The Power of Language

Shakespeare’s England was not overseen by a democratic government. Monarchs ruled for life, and successors were chosen based on royal bloodlines or who won which war. Despite this, Shakespeare knew that the public’s perception of a monarch went a long way towards the success of their reign. He gave his characters the power of language to persuade and control others. Many of his characters are gifted rhetoricians – they use language and the power of their words to bring other people around to their side.

Notably:

Mark Antony – uses the power of rhetoric to turn a huge Roman mob against Brutus and Cassius.

Henry V – uses the power of speech to boost his small English army’s morale as they seige France’s much larger forces.

Richard III – uses the power of words to manipulate his court and to become king.

Iago – uses the power of language to manipulate Othello’s view of his wife and lieutenant Cassio.

Hamlet – uses the power of words to turn right and wrong actions around in his head until he decides what to do.

It’s interesting to see, too, how the Roman elections look in Shakespeare’s plays. Brother is pitted against brother in Act 1 Scene 1 of Titus Andronicus to win the seat of emperor  Coriolanus spends the first half of his play looking to win the popular vote after proving himself in war, and the people’s vote elects the Triumvirate of Marc Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus in the war against Brutus and Cassius following Julius Caesar’s death.

The election lights usually fall on the person best able to win the people with their words in these situations. (Though the people technically elected Titus after his success in war against the Goths and he puts in a good word for the former emperor’s eldest son Saturninus instead of taking seat himself.)

We’ve been sharing lesson plans on the power of persuasive speech on our shiny new Facebook Page today to explore these characters’ impact on popular and singular opinion. As a democratic nation, today eligible voters are using their individual voices to collectively elect the nation’s leader for the next four years. Were we won by words, words, words? How do our nation’s leaders compare to Shakespeare’s (both historical and literary)?

Comment below, or Like us on Facebook to tell us more!

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Look to Like Us!

Folger Education is proud to announce that we have branched into our own Facebook Page this week!

Over the past year or so, different divisions of the Folger have been branching from the parent Folger Library page to give more specific information of interest to their audience. Maybe you’ve already Liked all of the Folger pages forTheatre, Poetry, and Consort, so add us to the list!

www.facebook.com/FolgerEducation

Like us to get updates as we share our favorite new and classic resources for teachers, and keep you informed of professional development opportunities from us! We’ll be available to respond to posts from you if you have any questions or comments about particular links, resources, or programs!

Share the page with your friends and coordinate with your community electronically to bring Folger Education even closer to you!

If you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about this development, and really do look forward to interacting with you in a new medium. I’d love to hear from you!

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“We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.”

Let’s take a break from our usual education-based Blog and pause for an adult beverage or two. After all, if you’ve been grading essays and teaching Shakespeare for a while, you may need a drink.

One of my favorite libations is Rogue Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout made in Newport, Oregon. Their Website describes this brew as “ebony in color with a rich creamy head, earthy flavor and a mellow, chocolate finish.” I’m not sure about that chocolate, but it does taste good. It’s available here in New York and probably everywhere else.

But if you’re ever in Oregon, be sure to stop in to one of the Rogue Brew Pubs. There are several of them and there’s even one in the Portland Airport.

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The actor, Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City, and Desperate Housewives) has partnered with Eric Dunham to produce a pricey ($65 a bottle) Cabernet Sauvignon, which they say has a taste of allspice, clove, hints of anise and chocolate-covered cherries. But their Website is brilliant as it zooms in on the Globe Theater and shows us that famous bear from The Winter’s Tale, complete with roaring. It’s worth a visit.

They even have a Baby Bear Syrah which they say  has “debaucherously nuanced flavors” of  ”baking spices, cumin and a lavender nose.” At $48 a bottle, it still is out of my price range.

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 A few years ago, a former student of mine (now a teacher) came to a workshop I was giving and presented me with a bottle of Shakespeare Vodka. It’s been a while since I finished the bottle, so I can’t report on the quality, but the bottle is beautiful and I keep refilling it with bottles of Absolut or Smirnof’f.

It’s a great conversation piece as it has a see-through label with an image of Shakespeare on the back.  If you’re ever in my neighborhood, stop in and I’ll pour you a drink.

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If you’d rather read what Shakespeare had to say about drinking, you should check out the The Boozy Bard, a book categorized by play which cites all the places where Shakespeare has written about drink, drinking, and drinkers.

Here are a few famous quotes:

Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?  Twelfth Night 2.3

Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.  Othello 2.3

I would give all my fame for a pot of ale.     Henry V 1.3

Drink sir, is a great provoker of three things…nose painting, sleep and urine. Macbeth 2.3

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And finally, if you’d like to enjoy an adult libation and see a fine Shakespeare play, head to Atlanta and stop in to the New American Shakespeare Tavern.

Here’s how their Website describes the experience:

The New American Shakespeare Tavern® is unlike other theaters. It is a place out of time; a place of live music, hand-crafted period costumes, outrageous sword fights with the entire experience centered on the passion and poetry of the spoken word. With an authentic British Pub Menu and a broad selection of Irish ales and premium brews, the Shakespeare Tavern® is a place to eat, drink, and nourish the soul.

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Complementary Conversations

Taking a page out of Carol Ann’s book, I sat in on a couple of our High School Fellowship sessions recently. During this program, students study three of Shakespeare’s plays as scholars, actors, and audience members. Guest speakers come in throughout the semester to discuss a new perspective with them as they progress through the class.

This week we had two very different guests: Dr. Patrick Tuite and Marcus Kyd.

Dr. Tuite, a scholar and dramaturge, took the students through a couple of scenes from Richard III in both a facsimile of a First Folio and a modern edition. He called the First Folio a “blueprint for performance.” In the First Folio, there are several words that were capitalized (or not) in ways that would look odd to us, spelling was different, punctuation in some odd-looking places, and more that – to a modern eye – looks funny. These oddities are important for actors to see as they tell you more about who the character is and how they talk. Do they capitalize the word “Woman?” – if so, they might think more highly of women. Does the spelling help a rhyme? – perhaps it makes more sense in OP (Original Pronunciation). Is there a rogue apostrophe? – this might affect a hitch in speech.

These oddities have been edited for modern readers and actors to look more like what they’re familiar with, but the acting choices made in the 16th century run throughout the folio text. Looking back helps us understand what performance looked like, and more about how the characters were originally conceived. For more on Editing Shakespeare, please see our YouTube playlist  on the subject with Folger Editions editor Barbara Mowat.

Two days later, the students met Marcus Kyd, a local actor and director, who will work with them on their scenes for their final performance. After the students were assigned their scenes (mostly 2-person, and some groups), Marcus guided them through discovering their characters with four questions you’d want to answer as an actor: 1) Who are you? 2) What do you want? 3) What are your obstacles? 4) What are you going to do about it?

Then he had the pairs sit in chairs facing each other, and asked them to find the “hooks” in the lines of their scene partners that made them want to respond. The conversations in the plays have a lot of back-and-forth action in them – the characters respond to one-another, they don’t speak in a void. When they heard a “hook” they’d raise their hand (multiple hands, if there are multiple hooks), and put it down when their text responded to it.

For example: in Richard III, Act 4, scene 4, Richard is going to ask Queen Elizabeth for her daughter’s hand in marriage (after ensuring the deaths of Elizabeth’s sons, his own wife, and several of his own family members). She, sensing this danger, lashes out:

QUEEN ELIZABETH: And must she die for this? O, let her live,
And I’ll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty,
So she may live unscarred of bleeding slaughter,
I will confess she was not Edward’s daughter.

RICHARD: Her life is safest only in her birth.

 QUEEN ELIZABETH: And only in that safety died her brothers. 

RICHARD: Lo, at their births good stars were opposite.

 QUEEN ELIZABETH: My babes were destined to a fairer death
If grace had blessed thee with a fairer life.

RICHARD: You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.

 QUEEN ELIZABETH: Cousins, indeed, and by their uncle cozened
Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.

The colored text is where the characters respond directly to each other. Even in longer passages, one character may run down a long list of hooks that another character then responds to one by one. The students’ homework was to take their scenes home and, based on their exercise, find the hooks in the text that their character wanted to respond to.

And so in a few short days these students approached scenes from plays they’ve read and seen as both scholars and actors – with all the textual clues leading them towards a performance of the text. Shakespeare’s language is not insurmountable for its age, but knowing what to look for as actors makes many things clearer.

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Their Understanding Begins to Swell

~by Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger

Elementary students during a summer School Visit Workshop

I met with a terrific group of bi-lingual students today who came to tour the Folger and see the London exhibition. When I asked them what they already knew about Shakespeare, one of the first things they said was “He wrote in really old English that we don’t understand.”

It was as if I had written the script!

When I asked how many of them had trouble understanding Shakespeare’s language, lots of hands went up. So we had a great opportunity to chat about Shakespeare’s language, how similar it really is, and how they can get at some of the words they don’t (yet) understand.

To help them access the language, I had them do what Shakespeare intended all along: gave them lines from the plays to act out. We started with insults from the plays—perfect for eighth graders. I encouraged them to use their bodies (we quickly established a “no touching” rule) to reinforce what they were saying. Within moments, the students were practicing hurling insults at each other. Then in groups they insulted other groups and, eventually, the whole class.

After this activity, I had them look at their scripts. When I asked if there were any words they didn’t know, they said there were. I had them tell me how they figured out what they were saying and how they should act out the words. They had several good suggestions: look at the surrounding words, look for parts of words they did recognize, or sound the word out. It turns out that although several students didn’t recognize words in their scripts, not one student let that get in the way of enthusiastic participation. In other words, by acting out the language, they understood it.

I reminded the students what that Shakespeare is meant to be an experienced, that the words are alive and intended to be spoken and acted. By giving them an opportunity to do so, they were able to make sense of the words by turning them into action. It was wonderful to see them own these lines and recognize their own ability to understand language they had thought was too difficult.

Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger is the Docent Liason for Folger Education, a frequent contributor for Making a Scene, and a published writer for Calliopemagazine. 

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“Your lord; myself and other noble friends, Are partners in the business.”

Shaking Hands with Shakespeare

Acting as the registrar for our local programs, it’s not surprising to me that most of the teachers who use our resources teach English, or are using our program for an English unit. Occasionally, though, I’ll get a call from a Social Studies or History teacher who plans to tie the program in to their unit on Elizabethan Life.

But this can go even further! You might remember one of our first Teacher to Teacher videos featuring Bob Harrison, in which he advocates for “Shakespeare Across the Curriculum,” and gives some examples of how to connect learning about Shakespeare and Elizabethan Life across many subjects and to students’ own life.

Specific plays lend themselves to cross-curricular study, and it’s really up to the teachers to figure out how best to collaborate on a unit. It can be difficult, especially with all of the guidelines for meeting standards and preparing for standardized tests. Crossing curricula, though, helps make the subjects more relevant, and makes the information stick.

This all comes to mind after seeing an article today about a 2009 performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Texas A&M University where the production was enhanced with robot “fairies” built by the school of engineering and in collaboration with the performance studies and computer science departments. These students and their professors were innovative and creative in their presentation of this play for a modern audience, and learned more about each other’s chosen areas of study in the process!

Are you planning any cross-curriculum lessons with Shakespeare this year? Let us know in the comments!

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“I stand in pause where I shall first begin,”

The weather has been positively autumnal in Washington, DC this week – perfect for it coinciding with the first few days of a new school year. While you’re getting to know your freshest crop of young minds, here’s a look back at some ways to prepare for getting Shakespeare started in your classroom!

A Teacher Prepares

Start Me Up…

students from Brent Elementary in Washington, DC, learn a few of Shakespeare’s trickier words during Shakespeare Steps Out

What will your students connect to most? Rhythm? Story? Character? Language? Performance-based teaching allows you ways to connect thought to movement, word to action, and get your students connected to Shakespeare’s words:

Where to Begin?

I Must Begin with the Rudiments of Art

Once More Unto the Classroom, Dear Friends

 

If you have a choice of which play to teach, or which play you’d choose to direct, we offer our advice for choosing (and make the case for our own favorites):

The Play’s the Thing: The Problem is Choice

Why isn’t Titus Andronicus Taught More Often?

 

Finally, one important thing to remember is to check in with your class, and offer them time for reflection on what they’ve learned:

I Noticed…

But by Reflection…

 

How do you kick off the school year with your class? What have you done to begin your Shakespeare unit? Which play will you be teaching this year? Let us know! We love hearing from teachers!

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Henry V in Performance

By Carol Kelly

Arguably there are two memorable film productions of Henry V. Thefirst  appeared in 1944 and was directed and produced by Laurence Olivier who also took the title role. The film was produced during World War 2 and sets a patriotic, even jingoistic note, with the beleaguered English troops on the eve of the battle clearly reminiscent of Dunkirk. Deliberate omissions (such as Henry’s order to kill all the prisoners) paint the English as brave and courageous, overcoming the odds to defeat the arrogant French. Given the critical moment in European history, the use of this play as wartime propaganda is clear and understandable.

The second film starred and was directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1989. This version, while still presenting Henry as a brave leader of his troops, reveals the harsh and gruesome side of warfare. Branagh sets the battles on rainsoaked fields and plays down the comedic moments to create a consistently dark, brutal and gritty atmosphere. Due to the nature of film, Branagh is able to use flashbacks to include  insights into Henry’s personal journey from fun-loving adolescent to responsible Prince and leader of men.

The current production of the play currently in performance at the Globe in London offers a slightly different take. Although the patriotic element is still evident, the production presents a nuanced depiction of all the ambiguities of human nature that Shakespeare loved to explore. The horror and the honor are both present  but they are depicted alongside each other with subtlety and humor. The Chorus, delivered by a serving woman, sets the tone that we are part of her story and the audience is drawn into the drama as it unfolds. The rallying cry unites a diverse nation of Welsh, Irish and Scots, aristocrats and rogues alike, against a common enemy but more importantly behind their King. The call to arms has some element of reluctant resignation but is powerful and so personal that I felt that had Henry marched out of the theatre, half the audience would have marched with him! Perhaps this can be attributed in part to Jubilee fever, combined with the spike in national pride brought about by the celebrations of  London 2012!

The centerpiece of the call to arms is the St. Crispin Day speech and the delivery of this speech is key to the interpretation of the play. As such, it is a perfect place to introduce young students to Shakespeare’s language. Experimenting with subtext, tone, and inflection when speaking these words aloud and on their feet will allow students to appreciate the power of language, to discover layers of meaning and most importantly, to appreciate the glorious poetry. How did the past film productions speak to their own moment? Which interpretation rings true for students today? How do students living in a country fighting a distant war react to such a call? What would their own production look like?

Find out more about how performance-based teaching can bring Shakespeare’s words to life at www.folger.edu

Carol Kelly is Folger Education’s Festivals and Programs Manager. She arranges workshops for teachers around the country, and organizes our Secondary School Festival each spring, as well as our appearances at National Conferences like NCTE.

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Essential Texts

So you’re learning about a play by Shakespeare. Besides a copy of the play (that uses Shakespeare’s language, of course), what else would be useful to have? Here are a few that we find useful:

Shakespeare Lexicon by Alexander Schmidt Vol 1, Vol 2

This two-volume set helps to contextualize the words and phrases that may not roll as trippingly on the tongue as more modern phrases might.  When playing the scene as an actor, students may find this helpful in putting meaning behind their words. (The “Vol” links above are to digitized copies of the texts available through the Internet Archive).

See also: Shakespeare’s Words by David Crystal and Ben Crystal

The Shakespeare Book of Lists by Michael LoMonico

One-stop quick-read for a guide to Shakespeare’s plays, life, and lists for any subject imaginable! Perfect for students comparing villains, or looking for great speeches to memorize for extra credit.

See Also: Reduced Shakespeare by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor.

Shakespeare A to Z by Charles Boyce

Who’s who? Where was this? This quick-reference guide gives essential information about characters and places from both Shakespeare’s life and his plays that students might find helpful when researching their roles or Shakespeare’s biography.

See Also: Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov  (contains maps of each play’s locations).
A Dictionary of Who, What and Where in Shakespeare by Sandra Clark

We have all of these books on our shelves in the Education Office at the Folger.

Have you found any additional resources helpful while teaching Shakespeare? Let us know in the comments!

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The Joy of Researching at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Last week, our twenty-five NEH Summer Scholars bid farewell to the Folger and returned to their school districts to get ready for the new school term.  They had a month-long intensive institute filled with opportunities to engage Shakespeare’s plays through curriculum, performance, and research-based activities.  Our first look at the feedback we received from our Summer Scholars indicates that, among the many activities they were able to engage in while at the Folger, they loved the opportunity to research in the Folger’s reading rooms best of all.  And who wouldn’t? With an incredible collection of materials on Shakespeare and the early modern period, the Library is an excellent resource. Our YouTube page contains a number of videos we have produced that are designed to help researchers make the most of their time in the Library.  Chief among them is our recently added Handling Rare Materials, produced through our partnership with Alabama Public Television. In case you haven’t seen it, take a look.  You’ll get a glimpse of our reading room, an introduction to our rare materials, and a primer on how to keep our materials safe for all to read. And, if you want to explore more of the Library, check out the video from our 75th anniversary celebration in 2007, Henry and Emily Folger Build a Library. Enjoy!

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