2.3 Reading Shakespeare's Language

Notes

Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English, a form that can look difficult but follows patterns.

• Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. Noble characters usually speak in verse; lower-class or comic characters often speak in prose.
• A broken meter or a shift from verse to prose can signal madness, emotion or a change in status.
• Wordplay: a pun uses a word with two meanings. Also look for metaphor, personification and imagery.
• Strategy for hard lines: find the subject and verb, restore normal word order ("Art thou not..."), and replace old words with modern ones ("thou" is "you," "hath" is "has").