Notes about text from the lecture with Giles

The punctuation ends lines in early plays. In later plays ideas go on to other lines.

Blank verse --"strange rhythm"-- was a new style. It took the theatre world by storm. People began to hear players who sounded like them. It might have been thought dangerous like popular music is thought to be today. It is rather like a heartbeat; it is probably not far off from an energized person's heartbeat. The audience's heartbeat may beat in time with the words. The rhythm is a secret rhythm. It carries a message that is a comment about our own humanity. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Fourteeners are lines longer than ten syllables. Shakespeare would make fun of this by having certain character's speak in fourteeners. Fourteeners are longer than what humans naturally want to speak. Ten syllables fits our lung capacity.

Millions of years ago (sic) we learned how to speak. We had to learn to breathe differently in order to accomplish this amazing new task. We learned to breathe in quickly and to control the exhalation to facilitate this skill. 10 syllables is just about right to make this happen.

Much ado 70% is in verse. Only about 4 plays have as much prose in it. they are all comedies. Prose is not for the uneducated. You can find examples of educated characters speaking in both. It is more about situation than permanant status.

Shakespeare's English sounded a lot closer to an American accent than a contemporary English accent.

In modern productions we cut things that are duplicitous. This is a shame. They help an audience follow. We cut out pop-up thoughts. A lot of people came to the theatre and did not understand what was said. The groundlings would come to hear the story. The people in the seats would hear the words. They would be listening for the new words. You don't always get it all the first time.

Verse is the language of emotion. Act iv scene I of much ado is not in verse because Beatrice is not being direct with her feelings. She acts with split purpose. Thus, prose is used instead of verse.

Prose is the language of the head--of reason. Prose is a bit of a brainstorm. Prose is often clever or witty.

The way Shakespeare looks on the page is kind of scary. Break it up into thought units. It can turn a twenty line speech into five thoughts. Find a way to print it out to show the fragmented nature of a Shakespeare's speech. Many of the speeches are heavily fragmented. Do a divide and paraphrase activity. Use italics, parentheses, and bolding of words to stress certain words to focus in on key ideas.

Line and breath. A new line should be energized with a new breath.