Shakespeares Prose www assignmentpoint com Shakespeares prose Early

Shakespeare’s Prose www. assignmentpoint. com

Shakespeare’s prose § Early in his career Shakespeare rarely wrote in prose l Richard III - 50 of 3500 lines are prose (2%) § Later, Shakespeare uses much more prose l Hamlet - 900 lines of prose (30%) www. assignmentpoint. com

What distinguishes poetry from prose? § Music and rhymed music § Rhymed couplets often end scenes l the play’s the thing, /Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” -- Hamlet § Rhyme fills A Midsummer Night’s Dream l l Helena’s first soliloquy (1. 1. 226 -33) Oberon’s chant as he applies magic lotion to Titania’s eyes (2. 2. 27 -34) www. assignmentpoint. com

Blank verse § Sir Philip Sidney thought it especially suited to rhythms of English speech § Titania, speaking in blank verse, refuses to surrender the Indian boy to Oberon www. assignmentpoint. com

The fairy land buys not the child of me. His mother was a vot’ress of my order, And in the spiced Indian air, by night, Full often hath she gosipp’d by my side, And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands, Marking th’embarked traders on the flood; When we have laugh’d to see the sails conceive And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind; Which she, with pretty and swimming gait, Following (her womb then rich with my young www. assignmentpoint. com squire)

Would imitate, and sail upon the land To fetch me trifles, and return again, As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. But she, being mortal, of that boy did die, And for her sake do I rear up her boy; And for her sake I will not part with him. (2. 1. 122 -37) www. assignmentpoint. com

Effect of these 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 www. assignmentpoint. com

Bending of the iambic pattern v / v / § Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me v / your ears! [regular] / / v § Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me v / your ears! www. assignmentpoint. com [irregular]

Language as theme § Shakespeare’s early plays - candid look at how he uses language § 1592 or 1593 - he discovers the power of language - an epiphany § Love’s Labor’s Lost and Richard III l l sudden explosion of rhetorical ability sense of exuberance www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard III - master of language § § Usurper, hunchback, infanticidal psychopath He both attracts and repels us Words speak louder than his actions Richard gets what he wants with words l l gets others to do his killing for him heroic villain with an unparalleled gift for language § Richard is unforgettable because his words are unforgettable www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York; And all the clouds that low’r’d upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our bruised arms hung up for monuments, Our stern alarums chang’d to merry meetings, www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visag’d War hath smooth’d his wrinkled front, And now, in stead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy But I, that am not shap’d for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty To strut before a woman ambling nymph; I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt be them-Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to see my shadow in the sun And descant on my own deformity. www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determined to prove a villain And hate the idle pleasures of these days. (1. 1. 1 -31) www. assignmentpoint. com

Richard’s opening soliloquy § Rhetorical fireworks - show Richard’s l l l self-conscious wit Pleasure in patterns taste for performance § Sweeping contrasts l war > peace, Lancaster > York, winter > summer § Stichomythia - he brags to his adversaries l tells Queen Elizabeth he will marry his daughter, whose husbandwww. assignmentpoint. com he has killed

Richard § An actor § Also a kind of artist/playwright who writes a script to win the crown l Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous (1. 1. 33) § Creature of great yet perverted imagination l his descendant - Iago in Othello § We admire his wicked creativity and use of words - yet condemn his evil deeds www. assignmentpoint. com

A lesson in Richard § Rhetoric, wordplay - power used for dangerous ends § Theatre creates the opposite - the positive and living power of language § Richard is an illusion, created out of historical material to please and frighten the audience § Language - beauties, power, weaknesses, dangers, pleasures - paradox of WS’s thinking www. assignmentpoint. com