CHAPTER 2
The Basic Skill Set for Working with Heightened Language
THERE ARE TEN basic skills required to play Shakespeare. Some are identical to the skills required to act realism.
TEN BASIC SKILLS
1. Play your action and achieve your objective.
2. Stay in the moment, listening, not thinking ahead.
3. Use scansion, phrasing, and the caesura.
4. Support the thought all the way through the line. The end of the line is often as important, or more important, than the beginning.
5. Breathe at the correct places.
6. Let the words be the expression of your thoughts. Do not think, then speak. Speak what you think when you think it.
7. Understand the speech structure and rhythm.
8. Play the antithetical words, phrases, and thoughts. Use the caesura to help you. These skills will clarify your phrasing and prevent you from rushing.
9. Use analysis to understand all words and thought patterns.
10. Love the imagery.
These skills will be studied one by one. All actors know that skills are to be mastered and “forgotten,” then revisited during rehearsal. In performance, the moment and the action must take over. Most actors would rather be “involved in the moment” than engaged in the “chore” of text study. Not surprisingly, then, it is more difficult to learn the skills and apply the discipline needed to practice them than it is to forget the skills and allow the moment to take over.
From the above list, number 1, “play your action,” and number 2, “stay in the moment,” are the same skills used in acting realism. We won’t spend time reviewing them.
REQUIRED TEXT
At this point, you need to choose two sections of Shakespearean text: (1) a monologue in blank verse (not prose) and (2) a sonnet. Ten or twelve lines are enough for the monologue, and these can be cut from a longer monologue. Pick a sonnet you enjoy.
Your selections will probably be regular lines—ten syllables in each—but you may have to adjust to feminine endings or short or shared lines. Rhymed couplets are fine. Scan the lines, mark the feet and stresses, note the elision, circle the caesuras, the breathing places, and the words that break the rhythm.
I just used a series of words and instructions that you may not understand. Before I explain the ultimate exercise, “kick the box,” we’ll take a detour and learn these terms. You’ll soon be on your feet and working aloud.
WHAT IS BLANK VERSE?
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word.
RICHARD III, I, ii
Simply stated, blank verse is a ten-syllable line of English words. It can rhyme with another line or be unrhymed. There are regular and irregular versions of the blank verse line. The ten-syllable line is also called iambic pentameter. Iamb is the Greek word for foot, which has a heel and a toe. Iambic also applies to a word with two syllables wherein one syllable is usually stressed and the other unstressed—like heel-toe, or dee-dum.
An iambic pentameter is a line of verse that consists of five metrical feet—in this case iambic feet, so we have ten syllables per line.
Here’s a blank verse line from Hamlet, spoken by Horatio about the Ghost, with the feet separated and the stresses marked: 
for unstressed syllables; 
for stressed.*
Walk around and think of your foot falling “heel toe, heel toe, heel toe, heel toe, heel toe,” and count five feet with ten “syllables.” The “heel” is unstressed and the “toe” is stressed. The stresses in verse are often defined “dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum.” Keep walking and substitute “dee dum” for “heel toe.” That’s the rhythm of blank verse.
Blank verse was developed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the late sixteenth century and is usually considered the written form closest to actual English speech. You speak blank verse all the time, usually without realizing it. For example, “What do you want to do this afternoon?” and “Let’s go to town and buy an ice cream cone” are two lines of blank verse! Converse for awhile in blank verse, and write out a few original lines of your own.
Use this space to write a few lines of original blank verse:
WHAT IS A REGULAR BLANK VERSE LINE?
A regular line is comprised of ten syllables with alternating stresses: “Dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum.” In a regular line, the stressed syllable is always the second syllable of each foot. This definition will lead us to suspect that there may be lines which are not “regular.” That is true and, in fact, is a key to how Shakespeare’s language works. He will change the regular rhythm and catch the listener’s ear. Learning to recognize these changes and handle them convincingly is a key to speaking this language. We’ll work on that soon. The blank verse form is used in modern daily life and in classical dramatic text and poetry. Invent a few more blank verse lines for practice.
I pray you mar no moe of my verses
with reading them ill-favoredly.
AS YOU LIKE IT, III, ii
WHAT ARE FEMININE ENDINGS AND ELISION?
A blank verse line is sometimes spoken with eleven syllables rather than ten. The final syllable is not stressed and remains soft. The most famous line in Shakespeare illustrates the added syllable, the “dee” without the “dum,” as Hamlet contemplates action.
Hamlet: To be, or not to be—that is the question. (III, i)
In this blank verse line, there are eleven syllables. The final syllable, the feminine ending, is a soft and unstressed syllable. The line scans like this:*
To recognize the feminine ending, you must count the syllables in the blank verse line. If you count eleven and notice that the final syllable would not be stressed—like “tion,” “ing,” or “en,”—you have a feminine ending. If you count eleven (or perhaps more) syllables but note that the final syllable must be stressed, you cannot use the feminine ending. In this case, use elision—contracting two words or syllables into one, like “I’ll” from “I will”—to establish ten syllables.
In the following example, in which Hamlet speaks to Horatio with an eleven-syllable line, Shakespeare has already elided a two-syllable word into one, but the reader must elide another word, as “man” is stressed and would not make a feminine ending.
Hamlet: Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man (III, ii)
Note “even” is already elided to “e’en” and pronounced as one syllable. The actor must elide “Horatio” to “Horat’o,” pronounced as three syllables. Now the line can be spoken in ten syllables with correct rhythm.
Elision is used frequently in Shakespeare. Here are more examples. In the first, Shakespeare provides the elision:
Gloucester: As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; (IV, i)
Note that the fifth foot has three syllables, even with “th’gods” elided. This is acceptable and does not harm the meter.
In the following examples, the actor must determine the elision:
Lady Macbeth: He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse (I, v)
Elide “raven” to “rav’n,” spoken as one syllable; however three sounds in the third foot also works.
Caesar: Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night. (II, ii)
Elide “heaven” to “heav’n” spoken as one syllable.
Ghost: Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin. (I, v)
Elide “even” to “e’en,” spoken as one syllable.
To elide or not to elide can be a confusing choice. If no help is available, choose the way that sounds best to your ear, while keeping the rhythm.
As clear
As morning roses newly washed with dew.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, II, i
WHAT IS A SHORT OR SHARED LINE?
A short line consists of fewer than ten syllables. If the line is finished by the following line, usually spoken by the next speaker, it is a shared line. If not finished by the next line, the missing syllables are probably a direction from the author instructing the actors to take a pause before continuing.
For example, here’s Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice begging Portia’s forgiveness for the “lost” ring. His speech ends with a short line which she finishes with her first line. Then she ends her speech with a short line which he finishes. Generally the actor who finishes a short verse line has a quick cue to keep the rhythm.
Bassanio: Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
And in the hearing of these many friends
I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
Wherein I see myself,—
Portia:Mark you but that!
In both my eyes he doubly sees himself,
In each eye, one. Swear by your double self,
And there’s an oath of credit.
Bassanio:Nay, but hear me (V, i)
Here is another example. In Juliet’s second of three exits in the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, she first speaks a short line which he finishes, then a short line which is unfinished and certainly calls for a pause as he watches her leave. Does the pause call for a kiss?
Romeo:So thrive my soul,—
Juliet: A thousand times good night! (exits)
Romeo: A thousand times the worse, to want thy light! (II, ii)
In the first two lines, his “So thrive my soul” finishes her “Tomorrow will I send.” His second line, “A thousand times the worse, to want thy light!” is a regular verse line, and therefore it is not intended to complete her unfinished second line.
So there is an unfinished two feet after “A thousand times good night!” A four-syllable pause to be filled—a “dee dum dee dum.” How? A kiss? A cross to the door and turn back? A cross and run back? A cross and thrown kiss? A hand clasp? A hand kiss? Just an exit? Your choice.
Farewell, farewell! One kiss and I’ll descend.
ROMEO AND JULIET, III, v
WHAT IS A RHYMED COUPLET?
Just what it sounds like. Here are examples from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which all of the verse rhymes and dozens of rhyming couplets can be found.
Helena: O, that a lady, of one man refused,
Should of another therefore be abused! (II, ii)
Another:
Hermia: So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend.
Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end. (II, ii)
Play the rhyme, don’t try to cover it up. There is great pleasure in speaking and hearing it.
You will notice that your sonnet, and all of the other sonnets, ends with a rhyming couplet.
I have spoke the truth.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, V, iii
WHAT ARE SCANSION AND STRESSES?
Marking the soft and stressed syllables in a blank verse line is called scanning the line, or scansion. In a regular blank verse line, the second syllable of each foot is stressed, as shown on page 15. Shakespeare, however, achieves effects by creating irregular lines. In the following example, lines 1, 2, and 4 are usually considered regular, while line 3 is irregular. These are the opening four lines in Romeo and Juliet.
Chorus: Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. (Pro)
Using regular scansion, in the third foot of line 3, the word “break” would not be stressed. For the sense of the line, however, your common sense tells you that the verb “break” is more important than the preposition “to,” so the stresses are inverted and the line scans like this:
The third foot is called a trochaic foot, or trochee, as opposed to an iambic foot. The first syllable is stressed and the second unstressed, and the rhythm is broken. With just a little practice, you will learn to recognize irregular stresses and words that break the rhythm.
HOW DO I SELECT THE BREATHING POINTS?
It’s easy to know when to breathe in Shakespeare; it’s hard to make yourself do it. Breathe at the natural stops—the punctuation points—and not at the end of a verse line simply because, on paper, it looks like the end of a line. In verse, many lines are enjambed, which means the “thought” implicit in the line runs on from one line to the next without a break (or punctuation). In the above four lines from the Romeo and Juliet prologue, each line ends with punctuation, and you can breathe comfortably. But end-of-line breathing is usually not the case. In the following example, select the breathing points.
Mercutio: O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep. (I, iv)
Notice the enjambed lines. You would not take a breath after lines 2, 3, or 5. Circle the correct breathing points—after “O,” “you,” “midwife,” “alderman,” “asleep”—and memorize them at the same time you work on and memorize text. You will discover that breathing correctly actually helps you memorize. While inhaling physically, you mentally “inhale” your next line. While exhaling physically, you “exhale” the line. This technique is studied in more detail in chapter 5.
WHAT IS A CAESURA?
Pronounced si-zhoor´-ə, it is a “sense” pause, usually in the middle of a blank verse line. Some verse lines contain punctuation, others do not. On the ones that do not, a sense pause is almost always present. Mark it like this: //.
A sense pause does not mean a breath pause. Don’t breathe at the caesura unless the breath is planned and necessary.
Look again at the lines of Hermia and Helena in the rhyming couplet section on p.17. In each case, their first line contains punctuation and their second line does not. In each second line, we can insert a caesura.
Helena: Should of another // therefore be abused!
Hermia: Thy love ne’er alter // till thy sweet life end.
Note the elision by the author of “ne’er” from “never,” creating a one-syllable word. Shakespeare sometimes elides consonants, although elision of vowels is more common.
By using the caesura, the lines are broken into separate phrases. Separate phrases identify separate thoughts. Identifying thoughts clarifies the lines. We’ll work more on phrasing and caesura in chapter 3.
TEXT STUDY SEEMS ACADEMIC: DOES IT MATTER?
The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!
THE TEMPEST, I, ii
Text study matters, because the structure matters. Compared to music, the structure is the notation. Compared to baseball, the structure is the hand-eye coordination. You’ve got to put it together if you’re going to hit the ball.
*All line quotes are taken from The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, Alfred Harbage, General Editor. New York: Viking Penguin, 1977.
*Some actors prefer: 
