How to Read Shakespeare

1. How to Read Shakespeare

2. 1. It’s Verse! • Do not pause at the end of a line • Short pause • Comma • Long pause • Period • Colon • Semicolon • Dash • Question Mark

3. 2. From Start to Finish • Read from punctuation mark to punctuation mark • Periods, semicolons, question marks signal the end of a thought

4. 3. Inverted Sentences • Verb comes before the subject • Reverse it back! • “Never was seen so black a day as this.” • “A day as black as this was never seen.”

5. 4. Ellipsis • Ellipsis = when a word is left out • “I neither know it nor can learn of him.” • “I neither know [the cause of] it, nor can [I] learn [about it from] him.”

6. 5. Subject, Verb, Object • Who did what to whom • “The king hath happily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success: and when he reads thy personal venture in the rebel’s fight…” Subject? Verb? Object?

7. 5. Continued… • Keep track of pronouns • He, she, it, they • Paraphrase main ideas • Read it out loud!

8. 6. Literary Terms • Metaphor • “I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.” • Allusion • Reference to person, place, or artistic work

9. 7. Contracted Words • Letter has been left out • Be’t on’t wi’ • Do’t t’ ‘sblood • ‘gainst ta’en i’ • ‘tis e’en • ‘bout know’st ‘twill • Ne’er o’ o’er

10. 8. Archaic Words • Thee • Thou • Thy • Thine • Art • Anon • Look at the side notes!

11. 9. Wordplay • Pun • Humor • Two meanings suggested by same word or two similar-sounding words • Malapropism • Character mistakenly uses a word for another word

12. 10. Final Thoughts • Written for the stage • Shakespeare loved to play with language • Shakespeare puts all kinds of people on stage • Read it out loud!