Breaking Down the Bard - Quatrains

Last week on Breaking Down the Bard, I explained couplets, or two lines of verse in a row which have an ending rhyme. This week, we'll be looking at another popular rhyme structure in Shakespeare's works: quatrains.

Luciana (The Comedy of Errors)
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth's sake, use her with more kindness:
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth,
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness

See how "wealth" rhymes with "stealth" in the first and third lines, and "kindness" with "blindness" in the second and fourth lines? These four lines of alternating ending rhymes make a quatrain.

Here's another way to visualize it:
___________ A
______________B
____________A
______________B   

Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Fair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood:
And to speak troth I have forgot our way.
We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
And tarry for the comfort of the day.

Getting the hang of this? "Wood" rhymes with "good," and "way" rhymes with "day."

Quatrains can even be shared among characters:

Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
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. 

Romeo and Juliet are so in tune with each other that they can rhyme while they flirt! 

Now you can identify what a quatrain is, and you're going to impress everyone when you're doing tablework for your next show!

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