Tips On Reading Shakespeare
Why Shakespeare Wrote This Way
You may wonder if they really talked that way back then, the answer is no. Shakespeare wrote it that way for two purposes, to be poetic, and dramatic. He also did it this way to creat specific poetic rhythm, to emphasize a certain word, etc.
To understand it better, we say a sentence like this:
"I am going to a party"
Shakespeare would have wrote it like this:
"To a party going am I"
Weird huh? It's like Yoda trained him how to write, or talk. It's kinda funny to see how he wrote sentences out. If you remember this, it will help you read Shakespeare's writing with a better understanding.
An example of a blank verse would be:
"But soft! What light through yonder
In a iambic meter each stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed one. In a iambic pentameter, there would be 5 iambic units in each line.
Use the rhymes as a guide, also make sure you follow the punctuation, meaning pay attention to it. That is also vital to reading these lines.
Here are some punctuation tips:
- Period: a pause (take a breath)
- Infrequent Commas: suddenly change the delivery (change how you're saying it)
- Repeated Comma: building emotion (basically getting more into it)
- Colon: answering statement (you're answering the previous line)
- Dash: continue without pause (keep going, don't take a breath)
- Question Mark: raise voice in question (as if you were getting angrier (don't though, unless signified) or were getting more excited or trying to prove a point)