The “Thou Shalts” of Quotation Application:
1.
Thou shalt put all quotations into your own sentence: I beg of you: please do this
one, PLEASE???
Bad, bad: Lear shows wrath when Goneril ignores him. He leaves the castle.
“O fool, I shall go mad!” (2.4.309).
You pass: Lear shows wrath when Goneril ignores him. As he leaves the
castle, he screams, “O fool, I shall go mad!” (2.4.309).
2.
Thou shalt label all quotations with Act, Line and Scene. Mark all Shakespeare’s
line lengths.
Bad, bad: “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.”
You pass: Lear said, “I am a man / More sinned against than sinning”
(3.2.60-61).
3.
Thou shalt put periods AFTER the bracket. Only exclamation and question marks
go inside the quotation (because they provide meaning to the sentence).
Bad, bad: The gentleman speaks to Kent, “Give me your hand.” (3.1.54)
You pass: The gentleman speaks to Kent, “Give me your hand” (3.1.54).
OR
The gentleman encourages Kent to speak: “Give me your hand. Have you no more to
say?” (3.1.54).
OR
Lear screams at the weather because he is insane: “Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire!”
(3.2.14).
4.
Thou shalt remember PIE (ummm, that means….)
Bad, bad: Lear shows that he is wrathful: “Thou art a boil, / A plague sore,
an embossed carbuncle, / In my corrupted blood” (2.4.241-3).
You pass: Lear shows that he is wrathful: “Thou art a boil, / A plague sore,
an embossed carbuncle, / In my corrupted blood” (2.4.241-3). He is piling the worst sort of
abuse on Goneril because she will not go along with his plans. In effect, he is having a temper
tantrum by cursing Goneril as he does here.
5.
Thou shalt write in present tense.
Bad, bad: Lear died at the end of the play: “He dies” (5.3.361).
You pass: Lear suffers from a heart attack then expires: “Pray you, undo
this button…. He dies” (5.3.350, 61).
NB: stage directions are in italics.
6.
Thou shalt use ellipses to signal that you are skipping a line. (See the example
above.)
7.
Thou shalt choose to use short quotations, rather than the whole speech!
Bad, bad: Edmund is really fixated on his lack of a birth right. As he plots
his father and brother’s downfalls, his soliloquy gives away his deeper concerns:
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
(1.2.1-22)
NB: notice that we don’t use quotation marks for this whopper of a quotation.
You pass: Edmund is really fixated on his lack of a birth right. As he plots
his father and brother’s downfalls, his soliloquy gives away his deeper concerns: “Why brand
they us / with base? With baseness? Bastardy? Base, base?” (1.2.9-10)
8.
Thou shalt separate out each speaker on a different line if you wish to show a
conversation.
Bad, bad: Albany begins to suspect his wife’s adultery during a conversation
with the messenger: “Where was his son when they did take his eyes?” “Come with my lady
hither.” “He is not here.”
(4.2.100-102)
You pass: Albany begins to suspect his wife’s adultery during a
conversation with the messenger:
ALBANY: Where was his son when they did take his eyes?
MESSENGER: Come with my lady hither.
ALBANY: He is not here.
(4.2.100-102)
9. Thou Shalt put all quotations of less than 3 lines right into your own writing.
Bad, Bad: Lear gets upset about Goneril’s actions:
“Are you our daughter?” (1.4.206).
You pass: Lear gets upset about Goneril’s actions: “Are you our daughter?”
(1.4.206).
10. Thou Shalt separate out all long quotations (over 3 lines of poetry or 100 words of
prose), so that the reader can see their length at a glance.
Bad, Bad: Goneril responds to Lear’s criticism by trying to be reasonable:
“Come, sir, I would you would make use of that good wisdom, whereof I know you are
fraught; and put away these dispositions, that of late transform you from what you rightly
are” (1.4.207-211). (Who knows what how many lines this is? Who could see what lines
they are?)
You pass: Goneril responds to Lear’s criticism by trying to be reasonable:
Come, sir,
I would you would make use of that good wisdom,
Whereof I know you are fraught; and put away
These dispositions, that of late transform you
From what you rightly are. (1.4.207-211)
Points to note:
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Centre the text.
Do not use quotation marks for long quotations.
If your essay is double spaced, your quotation is too.
Again, respect the lines that Shakespeare put in place.