONS

Do not be confused by words such as ‘twill (it will), ‘tis (it is), or e’en (even). This is a poetic technique called elision. Try to think of it as a contraction such as it’s or that’s. Just read through the line.

READ OUT LOUD

You will be surprised how smoothly they read. Read in a conversational manner.

ENJAMBMENT

As you read, do not stop at the end of the line. Stop when you reach the end of an idea. Many of Shakespeare’s lines are enjambed, a technique in which lines run into each other.

So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But look, the morn in russet mantle clad

Walks o’er the dew of yon eastward hill.

Break we our watch up, and by my advice

Let us impart what we have seen to-night

Unto young Hamlet, for upon my life

The spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him

Do not quit reading when the sentences seem disjointed. Keep reading; eventually the sentences will unravel themselves.

PROSE VS. POETRY

Know the purposes of prose and poetry as Shakespeare

uses them. Prose looks like a typical typed paragraph.

Generally, Shakespeare has commoners and fools

speak in prose. Poetry is set in lines. Usually, royalty

speaks in poetry. So, if Hamlet speaks to the King in

prose format, he is being insulting. Likewise, be

aware when a commoner speaks in poetry.

LET’S TRY

…Our last king,

Whose image even by now appeared to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,

Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet-

For so this side of our known world esteemed him-

Did slay this Fortinbras…

I.i.83-86 (Horatio to Marcellus)

TRANSLATION

King Hamlet,

Whose ghost just appeared to us

Received a challenge from the proud King, Fortinbras of Norway to fight.

As a result, our brave King Hamlet-

Much admired by the world

Did kill King Fortinbras

YOU TRY

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think on him,

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

1. Act: a division within a play, much like the chapters of a novel

2. Aside: lines that are spoken by a character directly to the

audience

3. Dialogue: Conversation between two or more characters

4. Drama: a work of literature designed to be performed in front of

an audience

5. Dramatic irony: when the audience or reader knows something

that the characters in the story do not know

MORE DRAMA

6. Foil: a character who is nearly opposite of another character; the purpose of a foil (or character foil) is to reveal a stark contrast between the two characters, often the protagonist and antagonist.

7. Monologue: a long speech spoken by a character to himself, another character, or to the audience.

8. Scene: a division of an act into smaller parts

9. Soliloquy: thoughts spoken aloud by a character when he/she is alone, or thinks he/she is alone

10. Stage directions: italicized comments that identify parts of the setting or the use of props or costumes, give further information about a character, or provide background information

11. Tragedy: a serious work of drama in which the hero suffers catastrophe or serious misfortune, usually because of his own actions

12. Verbal irony: the result of a statement saying one thing while meaning the opposite

SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE

• Blank verse: very close to normal speech rhythms

• Iambic pentameter: a 10-syllable line divided into 5 iambic feet (one stressed

syllable followed by one unstressed syllable). This is the basic rhythm of

Shakespeare’s verse.

• Rhyming Couplet: two rhyming lines at the end of a speech, signaling that a

character is leaving the stage or that the stage is ending.

• Sonnet: a poem with 14 lines with approximately 10 syllables each line. Each

line is written in iambic pentameter and follows the rhyme scheme:

ABABCDCDEFEFGG.

• Pun: A play on words