Starter – What is the difference between Verse
and Prose?
Think about:
What do characters use them?
How are they structured?
Learning Objective – to
explore some conventions of
comedy.
Key word:
Verse – rhymed or (most usually) unrhymed
poetry that is found in Shakespearean and
other drama of the period. The unrhymed
form is written in iambic pentameter and
when performed, closely imitates the
rhythm of speech in English.
What is
iambic
pentameter?
Iambic Pentameter - A ten-syllable line
consisting of five iambs is said to be in
iambic pentameter ("penta" = five).
Its stress pattern is - five pairs of
unstressed/stressed syllables
Key word:
Prose – ‘Normal’ speech in paragraphs and
not poetry.
Task: Look back over the speeches between Beatrice and
Benedick … are they talking in verse or prose?
Is this something you would expect?
What effect is being created?
As we read through the play … have a
look out for when Shakespeare uses verse
or prose and think about why … what
effect is he trying to create?
Comedy enjoys a long and complex history.
In The Republic, Plato identifies:
In comic representations, or for that matter
in private talk, you take an intense pleasure
from buffooneries, that you would blush to
practice yourself, and do not detest them
yourself.
What is Plato
suggesting?
Inherent in Plato’s reading of comedy
is the notion that what man finds
amusing in artifice is precisely that
which he abhors in reality.
What issues
might arise
from Plato’s
definition?
Central to this problem is that critics
of theatre feared the social effects of
presenting behaviours that are
counter-intuitive to society.
This illuminates two things:
1) That which is humorous is often
counter to the virtuous aspirations
of society.
2) That when we laugh at this we
derive a pleasure from it which in
turn perpetuates representations of
this type.
Aristotle’s views on comedy
(The Poetics)
He believes the following about comedy
Comedy is ‘an imitation of inferior
people’ – by inferior people. Aristotle
seems to mean ‘normal’ people (that is,
not Kings, Gods or leaders, who often
feature in a tragedy.
‘the laughable is a species of what is disgraceful’ – we laugh
when we witness the disgraceful behaviour of others – maybe
behaviour that we ourselves would not do, but might like to do.
‘does not involve pain or
destruction, for example a comic
mask is ugly and distorted, but
does not involve pain’ – watching
comedy does not involve ‘pain’,
whereas it would seem that
watching tragedy is much more
mentally anguishing.
These simples rule of Aristotle continue to have an effect
on how comedies are structured and how they affect
audiences.
Let’s read to the end of Act 2, Scene 1 …
What has
happened
so far?
Remember – the ball is extensive, varied and
complex in structure and mood. It creates an air
of refined grace, sophisticated merriment and
romantic spaciousness.
The ball’s structure and movement are dance like
– couples and groups form, dissolve and reform as
social convention dictates.
Watch out for
which
characters are
the centre of
attention
CLAUDIO
(unmasking)
Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
'Tis certain so, the Prince woos for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.
Let every eye nogetiate for itself
And trust no agent, for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero.
What do we learn about Claudio?
What is he suggesting about love?
BENEDICK
Alas, poor hurt fowl, now will he creep
into sedges. But that my Lady Beatrice
should know me, and not know me! The
Prince’s fool! Ha, it may be I go under
that title because I am
merry. Yea, but so I am apt to do myself
wrong. I am not so reputed! It is the base,
though bitter, disposition of Beatrice
that puts the world into her person and so
gives me out. Well, I’ll be revenged as I
may
.
What do we learn about Benedick?
BENEDICK
O, she misused me past the endurance of a block! An oak but with one
green leaf on it would have answered her. My very visor began to assume
life and scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I
was the Prince’s jester, that I was duller than a great thaw, huddling jest
upon jest with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man
at a mark with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and
every word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there
were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not
marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him
before he transgressed. She would have made Hercules have turned spit,
yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire, too. Come, talk not of her.
You shall find her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God some
scholar would conjure her, for certainly, while she is here, a man may live
as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary, and people sin upon purpose because
they would go thither. So indeed all disquiet, horror and perturbation
follows her.
What is he suggesting about
Beatrice?
Don Pedro:
And Benedick is not the unhopefulest
husband that I know. Thus far can I praise
him: he is of a noble strain, of approved
valor, and confirmed honesty. I will teach
you how to humor your cousin that she
shall fall in love with Benedick.—And
I, with your two helps, will so practice on
Benedick that, in despite of his quick wit
and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in
love with Beatrice. If we can do this,
Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory
shall be ours, for we are the only
love gods. Go in with me, and I will tell
you my drift.
What is his master plan?
How might this add to the comedy in the play?
Task: Working with a partner, what similarities
and differences can be made between:
Claudio and Hero
And
Benedick and Beatrice?
Similarities
Differences
You need to plan an essay in response to the following
question:
How is Comedy shown in the opening of ‘Much Ado About
Nothing’?
Think about:
Characters
Themes
Context
Key Words
Homework (due on Monday)
Is to select two points you are going
to explore and then write two
paragraphs about how the parts you
have selected show comedy in the
opening of the play!