1. Performing Verse Drama An introduction in juicy, bite-sized chunks © Anna Kamaralli 2016

2. This is a sonnet: CXXXVIII When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutored youth, Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue, On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed: But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love, loves not to have years told. Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

3. So is this:

4. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

5. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

6. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r. Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

7. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r. Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

8. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r. Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. Romeo: Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.

9. Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. Romeo: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r. Romeo: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. Romeo: Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Kiss!

10. In Shakespeare’s time playwrights were called poets.

11. And plays were more-or-less built out of poetry. Which means they are full of clues about how to speak the lines.

12. Text could be in: Rhymed verse Blank verse Prose The magic word is: Scansion (the rhythm of the line)

13. Verse: commonly used metres Iambic : de-DUM de-DUM Trochaic : DUM-de DUM-de Anapestic: de-de-DUM Dactylic : DUM-de-de

14. Iambic de-DUM de-DUM Full fathom five my father lies

15. Trochaic DUM-de DUM-de I am all the daughters of my father’s house.

16. Less often used: Anapestic de-de-DUM ‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, Dactylic DUM-de-de Wonderful, marvellous,

17. Let me in safety raise me from my knees with 5 heavy beats This is an Iambic Pentameter:

18. But Tuesday night last gone, in’s garden-house, He knew me for a wife. As this is true, Let me in safety raise me from my knees Or else forever be confixèd here, A marble monument. Words are often shortened or lengthened to make them fit the pentameter:

19. These dangerous unsafe lunes in the king, Beshrew them! ____________ He must be told on't, and he shall: A short line tells you to pause:

20. Duke: He dies for Claudio’s death. Isabella: Most bounteous sir, A split line tells you to pick up a cue quickly:

21. When phrases or sentences end at the end of a verse line (end-stopped lines) they slow you down and make your speaking measured: ' Tis not alone my Inky Cloak, good Mother, Nor Customary suites of solemn Black, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitful River in the Eye, Nor the dejected ‘haviour of the Visage, When phrases or sentences end in the middle of a verse line (enjambed lines) they speed you up and push you on: Is it excepted I should know no secrets That appertain to you? Am I yourself But, as it were, in sort or limitation, To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

22. Monosyllables slow you down, pollysyllables speed you up. ie. it takes longer to say He should have lived than Authority (both 4 syllables)

23. A caesura is the slight pause created in the centre of a line when two closed consonants bump up against each other. Out of this wood do not desire to go.

24. A feminine ending is an extra, unstressed beat at the end of an otherwise even iambic pentameter. No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me.

25. A common quirk is for an otherwise normal iambic line to have the stress reversed on the first two syllables: a trochaic beginning. Mark and perform it, see’st thou, for the fail

26. Hit the last word of the line, it’s probably important Seems Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seems: 'Tis not alone my Inky Cloak, good Mother, Nor Customary suites of solemn Black, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitful River in the Eye, Nor the dejected ‘haviour of the Visage, Together with all Forms, Moods, shows of Grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed Seem, For they are actions that a man might play: But I have that Within, which passeth show; These, but the Trappings, and the Suits of woe. Hamlet: Act I scene 2

27. To score your text, mark in: All the heavy beats Feminine endings Trochaic beginnings Irregular lines of any kind Any short lines Likely split lines Any physical actions

28. That should be all you need to get you started. Enjoy your newfound mast’ry of the verse.