1. How to Read Shakespeare

2. 1. It’s Verse! ► Do not pause at the end of a line ► Short pause  Comma ► Long pause  Period  Colon  Semicolon  Dash  Question Mark

3. 2. From Start to Finish ► Read from punctuation mark to punctuation mark ► Periods, semicolons, question marks signal the end of a thought

4. 3. Inverted Sentences ► Verb comes before the subject ► Reverse it back! ► “Never was seen so black a day as this.” ► “A day as black as this was never seen.”

5. 4. Ellipsis ► Ellipsis = when a word is left out ► “I neither know it nor can learn of him.” ► “I neither know [the cause of] it, nor can [I] learn [about it from] him.”

6. 5. Subject, Verb, Object ► Who did what to whom ► “The king hath happily received, Macbeth, the news of thy success: and when he reads thy personal venture in the rebel’s fight…” the news of thy success: and when he reads thy personal venture in the rebel’s fight…” Subject? Verb? Object?

7. 5. Continued… ► Keep track of pronouns  He, she, it, they ► Paraphrase main ideas ► Read it out loud!

8. 6. Literary Terms ► Metaphor  “I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing.” To make thee full of growing.” ► Allusion  Reference to person, place, or artistic work

9. 7. Contracted Words ► Letter has been left out ► Be’ton’twi’ ► Do’tt’‘sblood ► ‘gainstta’eni’ ► ‘tise’en ► ‘boutknow’st‘twill ► Ne’ero’o’er

10. 8. Archaic Words ► Thee ► Thou ► Thy ► Thine ► Art ► Anon ► Look at the side notes!

11. 9. Wordplay ► Pun  Humor  Two meanings suggested by same word or two similar-sounding words ► Malapropism  Character mistakenly uses a word for another word

12. 10. Final Thoughts ► Written for the stage ► Shakespeare loved to play with language ► Shakespeare puts all kinds of people on stage ► Read it out loud!