Transcript Welcome to English class

Learning goals:
1. Try strategies for reading
Shakespearean language
2. Get familiar with the characters
and themes in Macbeth
Homework:
Read the
intro
material
Have you ever heard the
saying…
Without rhyme or reason
In a pickle
Salad days
Vanished into thin air
Have you ever heard the
saying…
Hoodwinked
Playing fast and loose
Haven’t slept a wink
Cold comfort
Have you ever heard the
saying…
Point your finger
Send me packing
Laughing-stock
The devil incarnate
Have you ever heard the
saying…
A sorry sight
Bloody-minded
Heart of gold
Flesh and blood
Have you ever heard the
saying…
Full circle
Budge an inch
Fair play
Brevity is the soul of wit
Those sayings
all come from
Shakespeare
Why is Shakespeare’s English
different from ours?
Languages are alive.
• New words appear (e.g. website)
• Old words disappear (e.g. trousers)
• Existing words change meaning
(e.g. several, retarded, twitter,
epic, sick)
• The English language contains
about 300,000 words.
• Shakespeare’s vocabulary was
about 15,000 words.
• The average person’s vocabulary is
about 3,000 words.
• You can get by day-to-day with
about 150.
Wisny
Bronger
Wisny
Bronger
By Donald Laing
• Let’s read this story together, and see
if, as a group, we can figure out the
story…
Vocabulary
rumpter woodle
zork
wisny
loola
gorga
klubel
storb(ed)
Wisny Bronger woodled a klubel. Mang
the wisny wangs he snad had klubels, and
Bronger clarred that he should nord wahm chu.
He franged to his loola, but she rutued,
“Ro, and zork your gorga.”
He zorked his gorga, but he sulu wunkled
his zono and rutued, “Fla. You’re chu simli.”
Roo wisny Bronger! He rumtered to his
labo, slarred on his tid, and storbed and
storbed and storbed until pledly he fang owaw.
Little Bobby wanted a puppy. Many of the
little boys he knew had puppies, and Bobby
thought that he should have one too.
He asked his mother, but she replied, “Go
and ask your father.”
He asked his father, but he simply shook
his head and said, “No. You’re too young.”
Poor little Bobby! He returned to his
room, lumped on his bed, and sobbed and
sobbed and sobbed until finally he fell asleep.
How were we
able to read
that story?
If you can decipher
complete nonsense,
then something
written in English
should be no
problem.
Let’s take
notes!
How to read difficult texts
•
•
•
•
•
Use the words you do know
Picture the action
Make guesses and predictions
Use what you know about language
Use what you know about people and the
world
• Use context
• Think of similar words or words in other
languages as clues
• Keep your mind open to possibilities
Common Shakespearean Terms
Anon – Right now “I come anon.”
Art – are, or skill “Thou art dead; no
physician’s art can save thee.”
Dost or doth – does or do “Dost thou know
the time?”
Ere – Before “We must leave ere daybreak”
Fain – Gladly “I would fain bake cookies for
Mr. Loncke.”
O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.
What do you know
about Macbeth?
Macbeth
• Tragedy
• Five acts
• Setting: 11th century Scotland
Macbeth
Subjects:
murder, ambition,
madness, corruption,
power, guilt, loyalty
Macbeth
Probably written: 1606
First folio: 1623
Macbeth
• Written for King
James of England
• Descendent of
Banquo
• King James hated the
play had it banned.
The curse of the Scottish play
Is there an evil spell on this ill-starred play?
By DINA TRITSCH, Showbill, April 1984
In 1604 Will Shakespeare in his zeal to please
King James I, an authority on demonology, cast
caution and imagination aside and for the opening
scene of Macbeth's Act IV he reproduced a 17th
century black-magic ritual, a sort of how-to to
budding witches. Without changing an ingredient,
Old Will provided his audience with step-by-step
instructions in the furtive art of spell casting:
The curse of the Scottish play
"Round around the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venum sleeping got.
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot"
...And so on.
The curse of the Scottish play
The ritual's practitioners were not amused by
this detailed public exposure of their witchcraft,
and it is said that as punishment they cast an
everlasting spell on the play, turning it into the
most ill-starred of all theatrical productions. It is so
unlucky that by comparison to Macbeth's nearly
400-year history of unmitigated disaster, Murphy's
Law appears exceedingly optimistic.
Here are some of the gory particulars:
The curse of the Scottish play
• Beginning with its first performance, in 1606, Will himself
was forced to play Lady Macbeth when Hal Berridge, the
boy designated to play the lady, became inexplicably
feverish and died.
• Moreover, the bloody play so displeased King James I that
he banned it for five years.
• When performed in Amsterdam in 1672, the actor playing
Macbeth substituted a real dagger for the blunted stage
one and with it killed Duncan in full view of the entranced
audience.
• As Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons was nearly ravaged by a
disapproving audience in 1775; Sybil Thorndike was
almost strangled by a burly actor in 1926; Diana Wynyard
sleepwalked off the rostrum in 1948, falling down 15 feet.
The curse of the Scottish play
• During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, a
riot broke out in which 31 people were trampled to death.
• In 1937, when Laurence Olivier took on the role of
Macbeth, a 25 pound stage weight crashed within an inch
of him, and his sword which broke onstage flew into the
audience and hit a man who later suffered a heart attack.
• In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute onstage,
and his replacement, Alister Sim, like Hal Berridge before
him, developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized.
• In the 1942 Macbeth production headed by John Gielgud,
three actors -- Duncan and two witches -- died, and the
costume and set designer committed suicide amidst his
devilish Macbeth creations.
The curse of the Scottish play
• Charlton Heston, in an outdoor production in
Bermuda in 1953, suffered severe burns in his
groin and leg area from tights that were
accidentally soaked in kerosene.
• An actor's strike felled Rip Torn's 1970 production
in New York City; two fires and seven robberies
plagued the 1971 version starring David Leary; in
the 1981 production at Lincoln Center, J. Kenneth
Campbell, who played Macduff, was mugged soon
after the play's opening.
The curse of the Scottish play
Of course, no explanations have been given for
the seemingly inevitable toil and trouble that is part
and parcel of this unlucky play. You don't, in fact,
ever refer to Macbeth or quote from it unless
rehearsing or performing it. You also don't, as
explained to me by countless brave and talented
actors from Glenda Jackson to Ian McKellen, refer to
this haunted play by name, but instead you call it
“The Scottish Play” or simply “That Play”; everyone,
it seems, will get the message, in a flash.
The curse of the Scottish play
If you happen to say the name of the play in a
theatre by accident, there is a way to redeem
yourself and dispel the bad ju-ju.
1. Leave the theatre
2. Turn around three times
3. Spit
4. Say the worst swear word you can think of
5. Ask for permission to re-enter
Dramatis Personae
Latin: "persons or
characters of the drama"
Macbeth
Thane of Glamis, General
Lady Macbeth
Wife of Macbeth
King of Scotland
Malcolm
Prince of
Scotland
Donalbain
Prince of Scotland
Banquo
Friend of
Macbeth,
General of the
King’s army
Thane of Fife
Lady Macduff
Wife of Macduff
Ross
Thane
Lennox
Thane
Siward
General of the
English Army
Young Siward
Son of Siward
Doctor
Gentlewoman
Attending Lady Macbeth
Porter
Door man
Seyton
Servant to Macbeth
Hecate
Pagan goddess
of farming,
but also of
witchcraft,
ghosts and
tombs
Three Witches
Macdonwald
Traitor to Scotland
Bloody Soldier
Macbeth thought-starters
Write answers to the following questions:
1. What is a traitor? When is it justifiable
to turn against the leaders of your
country?
2. If you had a chance to steal $100
million, and were 99% sure you’d get
away with it, would you try?
3. How can you tell when someone is
being dishonest with you? How can a
person lie effectively?
Tell your elbow
partner a story
using the following
words:
Macbeth Reading Questions
• Read these questions before
reading each scene.
• Answer them as you read.
• These are not meant as extra
work for you to do. The
questions will help you.
Macbeth Reading Questions
• They tell you what happens in
the scene, and give you an idea
about what might be
important.
• Questions will be collected at
the end of the unit and marked
for completion.
Macbeth Reading Questions
• Your answers must be
written out by hand.
• To prevent cheating, I will not
accept typed answers.