The Bard of Avon: Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon

A pair of rhyming verse lines

eg.
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain, [a]
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain. [a]
(A Lover's Complaint)

Heroic couplet
iambic pentameter with couplets

cf.
iambic pentameter without rhyming <--- blank verse

A repetition of consonants, especially at the beginning of related words. It is a characteristic for the poems of Anglo-Saxons.

eg.1:
bitrebreostceare gebiden haebbe,
(Bitter breast-cares have I abide,
   --Ezra Pound's translation)
(The Seafarer, 8th century Old English)

eg.2:
Galling the gleaned land with hot assys,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns
(Henry V. 1.2.151-2)

Composed of tercets which are interlinked, in that each is joined to the one following by a common rhyme: aba, bcb, cdc.

My mother's maydes when they did sowe and spynne,
       They sang sometymes a song of the feld mowse,
       That forbicause her lyvelood was but thynne,
Would nedes go seek her townyssh systers howse.
       She thought her self endured to much pain:
       The sormy blastes her cave so sore did sowse.
That wehn the forowse swymmed with the rain
       Shye must lye cold and whete in sorry plight;
       And wours then that, bare meet then did remain
        (Wyatt, Thomas. Second Satire CVI)

as the Italian name indicates, it has eight lines iambic stanza rhyming ab ab ab cc. This form was introduced into English verse by Sir Thomas Wyatt in early in the 16th c.

Iambic
weak, strong=ti-tum
eg. revolve

Trochaic
strong, weak =tum-ti
eg. forward

ababbcc
Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucerece, A Lover's Complaint are written in rhyme royal. Geoffrey Chaucer(1343?-1400) employed it in his Torilus and Criseyde, The Parlement of Foules and several of The Canterbury Tales.

From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded [a]
A plaintful story from a sistering vale, [b]
My spirits to attend this double voice accorded, [a]
And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale; [b]
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale, [b]
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain, [c]
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain. [c]
(A Lover's Complaint)

The term derives from the Italian sonetto a 'little sound' or 'song'. A lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines

abab cdcd efef gg (3 quatrains, a couplet)

From fairest creatures we desire increase, [a]
That thereby beauty's rose might never die, [b]
But as the riper should by time decease, [a]
His tender heir might bear his memoriy: [b]
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, [c]
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel, [d]
Making a famine where abundance lies, [c]
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. [d]
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament [e]
And only herald to the gaudy spring, [f]
Within thine own bud buriest thy content [e]
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. [f]
Pity the world, or else this glutton be, [g]
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. [g]
(Sonnet 1)

abab bcbc cdcd ee…i3 quatrains, a couplet…j

Happy ye leaves when as those lily hands,
Which hold my life in their dead doing might,
Shall handle you and hold in loves soft bands,
Lyke captives trembling at the victors sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look
And reade the sorowes of my dying spright,
Written with teares in harts close bleeding book.
And happy rymes bathed in the sacred brooke,
Of Helicon whence she derived is,
When ye behold that Angels blessed looke,
My soules long lacked foode, my heavens blis.
Leaves, lines, and rymes, seeke her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.
                (Spenser, Edmund. Amoretti, Sonnet 1)

abbaabba cdecde (octave, sestet)
Also known as the Italian sonnet, the form originated in Italy in the 13th c. and was perfected by Petrarch (1304-1374). It was imported to English poetry in the 16th century.

octave
a piece of verse eight lines long with alternating rhymes; a term usually employed to describe the earlier and larger section of a sonnet.

seset
the second part of a sonnet, consisting of six lines, as distinct form the larger first part, the octave.

Verse is the principal means of expression in Shakespeare, while prose is used in particular circumstances. Four plays are entirely in verse (Richard II , King John, 2 Henry VI and 3 Henry VI ). Most plays contain far moer verse than prose. Only five plays have more prose then verse. (2 Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It,and Twelfth Night ). Please consider the effects and reasons of the shift from verse to prose in the following scene.

HOTSPUR:But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my toungue. No, Pecy, thou art dust,
And food for ----
PRINCE HENRY: For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough: this earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
I should not make so dear a show of zeal:
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph!
     [He spieth FALSTAFF on the ground]
What, old acquaintance! could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man:
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
If I were much in love with vanity!
Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell'd will I see thee by and by:
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
      [Exit PRINCE HENRY]
FALSTAFF: Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood,'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, .... (1 Henry VI. 5.4.83-112)

Unrhymed verse, with five iambic feet to a line, a measure introduced into England by the Earl of Surrey (1517-47), the poet, which became the basic verse form of Elizabethan drama. iambic pentameter.

But soft, what light through younder window breaks? (Romeo and Juliet. 2.1.44-5) (Bold=strong=feet)

The human heatbeat is the same rhythm of iamb.

The line ends with an extra unstressed syllable, giving eleven syllables instead of ten. the effect of making the thought itself ironic, the effect of making the line more pliant, and often give a quality of working through the thought, sometimes giving it a haunted and unfinished sound as though leaving the thought in the air: the effects are different.

e.g. motion, notion
cf. masculine ending - end with a stressed syllable

A slight pause occurring mid-line. Sometimes a caesura is used for the listener to be ready to take in the rhyme.

As my sweet Richard.  Yet again, methinks
Some unborn sorrow ripe in fortune's womb.
(Richard II.2.2.9-10)

feminine caesura
masculine caesura

A line is split between two or more characters. The split line heightens the sense of people sharing a situation. Sometimes they may express irony or characters are sharing a situation and yet their viewpoints are very different.

eg. 1

They are used quite purposefully to finish off a scene, or part of a scene or a soliloquy.

I'll so offend to make offence a skill
Redeeming time when men think least I will.
(1 Henry IV.1.2)

character types that occur repeatedly in a particular literary genre so that it is recognizable as part of of the conventions.

figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstract ideas are endowed with human qualities, e.g., allegorical morality plays where characters include Good Deeds, Beauty, and Death. John Ruskin termed sentimentalized, exaggerated personification the "pathetic fallacy." (From encyclopedia.com )

two incongruous or classing words brought together to make a striking expression.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. (Romeo and Juliet. 2.1.229)

O brawling love, O loving hate,(Romeo and Juliet. 1.1.169)

inappropriate, muddled or mistaken use of words. Hostess Quickly in 2 Henry IV is a notable example.

DOGBERRY: Marry, sir, I would have some confidence* with you that decerns** you nearly. (Much Ado About Nothing. 3.5.2)
confidence* =conference, decerns**=concerns

Bombast is boastfull or ranting language.

Tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide. (3 Henry VI 1.4.138)

Hyperbole is extravagant and obvious exaggeration.

Let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch
of the ranged empire fall!(Antony and Cleopatra. 1.1.35-6)

You - you- your- your
formal and distant form of address suggesting respect for a superior or courtesy to a social equal.

Thou - thee - thy - thine
informal and close form and can imply either closeness or contempt.

Gertrude: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet: Mother, you have my father much offended.
Gertrude: Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Hamlet: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Gertrude: Why, how now, Hamlet!
Hamlet: What's the matter now?
Gertrude: Have you forgot me?
Hamlet: No, by the rood, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
Gertrude: Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
Hamlet: Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Gertrude: What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!
(Hamlet. 3. 6)

Hamlet always addresses Gertrude as "you," which shows his formal attitude and a mental/social distance. On the other hand, Queen Gertrude uses both "thou" and "you" which implys her emotional turbulence.

"Ye/you" or "thou/thee" sometimes show social classes, too.

Falstaff: Dost thou hear, hostess?
Hostess: Pray ye, pacify yourself, Sir John. (2 Henry IV. 2.4.77-8)

Here, Falstaff is disreputable but he is still a knight so the hostess used "ye" in order to show his superiority.

SIR TOBY BELCH: O knight thou lackest a cup of canary: when did I see thee so put down?
SIR ANDREW: Never in your life, I think; unless you see canary put me down. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has: but I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit.
SIR TOBY BELCH: No question. (Twelfth Night. 1.3.68-74)

It can be insulting if it was used by an inferior to address a superior social rank.

The third person singular present indicative "-s" which we are familiar with was originally a dialect of Northern England or North Midland. By the 15th century, the usage of "-s" ending spread to south and by 16th century, it became popular as colloquial and informal way and on the other hand -eth ending remained as a formal and old-fashioned usage. In short, "-th" and "-s" were alternatives in Shakespearean text. Look at the next quotation. He changed "-eth" and "-s" even in the same line.

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
(The Merchant of Venice 4.1.181-4)
cf. Hath (has), doth (does)