Verse and Prose

Within our first session of rehearsal, we embarked on understanding verse and prose as the two ways that Shakespeare wrote his texts in.  In particular, we worked on one of Shakespeare's most commonly used devices within the language of his text, iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter means a line of stressed and unstressed syllables. When Shakespeare writes in verse, he's most likely writing in iambic pentameter because verse is writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, usually having a sense of rhyme. 

Prose, on the other hand, is writing without a metrical structure.

Generally, Shakespeare would use verse for writing lines for characters with a higher status or with more importance. 

The lower status characters would be written in prose, or characters who address vulgar or macabre subject matters would also be written in this way. Sexton, in Much Ado About Nothing for example, always speaks in prose. 

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

When we speak, our syllables are either stressed, having a stronger emphasis or unstressed, having a weaker emphasis. An iamb means an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Pent means five, therefore one line of iambic pentameter equals five iambs - five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables. Therefore, in most lines of Shakespeare, the line will end with a stressed syllable. 

However, from this session, we highlighted the sense that Shakespeare didn't always write in ten syllables. Sometimes Shakespeare would stray away from the structure as a clue to the actor of the character's mood and disposition within that moment in the play.  This is important to us as actors because it gives lines said by a character a lot of colour and dynamic, therefore it is important that we understand iambic pentameter so we can identify the clues that Shakespeare gives us. 

For example, if Shakespeare adds an extra unstressed beat at the end of a line, it could represent the unstable nature of a character. In Hamlet's speech, to be / or not / to be: / that is / the ques- / -tion, Shakespeare highlights the unstable conflicting and pontificating nature of Hamlet through an extra unstressed beat. 

Sometimes, Shakespeare also uses the advantage of inverting iambic pentameter to draw our attention towards words and ideas a character might say.  For example, Shakespeare might invert the stresses like he commonly did in Richard III's speech at the beginning of the play: 'Now is / the win- / -ter of  our dis- / content,  through putting two stressed syllables together and through starting in a stressed syllable and ending in one, to emphasise the present nature of 'now' being our 'discontent'. It exemplifies Richard III's speech as negative, and therefore highlights his poignant character trait as the protagonist but also the villain throughout the play.

As part of understanding iambic pentameter, we looked at Orsino's speech from Twelfth Night as an example of regular iambic pentameter: if music be the food of love, play on. 

Conversely, we looked at Olivia's speech from the same play (underneath) as an example of how Shakespeare messes with the structure to indicate clues of a character's mood. 

We also looked at half lines. When two characters share a line, it can indicate a close relationship.

We read a lot of speeches during this session, as a way of trying to get used to the rhythm prevalent in the iambic pentameter and as a way of almost engraining iambic pentameter into our body.

One of the most important things that this session installed in me was the importance of getting to grips with the iambic pentameter when we are learning our lines, and getting the rhythm into our bodies so that we can follow Shakespeare's rules. However, when we actually perform the lines, we shouldn't be confined to the rhythm where it sounds monotonous: engraining it into our bodies will allow us to say the lines with spontaneity and ownership if we get used to the rhythm. 

When understanding my lines, Hero, my character, often speaks in verse because she is a higher status character. Here is an example of regular iambic pentameter in one of her small speeches:

 This 5 minute video, a Ted Education animation, helped me understand iambic pentameter during independent research.