Rhetoric, Wordplay, Forms

Source of pleasureor

Obstacle to appreciation?

Languages naturally change over time.

New words are always being added (Internet terms).

Languages can also be dead (Latin)

English has changed over the centuries and is still changing today.

A Great Vowel Shift occurredA movement in time when vowels began to be said differently.The angle of the tongue began to push more forward.

English Language History

Scholars recognize three historical periods in English•Old English•Middle English•Modern English

Shakespeare helped create Modern English!

Shakespeare’s English

•Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000 words into the language (example: bedroom, assassin, blanket, numb, unreal, dawn)•Shakespeare uses contractions in his writing to meet the syllable requirements in a line (iambic pentameter)•Shakespeare uses Malapropisms

Words purposely used incorrectly for a joke—usually done by a lower class citizen.

Shakespeare’s English Continued

Contractions: Shakespeare would omit syllables to make things fit and sound better

‘t: itTis: it isO’er: overE’er: everNe’er: never

Three ways to say “you”Thou: Friends or Family“You”: Formal, used with strangers“Ye”: Usually plural

“An” and “And” can also mean “if”“Hap” or “Haply” means perhaps

A Tiny Glossary of Shakespeare

Density and richnessCharacters express thoughts through abundant, powerful images and metaphorsFigurative language: pleases the mind and senses - expresses one idea in terms of anotherConnotative imagery: highly suggestive network of pictures and ideas resonating with other images, ideas, themes in play

Qualities of Shakespeare’s verse

Technical difficulties for modern readers:

verbs with inflected endingshath, doth, goeth

forms were in transition from medieval to modernpronoun problem - thee, thou, thy, thinefamiliar vs.. formal - thou and you

Early Modern English – the transition from Middle to Modern

Vocabulary Stumbling Block

Shakespeare’s vocabulary: 29,000 words (twice that of the average Am.college student)Many of his words have since dropped/changed from common usage: bisson (blind), proper (handsome), cousin (kinsman), silly (innocent)

Sentence Structure

Syntax - arrangement of words in sentenceInfluence of Latin grammarMove toward “simplicity” - Bacon > OrwellShakespeare created stage pictures out of poetry - issues of verse and prosody (patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry)

iambic pentameterrhythm, emphasischaracterization

Two primary forms: prose and poetryDominant form of verse: blank verseExample of Shakespearean prose:

Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is a man”

rhythmic power from patterns of verbal repetition

Forms of dramatic language

Blank Verse – no rhyme at the end•Written in unrhymed iambic pentameter (five

iambic units in each line)

•Iambic meter – each unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable

•Couplets – two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.•Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow•That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

•End-stopped line – punctuation at the end

•Run-on line – no punctuation – idea is completed in later lines

•Five-beat structure works on the ear•Smooth musicality of the meter•Regular repetition of unstressed and stressed sounds•Combines with other repetition (words, phrases, consonants, vowels) to create a mood of intense emotion - even awe

Other Aspects of Shakespeare’s Writing

Prose Writing

Ordinary writing that is not poetry, drama, or song

Only characters in the lower social classes speak this way in Shakespeare’s playsWhy do you suppose that is?

Music and rhymed musicRhymed couplets often end scenes

the play’s the thing,/Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” -- Hamlet

Rhyme fills A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Helena’s first soliloquy (1.1.226-33)Oberon’s chant as he applies magic lotion to Titania’s eyes (2.2.27-34)

What distinguishes poetry from prose?

Much of R & J is written in it:

unrhymed verseiambic (unstressed, stressed)pentameter( 5 “feet” to a line)

ends up to be 10 syllable lines