Folger Master Class Bundle

 Dear Teaching Colleagues,
:HOFRPHWRWKH)ROJHU6KDNHVSHDUH/LEUDU\¶V0DVWHU&ODVV7HDFKLQJRomeo and Juliet.
During the one-­‐‑hour session, we intend to bring you live the best that the Folger has to offer: x Three wonderful (and hip) scholars with fresh looks at this play that we teach so often: George Washington University professor Ayanna Thompson, Shakespeare Quarterly editor Gail Kern Paster, and Folger Library Director Mike Witmore x &OLSVIURPWKH)ROJHU7KHDWUH¶VSURGXFWLRQRIRomeo and Juliet, and live conversation with Erin Weaver, who plays Juliet x Carlisle (PA) high school teacher Sue Biondo-­Hench and other teachers like YOU, DERXWZKDWJRHVRQLQ\RXUFODVVURRPRUPD\EHZKDWFRXOG« Before you registered, we told you: x After the Master Class, we will ask you for your advice and counsel. Please watch for our survey. x ‡ǯŽŽ–Šƒ›‘—™‹–Šƒˆƒ–ǡ†‘™Ž‘ƒ†ƒ„Ž‡’ƒ…‡–‘ˆRomeo and Juliet teaching materials. Welcome to your packet! We have put together teaching ideas and other
resources that ought to be helpful for you before, during, or after the class. 6RKHUH¶VZKDW¶VLQVLGH\RXUEXQGOH
™ Folger Education Philosophy This is a simple statement of what we believe about you
and about teaching Shakespeare and other literature. For starters, we believe that you do
the most important and SRZHUIXOZRUNRQHDUWK:HWKLQN\RX¶OOOLNHWKHUHVWWRR
™ Romeo and Juliet 2.6, Quarto 1 (1597) and Quarto 2 (1599) In the Master Class, Gail
Paster shows a high school student how the text of the play is not set in stone, that there
were different versions of Romeo and of many other Shakespeare plays. We include
these versions and suggestions about how to involve your students in them.
™ Romeo and Juliet 1.5. 7KH³SDOPWRSDOP´VSHHFKRUVRQQHW:HLQFOXGHWKLVEHFDXVH
ZH¶OOVHHWKDWVFHQHIURPWKH)ROJHU7KHDWUH¶VUHFHQWSURGXFWLRQDQG\RX¶OOKDYHD
FKDQFHWRKHDUIURP(ULQ:HDYHUZKRSOD\V-XOLHW:H¶UHJLYLQJyou several versions
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ƒ Quarto 1 (1597) and Quarto 2 (1599)
ƒ The speech from the new Folger Digital Texts (www.folgerdigitaltexts.org)
ƒ The speech in Spanish
™ Two-line scenes. One of our favorite pre-reading activities is pairing students up with
random lines for a play and have them rehearse and perform their lines. We have
provided you with a set of 30 lines from Romeo and Juliet so that your students can own
Shakespeare immediately, and we suggest a way to use them.
™ Three-Dimensional Shakespeare is a technique created by Michael Tolaydo that is in
DOOWKUHHYROXPHVRIWKH)ROJHU¶VShakespeare Set Free. The steps are spelled out with
an edited version of Romeo and Juliet 1.1 so that your class can get right inside the play
fast!
™ Promptbooks. Every production has a promptbook, created by the stage manager. (The
Folger has lots of them, dating back to the 1600s.) Promptbooks are a great exercise for
students because it makes them look at the text as a director might and connects them
directly to the words. Your students will have to make choices about how the characters
move DURXQGDQGKRZWKRVHFKDUDFWHUVVD\WKHLUOLQHV,W¶VDIRUPRIFORVHUHDGLQJ
ƒ Example from Shakespeare Set Free illustrates what a student prompt book
can look like
ƒ Romeo and Juliet 3.5 excerpt which your students can use to create a prompt
book.
™ Finding the Voices and the Argument in a Soliloquy. Diving deeply into the first
SDUWRI-XOLHW¶VVSHHFKLQRomeo and Juliet 4.3 allows students to discover all by
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Have at this stuff. Jump in with your students. Tell us how it goes.
Thanks for diving into the Master Class with us and advise us on it²and on any other
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posted.
Peggy O¶Brien, Director of Education
Mike LoMonico, Senior Consultant on National Education
The )ROJHU¶V Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
The Folger Shakespeare Library is a hotbed of education staff, scholars, actors, directors, curators, librarians, docents, and digital geeks in Washington, DC teamed up with teachers all over the country ʹ in an endless collaboration focused on your teaching and your students' learning. What do we believe about teaching and learning? Read on: 1. We believe that teachers are the most important and the most powerful people on earth. Period. 2. All students should have access to Shakespeare's rigorous texts and compelling ideas. Students at all levels of proficiency can and should engage deeply with these plays. 3. You and all of your students can dive into, engage with, and make sense of these complex texts with great success. This work will enhance your students' close reading and analytical skills. Yours, too. And all of you will have an enormous amount of fun in the process! 4. /ƚ͛Ɛ all about the language. Approach, connect with, and befriend Shakespeare's language head on. Your students' direct connection with his language is the key to unlocking the plays ʹ and everything in them. We dŽŶ͛ƚ mean you, as teacher, translating for them. And we dŽŶ͛ƚ mean using those ͞made eĂƐLJ͟ books. We mean THEM speaking and moving and figuring out HIM . . . words, lines, scenes, plays. His language in the mouths of your students is splendid and exciting all on its own. And it is the essential step that results in sending his ideas into their brains. 5. So . . . if you are teaching Shakespeare the way you were taught, you might need to give that up. If you are teaching Shakespeare from those dumbed-­‐down versions of the plays created by publishers who believe that both you and your students are not smart enough to understand the real thing, throw them out. Right now. 6. The Folger continues to produce ʹ with and for teachers ʹ ever-­‐evolving sets of language tools, active close reading strategies, performance techniques, and pathways through the plays that are energizing and fun, and that relentlessly focus on text. In DC and all over the place, we teach teachers how to do this work. A poorly kept secret: teachers use these tools and strategies to teach all kinds of literature, and subjects way beyond English. 7. Using these tools and strategies, you and your students work in the plays rigorously and vigorously in the way that scholars and actors do. Your students make their way actively ʹ reading closely, thinking deeply, and citing textual evidence all over the place. They build their skills and their knowledge. And you do too. Research has shown us that learning this way dramatically increases studenƚƐ͛ confidence ʹ in their ability to tackle something hard, to figure it out, to ͞owŶ͟ this playwright and his plays ʹ and boosts their enthusiasm for learning the next hard thing: August Wilson, reconstruction, Lear, calculus, Arabic. 8. Any teacher can teach this way. You don't have to know anything about acting or directing or any of that stuff. In fact, it's better if you don't. He knew how to write. You know how to teach. And if you're worried about this last part, we can help you with that. Romeo and Juliet Quarto 1 1597
Enter Romeo, Frier.
Rom: Now Father Laurence, in thy holy grant
Consists the good of me and Iuliet.
Fr: Without more words I will doo all I may,
To make you happie if in me it lye.
Rom: This morning here she pointed we should meet,
And consumate those neuer parting bands,
Witnes of our harts loue by ioyning hands,
And come she will.
Fr: I gesse she will indeed,
Youths loue is quicke, swifter than swiftest speed.
Enter Iuliet somewhat fast, and embraceth Romeo.
See where she comes.
So light of foote nere hurts the troden flower:
Of loue and ioy, see see the soueraigne power.
Iul: Romeo.
Rom: My Iuliet welcome. As doo waking eyes
(Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolike Day,
So Romeo hath expected Iuliet,
And thou art come.
Iul: I am (if I be Day)
Comme to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire.
Rom: All beauteous fairnes dwelleth in thine eyes.
Iul: Romeo from thine all brightnes doth arise.
Fr: Come wantons, come, the stealing houres do passe
Defer imbracements till some fitter time,
Part for a while, you shall not be alone,
Till holy Church haue ioynd ye both in one.
Rom: Lead holy Father, all delay seemes long.
Iul: Make hast, make hast, this lingring doth vs wrong.
Fr: O, soft and faire makes sweetest worke they say.
Hast is common hindrer in crosse way.
Exeunt omnes
Romeo and Juliet Quarto 2 1599
Enter Frier and Romeo.
Fri. So smile the heauens vpon this holy act,
That after houres, with sorrow chide vs not.
Ro. Amen, amen, but come what sorrow can,
It cannot counteruaile the exchange of ioy
That one short minute giues me in her sight:
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then loue-deuouring death do what he dare,
It is inough I may but call her mine.
Fri. These violent delights haue violent endes,
And in their triumph die like fier and powder:
Which as they kisse consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his owne deliciousnesse,
And in the taste confoundes the appetite.
Therefore loue moderately, long loue doth so,
Too swift arriues, as tardie as too slowe.
Enter Iuliet.
Here comes the Lady, Oh so light a foote
Will nere weare out the euerlasting flint,
A louer may bestride the gossamours,
That ydeles in the wanton sommer ayre,
And yet not fall, so light is vanitie.
Iu. Good euen to my ghostly confessor.
Fri. Romeo shall thanke thee daughter for vs both.
Iu. As much to him, else is his thankes too much.
Ro. Ah Iuliet, if the measure of thy ioy
Be heapt like mine, and that thy skill be more
To blason it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbour ayre and let rich musicke tongue,
Vnfold the imagind happines that both
Receiue in either, by this deare encounter.
Iu. Conceit more rich in matter then in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament,
They are but beggers that can count their worth,
But my true loue is growne to such excesse,
I cannot sum vp sum of halfe my wealth.
Fri. Come, come with me, and we will make short worke.
For by your leaues, you shall not stay alone,
Till holy Church incorporate two in one.
Iu: You kisse by the booke.
Ro: Sinne from my lips, O trespasse sweetly vrgde!
Giue me my sinne againe.
Iu: Then haue my lips the sin that they haue tooke.
Ro: Then mooue not till my praiers effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours my sin is purgde.
Iu: Saints doe not mooue though: grant nor praier
forsake.
Ro: Why then faire saint, let lips do what hands doo,
They pray, yeeld thou, least faith turne to dispaire.
Iuli: Yes Pilgrime lips that they must vse in praier.
Rom: Haue not Saints lips, and holy Palmers too?
Iuli: Good Pilgrime you doe wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly deuotion shewes in this:
For Saints haue hands which holy Palmers touch,
And Palme to Palme is holy Palmers kisse.
Rom: If I prophane with my vnworhie hand,
This holiest shrine, the gentle sinne is this:
My lips two blushing Pilgrims ready stand,
To smooth the rough touch with a gentle kisse.
Romeo and Juliet Quarto 1 1597
Iuli. Youe kisse bith booke.
Ro. Sin from my lips, ô trespas sweetly vrgd:
Giue me my sin againe.
Iu. 7KƝ haue my lips the sin that they haue tooke.
Ro. Then moue not while my praiers effect I take,
Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purgd.
Iu. Saints do not moue, thogh grant for praiers sake.
Rom. O then deare Saint, let lips do what hands do,
They pray (grant thou) least faith turne to dispaire.
Iuli. I Pilgrim, lips that they must vse in praire.
Ro. Haue not Saints lips and holy Palmers too?
Iu. Good Pilgrim you do ZUǀJ your KƗG too much
Which mannerly deuocion showes in this,
For saints haue hands, that Pilgrims hands do tuch,
And palme to palme is holy Palmers kis.
Ro. If I prophane with my vnworthiest hand,
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this,
My lips two blushing Pylgrims did readie stand,
To smoothe that rough touch with a tender kis.
Romeo and Juliet Quarto 2 1599
ROMEO (a JULIETA.)
Si mi indigna mano profana con su contacto este divino relicario, he aquí la
dulce expiación: ruborosos peregrinos, mis labios se hallan prontos a borrar con un
tierno beso la ruda impresión causada.
JULIETA
Buen peregrino, sois harto injusto con vuestra mano, que en lo hecho muestra
respetuosa devoción; pues las santas tienen manos que tocan las del piadoso
viajero y esta unión de palma con palma constituye un palmario y sacrosanto beso.
ROMEO
¿No tienen labios las santas y los peregrinos también?
JULIETA
Sí, peregrino, labios que deben consagrar a la oración.
ROMEO
¡Oh! Entonces, santa querida, permite que los labios hagan lo que las manos.
Pues ruegan, otórgales gracia para que la fe no se trueque en desesperación.
JULIETA
Las santas permanecen inmóviles cuando otorgan su merced.
ROMEO
Pues no os mováis mientras recojo el fruto de mi oración. Por la intercesión de
vuestros labios, así, se ha borrado el pecado de los míos.
(La da un beso.)
JULIETA
Mis labios, en este caso, tienen el pecado que os quitaron.
ROMEO
¿Pecado de mis labios? ¡Oh, dulce reproche! Volvedme el pecado otra vez.
JULIETA
Sois docto en besar.
NODRIZA
Señora, vuestra madre quiere deciros una palabra.
Two-line scenes from Romeo and Juliet
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with a single word or a single line. There are several pre-reading activities that work, but
one of the best is working with two-line scenes. Not only does it get a line from
6KDNHVSHDUHLQWRDVWXGHQW¶VPRXWKEXWLWDOVRJHWVWKDWVWXGHQWRXWRIKLVRUKHUVHDWDQG
performing a short and simple line.
x Print out this sheet and cut the 30 lines into strips. If possible, print them out on
card or heavy stock.
x Mix them up.
x Hand out one strip to each student.
x Have the students wander about the room, saying their line to the other students.
x $IWHUDPLQXWHRUVR\HOO³FREEZE´DQGwork with the person closest to them to
create a two-line scene.
x Here are the rules:
o They can only use the words on their paper.
o They must add gestures and movement.
o They may add props, costumes, chairs, or other bits of classroom furniture.
o They should read their lines with feeling.
o They have five minutes to rehearse.
x After rehearsal time is over, have them take their seats. Then have each pair come
to the front of the room and perform their scene to thunderous applause.
Here are the lines:
[Thou art] the very butcher of a silk button.
[Thou] candle-holder.
[Thou] scurvy knave!
[Thou] small grey-coated gnat.
><RX¶UH@ not so big as a round little worm.
A plague on both your houses.
Go thy ways, wench.
Hang thee, young baggage!
[Thou] disobedient wretch!
Hang, beg, starve, die in the streets!
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not, the ape is
dead.
He is not the flower of courtesy.
I am the very pink of courtesy.
I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
I will dry-beat you with an iron wit.
My naked weapon is out.
Out, you baggage!
Out, you green-sickness carrion!
She speaks yet she says nothing.
Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.
The hate I bear thee can afford no better term than this² thou
art a villain.
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death.
Thou hast quarreled with a man for coughing in the street,
because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the
sun.
Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no
other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes.
Thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair
less, in his beard, than thou hast.
Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat.
Why he's a man of wax.
You kiss by the book.
You ratcatcher.
You tallow-face!
Three-Dimensional Shakespeare
In Shakespeare Set Free, Teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and
Macbeth, Michael Tolaydo has written an essay called Three-Dimensional Shakespeare
(pages 27-34). Those of us who work with students in real classrooms agree that this
activity is the central piece in understanding how performance-based teaching of
Shakespeare works. <RXFDQ¶WOHDYHLWRXW Use the edited version of Act 1, scene 1
with these instructions.
o Reading #1
ƒ
The students read the scene aloud. Switch readers every time the character
changes.
ƒ
Ask the students to circle any worGVWKDWWKH\GRQ¶WNQRZZKLOHWKH\DUH
reading the scene aloud.
ƒ
Discuss unknown words, and work to define them together using context
clues and the shared knowledge of the group.
o Reading #2
ƒ
The students read the scene aloud again.
ƒ
Assign characters.
ƒ
Ask the students to think about the basics of the scene while they are reading
the scene aloud.
ƒ
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
ƒ
Discuss the answers to these questions.
o Reading #3
ƒ
The students read the scene aloud a third time.
ƒ
Assign the characters to new students.
ƒ
They read through the scene on their feet.
ƒ
The rest of the class directs the actors, deciding who should enter from where,
how thumb-biting should really look, what kind of tone each actor should use
and why. All these decisions are made by students, and they have to support
their decisions with evidence from the text.
ƒ
The students perform the entire scene.
ƒ
Discuss the scene and its importance to the play.
Romeo and Juliet 1.1 (edited)
SAMPSON and GREGORY, of the house of Capulet, armed with swords and bucklers
GREGORY
Draw thy tool! here comes
two of the house of the Montagues.
SAM PSON
My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.
GREGORY
How! turn thy back and run?
SAM PSON
Fear me not.
GREGORY
No, marry; I fear thee!
SAM PSON
Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin.
GREGORY
I will frown as I pass by, and let
them take it as they list.
SAM PSON
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my
thumb at them; which is a
disgrace to them, if they bear it.
Enter ABRAHAM and BALTHASAR
ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAM PSON
I do bite my thumb, sir.
ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?
SAM PSON
[Aside to GREGORY] Is the law of
our side, if I say ay?
GREGORY
No.
SAM PSON
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at
you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY
Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAHAM
Quarrel sir! no, sir.
SAM PSON
If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you.
ABRAHAM
No better.
SAM PSON
Well, sir.
GREGORY
Say 'better:' here comes one of my master's kinsmen.
SAM PSON
Yes, better, sir.
ABRAHAM
You lie.
SAM PSON
Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow.
They fight
Enter BENVOLIO
BENVOLIO
Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you know not what you do.
Beats down their swords Enter TYBALT
TYBALT
What, art thou drawn among these heartless
hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy
death.
BENVOLIO
I do but keep the peace: put up thy
sword, Or manage it to part these
men with me. TYBALT
What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the
word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and
thee:
Have at thee, coward!
They fight. Enter, several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens, with
clubs
First Citizen
Clubs, bills, and partisans! strike! beat them down!
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!
Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET
CAPULET
What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
LADY CAPULET
A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?
CAPULET
My sword, I say! Old Montague is come,
And flourishes his blade in spite of me.
Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE
M ONTAGUE
Thou villain Capulet,--Hold me not, let me go.
LADY M ONTAGUE
Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe.
Enter PRINCE, with Attendants
PRI NCE
Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,-Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the sentence of your moved prince.
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. Exeunt
The Promptbook
Promptbooks are copies of scripts that contain notes about performance²blocking, delivery
of lines, setting, costumes, and so on. They are used by directors, actors, stage managers,
and others involved in a production. In this activity, your students will envision the setting of
WKHSOD\DQGPDNHFKRLFHVDERXWKRZOLQHVDUHGHOLYHUHGDQGZKDW¶VKDSSHQLQJRQWKHVWDJH
The dirty secret about creating a promptbook, is that is a devious way to have your students
do a close reading of a piece of text. And once WKH\¶YHZRUNHGRQRQHLQFODVVLW¶VDSHUIHFW
KRPHZRUNDVVLJQPHQW:H¶YHLQFOXGHGDSDVVDJHIURPRomeo and Juliet 3.5 for this
activity. Note how we indented the passage so that students can add their annotations to
either side of the text.
x
x
+HUH¶VKRZWRXVHLW
o
Share the sample promptbook page with your students.
o
'HPRQVWUDWHKRZWRGHYHORSDSURPSWERRNZLWKWKHVWXGHQWV¶LQSXW,I\RXKDYHDQ
interactive white board, post a passage on it and have the students come to the front
and add their annotations.
o
Have the students work in teams of 3 or 4 to develop promptbooks for 3.5 or any
other scene in the play:
ƒ
The students design a set on which the scene will be performed.
ƒ
Students annotate the script for a performance, being sure to mark exits,
entrances, stage business, and line delivery.
ƒ
Students circle or underline specific words and indicate their tone and stress
in the margins.
Another valuable extension involves comparative film work. After they finish their
promptbooks, show the students several movie versions of the same scene. Compare and
contrast the different versions with each other and with their own work.
CAPULET
When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew,
But for the sunset of my EURWKHU¶V son
It rains downright.
How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
Evermore VKRZ¶ULQJ" In one little body
Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds thy sighs,
Who, raging with thy tears and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossèd body.²How now, wife?
Have you delivered to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET
Ay, sir, but she will none, she gives you
thanks. I would the fool were married to her
grave.
CAPULET
Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blessed,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?
JULIET
Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
CAPULET
How, how, how, how? Chopped logic? What is this?
³3URXG´ and ³, thank \RX´ and ³, thank you QRW´
And yet ³QRW SURXG´" Mistress minion you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ¶JDLQVW Thursday next
To go with Paris to Saint 3HWHU¶V Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
You tallow face!
LADY CAPULET Fie, fie, what, are you mad?
JULIET, kneeling
Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET
Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church R¶ Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not; reply not; do not answer me.
My fingers itch.²Wife, we scarce thought us
blessed
That God had lent us but this only child,
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding.
ROMEO AND JULIET 3.5
FI NDI NG THE VOI CES I N A SOLI LOQUY
There are a number of ways to split up a soliloquy in order to discover and identify the
conflicting feelings and ideas a character may have. This method is used by Chris Renino of
Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale, NY, who developed it from techniques used by Tony
Hill, formerly Education Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Michael Tolaydo.
(In Shakespeare Set Free, Renino applies a more detailed version of the method to the ³,I it
were done when µWLV GRQH´ soliloquy in Macbeth, on which it works equally well.)
1. Ask students to stand in a circle in an open space. Distribute copies of this passage,
the first 22 lines of -XOLHW¶V soliloquy at the beginning of Act 4, scene 3.
2. Ask one student to begin reading aloud from the beginning of the passage until she
encounters a full stop ²a period, semicolon, question mark or exclamation point. After
the full stop, the next student reads until the next full stop, and so on around the circle.
3. After the group has gone through the soliloquy once, ask two students to come into
the center of the circle and, facing one another, alternate reading until a full stop.
Example:
Student 1: Farewell.
Student 2: God knows when we shall meet again.
Student 1: I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
Student 2: ,¶OO call them back again to comfort me. . . . and so on.
4. Pause to discuss the meaning of the lines and the conflicting emotions Juliet feels here.
What will almost certainly happen to her if she does not take it? What could happen if
she does? What reasons has she to trust the Friar? To mistrust him?
5. Next, divide the entire class into two choruses, facing each other. Each chorus reads
to a full stop, as before. Before they begin, tell students to speak louder and louder
as they read, so that by the end of the reading they are shouting at each other.
6. Select one student to play Juliet. (Have her practice the passage while the rest of the
class works on the above activities.) Instruct the class to mill around the room in
random patterns and have ³-XOLHW´ try to make eye contact with them. She can even
touch them and attempt to speak to them. However, they are to turn away each time
she approaches them.
7. Discuss what discoveries students made in the course of this activity.
FI NDI NG THE VOI CES I N A SOLI LOQUY
ONE PIECE OF TEXT TO USE (ALTHOUGH THI S WORKS WI TH ANY SOLILOQUY):
Juliet speaks. The nurse has just left the room and she is alone, about to take the potion the Friar has
given her which, he has told her, will put her into a deathlike sleep for 42 hours.
Farewell. ---God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
,¶OO call them back again to comfort me. --Nurse! ---What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No, no, this shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
What if it be a poison which the Friar
Subtly hath ministered to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonored
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? 7KHUH¶V a fearful point.
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Romeo and Juliet, 4.3.15-36