Reading Shakespeare. . .!
We will work through most of the play together, and we'll watch some of the movie version as we read it--not all of it, but enough to know what is happening generally. If you skip or snooze or miss school, remember that the start of each scene features a summary in “plain ol’ English”. USE THESE. Also, remember the "No Fear" link given below--but don't be too easy on yourself. You can figure ol' William out!
Yeah, he sometimes seems hard to understand, but it is possible. GET WHAT YOU CAN FROM THE PLAY! Even one line (Don John says, “I am a plain-dealing villain”; Lady Capulet says, “Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word”: anyone can understand these!) can help you get the idea. You need to take the time to get these ideas!
Much of what Shakespeare wrote was VERSE, as in poetry. MOST, though not all, of Romeo and Juliet, is in verse (notice how the lines break; it’s “iambic pentameter”), even though it doesn’t rhyme all the time (this is called “blank verse”). More of Much Ado is in PROSE (regular writing like this handout here), though the women are more likely to speak in blank verse. “Fools”, like the servants in RJ and the watch in MA, usually speak in prose.
The famous “thee/thou/thy/thine” and “art/doth/is’t” issue. THEE and THOU are old English words for “you”. Nowadays we use one form--”you”, whether we’re talking to family, strangers, one person or 100. In Shakespeare’s time, THEE/THOU was used to address someone familiar, but it still meant “you”. “Thy/thine” meant. . . your/yours. No biggie. Some languages (French, Spanish. and German for sure) still use two different forms of “you”.
The endings of words tend to be different because English came from French, German, Latin, etc, and in the 1600’s, English was closer to its roots than it is now. ALSO, because so much of these plays is (are? sounds funny regardless) poetry, Shakespeare drops syllables and runs words together when he wants to make something shorter or smoother: “Is it” becomes “is’t”; “on it” becomes “on’t”. . . and if he needs a strong syllable he might turn “beloved” into “belovED” with an accent mark.
FINALLY: use your brain. Use your sense of adventure and your stubbornness and stick with it. Shakespeare is very funny, dramatic, off-color, original, and, most of all, true to human nature even now. Which character are you most like, and why? I bet you’ll recognize friends and enemies alike!
Oh: when someone is being official, s/he gives references in plays by act, scene, and line numbers in the following way: I, i, 23. Capital ROMAN for act, lowercase ROMAN for scene, and Arabic number for line/s. Get it? Practice. There are usually five ACTS in a Shakespeare play.
AND. . . traditionally, the plot of a comedy moves its characters from ISOLATION to COMMUNITY, ending in marriage, while a tragedy moves its characters from COMMUNITY TO ISOLATION, ending in death (pretty isolated, huh?). I’m just telling you so you can tell which you’re reading!
NOTE: you’re responsible for the material on this page. It could show up on a quiz or such!