An Introduction to… Shakespeare’s Verse
Examples
Read the extracts from three different Shakespeare plays. Don’t worry too much about
understanding the words; what do you notice about the form they are in? What are their similarities
and differences?
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that loured upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Richard III, Act I, Scene i
Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were
porter of hell-gate he should have old turning
the key. Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there,
I’th’ name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer who
hanged himself on th’expectation of plenty.
Come in time! Have napkins enough about
you; here you’ll sweat for’t.
Macbeth, Act II, Scene iii
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene i