Handout on Shakespeare's Language from Tuesday's class

NOTE: This is the handout we discussed in class, which might be useful for your first foray into reading Shakespeare this week. Be sure to read Acts 1-2 of The Comedy of Errors, with questions to follow (above). 

From Act One, Scene One of The Comedy of Errors

 

DUKE

Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more.

I am not partial to infringe our laws.

 

The enmity and discord which of late

Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke

To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,

Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives,

Have sealed his rigorous statutes with their bloods,

Excludes all pity from our threat’ning looks.

 

For since the mortal and intestine jars

‘Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,

It hath in solemn synods been decreed,

Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,

To admit no traffic to our adverse towns.

 

Nay, more, if any born at Ephesus

Be seen at Syracusan marts and fairs;

Again, if any Syracusan born

Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,

His good confiscated to the Duke’s dispose,

Unless a thousand marks be levied

To quit the penalty and to ransom him.

 

Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,

Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;

Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.

 

 TRICKS TO READING LONG SPEECHES:

• Break into individual sentences
• Examine strange syntax (and translate) ; look up any obsolete or strange words
• Look for rhymes, alliteration, assonance, etc.
• Examine the metaphors in each passage; how do the metaphors help characterize the speaker or their speech?

EX: “I am not partial to infringe our laws.” = “I’m not the kind of man to go against the law.” Why would a Duke speak one way and not the other? What’s his point? Why would Shakespeare have a Duke speak so imposingly, without rhymes, to someone convicted of a crime?

Remember, the actors in Shakespeare's time were on a relatively small stage, without elaborate props or costumes. Only their language 'clothed' them or made other people see them as more than the were--a low-class actor. So Shakespeare uses language to create rank and class, varying the style (prose vs. verse), the syntax (straightforward speech vs. poetic syntax) and linguistic devices (puns, metaphors, rhymes, alliteration, etc). He characterizes the Duke by how he speaks and what he says. He wants to frighten and intimidate Egeon; therefore, he speaks in imposing, convoluted speech which sounds legalistic, archaic, and powerful. Read it out loud--the Duke sounds great, even though he's only basically saying this: "since your duke imprisoned and murdered some of our merchants, we've vowed war against him, and this war has become a law between us. So if someone from your country lands here, we kill them, unless they can pay a thousand mark fine. Since you obviously can't, we're just going to kill you outright." 

From Act 1, Scene 2

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

Now, as I am a Christian, answer me

In what safe place you have bestowed my money,

Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours

That stands on tricks when I am undisposed.

Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

 

DROMIO OF EPHESUS

I have some marks of yours upon my pate,

Some of my mistress’ marks upon my shoulders,

But not a thousand marks between you both.

If I should pay your Worship those again,

Perchance you will not bear them patiently.

 

PUNS: The different meanings of “marks”: money and scars. Also, the different meanings of “paying out”—to give money, to get revenge. Much of the comedy of Shakespeare's early plays comes from elaborate verbal puns that twists the meaning of a word as far as it can go. He particularly loves to take a word and give it a sexual connotation. 

 

 

From Act 2, Scene 2

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE

If you will jest with me, know my aspect,

And fashion your demeanor to my looks,

Or I will beat this method in your sconce.

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE “Sconce” call you it? SO you would leave battering, I had rather have it a “head.” An you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head and ensconce it too, or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But I pray, sir, why am I beaten?

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE Dost thou not know?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE Nothing, sir, but I am

Beaten.

 

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE Shall I tell you why?

 

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE Ay, sir, and wherefore, for they say ever why hath a wherefore…Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, when in the “why” and the “wherefore” is neither rhyme nor reason?

 

NOTE: When does poetry become prose? When do they stop talking in iambic pentameter? Clues? And how do you read prose differently? Should the audience know?

VERSE takes up less space on the page since it's following a specific rhythm/structure. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter, which is a ten-syllable line without rhymes. Typically, educated people, the upper-classes, kings, etc. speak in verse. Antipholus does, and the 'other' Dromio does, but in this scene, his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, speaks in PROSE. Prose is just normal speech, without rhythm or structure. It sounds different when spoken and has the effect of capturing 'real' speech, especially of the lower classes. Much of his plays constrasts the two languages, and he can create character and drama (and comedy!) by doing so.