CHAPTER 7
Working with Structure and Rhythm
REFER TO THE SONNET you have selected. To understand speech structure is only one of many reasons why you should work on sonnets. Notice how the sonnet develops. In fourteen lines, there is usually an opening statement or idea, followed by development of the idea, and a concluding thought. In the sonnet, the concluding thought is expressed in a rhyming couplet.
The basic line structure through which the thought is expressed is usually 4-4-4-2. Some sonnets do not have a full stop (i.e., period, question mark, exclamation point) until the end of the final line, and the main thought is carried for fourteen lines. Others have full stops after each four lines. The structure is determined by the way Shakespeare chooses to develop the thought.
SPEECH STRUCTURE
I pray, can you read anything you see?
Ay, if I know the letters and language.
ROMEO AND JULIET, I, ii
Shakespeare’s speeches are structured much the same as sonnets. There is usually an idea stated and then developed, followed by a concluding or summary thought.
Since most speeches are in three parts, the actor can use the structure as a guide to performance choices.
The opening idea needs to be clearly stated, or the development will fall on deaf ears. The development section often includes the rich poetry, the imagery, and the antithetical thoughts, and can be the hardest part of the speech to make clear. Handle the conclusion with conviction.
The speech structure is such that one can cut a Shakespearean play to less than one hour by simply keeping the opening and closing of each speech and taking out the poetry, which is usually in the middle. What you have left is the action line without the richness.
Using your rehearsal material, break up the sonnet and the monologue so that you isolate the opening thought, the development, and the conclusion. Check your work against these two examples.
Here are a sonnet and a monologue, which will illustrate and compare speech structure. First the sonnet:
Sonnet 57
Being your slave, what should I do but tend (1)
Upon the hours and times of your desire? (2)
I have no precious time at all to spend, (3)
Nor services to do, till you require. (4)
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour (5)
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, (6)
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour (7)
When you have bid your servant once adieu; (8)
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought (9)
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, (10)
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought (11)
Save, where you are how happy you make those. (12)
So true a fool is love that in your will, (13)
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill. (14)
Lines 1 and 2 set out the thought and end with a full stop.
Lines 3 and 4 explain the thought. Then there is another full stop.
Lines 5–8 explore the thought; there is no full stop, and the exploration continues.
Lines 9–12 take the idea even farther, and end with a full stop.
Lines 13 and 14 summarize the reason for the problem that was pondered in the previous ten lines, after being set out in the first two.
If you wish to work on this sonnet, here are some ideas. Don’t get all sentimental. Instead, play the irony. Play the tongue in cheek, laughing at yourself for having gotten so deeply into this love affair that you excuse whatever your lover does.
There are other ways to read these lines, but this approach introduces you to the irony playable in the sonnets and cautions against sarcasm or sentimentality.
Sarcasm (sneering or cutting) is always the last choice you should make for a line reading. Use it only if the character choice absolutely demands that the thought intended for the listener is sarcastic.
Oh, horrors! When we think back on the sarcastic acting style of the film industry of the 1930s through the 1950s, or if we listen to many modern soap operas or turn on prime time television or watch (and hear) any number of film stars read every line with sarcasm, we ask, “How did that happen to American realistic acting? It surely wasn’t Stanislavski’s intention!”
Who has read or heard
Of any kindred action like to this?
KING JOHN, III, iv
Here is an example of speech structure in a monologue. Claudius, King of Denmark, speaks to Hamlet’s friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
King: Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (1)
Moreover that we much did long to see you, (2)
The need we have to use you did provoke (3)
Our hasty sending. Something have you heard (4)
Of Hamlet’s transformation—so call it, (5)
Sith nor th’ exterior nor the inward man (6)
Resembles that it was. What it should be, (7)
More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him (8)
So much from th’ understanding of himself, (9)
I cannot dream of: I entreat you both (10)
That, being of so young days brought up with him, (11)
And sith so neighbored to his youth and havior, (12)
That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court (13)
Some little time, so by your companies (14)
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather (15)
So much as from occasion you may glean, (16)
Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus, (17)
That opened lies within our remedy. (II, ii) (18)
Line 1 is a standard greeting.
Lines 2, 3, and part of 4 point out that “we have a need” and a problem.
Lines 4 through part of 10 review the problem.
Lines 10 through part of 14 are an invitation.
Lines 14–18 are the command to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get to the bottom of the problem.
Speech structure may vary, depending on length and intention, but an awareness of the basic form will serve you well. In Shakespeare’s speeches, you can usually ask the following questions and find answers:
• What is the speech about (or what is the thought)?
• What is the development?
• What is the conclusion?
Use your awareness of this structure to play your action and achieve your objective.
BREAKING THE RHYTHM
How “meter” differs from “rhythm” can be confusing for some actors.
Technically, meter is the measured arrangement of words into a specific pattern, which is, for us, lines of five feet (each a meter), with each foot comprised of two syllables.
Rhythm is (for us) the recurring pattern of strong and weak accents within the meter (the foot). Thus, here are five meters with recurring rhythm:
dee dum / dee dum / dee dum / dee dum / dee dum.
This explanation seems to work for actors: Meter is the written structure, rhythm is what we hear.
Of the many marvelous things about Shakespeare’s language, one of the most unique is the effect achieved when he breaks the rhythm. As an actor, you’ve got to know when this change is happening, and you must play it accordingly. If you don’t do so, the complete sense of the line is lost.
For example, notice the break in this rhythm:
dee dum / dee dum / dum dee / dee dum / dee dum.
There are hundreds of examples of breaking the rhythm, and once your eye (and ear) are searching, you’ll soon identify them. Here are a few.
From Henry VI, Part 2:
York: How now? Is Somerset at liberty? (1)
Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts (2)
And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. (3)
Shall I endure the sight of Somerset? (4)
False king, why hast thou broken faith with me, (5)
Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse? (6)
King did I call thee? No! thou art not king, (7)
Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, (8)
Which dar’st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. (V, i) (9)
The meter is broken to start 5, 6 and 7, so the rhythm changes in each of these first feet to “dum dee.” As an actor choice, in lines 4 and 5 you could argue that the rhythm of the first foot in each line would be “dum dum,” with no unstressed syllable. In line 7, you could argue that every word is stressed. (In monosyllabic lines like this, watch for many stresses!) Know the possibilities, and make your personal choice.
From Richard III, Clarence speaks to his murderers:
Clarence: I charge you, as you hope to have redemption (1)
By Christ’s dear blood shed for our grievous sins, (2)
That you depart, and lay no hands on me: (3)
The deed you undertake is damnable. (I, iv) (4)
The meter is broken in line 2 by “shed,” which is an active verb that must be stressed, but is in the unstressed position. You need the verb, and certainly “for” (the other half of the foot) would not be the stressed syllable. So a caesura is taken after “blood” to set up “shed,” which is stressed. (As an actor choice, once you stress “shed” you could also stress “for” to achieve a specific emphasis.)
The other three lines are regular, with line 1 having a feminine ending.
From The Comedy of Errors:
Duke: One of these men is genius to the other; (1)
And so of these, which is the natural man, (2)
And which the spirit? Who deciphers them? (3)
Dromio S: I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. (4)
Dromio E: I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay. (V, i) (5)
In line 2, “which” breaks the meter. In the Dromio lines, both “I’s” break the meter.
Scan your rehearsal monologue and sonnet for words that break the meter. Circle them. These are obviously important words and must be played. They are real clues to reading the lines.
Scan this thing no further; leave it to time.
OTHELLO, III, iii