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Early Modern Verse, Rhetoric, and Text Analysis

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Early Modern Verse, Rhetoric, and Text Analysis Early Modern Verse, Rhetoric, and Text Analysis by Charlene V. Smith Artistic Director [email protected] 2018 Our Mission: Brave Spirits Theatre stages visceral and intimate productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries with a focus on female artists and feminist perspectives. Table of contents I. Welcome .......................................................................................................... 4 A. Our Mission, Vision, and Values ............................................................................................5 B. Our History ............................................................................................................................. 6 C. Ensemble ..................................................................................................................................7 II. Steps to Text Analysis ........................................................................................ 8 A. Paraphrase ................................................................................................................................8 1. Guidelines for paraphrasing .......................................................................................10 B. Scan verse ............................................................................................................................... 11 1. Verse or prose? ............................................................................................................ 11 2. Iambic pentameter ..................................................................................................... 11 3. Why write in iambic pentameter? ............................................................................. 12 4. Why do scansion and verse matter? .......................................................................... 12 C. Sense units .............................................................................................................................. 12 D. Operative words .................................................................................................................... 13 E. Rhetoric ..................................................................................................................................14 F. Audience contact ...................................................................................................................14 G. Other elements ...................................................................................................................... 15 1. Modes of Address ........................................................................................................ 15 i. Thee vs. You ....................................................................................................... 15 ii. Insults ................................................................................................................. 15 iii. Status ...................................................................................................................16 iv. English Hierarchy ..............................................................................................16 2. Sounds .......................................................................................................................... 17 i. Alliteration ......................................................................................................... 17 ii. Assonance ........................................................................................................... 17 3. Rhyme .......................................................................................................................... 17 i. Single Rhyming Couplet marking the end of a a. scene ........................................................................................................... 18 b. play ............................................................................................................. 18 ii. Multiple Rhyming Couplets at the end ........................................................... 18 iii. Shared Rhyming Couplet ..................................................................................19 iv. Supernatural Characters ....................................................................................19 v. Song .....................................................................................................................19 vi. Bad Rhyme ........................................................................................................ 20 4. Word Choice .............................................................................................................. 20 i. Oaths .................................................................................................................. 20 ii. Bawdy Jokes ....................................................................................................... 20 iii. Inarticulate Speech ............................................................................................ 21 iv. Strange of Archaic Language ............................................................................ 21 5. Other Textual Clues .................................................................................................... 21 i. Monosyllabic Lines ............................................................................................ 21 ii. Embedded Stage Directions .............................................................................22 www.bravespiritstheatre.com 2 iii. Punctuation ........................................................................................................22 iv. Enjambed vs. End-stopped Lines .....................................................................22 v. A note on breathing ........................................................................................... 23 III. Verse ...............................................................................................................24 A. Introduction to Verse ............................................................................................................24 1. Types of Feet in Poetry ..............................................................................................24 2. Types of Meter in Poetry ...........................................................................................24 i. Tetrameter ..........................................................................................................24 ii. Hexameter .......................................................................................................... 25 iii. Doggerel ............................................................................................................. 25 B. Variations in Iambic Pentameter .........................................................................................26 1. Feet Variations .............................................................................................................26 i. Amphibrach........................................................................................................26 ii. Trochee ...............................................................................................................26 iii. Pyrrhic Spondee .................................................................................................27 iv. Anapest ...............................................................................................................27 v. Headless Lines ...................................................................................................27 2. Other Verse Elements ................................................................................................28 i. Shared Lines .......................................................................................................28 ii. Short Lines .........................................................................................................29 iii. Expansion and Contraction ..............................................................................29 iv. Caesuras ..............................................................................................................29 v. Other Variations ................................................................................................30 IV. Prose ............................................................................................................... 31 A. Uses of Prose .......................................................................................................................... 31 1. Formal Prose Speech .................................................................................................. 32 2. Formal Rhetoric .......................................................................................................... 31 3. Informal Rhetoric ....................................................................................................... 32 4. Euphuistic Speech ...................................................................................................... 32 B. Performing Prose ................................................................................................................... 32 1. Pointing and Overstressing ........................................................................................ 32 2. Prose and Verse Interchanges .................................................................................... 33 V. Rhetoric ..........................................................................................................34
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