Breaking the Code

1. Breaking the Code Strategies for Unlocking Shakespeare’s Use of Language

2. Why bother? • Thinking about how language works helps one… • Interpret Shakespeare’s plays. • Learn another language. • Understand one’s own language. • Write more fluently and effectively. • Perform well on “standardized” tests.

3. Three “Key” Areas • Diction. • Syntax. • Imagery.

4. Other things that come in threes...

5. The First Key: DICTION • Double Negatives. • Double Superlatives. • Difficult Vocabulary. • Wordplay.

6. Double Negatives • “I pray you, bear with me; I cannot go no further.” (As You Like It)

7. Double Superlatives • “This was the most unkindest cut of all.” (Julius Caesar) • “Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt.” (Hamlet) • “Excellent, excellent well.” (Hamlet) • “I must needs tell thee all.” (Merchant of Venice)

8. Vocabulary:Same word, different meaning • WS: “I would you had won the fleece that he had lost.” (Merchant of Venice) • US: “I wish you had won the fleece that he had lost.” • WS: “What find I here? Fair Portia’s counterfeit?” (Merchant of Venice) • US: “What do I find here? Fair Portia’s picture?”

9. Vocabulary:Word no longer used • “Come, bring me unto my chance.” (Merchant of Venice) • “Come, bring me to my chance.” • “I will anon. First let us go to dinner.” (M. of Venice) • “I will soon. First let us go to dinner.” • “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” (Romeo & Juliet) • “Why are you [named] Romeo [Montague]?”

10. Wordplay: Puns • One word that has two (or more) meanings (one of which is often obscene). • Lancelet: “I beseech you, sir, go. My young master doth expect your reproach.” Shylock: “So do I his.” • [Lancelet uses “reproach” as “approach”; Shylock uses “reproach” as “reprimand” or “scold.” (Merchant of Venice)

11. The Second Key: SYNTAX • Unusual sentence structures. • Words are arranged in an unusual order, or “inverted.” • Words usually next to each other are separated. • Words or parts of words are omitted.

12. Why is the syntax so unusual? • WS shifts words around … • for rhythmic effect. • for rhyming effect. • to emphasize certain words. • to give certain characters unique voices or speech patterns.

13. Inversion • Subject – verb. • WS: “Away from light steals home my heavy son.” (Romeo and Juliet) • US: “My heavy son steals home away from light.” • US: “My heavy sonsteals home away from light.”

14. Inversion • Subject – verb – object. • WS: “Me they shall feel.” (Romeo and Juliet) • US: “They shall feel me.” • US: “They shall feelme.”

15. Inversion (continued) • Subject – verb – object. • WS: “This kindness will I show.” (Romeo and Juliet) • US: “I will show this kindness.” • US: “I will show this kindness.”

16. Inversion • Subject – verb – compliment. • WS: “Black and portentious must his humor prove.” (Romeo and Juliet) • US: “His humor must prove black and portentious.” • US: “His humor must proveblack and portentious.”

17. Inversion (continued) • Subject – verb – compliment. • WS: “Such comfort as do lusty young men feel shall you this night.” (Romeo and Juliet) • US: “This night you shall feel such comfort as do lusty young men.” • US: “This night you shall feel such comfort as do lusty young men.”

18. Inversion • Adjective placed after the noun. • “…whether the body public be / A horse whereon the governor doth ride.” (Measure for Measure) • “…whether the public body be / A horse whereon the governor doth ride.” (Measure for Measure) • Consider: little boy blue vs. little blue boy; the soup spicy vs. the spicy soup.

19. Separation • Words usually next to each other are separated or interrupted (sometimes by many long, intervening phrases). • “And she was weaned (I never shall forget it) / Of all the days of the year, upon that day.” (Romeo and Juliet) • “And she was weaned (I never shall forget it) / Of all the days of the year, upon that day.”

20. Baby, Bottle, and Mom Nurse

21. Omission • Words (or parts of words) are omitted. • Lancelet: “I beseech you, sir, go. My young master doth expect your reproach.” Shylock: “ So do I his.” (Merchant of Venice) • “So do I [expect] his [reproach].” • WS: “I am glad on ‘t.” (Merchant of Venice) • US: “I am glad on [as in “about”] it.”

22. The Third Key: IMAGERY • Metaphor. • Implied Action.

23. Metaphor • One idea or object is expressed as if it were something else. • WS often reinforces, echoes, or extends an image throughout a passage, scene, or entire play.

24. Metaphor (continued) • “If I profane with my unworthiest handThis holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” (Romeo and Juliet) • Profane, holy, shrine, sin, pilgrims… • Diction, syntax, as well as imagery are at work in this passage.

25. What is a “metaphor”? For putting cows in!

26. Metaphor (continued) • “…her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, Which makes her the seat of Belmont Colchos’ strond, And many Jasons come in quest of her.” (Merchant of Venice) • Temples (pun, too), golden fleece, Colchos, Jason, quest. (diction: strond = shore)

27. Fun Shakespearean Images • “She is spherical, like a globe. I could find out countries in her.” (Comedy of Errors) • “…he has not so much brain as ear-wax.” (Troilus and Cressida) • “…when I shun Scylla your father, I fall into Charybdis your mother.” (Merchant of Venice)

28. Scylla and Charybdis

29. Implied Action • Lines are spoken at the same time the actors move, gesture, weep, shake their fists, draw swords, pick up objects, etc… • Watch for signals of stage directions in the language (stage the play in your imagination as you read). • “Nurse, give leave awhile. / We must talk in secret. – Nurse, come back again.” (R&J) • Mercutio is killed “under Romeo’s arm.”

30. Sword Fight!

31. Put it all together… • WS: “There came divers of Antonio’s creditors in my company to Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.” (Merchant of Venice) • Divers= several; company=group; break=bankrupt (as in “broke”). • US: “Several of Antonio’s creditors in my group that traveled to Venice swear he will surely go broke.” • Wow: inversions, omissions, vocabulary… all at work.

32. Take these keys and use them • Using these keys will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare, literature, and life.

33. Thanks and Credit to… • N. F. Blake for writing Shakespeare’s Language: An Introduction, a text heavily borrowed from to create this presentation, as well as Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, the editors of The New Folger Library Shakespeare drama series.