CHAPTER 3
Scansion, Phrasing, and Caesura
IN THE PREVIOUS chapter, we defined each of these terms. Now we’ll look at them in greater detail.
SCANSION
Here is our simple modern-day blank verse line scanned. Each two syllables comprise one foot, and the soft and stressed syllables are marked.
Here’s a better line from Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? (II, ii)
Break the line into feet:
But soft! / What light / through yon / der win / dow breaks?
Mark the stresses:
When you read the line, place emphasis on the stressed syllables: “soft,” “light,” “yon,” “win,” “breaks.” With your hand, beat out these stressed words or syllables on the table or chair. Read the line a few times by beating out and over-stressing the five stressed words or syllables, then forget the scansion and read the line naturally.
If you’ve beat out the rhythm with your hand and emphasized the stressed syllables, you will discover that when you “forget” scansion and read the line more naturally, you automatically give a slight emphasis to the stressed words. Your goal is to achieve naturalness and honesty, but to do so by stressing the correct words.
For the Shakespearean line to be truthful, it is necessary to play the correct stresses. Let’s test this idea by reading a line incorrectly. Here’s the opening line from The Merchant of Venice.
Antonio: In sooth I know not why I am so sad. (I, i)
If we follow the scansion, the stresses are “sooth,” “know,” “why,” “am,” and “sad.” Read the line instead by stressing “In,” “I,” “not,” “I,” “so” and see what you get. That’s probably not what you want!
For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing.
HAMLET, III, ii
Now you need a pencil, not a pen. Put this book down and mark the scansion in your monologue and sonnet. Then read them aloud a few times, hitting the stressed syllables. Overdo it. Pound it out. You can pull back to realism later.
By overdoing, you discover meaning and “problems.” Are there problems? Likely there are, so let’s find them. For example, is there a stress that seems wrong? Or is there a line that won’t scan to ten syllables? Trust your common sense, and remember that Shakespeare obtains much of his effect by inverting stresses, which changes the rhythm of the line. He will also write eleven syllable lines, sometimes with feminine endings, and, on occasion, lines of twelve to fourteen syllables. Here are examples that may be similar to your material.
Remember the Romeo and Juliet line from chapter 3?
Chorus: From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny,
The line scans like this:
An action verb like “break” actually breaks the rhythm and creates a trochaic foot. Here’s another example, as Juliet speaks to the Friar:
Juliet: Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament. (II, iv)
The line scans like this:
“Brags” breaks the rhythm. Often trochaic feet are found in the first foot of a line. The third foot is also popular, as in “break” above.
Here are regular lines and then a twelve-syllable line. Puck speaks to the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Puck: The King doth keep his revels here tonight.
Take heed the Queen come not within his sight.
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian King. (II, i)
Four lines scan as regular, but in line 5, which has twelve syllables, we must elide twice—because “king” is not a feminine ending—and also discover a trochaic foot.
We have elided “stolen” to one syllable (“stol’n) and “Indian” to two syllables (“In-d’an”). “Stol’n” also breaks the rhythm. Now the line works.
Here are a few examples of feminine endings. In the first four lines of Sonnet 58, note that lines 2 and 4 have feminine endings:
That god forbid that made me first your slave,
I should in thought control your times of pleasure,
Or at your hand th’ account of hours to crave,
Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure.
The lines scan like this:
Note the elision in line 3.
Here’s Iago in Othello:
Iago: And what’s he then that says I play the villain, (II, iii)
The eleven-syllable line scans like this:
The “lain” of “villain” would not be stressed, so we know it’s a feminine-ending line.
In your monologue and sonnet, mark all words that break the rhythm, circle all feminine endings, elide as necessary, and check your initial scansion.
You discover changes in the rhythm by applying scansion and trusting your common sense. When the rhythm changes, play it. Once you are comfortable that your monologue and sonnet are correctly scanned, move on to “phrasing.”
Phrasing means to break the verse line into individual thoughts. If you take any Shakespearean speech or sonnet, the obvious phrases are separated by punctuation. Paraphrasing Webster, for our purpose, a “phrase” is a group of words that create a thought on which the mind can focus momentarily, and which can be preceded or followed by a pause. As most actors know, it is easier to mark the phrases than it is to handle them vocally.
Here’s an example in which most of the phrases are clearly marked by punctuation. In Julius Caesar, Brutus responds to Cassius’s hint that Caesar has become too powerful.
Brutus: That you do love me I am nothing jealous. (1)
What you would work me to, I have some aim. (2)
How I have thought of this, and of these times, (3)
I shall recount hereafter. For this present, (4)
I would not so (with love I might entreat you) (5)
Be any further moved. What you have said (6)
I will consider; what you have to say (7)
I will with patience hear, and find a time (8)
Both meet to hear and answer such high things. (I, ii) (9)
In lines 6‒9, notice the phrases not separated by punctuation.
Here are those lines plus the next five. Caesuras (//) have been inserted to mark those phrases not already separated by punctuation. Some actors prefer to circle the phrases. Notice that the final four lines have no punctuation at all.
Brutus:What you have said // (6)
I will consider; what you have to say // (7)
I will with patience hear, and find a time // (8)
Both meet to hear and answer // such high things. (9)
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this: (10)
Brutus had rather be a villager // (11)
Than to repute himself a son of Rome // (12)
Under these hard conditions // as this time (13)
Is like to lay upon us. (14)
The last is a “short line,” calling for a pause or completion by the next speaker. In this case, Cassius finishes the line with “I am glad . . .”
Why bother to mark the phrases? Your goal is to know the phrasing of the line so that you can (1) separate the thoughts, (2) play one phrase against another, which is called antithesis, (3) allow a thought to continue to the next line, as needed, and (4) identify your breathing spots, just like singing.
Shakespeare uses antithetical words, phrases, or thoughts in nearly every speech. To handle this language, you must master playing antithesis, and this mastery begins with phrasing. For the actor, antithetical words, phrases, or thoughts provide clear insight into the meaning of the text. Antithesis is the subject of chapter 8.
Mark or circle the phrases in your monologue and sonnet. Now your scansion is nearing completion. Next add the caesuras.
Thus did he answer me, yet said
I might know more hereafter.
CYMBELINE, IV, ii
THE CAESURA
Nay, I’ll speak that
Which you will wonder at.
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, IV, i
The caesura is a short sense pause marked //. It is not punctuation but is actor-created and can serve like punctuation. Placed correctly, the caesura does many things:
• It allows the words preceding it to “sink in” before the listener must deal with more words
• It places focus on the word or phrase following it, giving that word or phrase special emphasis
• It slows the language down
• It separates phrases, which are often the character’s thoughts, and allows the listener to hear them one at a time
When you run thoughts together, the audience is usually lost.
As with most rules, once learned they become automatic. Where caesura is concerned, use the sense pause thoroughly in rehearsal and preparation, as the use will force you to separate your thoughts. Then remove the caesuras, except where absolutely essential for audience understanding of a word or thought.
When the phrases are identified and the caesuras then removed, you will likely handle the line in such a way that each thought has its own emphasis and energy, and is clearly expressed without the pause. Using that pause in rehearsal, however, will guide you to the places where the thoughts separate.
Consider Richard’s opening soliloquy in Richard III:
Richard: Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. (I, i)
We know that most verse lines without punctuation will take a caesura, usually somewhere in the middle. Arguably, you could place caesuras anywhere that thoughts change, or where you want to set up a word or phrase. Here is the same speech with lots of caesuras—far too many for performance. Note how caesuras can help you to explore all the possibilities of a thought. Consider the many choices you have for the one-word thought “Now.” Choose one.
Richard: Now // is the winter // of our // discontent //
Made // glorious summer // by this // son of York;
And // all the clouds // that lowered upon our house //
In the deep bosom // of the ocean // buried.
Your Richard will not need these pauses, and indeed, the pauses will tend to make the speech jerky and indulgent. But each represents something special that is happening in the language. When you remove the pauses, following your discovery period in rehearsal—surely you must remove most of them for performance—you will automatically do something vocally or physically to clarify the possibility of each thought.
Ah, to be blessed with a strong voice and to have trained it! You will need it now as you remove the pauses, and yet, you must play each idea clearly and individually so that it reaches the listener’s ear.
Most verse lines lend themselves to at least one caesura. Some already have the thoughts separated by punctuation, and additional caesuras may not be necessary. But the very structure of the blank verse line lends itself to division of thoughts and to “setting up” important words or phrases. Use the caesura, but don’t be tempted to retain it anywhere, except where it adds to the listener’s understanding. Speaking the language with correct rhythm is much stronger than speaking with pauses inserted for emphasis. Most caesuras are for discovery, not performance.
Here is another example from the same play. To overthrow Richard, Richmond says to his troops:
Richmond: More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell upon. Yet remember this:
God and our good cause fight upon our side; (V, iii)
You might separate the thoughts like this:
More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure // and enforcement // of the time //
Forbids to dwell upon. Yet // remember this:
God // and our good cause // fight upon our side;
Line 1: The thoughts are already separated by the author.
Line 2: Play both factors—“leisure” and “enforcement”—not just one, and don’t play both as one. Also, don’t breathe after “time,” but you might take a very short caesura, because you want to set up and attack the active verb “forbids.”
Line 3: The thoughts are separated by the author in the middle of the line. “Yet” is one of many transition words used by Shakespeare (some others include “but,” “then,” “when,” “therefore,” and “or”), and you can use “yet” to set up the next idea. Do that here.
Line 4: The two factors, “God” and “and our good cause,” should not be run together as one. Use them to set up the final phrase.
You are now deeply into the skills required to play Shakespeare!
And skills are exactly what we’re developing. We haven’t begun to tap our brains to analyze the possibilities of each thought. And yet the language will start to make sense if we simply use these speaking skills. They allow the language to be heard in such a way that the ideas are emphasized, even if we don’t know what all of the ideas are. These skills alone will take you a long way in Shakespeare performance and in cold readings. You’re starting to allow the language to live.
Sir John Gielgud made this remark: If you were not quite sure of a very difficult speech in Shakespeare and you studied the punctuation and got it right, the sense would in some way emerge (Acting Shakespeare, 35).
Now I begin to relish thy advice.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, I iii
Take some time to insert caesuras into your monologues and sonnet. Once done, your basic scansion is complete and should include:
• Stresses marked
• Words and feet that break the rhythm (trochees) circled
• Phrases marked or circled
• Caesuras marked
• Feminine endings and elisions noted
• Preliminary breathing points circled
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED) research to look up all words (see chapter 9)
Later we will add antithesis, analysis, imagery, and more detail on breathing points. But for now, continue on to “kick the box” and other skills.