Unit 1: Drama


Although most of Shakespeare’s plays are written in blank verse with a rhythm of iambic pentameter, the rhythm can vary. Some lines may have an extra syllable in a line or some may have less than 10 syllables.


Blank verse is used throughout Shakespeare’s plays in a wide range of situations because it comes close to natural speaking rhythms. It is used mainly for passionate, loſty or special occasions and may suggest the refinement of a character.


Many monologues and soliloquies are written in blank verse. A monologue is a speech where a character speaks alone but is addressing other characters. An example of this could be a king addressing his troops before a battle.


A soliloquy is a speech meant to be heard only by the audience. It reveals a character’s private thoughts. Te character is usually alone on the stage during a soliloquy.


(d) Prose in Shakespeare’s plays


Prose is like ordinary speech with no regular pattern of rhythm. It interrupts the rhythmic pattern of blank verse. It is very easy to recognise prose because it is printed in the text just like an ordinary paragraph from a novel or short story. If you are not certain whether a passage is in prose or in blank verse, look for the following clue: if every new line begins with a capital letter, it is verse; if not, it is prose.


Look at the following use of prose in an extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream:


QUINCE Is all our company here?


BOTTOM You were best to call them generally, man by man, according to the scrip.


QUINCE Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his wedding-day at night.


Notice that the lines do not begin with capital letters and there is no use of rhyme. Terefore, it is prose.


13


‘But soſt, what light through yonder window breaks’ Romeo and Juliet


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