(upbeat music)
-: Hey everyone, my name is Kim Douthit.
And today we're gonna be looking at Shakespeare.
How to break down the text,
and we're gonna be using the prologue from Romeo and Juliet.
Now you don't need a whole lot of materials.
We have the text as you can see available
right here for you.
Shakespeare is meant to be performed,
so I'm gonna ask you to be reading aloud with me,
so you can read the text aloud.
If you wanna take any notes, you're welcome to do that,
grab a writing utensil and something you can write on.
Now we're going to be breaking down some text today.
And we're gonna be be using the prologue
from Romeo and Juliet to do it.
And one of the reasons why I love the prologue
from Romeo Juliet, is it lays it all out there for you.
The entire play is laid out in these lines.
So we're gonna start by reading these lines aloud,
so put on your best Shakespearean actor voice and read.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
from ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
whose misadventured piteous overthrows
do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
and the continuance of their parents' rage,
which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
All right, there was a lot of words we just did,
so well done.
Let's break this down.
Now the first thing I always like to do
when I'm looking at text, is I like to do a little scanning.
I like to see what the meter we're dealing with is.
So let's see what kind of meter this is.
Let's clap out our stressed and unstressed.
Let's look at our first line,
two households, both alike in dignity.
What happens if we try to scan that?
two households, both alike in dignity,
in fair Verona, where we lay our scene.
We've got that nice unstressed, stressed, right?
And there's 10 syllables.
So that means we are dealing with text
that is in iambic pentameter.
Now we've got some rhyme going on here, don't we?
We've got dignity and mutiny.
We have seen and unclean, foes and throws, life and strife.
So we have ABAB,
CDCD rhyming scheme.
What else do we notice?
At the end here, if we go all the way down to the end,
we have a little rhyming couplet.
We have mend, attend.
And if you look how many lines we have in total.
There's 14 lines.
So 14 lines ABAB, CDCD, iambic pentameter.
Nice little rhyming couplet here at the end.
We are dealing with a sonnet structure.
Shakespeare gave us this prologue
in the structure of a sonnet.
That's pretty cool.
Now when I'm first looking at Shakespeare's text,
I also like to see if there's words that stand out to me.
The word dignity, that stands out to me.
Mutiny, oh, that's a fantastic word.
I love that word.
Blood, love the word blood.
It's fun to say blood, say blood, right?
This is a satisfying word to say.
Words are one of my favorite things,
and that's one of the reasons I love Shakespeare so much.
Let's break this down even further.
Let's take this line by line.
So our very first line.
Two households, both alike in dignity.
What doe that mean?
We have two households, which means we have
two different families, right?
And now in Shakespeare's time,
saying something was a household, that didn't just mean
it was like you, your brother, your mom or your dad.
It meant the extended family were count to this part
of your household.
So cousins, second cousins,
third cousins five times removed.
Your servants were also considered part of your household,
because they served you.
They served in your households.
Close family friends, you could also claim
as part of your household.
So that means two households,
that's not just small families.
These are big, big groups.
Both alike in dignity, there's that word again.
I love that word, dignity.
That tells us a whole lot
about the families were dealing with.
These are considered to be upright families.
These are dignified families.
If Shakespeare had said two households,
both alike in shamelessness,
or two households, both alike in stinkiness.
It gives us a very different picture
of what kind of families we're dealing with.
But he specifically says dignity.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene.
Where does the story take place?
Not just Verona, fair Verona, lovely Verona.
Verona is in Italy.
So we know that our story takes place in Verona, Italy.
And where we lay our scene.
It's another interesting way of saying that,
because it puts forth theater, scene is a theatrical term.
So we're putting right out there from the beginning.
Hey man we're watching a play.
Let's look at our next two lines.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
Does anything standout to you right away about that?
Well, for me it's the fact that civil.
Civil is said twice, right?
That means it's extra important.
If Shakespeare is putting a word up there more than once,
we must pay attention.
Now the first part of that, from ancient grudge
break to new mutiny.
Ancient grudge.
This is not your neighbor left their garbage on your lawn
the other day and so you're kind of mad about that.
Ancient grudge, this grudge goes back.
Even the word grudge, that tells you a lot
about how big this is.
this isn't just a small squabble.
This is a grudge.
But new mutiny.
That means something new started this fresh again, right?
So we're dealing with a whole new conflict arising.
And then our second line,
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
We say the word civil twice.
And that's interesting because civil can actually have
more than one meaning.
The word civil can mean civilized, again, proper, dignified.
But it also means a conflict that's happening
between its citizens.
Between your neighbors, like the Civil War.
So we have that double meaning going on there.
And the word blood, again that's Shakespeare talks a lot
about blood, but it's civil blood, civilized blood
as well as neighbor's blood,
make civilized civil hands unclean.
This new strife is spreading,
and it's affecting everyone, and it's not civilized.
Our next lines.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
Does anything stand out in here?
For me, it's that a certain letter is used over and over.
Can you see what letter that is?
I see from, forth, fatal, foes.
Got the letter F being said over and over.
From, forth, fatal, foes.
And there's kind of a harshness
when you say it like that, right?
Fatal.
It's another word that stands out to me.
Play around with the words, play around with the sounds
and you might notice stuff even further.
Now if we're looking at the text the whole,
again what are we talking about?
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
basically enemies having babies.
You two different families, the fatal loins,
they had babies.
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.
Now star-crossed lovers.
What does that mean?
Star-crossed means that it was not something
that was written in the stars,
it was fate would not allow it.
Something that was destined to not be.
Take their life.
This is another double meaning.
Because take their life, could be referring to the fact
that the children get their life from the enemies
from the two foes.
But it could also mean that's a little bit of a spoiler,
and I'm sorry if I'm spoiling a 400-year-old play for you,
but at the end of the play Romeo and Juliet
do take their own life.
So we have that nice dual meaning.
Our next line.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
do with their death bury their parents' strife.
I love the word piteous.
Always stands out to me right away.
Piteous, you have that nice plosive sound on the P that pop.
But what are we saying there?
Misadventured, meaning that there's gonna be some struggle.
Piteous overthrows, they're trying to get together
and they can't.
Do with their death, bury their parents' strife.
The only thing that is going to bury their parents' strife,
make them bury the hatchet is their death.
So that also tells you this is not a romantic comedy,
the lovers are gonna die, it's gonna be sad.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
and the continuance of their parents' rage.
Which, but their children's end naught could remove
is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.
So let's look at that whole little chunk right there.
So a lot is happening right there.
Now fearful passage.
That's a really interesting phrase.
It tells you that the love had danger.
There's a little bit of danger to it.
But fearful passage, that's another way
in Shakespeare's time to say that something was exciting.
So this fearful passage,
the continuance of their parents' rage.
It's another great word, rage.
Their parents' rage was gonna continue
and the only thing again that would remove it
that naught could remove was their children's end.
So we're bringing back home that the parents
only will bury the hatchet when their children die.
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.
It's again putting it out there.
You're about to watch a play.
You're gonna see all of this play out
over the next couple hours on our stage right here.
We have our little rhyming couplet at the end.
The which, if you with patient ears attends,
what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
What does that mean?
Patient ear.
patient ears, that's something I'm sure
all of your teachers, and maybe sometimes your parents
hope that you're doing, it means listening.
So if you listen to our play,
and again, listen to our play,
not watch our play, but hear this story.
What here shall miss,
anything you might've missed or you didn't get
from this prologue, you're gonna find out,
they're gonna mend that,
they're gonna show it to you over the rest of the play.
So over the next two hours
if you listen, anything that doesn't makes sense,
we're gonna clear up for you,
we're gonna tell you that story.
Shakespeare is a master at laying things out.
He painted this fabulous, fabulous picture for us,
because we know everything we need to know
about the play in this prologue.
Who are we dealing with?
Two households, the Montagues and the Capulets, right?
What are we dealing with?
We have two families who hate each other,
and their kids fall in love.
And because of their star-crossed love
in trying to get together, the kids don't make it.
They take their own life
and so the parents bury the hatchet.
where are we?
We're in Verona.
When are we?
Now originally, Shakespeare intended the play
to take place about 100 years prior.
But if any of you've seen West Side Story
or any of the other adaptions,
this is a universal story.
It can be in the here and now.
Why do we tell the story?
Because of what happens and have these grudges.
Nothing good ever comes from it.
A lot of sadness, it's an important lesson
that we have to keep saying.
So now we've broken everything down.
Hopefully this makes a little bit more sense to you.
Let's try reading it one more time.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
from ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
whose misadventured piteous overthrows
do with their death, bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
and the continuance of their parents' rage,
which, but there children's end, naught could remove
is now the two hours' traffic of our stage.
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
So anytime you have text, particularly Shakespeare text,
or poetry, or any kind of verse that you look at
and say ah, this is a lot,
you break it down into smaller chunks.
You look for words that stand out,
words that are familiar to you.
And pretty soon everything is a whole lot clearer.
This is something you can apply to any text,
it's why I like using this method.
Thank you all for playing with some words with me today
and reading a little bit of Shakespeare.
I hope you learned a little bit.
My name is Kim Douthit and I hope you have a wonderful day.
(upbeat music)