Players-Shakespeare.com's guide to reading the First Folio
Table of Contents
Introduction to these guidelines:......................................................................................................2
How to read a Modern First Folio Play:..........................................................................................2
An Introduction to Blank Verse.......................................................................................................3
Beginning to make sense of Blank Verse.........................................................................................5
Shakespeare's Advice to the Players:...............................................................................................9
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Players-Shakespeare.com's guide to reading the First Folio
Introduction to these guidelines:
Reading a First Folio play the way Shakespeare intended is no longer a skill taught to many, and
may seem quite unfamiliar to modern theatre usage. Stanislavsky is nowhere to be seen, though this
methodology can, and should, be combined with Stanislavsky methods. Shakespeare wrote his
plays some time before Stanislavsky and developed his own techniques for letting his actors know
how he wanted his lines spoken.
Developing the skills to understand his First Folio scripts is probably best approached in multiple
steps:
•
First, use the guidelines in 'How to read a Modern First Folio play' to learn to phrase your
speeches, and start stressing the appropriate words.
•
When that becomes fluent, start adding the skills outlined in the 'Beginning to make sense of
Blank Verse' section of these guidelines. In particular:
•
'Play the phrase and find your intention'
•
Handling short lines, shared lines, and monsyllabic lines
•
Start using the rest of the guidelines in 'Beginning to make sense of Blank Verse'
•
If you're still going strong and are eager for more, it's time to take the thing much more
seriously and get a copy of John Barton's 'Playing Shakespeare' (DVD and book), and / or
Peter Hall's 'Shakespeare's Advice to the Players' and work your way through their approach.
•
Finally, however well you're phrasing and emphasising the speeches, you still need to act it
well. The section on Hamlet's (or Shakespeare's) advice to the players provides lots of
helpful stuff about getting that right.
How to read a Modern First Folio Play:
The major differences in the First Folio from modern editions of Shakespeare are the following:
•
Punctuation is not used to express the logical structure of the writing, as in most modern
editions, but to tell the actor (or reader) how to phrase a speech.
•
Capitals are used, not only to mark the beginning of a sentence and Proper nouns, but also to
highlight words which are important, and therefore are likely to require stressing.
Of course, not all the punctuation or the capitalization is necessarily as Shakespeare wrote it. The
First Folio was set in type by compositors primarily from the Prompt books used in the first
productions – plenty of opportunity for errors or changes. However, the First Folio remains the
edition which is the closest we can get to what Shakespeare and his group performed.
This means that we can use our judgement in deciding how to phrase the plays. However, if you
find you are not following the phrasing suggested by the First Folio at all, then you are probably not
very close to Shakespeare's suggested phrasing.
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Players-Shakespeare.com's guide to reading the First Folio
First Folio punctuation and its influence of phrasing:
•
Full-stops (.), Question marks (?), and colons (:) all mark the end of a phrase. (Note that
question marks do not always imply a question.)
•
Semi-colons (;) do not necessarily mark the end of a phrase. They can be treated similarly to
commas (,) - see below - or exceptionally, as end of phrase markers,
•
Commas (,) mark where it is possible to take a breath with a resultant small pause, but no
the end of a phrase.
This pumctuation can be used in the following way to phrase a Shakespearean speech:
•
Mark every full-stop, question mark or colon in your script with a '/'
•
When reading, treat all the text between two '/'s as one phrase. (By modern standards this
may give you some very long phrases, but you can take a breath wherever there is a comma
or a semi-colon.)
•
The position of the phrase on the line (in the middle of the line, or at the end of the line) also
has significance, but this is explored in more detail in the section on 'Beginning to make
sense of Blank Verse'
First Folio Capitalization:
•
Capitalization in the First Folio is as in the conventional modern manner (to mark the
beginning of a sentence and the use of proper nouns) but also to mark words which are
important in the speech, and so require a slight emphasis when reading.
•
Because important words are highlit by capitalization, such capitals can help to find
anithises (see 4.1 'Beginning to make sense of Blank Verse) in the speech, which again
helps with emphasis.
•
Emphasis should also be influenced by the Blank Verse (again see the section 'Beginning to
make sense of Blank Verse' ).
An Introduction to Blank Verse
1. Blank verse is at the centre of the Elizabethan tradition.
2. Blank verse is there to help the actor. It is not there for the audience.
It should be in the thoughts of the actor in rehearsal, and forgotten about in performance.
3. Blank verse helps actors to:
learn their lines:
o
verse is usually easier to learn than prose
o
It makes a pattern on the page that is easier to retain than prose
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-
get their phrasing
it gives directorial hints or guidelines from Shakespeare on how to speak the speech
4. Blank verse is not necessarily poetry or poetic. It can be naturalistic (everyday language), or
it can contain heightened language. Prose, also, can be naturalistic, or can contain
heightened language.
5. The basic rhythm of a blank verse line is:
“De DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM”
It usually has ten syllables, with light and strong stresses alternating.
This rhythm approximates closely to natural speech. Some examples (in which lower-case
and italics are light stresses; capitals are strong stresses):
“In SOOTH I KNOW not WHY I AM so SAD”
“I ASKED for PORTer AND you GAVE me BEER”
“Be WITH my THOUGHTS aBROAD. I SHOULD be STILL….”
“I SHOULD not SEE the SANDy HOUR-GLASS RUN” (but not ‘glass’)
“If YOU will LEAD these GRACes TO the GRAVE”
6. Sometimes a blank verse line has an extra light syllable at the end, giving eleven syllables.
This is known as a blank verse line with a feminine ending:
“De DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM de” e.g.
“So GREAT inDIGNitIES you LAID upON me”
“To BE or NOT to BE, THAT is the QUESTion”
7. Shakespeare plays with the rhythm of blank verse the way a jazz musician improvises
around the basic rhythm of the tune. Some examples:
“ONCE MORE unto the BREACH DEAR FRIENDS ONCE MORE”
“GOOD QUEEN, MY LORD, GOOD QUEEN, I SAY GOOD QUEEN”
When heavy stresses occur where light stresses would normally occur, it gives them
additional emphasis (and becomes a directorial guideline).
8. Shakespeare’s use of blank verse develops over time, and the use of blank verse in later
plays is far more sophisticated and irregular than in the early plays.
9. Shakespeare doesn’t always get it right. You’ll find ‘blank verse lines’ without the right
number of syllables.
10. When scanning blank verse, try and make each line scan as a regular line. If it doesn’t easily
scan regularly, before you give up and assume it’s an irregular blank verse line there are a
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few things you can try to ‘make it scan’:
Use elision (sliding syllables together e.g. won’t; I’ll; ‘tis; etc)
Adding additional syllables (e.g. pronounce ocean as three syllables;
pronounce ‘damned’ as 2 syllables)
Use Elizabethan pronunciation (e.g. pyRAMiDES instead of pyramids)
Using these techniques to make blank verse regular is optional.
11. How to find the strong and weak stresses:
a. First, ask yourself how you would stress the words in normal speech. Try saying it
without thinking about how it scans.
b. If still in doubt, look for the long vowels and diphthongs (a gliding vowel, i.e. a
unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a
smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another e.g. “eye, cow,
boy”). This is not infallible but usually works.
12. When a phrase consists of a blank verse line (i.e. there is a colon; full-stop; or question mark
at the end of the line or the sense of the phrase ends at the end of the line) the line is ‘endstopped’.
When a phrase consists of more than one blank verse line, the line ‘runs on’.
Beginning to make sense of Blank Verse
1.
Introduction:
This methodology is derived from two books and a TV series. These are:
Playing Shakespeare, John Barton, Methuen, 1984
Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players, Peter Hall, Oberon Books, 2003
Playing Shakespeare, John Barton, TV Series, Channel 4, 1983(?)
There are no right or wrong answers – there is only exploration.
Form comes first – then feeling. Shakespeare’s text will often tell you how to speak a line;
where to pause; when to slow down; when to change emotional tone; but not why. A key part of
the Shakespearean actor’s task is to find out why (i.e. what your character’s intentions are; or
how you interact with other characters).
These guidelines can be ignored if you so choose but be wary if you find yourself ignoring them
more often than not.
2.
Introductory Guidelines:
2.1.
Find the phrasing:
Go through each speech and mark where there’s a colon, full-stop, or question mark to
mark how it should be phrased and where you should take a breath. If such punctuation
occurs in the middle of a line, it frequently leads to a change of emotional tone or some
physical movement. If a speech has many mid-line punctuation breaks, it frequently means
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there’s something strange going on emotionally.
2.2.
Play the phrase and find your intention:
Play the phrase, not the word or speech. For each phrase, find your intention. The more
specific your intention the better - avoid generalised emotional intentions. Each phrase in a
speech may have a different intention, leading to conflicting intentions in the whole speech.
These enrich the complexity of the character being portrayed.
2.3.
How to handle short lines:
A regular Shakespearean verse line has 10 syllables. Verse lines which are significantly
shorter than this should be treated in one of three ways:
If the next line is a matching short line for another actor (or the same actor
interrupted in some way), the two actors are sharing a line. They should hand the line
over from one to the other rather like the baton being passed in a relay race. The first
actor should slightly slow their delivery of the short line, and the second actor should
be sure to come in quickly on cue to continue the line.
If there is no matching short line, there should probably be a pause which may occur:
at the beginning of the line; at the end of the line; or somewhere in the middle. Only
take pauses when they are indicated by a short line. Understand why you are
pausing.
Not infrequently, there may be more than two shared short lines, together with a
pause. In such cases try out different combinations of shared lines and pauses to find
what works most effectively.
2.4.
How to handle monosyllabic lines (lines made up of monsyllabic words):
Monosyllabic lines should be said slightly slower than normally (they are difficult to say
fast). Monosyllabic lines frequently contain additional significance and may have a more
poetic quality. Check each monosyllabic line for that significance and poetic quality.
2.5.
Switches from verse to prose and vice versa:
Shakespeare writes both verse and prose, and sometimes switches between them in the
same scene. Such switches are often significant, and the significance should be explored.
Shakespeare also writes in heightened language and ‘naturalistic’ (or everyday) language.
Prose and verse can both be in heightened language or naturalistic language.
Blank verse guidelines:
2.6.
Read the introductory remarks on Blank Verse to get an overview of it.
2.7.
Blank verse should only be used in rehearsal to help the actor learn their lines; learn which
words to stress, etc. Put blank verse behind you in performance.
2.8.
As you learn your lines, know where each line ends, and normally take a breath at the end
of an end-stopped line.
2.9.
A regular blank verse line consists of 5 feet, each of 2 syllables (1 weak, 1 strong) also
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known as an iambic pentameter. E.g.:
“De DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM”
2.10. If
a blank verse line doesn’t scan regularly, try to make it scan by:
Using elision (sliding syllables together e.g. won’t; I’ll; ‘tis; etc)
Adding additional syllables (e.g. pronounce ocean as three syllables;
pronounce ‘damned’ as 2 syllables)
Use Elizabethan pronunciation (e.g. pyRAMiDES instead of pyramids)
These techniques are optional. Don’t use them if you feel uncomfortable with them.
2.11. Sometimes
a regular blank verse line has a ‘feminine ending’ added to it, with an extra
weak syllable. E.g.:
“De DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM de”.
2.12. Shakespeare
frequently plays with putting stresses in the ‘wrong’ position, rather as a
musician might syncopate a rhythm.
When a heavy stress occurs where a light stress would normally occur, give it additional
emphasis.
2.13. The
handling of short lines and monosyllabic lines which have already been introduced in
section 2.) are blank verse guidelines.
2.14. Rhyming
couplets:
Shakespeare frequently ends a speech (and often a scene) with one or more rhyming
couplets.
Rhyming couplets should normally be played. (i.e. the rhyme emphasised) rather than
ignored.
3.
Figure of speech guidelines:
3.1.
Antithesis:
This is one of Shakespeare’s commonest devices, which we don’t use much in modern
English and so we don’t necessarily find it easy to spot.
Antithesis is the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which is opposed
to form a balanced contrast of ideas. See examples below. Where there is antithesis, stress
the antithetical words.
Examples of antithesis (mostly from the pilot workshop extracts) include:
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“To be, or not to be”
(‘To be’ and ‘not to be’)
“My wind cooling my broth,
Would blow me to an ague, when I thought…”
(‘wind cooling’ and ‘blow me to an ague’ N.B. ague = fever)
“And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
Which touching but my gentle Vessel's side”
(‘dangerous rocks’ and ‘gentle Vessel’)
“My stronger guilt, defeats my strong intent”
(‘stronger guilt’ and ‘strong intent’)
“I stand in pause where I shall first begin,”
(‘stand in pause’ and ‘first begin’)
“A Villain kills my Father, and for that
I his sole Son, do this same Villain send
To heaven.”
(‘Father’ and ‘Son’; ‘kill’ and ‘send to heaven’)
“But if you were the devil, you are fair:”
(‘devil’ and ‘fair’)
“With such a suffering, such a deadly life:”
(‘deadly’ and ‘life’)
More Figures of Speech to follow.
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Shakespeare's Advice to the Players:
Hamlet
Hamlet’s advice to the Players (Act 3 Scene 2)
Speaker Text
HAMLET Speak the speech I pray you, as I pronounc’d it to
you, trippingly on the Tongue: But if you mouth it,
as many of your Players do, I had as lief the
Town-Crier had spoke my lines: Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand thus, but use all gently;
for in the very Torrent, Tempest, and (as I may say)
the Whirlwind of Passion, you must acquire and beget
a Temperance that may give it Smoothness. O it
offends me to the Soul, to hear a robustious
Periwig-pated fellow, tear a Passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings: who
(for the most part) are capable of nothing, but
inexplicable dumbshows, and noise: I could have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant: it
out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.
HAMLET Be not too tame neither: but let your own Discretion
be your Tutor. Suit the Action to the Word, the
Word to the Action, with this special observance:
that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for any
thing so overdone, is from the purpose of Playing, whose
end both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as
'twere the Mirror up to Nature; to show Virtue her own
Feature, Scorn her own Image, and the very Age and Body
of the Time, his form and pressure. Now, this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the Judicious grieve; The
censure of the which One, must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole Theatre of Others. O, there be
Players that I have seen Play, and heard others
praise, and that highly (not to speak it profanely)
that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor
the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of
Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them
well, they imitated Humanity so abominably.
HAMLET And let those that play your Clowns, speak no more than is
set down for them. For there be of them, that will
themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren
Spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time, some
necessary Question of the Play be then to be considered:
that's Villanous, and shows a most pitiful Ambition in the
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Comments
N.B. This is prose not verse.
‘Trippingly on the Tongue’
= fairly fast.
Don’t ham it up.
Need to make it ‘Smooth’.
Please don’t ham it up, even
if the audience like it.
But don’t underplay it either
Get the balance right.
Make sure your actions /
emotional state suits the
words.
Don’t overplay it…
even if the audience likes it.
I have seen many actors
overplay it that the audience
has praised, and they have
been bloody awful.
Don’t let the comics do
everything they want to,
just to get a laugh. We don’t
want to lose sight of what
the play is about.
(Shakespeare had problems
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Fool that uses it.
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with his comic actors who
were used to being able to
do their comic routine
whatever the play).
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