CHAPTER 19

Session Nine

In this session: • Checking more monologues for skills • Descriptive words • More on OED • Enhancing the verbs • Acting difficult or unclear words • Structure of a sonnet • Structure of a monologue • Breaking the meter with trochees • Next assignment

Coach: Today let’s start with Maggie’s monologue, then Bridgett and Alicia again. After that, we’ll move on to speech structure.

We first assign who will listen for which skills, then Maggie presents her Helena. She is well prepared and everyone gives notes. Bridgett and Alicia both repeat their monologues and get through them. The other actors give notes on what they heard or did not hear.

Coach: Again, try to remove the attitude and read from zero. Later you can determine who she is and what she feels. For working on the skills, try hard to stay away from character choices.

One of the hard things about Shakespeare’s speeches is the discovery of how one line, perhaps early in the speech, ties in to another line, or group of lines, that is located much later in the speech. But if you don’t tie them together, the speech will seem without focus, and that will be the actor’s fault, not the playwright’s. The Margaret speech has this challenge, as does the Othello speech. Notice Margaret’s “Warwick is chancellor . . . And yet shalt thou be safe?” There are phrases between the two lines, but the lines must tie together—as with Othello’s “Had it pleased heaven . . . I should have found in some place of my soul / A drop of patience.” Again, many phrases are used between the original subject and the conclusion of the idea, but these two thoughts must tie together.

One of the notes was about descriptive words. You questioned Bridgett’s handling of “bruising stones.” She read the line stressing “stones” but not “bruising.” On another line she did the opposite. At “loving words,” she stressed “loving” but not “words.” And she did that on “sweet honey,” stressing the descriptive word “sweet.” This speech is full of descriptive words.

Read the speech again and give equal emphasis to both the noun and its descriptive adjective. (The actor tries this. Then the other actors read the speech and try to balance the descriptions with the nouns. After awhile they get it.) Now check your monologue, and your sonnet, for similar problems and work them out. There’s a danger that if you stress a descriptive word its noun will lose importance, as we just heard. But often we want and need to stress a descriptive word, so, in that case, stress both and it will work. Everyone understand? (They do.) Another note was about speaking the name “Julia.” For scansion, it can’t always be three syllables. How could it be pronounced?

Kristin: At one point it has to be Jul-ya to keep the rhythm.

Alicia: I remember that in a production of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo was pronounced Ro-me-o sometimes and Rom-yo at other times.

Bride: It’s just elision, isn’t it?

Coach: Yes, elision of a name is common in this language. Feel free to do it when necessary. Next week we’re working on antithesis, and the time after that you’ll be expected to present your monologue with all of the current skills, plus antithesis. Also, by next session, have your OED work completed. Know what every word in the monologue meant in its original usage. You will also see other usages, and your job is to choose one. I’ll be selecting some words from each monologue and asking you what they mean.

Jerrod: Do we have to look up every single word?

Coach: Every word that might have been used in a different way. Never assume you know what a word means simply because you know the modern usage. We have some examples of how far afield this thinking can take you. Remember? (They do.)

Bride: I’ve found that the first use of some of my words was in a Shakespeare line, and in one case it was the line I was working on.

Coach: That would probably be one of the words Shakespeare invented.

Bride: Yeah! Cool.

Amber: What about when the editor has a footnote giving me the meaning of a word?

Coach: The editor has already gone to the OED and made a selection from among the various meanings listed. You can trust that information, or find out for yourself. I’m never comfortable assuming the editor made the same choice I might make. He or she probably didn’t have to act the speech. The meaning of the word has to work for you. Make a good choice.

How many of the words you’ve looked up so far are being used like you thought they would be? Half?

Kristin: I’d say a little less than half.

Coach: So when we’ve listened to your monologue, you were guessing right on half of the words, but have since discovered another meaning for the other half.

Bridgett: Looking up the word “anger,” I found it could mean being grieved, troubled, provoked, irritated, inflamed, flushed. In the line “Were I so angered with the same,” I chose to use “troubled.”

Coach: That’s fine, but look at the difference if you used “provoked.” And what about “inflamed,” which is antithetical to “irritated”?

Bridgett: They seem to mean the same to me.

Coach: If you become inflamed by someone in a positive sense, what happens?

Bridgett: Maybe I’m hot for him.

Coach: But if you’re irritated by the same guy?

Bridgett: Yeah, the opposite.

Coach: Inflamed, however, could also mean incredible wrath, couldn’t it? Really worked up. I’ll be interested to hear what choice you make.

Kristin: I had trouble with “played.” “Heaven shield my mother played my father fair.”

Coach: Is our first impression that she was faithful to him?

Kristin: Probably. But other choices are exhausted, worn out, treated, or performed—as in acting like a faithful wife.

Coach: I wonder what you will choose.

Kristin: I also was surprised by “slip.” It’s not something small, or a space you can sneak through. It means a scion or descendent. That helps clarify the line.

Emily: I had “nonpareil,” which at first was simply unclear. But it means “a perfect example” or “epitome.” I liked that.

Amber: “Boot” was unusual. It’s not something to put on your foot, but means “to benefit.” And “haply,” in the same speech, does not mean “happily,” it means “perhaps.” Word definitions make a real difference in the sense of the speech.

Bride: In Macbeth, I was guessing on “battlements,” which are entrances to a castle. I thought they were fortresses of some kind, but they’re the actual entrances. So when Duncan enters the castle through Lady Macbeth’s battlements, he is actually entering her home. And people could stand on top of these battlements and throw things or shoot arrows down on the people coming in.

Coach: Of course, the audience may not get exactly what you mean, but knowing the meaning helps you, the actor. It gives you the confidence to speak the line the way the author meant it.

Some actors abhor research. They prefer to work with “natural talent.” But if you do the research, then turn to your natural talent, you will be better than if you haven’t done the research. In your research, you’re looking for the meaning of the word before it was used by Shakespeare in a play. To know what Shakespeare probably means, it doesn’t do much good to assume the modern meaning. Find out what the word meant before the year 1600.

Many professional actors do their research, figuring out all text problems and meanings, before rehearsals begin and before getting on their feet. This is an exceptionally good practice. I hope you will all do the same.

Bride: “Pall.” It’s an interesting word and it was first used in Macbeth.

Coach: So Shakespeare probably invented it. But take the line in the sentence—

Bride: “And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell.”

Coach: And the audience today hears—“Paul”—who’s Paul? Or I might hear “impalled,” as in a mispronounced “impaled.”

Bride: And the word actually means “concealed,” or “cloaked.”

Coach: So how do you get the audience to hear that meaning?

Bride: I’ll try putting it in quotes. (She does.) This is a good example of Shakespeare going on without you.

Coach: And you’ve still got “dunnest.” What do we think when we hear that?

Ryan: I hear darkest. Or “done-est,” the most done part of hell. (Laughter.)

Coach: You can only get it so clear, or your effort becomes terribly overacted. But knowing the difficulty of these two words makes you as the actor slow down and try to make the audience hear what you mean.

Bride: How do we do it?

Maggie: We can exaggerate the meaning.

Coach: To a point, right. But the audience is not going to understand everything you say. They will understand your intent, if you understand it. And we shouldn’t expect otherwise. Just look at yourselves: You’re actors, and you still don’t know what the language is saying until you look up words—then you still have to choose meanings, then you still have to say them in such a way that the listener hears “something.” The audience is hearing the word as it goes by—and another line is coming at them. Sometimes all they get is an impression, but often that’s enough. They get an idea of your meaning, then an easier line comes along and they get it all, and appreciate your skills.

Emily: Won’t imagery help here? You’ve got the image in your mind, so that will affect your reading, even if the audience doesn’t know what your image is.

Coach: Right. And we’ll get to imagery very soon. If you rush through the line, it won’t mean a thing. You will immediately lose the audience. If you “handle” the line, and “handle” each word, the audience will stay with you.

Alicia: If Shakespeare invented the word, the audience at the time didn’t know what it meant either.

Coach: Wonderful observation. So they too had to understand what the actor was saying by the way he handled the word. Just like you have to do today.

Alicia: The actors also had to guess, unless the author was right there.

Coach: And they didn’t rehearse much, so they had to choose a meaning quickly for all words. So everyone is clear why we’re using the OED? Why you have to go to the library? Or pay the fee and use the OED online? (All are clear.) So let’s take a break.

Alex: It’s so much faster online. You go right to the word and don’t have to page through a dozen similar words to find the one you want.

Bride: I belong to a regional library that is a member of OED online. That’s great, because I can access it with my library card number.

Coach: (After the break.) Now I want to take a little time on structure of speeches. We’ll start with a sonnet. What I’m passing out to you are analyses of each of your sonnets. Scholars have been interpreting the sonnets and writing books about them for nearly three hundred years. You’ll find a few dozen of these books in most libraries. I’m giving you copies of the views of the two scholars identified in chapter 9 of our book, Stephen Booth (Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 1977) and John Kerrigan (William Shakespeare: The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint, 1986), and you need to find one more—because you want three interpretations plus your own. You might check Helen Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1997).

Next, I want you to check your monologue against the First Folio to see how your version differs from the original. Here is a copy of the original Folio and here is a modern-type version of that Folio. (I show them copies of the original First Folio of 1623 and Neil Freeman’s modern-print Applause First Folio Editions of 2000. The copies are left on a table so that the actors can check their monologues.) Let me show you something in the original—here’s Romeo and Juliet in the way it came to the printer. See how the s’s were printed like f’s? They used a u for a v. Notice the few stage directions—exit, enter, etc. And notice the various words that are capitalized. It’s slow reading, but enjoyable. Freeman’s modern-type version is easier to read. See how that works. Check the same speech in each of the books. When you do this, you will see how editors over the years have changed words and often created new punctuation. You may prefer the original.

Let’s move on. Go to the section on structure on page 50. Most sonnets will have what structure?

Emily: 4, 4, 4, 2.

Coach: That might give you a hint that Shakespeare’s longer speeches also have a structure. But look at the sonnet on the next page. We’re going to read through it and determine how the structure works. Then you do that with your sonnet. Does anyone know this sonnet?

(Nobody does, so I start the reading and we discuss every two lines. We discuss the 4, 4, 4, 2 structure of Sonnet 57 and the meaning of each line.)

Notice how the thought was set up in lines 1 and 2, and then the thought is explained in lines 3 and 4. Then the writer starts to explore the thought and that continues through line 12. He then summarizes the problem that was set up in line 2. That structure is pretty close to the structure of many monologues.

Look at the King’s speech on the page 52. Somebody read through it slowly. (Alex does.) Notice the setup—“I have this need for you so I sent for you.” The reason is that “Hamlet is acting strangely.” “What could have caused this? So what I need from you two boyhood friends is to stay awhile and draw out what’s wrong with him. It must be something we don’t know about; if we know, we can fix it.”

But actually, the King wants to know if Hamlet’s problem is in any way related to suspicion of the King himself. You can play subtext here, but it’s already in the idea of the speech. And if you add too much subtext, you give away the intent to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. So you can usually ask these questions: What is the speech about, what is the setup idea, how is the idea developed, what is the conclusion? Is that clear to everyone? (It is.) Okay, read the first four lines of some of your monologues.

(Various actors do this and we determine what the setup is for each speech. In many, it is immediately very clear.) In performance you must be very certain that the audience understands the setup, or you do the entire speech to a confused audience.

Now let’s look on page 53 at the breaks in the rhythm, or trochees. The speech is from Henry VI, Part 2. Who wants to read through it? (Alicia does.) Notice how the meter is broken in lines 5, 6, and 7. All three begin with a trochee. Everybody see that? (They do.) Let’s read it. (Everyone does.)

Notice the Clarence speech—line 2. There’s a break in the meter in line 2, the third foot, “shed.” It’s also the active verb for the line, so that’s a hint for you. And in The Comedy of Errors speech, line 2 is broken and the responses both begin with a trochee. Usually we don’t stress pronouns. This is a place where they would be stressed. Questions? (There are none.)

With a trochee, you usually take a caesura before it. You have to set up the word that breaks the rhythm. So now it’s time to work out the structure of your monologue, and your sonnet. Have this done for next time. And read chapter 8, on antithesis.

Alex: On to an-ti-thesis.

Coach: Check the OED. See you next time.