CAROLINE: "Hello Arnie, I have looked at your examples, but I have to admit
I do not get it. Does it have something to do with the arrangement of the
words on the
page?"
Yes indeed, in a way....
CAROLINE: " Rhetorical figures like the anaphora? The pentameter? Please
enlighten me..."
Your wish is my command:
HAMLET (in HAMLET)
O, I die, Horatio;
T. The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I I cannot live to hear the news from England;
B But I do prophesy the election lights
O On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
FRIAR LAURENCE (in ROMEO & JULIET)
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
S Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
A And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
T Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
A And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
N. Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
TITANIA (in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM)
O Out of this wood do not desire to go:
T Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I I am a spirit of no common rate;
T The summer still doth tend upon my state;
AN An I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
A And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
These can only be seen on the page, they would be not be detected from a
live performance, unless, perhaps, it was a 21st century performance in
which the dialog was displayed above the stage, with suitable highlighting.
So, clearly, Shakespeare meant for his plays to be both performed and read!
Note that these acrostics depend on their being situated in blank verse,
where, regardless of the edition of the play, the first letter in each line
would always be the same, preserving the acrostic.
ARNIE
Am 12.11.2024 um 03:43 schrieb Arnie Perlstein via groups.io:
Hi Caroline!! I hope you will be encouraged to post more from here on
in!
You have perfectly summarized what I meant, but I was not clear enough in
my hasty explanation to Kishor.
I only add two examples of what could ONLY be seen by reading
Shakespeare,
rather than by seeing a Shakespeare play performed,
Read the following two passages. Can you see what I am referring to in
each
case? (anyone who reads my blog should refrain from answering, to give
someone else a chance to spot my point):
HAMLET (in HAMLET)
O, I die, Horatio;
The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
I cannot live to hear the news from England;
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
FRIAR LAURENCE (in ROMEO & JULIET)
Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone;
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, deprived of supple government,
Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
TITANIA (in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM)
Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And there are a couple of dozen other such passages scattered throughout
Shakespeare's plays, all with the same "trick" that can only be seen on
the
page, not heard in a theatrical performance, but these are arguably the
three most memorable ones.
ARNIE
On Mon, Nov 11, 2024 at 1:24?PM dasauenland via groups.io <dasauenland=
[email protected]> wrote:
Dear All,
First of all, please excuse this way of quoting the previous posting;
I'll
try to find the correct settings for quoting the whole text. I've been a
reader of this group for many years (but I do not read every single
posting). I remember that I once or twice posted something, or answered
to
some message, but it was no longer possible. I suppose I had been
inactive
for too long.
Quote:
"the same is generally true about Shakespeare as well ¨C the vast
majority of Shakespeare lovers have probably not read a word of
Shakespeare¡¯s plays ever, or at least since one course in high school or
college. But they do go to see him now and then in the theater or in
film
adaptations." (by Arnie)
"Shakespeare¡¯s plays were intended to be performed, not read." (by
Kishor)
That's true, of course, but still when a Shakespeare play is part of a
reading course/seminar, the usual way of analysing and understanding it
is
by close reading the text (and before that, or after, watching the
performance). The performance of the text is always an interpretation of
the stage director.
Caroline (lover of close reading ?)
Arnie Perlstein