“Shakespeare’s Love of Language”
A Four Act Drama in the Shakespearian Style
Created, Written and Directed by Andy Kaufman as a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
First performed before a live audience of fellow student actors
at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles
May 2002
[Andy comes out and speaks]
 | Ladies and Gentlemen: We present to you a Four- Act Drama entitled Shakespeare’s Love of Language.
The part of Billy will be played today by Billy, and for today’s performance the part of Andy will be played by Andy. For the first two acts today the chorus will be played by Billy and Andy, and for the rest of the play the chorus will be played by Andy and Billy. Please refrain from smoking, picture-taking, and sneezing during this performance.
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Act One. A Chorus Meditation on Shakespeare-Speak
[Chorus, consisting of Andy and Billy, stands facing audience]
Chorus:
My friends, we welcome you all here today
Please listen to all that we have to say
About the verse and prose of our great Bard
You’ll see quite soon it’s not that hard
To master with skill and confidence
The major terms and elements
Of Shakespeare’s words and sounds and meters too;
How they’re laid out, - and what they do?
Some think it’s Latin verse that Shakespeare knew
And from here his themes and rhythms he drew
It’s French and Spanish and Greek, as well
Which influenced his speech, as you can tell
In scenes where characters do speak these tongues,
Especially French, the language of noble ones.
These verses we speak here, what do they show?
Their meter is what, and rhyme scheme, do you know?
Iambic pentameter, almost, not quite
We’ve added a few trochees just to excite.
Dadum dadum dadum dadum dadum
Imagine the sound of a steady drum
The beating of a strong and healthy heart
From which passion and impulses start
And multiply dadum by five, that’s right!
In this meter the bard did love to write.
Iambic pentameter, it’s called, we say
It serves thee well to know this on Tuesday.
Okee dokey, what’s a trochee? Pray tell!
Right you are again so far; all you’re doing so swell!
Hokey pokey, that’s a trochee. One more?
Humpty Dumpty got real grumpy! Those are trochees for sure!
Trochees are cute and suave and fun
But like Shakespeare, back to iambic we’ll run.
And do you hear heroic couplets too?
Lines which rhyme in pairs like boo hoo boo hoo!
No, no, panic ye not, for we’re ok.
Yes, this example’s a touch odd, we’ll say.
Did you know the true and int’resting fact
The Bard wrote one hundred four thousand lines exact?
An average of twenty eight hundred per play
That’s quite more than I do in a day.
Only two percent of all his writing
Contains heroic couplets, which are indeed exciting
Sixty five percent hardly rhymes at all
That’s called blank verse, unless the rhythm’s also taken a fall…
In which case, ladies and gentlemen, it’s just called plain ol’ prose.
Act Two. Shakespeare’s Use of Prose in His Plays
[Actors sit down as if in an interview, and set is miraculously
transformed into modern television studio]
Andy: What does prose in Shakespeare signify to the actor?
Billy: Well, Andy, Prose lacks rhythmic order and therefore suggests
lower class characters, or low comedy, not the exalted emotions and high
tragedy or high comedy of noblemen and noblewomen.
Andy: Hmm, that’s fascinating, Billy. Do you have an example of this phenomenon?
Billy: Yes, in fact I do. There is a wonderful scene in Henry IV, Part 1, in which Prince Hal and Falstaff discuss pick-pocketing. This low comedy scene is written entirely in prose. Why don’t you play Falstaff, Andy, and I’ll play Prince Hal?
Andy: Sure, what a great idea!
[Example from Henry IV, Part 1, Prince Hal and Falstaff discuss picking pockets]
Prince (Andy): Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?
Falstaff (Billy): ‘Zounds, where thou wilt, lad, I’ll make one, an’ I do not, call me villain and baffle me.
Prince: I see a good amendment of life in thee, from praying to purse-taking.
Falstaff: Why Hal, ‘tis my vocation, Hal, ‘tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation.
Andy: Wow, that went by pretty fast. Could we try it again?
Billy: Why, of course.
Andy: Great
[Repeat above passage]
Billy: Do you notice the predominance of one-syllable words in this passage, Andy?
Andy: I sure do. What does that mean, Billy?
Billy: Well, these one-syllable words tend to be of non Latin origin, thereby suggesting a lower, less exalted form of comedy.
Andy: Yes, and they also create a feeling of paunchiness in the character’s speech and rhythm.
Billy: Indeed, they do, another feature of prose in Shakespeare.
[Pause]
Andy: You know, Billy, because prose lacks the rhythmic structure of poetry, I would bet characters who are mad, or at least slightly unhinged, would tend to speak in prose, as well.
Billy: Right you are, and if…
Andy: [interrupting him]: Like, for example, the speech in King Lear in which Edmund the Bastard speaks to the audience about his illegitimate birth.
[Andy recites passage to Billy and audience with a mad look in his eyes]
Billy: [in shock], Uh, yes, that’s, that’s a good example, Andy of how Shakespeare used rhythm-less prose to create a feeling of unhinged madness.
Andy: Yeah, it was kinda weird, I must say. And if you look at the passage in written form, you’ll see the whole thing consists of only three sentences total. This enhances the feeling of thoughts flowing into each other without pause.
Billy: Yes, now do you see, Andy, how we, as actors, can use prose to create certain kinds of characters and moods.
Andy: Absolutely.
Act III. The Phenomenon of Rhythmic Turbulence in Shakespeare
[Chorus, consisting of Andy and Billy, stands facing audience]
Chorus:
Poetry and prose were Shakespeare’s fav’rite
There’s a third technique, indeed he savored it!
It’s not quite poetry and not quite prose
It lies somewhere in between both of those.
Rhythmic turbulence is the term sometimes used,
If you heard it you would be quite amused.
It’s nice and orderly and disorderly, to boot.
Extreme tragedy or comedy it does well suit.
There’s a rhythm, yes, and there’s a rhythm, no,
It’s all so rough and murky and turbulent, though.
Rhythmic turbulence is most often used
When a character’s elated, grieved, or confused.
A famous example of this technique
Occurs when Hamlet to himself does speak;
Should he kill his Uncle at prayer, or no?
This is the question that torments him so!
Now listen quite closely and you shall hear
Iambs and trochees, all mixed up asmear.
Rhythmic turbulence at its highest pitch
In this passage Hamlet’s life’s a bitch:
Billy:
(Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3, lines 73-88):
“Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I’ll do it—and so he goes to heaven;
And so am I reveng’d—that would be scann’d.
A villain kills my father and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, no revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But, in our circumstances and course of thought,
‘Tis heavy with him, and am I then, reveng’d,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season’d for his passage?”
[Back in the television studio]
Andy: Now, that’s an interesting passage, for sure. It starts off like iambic pentameter, then our expectation is thrown off by the addition of unexpected trochees, male and intermixed male and feminine endings.
Billy: Exactly, that is exactly what rhythmic turbulence is. It’s not exactly prose, because there is a rhythm, but it gets all muddled up.
Andy: So As actors, we need to take our cue from the rhythmic turbulence here, as much as from the content, to create the extreme emotional turmoil Hamlet is experiencing.
Billy: Righto!
Act IV. The Use of Puns and Wordplay in Shakespeare
[Chorus, consisting of Andy and Billy, stands facing audience]
Chorus:
On a mule we find
Two feet behind
And two we find before.
We go behind
Before we find
What the two behind before!
Shall we repeat
This verbal treat?
Ok, we’ll recite these lines once more:
On a mule we find
Two feet behind
And two we find before.
We go behind
Before we find
What the two behind before!
A trite word game beneath the Bard, you say?
Well, did you know, Shakespeare loved to play
With words and phrases in just this way?!
Lim’ricks and puns we enjoy today
Had their roots in Shakespeare’s verse, scholars say.
[Back in the television studio]
Andy: All right, I’ll take Shakespearian wordplay for 50, Billy.
Billy: This technique used by Shakespeare is the repetition of the same word with different meanings.
Andy: Umm, Antanaclasis (anta-Nack-luh-sis).
Billy: You’re right for 50, and for double, can you give an example from Shakespeare’s writing?
Andy: Ummm, yep, from Richard II
That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,
That it shall render vengeance and revenge.
Lie means both falsehood and to lie in a prone position! That’s Antanaclasis, Billy!
Billy: Right, for a hundred! And did you know that this same technique was used in the limerick, “we go behind before we find what the two behind before.” Before means both in front of, and are used for!
Andy: Shakespearian wordplay for 100, Billy.
Billy: This technique used by Shakespeare involves words that sound alike but have different meanings.
Andy: Um, can you give an example, Billy.
Billy: Sure, From King Lear, but it will cost you. The Fool speaking to King Lear, telling him he is being foolish for financially cutting off Cordelia, his only loving daughter.
“But, for all this, thou shalt have as many dolors for thy daughters as thou canst tell in a year.”
Dolors= dollars and sorrows. It will cost him money AND pain!
Andy: Paronomasia (para-noe-MAYzhuh), Billy. That’s words that sound alike but have different meanings.
Billy: Right, for 100!
Andy: Shakespearian wordplay for 200, Billy
Billy: This technique is the repetition of beginning consonant sounds for effect, as in this couplet from “Much Ado About Nothing”
“O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!”
Andy: Um, assonance?
Billy: That’s right for two hundred!
And when it’s vowel sounds or diphthong sounds that get repeated,
that’s called alliteration, as in this example from “King Lear”
“No, rather I abjure a roofs, and choose
To wage against the enemy o’ th’ air”
Andy: And I know what Onomatopoeia (“ONNA-mah-tuh-PEE-yah”) is, too. That’s words whose sound echoes their sense
For example, in Henry V, Prologue, Chorus, describing the English and French camps in the morning before the battle of Agincourt, we actually hear the whispering and murmuring of the troops in the sounds of the words:
Now entertain conjecture of a time
When creeping murmur and the poring dark
Fills the wide vessel of the universe.
From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night,
The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other’s watch.
Billy: Uh, you really need to follow procedure, Andy. And not talk out of turn. That’ll cost you a thousand.
Epilogue
[Chorus, consisting of Andy and Billys, stands facing audience]
Chorus:
We hope there has been little illusion,
We submit to you in this conclusion;
Shakespeare did choose his words with care
So as actors we deem it only fair
That we approach the bard with open ear
With heart full of passion and without fear.
Listen for the elements we’ve discussed today,
And in your acting it will certainly pay.
New possibilities will certainly arise
Just by opening your ears and your eyes
To wonders within the Bard’s words and sounds,
Where artistic genius fully abounds!
©2002 by Andrew D. Kaufman
Works consulted for this presentation
Harold Bloom, The Invention of the Human (New York: Riverhead Books)
Charles Boyce. Shakespeare, A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life, and Times, and More (New York, 1990).
Maurice Charney. All of Shakespeare (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)
Bertram Joseph. Acting Shakespeare (Methuen)
Joseph Olivieria. Shakespeare without Fear: A User-friendly Guide to Acting Shakespeare (International Thompson Publishing, 2000).
Jennifer Parker. A Shakespeare Handbook (American Academy of Dramatic Arts)
Eric Partridge. Shakespeare’s Bawdy (Routledge)
Delbert Spain. Shakespeare Sounded Soundly (Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1988).
George T. Wright. Shakespeare’s Metrical Art (University of California Press).
Works by Shakespeare consulted for this presentation
Hamlet
Henry IV
Henry V
King Lear
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