Scansion in Shakespeare

I love Shakespeare. I have predominately studied Shakespeare’s plays from the perspective of an actor. I have methods of analysis so deeply ingrained into my play-reading habits that they are virtually impossible to cast off. Whenever I read, I am analyzing the objectives and possible tactics of each character. The skills I have learned as an actor of Shakespeare can be incredibly helpful to the general reader of Shakespeare’s plays as well.

Shakespeare gives us secret clues into the state of each character through the meter of the play. The majority of Shakespeare’s plays are written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains five sets of unstressed and stressed syllables. This gives each line written in this verse a uniform rhythm. In iambic pentameter, every other syllable is stressed, beginning with the second syllable of each line. For instance, the line “This day is called the feast of Crispian” from Henry V is read “this DAY is CALLED the FEAST of CRISPiAN.” This internalized, built-in emphasis can be incredibly helpful for the actor in discerning the meaning of a line. For instance, knowing that the natural emphasis of the famous line “To be or not to be—that is the question” reads “to BE or NOT to BE—that IS the QUEStion” can change the interpreted meaning greatly. In this instance the contrast provided between BE and NOT is of great importance and is naturally accentuated by the verse.

So that’s how verse in Shakespeare often works. So why does that matter other than helping actors to find meaning in the words? Scansion, or the study of the verse, is important because it provides great insight into the characters. And this is true because not all characters speak in this verse and those that do do not always. And this tells us volumes about who they are. As a general rule, nobles in Shakespeare speak in iambic pentameter. Often, uneducated, lower-class characters speak in prose. This difference in style has a subconscious effect in our perception of the characters.

But this becomes all the more interesting when we encounter characters who fluctuate in between verse and prose. This can provide us with great insight into the minds of the characters. For instance, if a character suddenly drops out of verse, they may be emphasizing a point, they may be lying or bluffing, or they may be overcome by emotion. In Hamlet, Hamlet speaks in verse most of the time, but speaks in prose when he is feigning madness. Edgar in King Lear speaks in verse as himself, but in prose as the mad “Poor Tom.” When Lear is driven mad, he speaks almost entirely in prose. When he awakens, he returns to verse.

Scansion can provide us with insight into the subtext of Shakespeare’s characters that cannot be gleaned by their text alone.