TURN WORDS INTO DRAMA

How to get to the heart of Shakespeare’s language

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Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;

And such an instrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,

Which was not so before. There's no such thing:

It is the bloody business which informs

Thus to mine eyes.

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell

That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

Keys to Performing Shakespeare

Know WHAT you are saying Know WHY you are saying it

If you do the above in detail then... The HOW will care of itself

The focus in text analysis is knowing: The meaning of the words individually

and together (including definitions, historical allusions, poetic language, imagery, etc.)

The overall dramatic context for what is spoken

The specific dramatic circumstances that result in the words

The inflection and use of the words and punctuation

Let’s practice together! O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!

Must I remember?

Here’s your reminder of the steps you take in textual analysis: Know the chronology of the play and what

leads up to your piece Look up the meanings of unfamiliar words Examine language for repetition, opposites,

lists, etc. Use the punctuation and identify the

operative words Divide the piece into idea beats or phrases Consider acting transitions between

beats/phrases

What do I do with my text? Go through the exact same process we

just did together as a class – follow the steps to translate and score your piece.

Use your notecards to write your text beat/phrase by beat/phrase.

Write the beat/phrase translation on the back of the card.

Go through the text and begin to mark punctuation, operative words, etc.