Shakespeare
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:16 pm
So... I'm reading Romeo and Juliet for a class, and I came to a realization.
For a long time I'd thought that Shakespeare was pretty overrated. I mean, really, in the end his plays were vulgar entertainment. They're full of innuendo and ridiculous comedy. Reading through the speeches in Romeo and Juliet I could easily imagine playing the characters very tongue-in-cheek, hamming it up and sarcastically making the huge confessions of emotion that Shakespeare penned for his characters. I'm sure it would have elicited a huge laugh. However, my view has been changed by starting to read Romeo and Juliet again. Shakespeare manages to get all of the vulgar entertainment value that I think of, but he does it with amazing art. I think it's amazing that nearly every other line can be construed as some sort of innuendo, but it's still clever dialogue, impeccably written and amazingly metered. The meter is pervasive to tell the truth. While reading along, I'll be surprised in places where Shakespeare breaks his meter just slightly, making you have to warp the words to fit the pentameter, and it turns out that I've been subconsciously following the meter all along. And it sounds so good too! I mean, I didn't live at the time, but I get the feeling that Shakespeare's iambs didn't sound contrived during his time either. I'll bet that his language just flowed along like any other language, and the meter just totally subliminal, like I've found.
I also think that Shakespeare's incredibly clever in his writing. An example would be the scene of Romeo and Juliet's meeting, where the two speak a sonnet (beginning with Romeo's "If I profane..."). The two engage in a beautiful and clever battle of wits, which is both entertaining and sweet, rhyming each other's words and maintaining meter at the same time. I mean... if that isn't genius, I don't know what is.
For a long time I'd thought that Shakespeare was pretty overrated. I mean, really, in the end his plays were vulgar entertainment. They're full of innuendo and ridiculous comedy. Reading through the speeches in Romeo and Juliet I could easily imagine playing the characters very tongue-in-cheek, hamming it up and sarcastically making the huge confessions of emotion that Shakespeare penned for his characters. I'm sure it would have elicited a huge laugh. However, my view has been changed by starting to read Romeo and Juliet again. Shakespeare manages to get all of the vulgar entertainment value that I think of, but he does it with amazing art. I think it's amazing that nearly every other line can be construed as some sort of innuendo, but it's still clever dialogue, impeccably written and amazingly metered. The meter is pervasive to tell the truth. While reading along, I'll be surprised in places where Shakespeare breaks his meter just slightly, making you have to warp the words to fit the pentameter, and it turns out that I've been subconsciously following the meter all along. And it sounds so good too! I mean, I didn't live at the time, but I get the feeling that Shakespeare's iambs didn't sound contrived during his time either. I'll bet that his language just flowed along like any other language, and the meter just totally subliminal, like I've found.
I also think that Shakespeare's incredibly clever in his writing. An example would be the scene of Romeo and Juliet's meeting, where the two speak a sonnet (beginning with Romeo's "If I profane..."). The two engage in a beautiful and clever battle of wits, which is both entertaining and sweet, rhyming each other's words and maintaining meter at the same time. I mean... if that isn't genius, I don't know what is.