1. Shakespeare’s language

2. Do Now – Journal Entry #1 You will need:
Notebook
Pen/pencil
During Caesar, you will have weekly Journal Entries on Friday.
They will range from narrative prompts and free response to analysis.
Journal entries will be done IN CLASS and will count for 30 points each week.

3. Use 3-4 of the following phrases to create a story for your journal based on your knowledge of the Elizabethan era.
flesh and blood
vanish into thin air
pomp and circumstance
seen better days
a sorry sight
neither rhyme nor reason
full circle
dead as a doornail
for goodness sake
green-eyed monster
Not a mouse was stirring
In a pickle
Not slept one wink
Too much of a good thing
Foul play

4. Agenda and objective AGENDA OBJECTIVE DO NOW/SHARE OUT
Reading Shakespeare: puns, imagery and malapropisms
Students will analyze the specifics of Shakespeare’s language in order to evaluate how his style impacts our understanding of the text.

5. Reading Shakespeare

6. Shakespeare’s poetry
We speak in prose (language without metrical structure). 
Shakespeare wrote both prose and poetry (verse). 
To understand his poetry , we need to understand these terms:
Blank Verse:  unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Iambic Pentameter:  five beats of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables; ten syllables per line.

7. Iambic Pentameter IAMB = metrical FOOT with one unstressed
syllable and a 2nd STRESSED syllable. (we show it as
PENTA = FIVE!
METER = Length of the line

8. 1 2 3
Ta-TUM
Five Feet! 4 5

9. Shall I
com PARE
thee TO
a SUM-
mer’s DAY?

10. How sweet
the moon
light sleeps
upon
this bank!

11. Puns
A pun is a joke based on the use of a word, or more than one word, that has more than one meaning but the same sound.
Mercutio: “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.”
Romeo: “ Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes/ With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead.”
What is the pun here? What might Shakespeare be trying to point out?

12. Explanation
Soles--The bottom or under part of a shoe or foot.
Souls--The emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments.
Romeo says he can’t dance--his soul is heavy, he is depressed.

13. Examples
I was just arrested at the airport. Just because I was greeting my cousin, Jack!
All I said was, “Hi Jack,” but very loud.
I hear this new cemetery is very popular.
People are just dying to get in.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger.
Then it hit me.

14. Thou, thee and thy Thou = You Thee = You Thy = Your
Example: “Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,
Wilt thou not Jule?”
Translation: You will fall backward
when you have more wit,
Will you not, Jule?

15. Inversion Sometimes Shakespeare will invert the verb and the subject.
For instance, he might write, “Went I to Bellarmine.” instead of “I Went to Bellarmine.”
Example: “Then dreams (verb) he (subject) of another’s benefice.”
Translation: He dreams of another’s benefice.

16. Diction – Word Choice
There are three problems with Shakespeare’s word choice:
First - he uses words that no longer exist in the English we speak.
Second - he uses words that are in our language, but now have a different meaning to us.
Third – he uses words that are in our language, but we simply don’t know what these words mean – you should look them up.

17. Some translations to help you …
still = always soft = slowly, gently mark = listen an = if fell = cruel, fierce, deadly to-night = last night perforce = we must, you must kind = true to one’s nature ay = yes fain = gladly marry = swear word anon = at once plague, pox, ague = disease wherefore= why

18. Contractions
For purposes of rhythm, Shakespeare uses contractions to cut out syllables
‘a = he (often)
o’er = over
'tis ~ it is
ope ~ open
gi' ~ give
ne'er ~ never
Examples:
i' ~ in
o’ = on
e'er ~ ever
th’ = the
oft ~ often
i’ = in
e'en ~ even
‘t – it
ta’en = taken
‘em = them

19. Copy these lines down and translate them on a separate piece of paper.
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Do not swear at all/ or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self …
A plague a both your houses.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?