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Shakespeare Coach Emily Staudt breaks down the Bard in a fun, approachable way
Showing posts with label midsummer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label midsummer. Show all posts
Friday
New and Improved - Midsummer Pronunciations
If you were wondering how to pronounce the names of the characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, I've updated my video from a few months ago to include ALL of the characters!
Thursday
VIDEO - The Shakespeare Shows You Need to Know!
Shakespeare wrote dozens of plays, but some are more popular than others!
Do you know which plays are the most popular, and which are strictly for scholars?
Are you familiar with the most popular works of the Bard?
Once you know where the holes are in your knowledge, you can start to fill them in! I'll even help you prioritize in this quick video! Check it out:
Do you know which plays are the most popular, and which are strictly for scholars?
Are you familiar with the most popular works of the Bard?
Once you know where the holes are in your knowledge, you can start to fill them in! I'll even help you prioritize in this quick video! Check it out:
Wednesday
Breaking Down the Bard - Dactyls
A dactyl is not a dinosaur - but "dinosaur" is a dactyl!
A
dactyl is a metric foot in poetry that is one stressed syllable
followed by two unstressed syllables. You could also think of this like a
musical triplet.
Some words that are dactylic all by themselves are:
Endlessly
Cabbages
Murmuring
President
Mockingbird
Hamilton
... and...
You guessed it: Dinosaur.
Take a look at these dactylic lines of verse, where I've shown the line first as it would appear in a script, followed by how I would scan it:
Julia (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain
TRAMP-ling con-TEMP-tous-ly ON thy dis DAIN
*Pronounce "contemptuously" con - TEMP - chuss - lee to keep it four syllables.
Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
I am a spirit of no common rate
I am a SPI-rit of NO com-mon RATE
Claudius (Hamlet)
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
MAD-ness in GREAT ones must NOT un-watch'd GO.
There is usually more than one way to scan a line of verse. A lot of people would make Titania's line perfect iambic pentameter:
i AM a SPI-rit OF no COM-mon RATE
And
while that is completely acceptable, I really like the choice of
dactyls for this line. Midsummer is a play that is largely in perfect iambic pentameter, so looking for opportunities to utilize other rhythms
and shake it up is a good idea. This is especially powerful here, where
Titania might be showing her magical abilities to impress
Bottom, who is trying to escape the woods while she is willing him to stay.
Making
Julia's line dactylic can help to emphasize the physical action of her
stomping all over the torn pieces of the letter she has received. Also,
attempting to make this line perfect iambic pentameter sounds really
strange:
tramp-LING con-TEMP-tous-LY on THY dis-DAIN
Nope. It's weird. So is Claudius' line:
mad-NESS in GREAT ones MUST not UN-watch'd GO.
Dactyls
are pretty frequent in Shakespeare's verse, so when you see a line that
can't be perfect iambic pentameter, check to see if it could be
dactylic instead!
Wanna step up your Shakespeare game?
Email shakespearecoach@gmail.com to schedule your first session!
Breaking Down the Bard - Tarry, rash wanton!
The first Shakespeare play I ever did was A Midsummer Night's Dream, when I was in sixth grade. I've done it several times over as an adult, and there is one line that was completely butchered - in meaning AND pronunciation - in two of the productions I've done: Tarry, rash wanton!
These are three words that are pretty much extinct in our modern world, strung together. It's not really surprising that it trips people up all the time, but since Midsummer is among the most popular of Shakespeare's plays in both schools and professional theatre, you should definitely know what it means.
Tarry means "stay". Rash means "hasty" or "impulsive". Wanton is not to be confused with the delicious Chinese food dumpling (wonton); and it is pronounced WAHN-tuhn. Wanton has a few different meanings, ranging from a wild and carefree person, to a tomboy, to a sexually promiscuous woman. If you want to learn how to use Alexander Schmidt's Lexicon, which can help you understand just about any word as used by Shakespeare in the contexts of his plays, I have a step-by-step guide here.
Each production can choose which interpretation of wanton they prefer, but a loose "translation" could be:
"Hang on, you reckless skank!"
Wanna step up your Shakespeare game?
Email shakespearecoach@gmail.com to schedule your first session!
Breaking Down the Bard - Fair
Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
How happy some o'er othersome can be!
Through Athens, I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so...
Audrey (As You Like It)
Well, I am not fair, and therefore I pray the gods make me honest.
Chorus (Romeo & Juliet)
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene...
You
may have guessed that the word "fair" is ALL OVER THE PLACE in
Shakespeare's plays. It's a word that we, in the 21st century, primarily use to mean "just, in
accordance with the rules or standards; legitimate." And sure, it often
means that in Shakespeare's text, too, but it also has a few other definitions,
most notably "beautiful", "of a white complexion", and "clear,
unspotted, pure." Sometimes, it even means "kind", "good", or even
"honorable."
(Side note: Alexander Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary is a great resource - and here's how to use it.)
One thing
that we have to be aware of when we approach Shakespeare's plays 400+
years after they were written is the ideals of the people presenting the
plays and the intended audience. Shakespeare's audience seemed to
enjoy, appreciate, and idealize their definition of beauty. This type of
"fair" includes people of a pale complexion (particularly ladies), and
people with blonde hair.
This
is especially apparent in a play like A Midsummer Night's Dream, where
the two young ladies, Hermia and Helena, are rivals. Helena mentions in
her soliloquy at the beginning of the play that "through Athens, I am
thought as fair as she". As the play progresses, we see numerous
references to Hermia being darker in color (in hair or skin, it isn't specified): "Not Hermia, but Helena I love./ Who will not change a raven
for a dove?" is Lysander's love declaration to Helena. As the "dove" in
this metaphor, she would be more "fair" (light in color) than a "raven", and therefore
more beautiful to Elizabethans than the darker Hermia.
In
As You Like It, Audrey says that she is "not fair", which probably
means "not beautiful", but also likely means "not pale." Many characters we meet
in the Forest of Arden are shepherds and goatherds, and they would
spend a great deal of time in the sun. To many Elizabethans, being pale
was part of being ideally beautiful, so the idea of Audrey using "fair"
in the "pale/beautiful" context holds up. In the same play, Phebe is
insulted when her features are described as dark: "He said mine eyes
were black and my hair black..." The amazing thing about Shakespeare's
writing is that even though his characters' ideals of beauty may be
different from what ours currently are, he makes it abundantly clear
that this is what matters in this particular society of the play!
In these instances and many others, "fair" is a synonym for "beautiful." This can apply to objects as well as people:
Proteus (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
But pearls are fair...
Sometimes, "fair" means "good":
Olivia (Twelfth Night)
Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway
In this uncivil and unjust extent
Against our peace.
Finally,
let's look at the opening lines from Romeo & Juliet. "Fair Verona"
could mean a great many things: a beautiful city, a just and
lawful place, a place without blemish (i.e. nothing bad happens
here), it's elegant, and even fortunate. Any and all of these choices
are accurate descriptions of the Verona we see in the text - until
things go horribly wrong!
"Fair"
is a very common word in Shakespeare's plays, and now you'll have a
jumping off point for what it means in different contexts!
Wanna step up your Shakespeare game?
Email shakespearecoach@gmail.com to schedule your first session!
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