ENGLISH 304: STUDIES IN SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA

Spring 1998

Mr. Pierce

Required text: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. Updated 4th ed. New York: Longman, 1997.

Assignments: Please complete a first reading of each play by the date below. A videotape of the play for the week will be shown every Sunday evening beginning at 7:00 in Mudd 050. The showings are not required, but strongly recommended. Bring a copy of the play to each class.

Feb. 4: Introduction: acting the language

Feb. 6: Begin reading A Midsummer Night' s Dream: acting the self

Feb. 9: Finish reading A Midsummer Night's Dream; creating a world

Feb. 11: Company and theater: General Introduction, pp. xliii-lii

Feb. 18: The First Part of King Henry the Fourth

Mar. 2: Twelfth Night

Mar. 9: Troilus and Cressida

Mar. 13: FIRST PAPER DUE

Mar. 16: Measure for Measure

Mar. 30: King Lear

Apr. 13: Macbeth

Apr. 20: Timon of Athens

Apr. 27: Antony and Cleopatra

May 1: SECOND PAPER DUE

May 4: The Tempest

1) Participation in class--At a minimum you should attend practically all of the classes. Do not cut because you haven't completed a paper or a reading of the play. I do not require a formal excuse for an absence, but let me know if you expect to be absent for several periods. In addition to regular attendance, try to take some part in discussion even if it is difficult for you. A good first step is to ask questions that bother you, either in class or when you can catch me; that is one of the most valuable kinds of contribution you can make. I will not specifically grade class discussion, but effective participation can have the effect of raising your final grade one step.

2) Nine one-page comments--discuss some aspect of the play that interests or puzzles you. Write one such comment for each play except the one in which you do a performance project. I will accept comments after the first day that the play is discussed for partial credit (whole credit if submitted with a legitimate excuse). Grading will be Credit/No Entry.

3) Group performance project--Sign up for one of the projects to act a scene. Your group should begin work on your scene well before the performance in class is due. One week before the performance you should get me a copy of a script you have prepared for your scene with your cuts, tentative decisions about blocking and business, assignment of parts, and a brief discussion (2-3 paragraphs) of how your scene as you are doing it contributes to a distinctive world in the play. See the later section of this syllabus, "Advice for Preparing Your Scene."

4) Two papers--The papers should be about five to seven pages each. See "Assignments for the Two Papers" below for details. I am liberal on authorizing extensions, especially brief ones, but do check with me if you do not expect to be able to turn in your paper by the end of the day it is due.

5) Final examination--The examination will be essay questions on all the plays covered in the course.

The fourth-hour option is a discussion group that meets Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 at 237 Oak Street. It will focus on critical approaches to Shakespeare and will involve reading and discussing criticism of the plays we study. Each person will be expected to read one piece of criticism for each play and write a 3x5 note card on it to be brought to discussion group. In addition each person will for one discussion period read several pieces of criticism and lead the discussion.

Write about a page in response to some critical question about each of the plays, except for the play on which you do your production project. You may use the suggested topic below or another of your own choosing. Don't worry about getting your ideas into finished form; this is the opportunity for testing out intuitions you aren't quite sure of, leaving questions only partly answered, etc. I will grade these comments Credit/No Entry, though I will keep track to make sure you are keeping up with them. I will write brief responses to them, and I will draw on them for lecture and discussion. Your comments may be either typed or handwritten. Neat corrections are fine, but please try to give me a more or less readable text. Use 8 1/2 x 11 paper, and be sure to have your name on it. Ideally you should write the comment before reading any criticism or hearing class discussion.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Feb. 9)

Shakespeare establishes the fairy world of the play in the first 143 lines of Act Two, Scene One. Describe some of its most striking qualities, and show how some one of them is evoked within this scene. Thus in contrast with Athens it is a world of darkness, but a darkness suffused with light and color, so that we can see the spots in the "gold coats" of the cowslips.

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth (Feb. 18)

At the climactic Battle of Shrewsbury, Douglas encounters King Henry himself after killing two others dressed in his clothes. Douglas asks, "What art thou / That counterfeit'st the person of a king?" (V.iv.27-28). The issue of counterfeit and genuine royalty comes up repeatedly in this play. How does this issue shape the world of the play?

Twelfth Night (Mar. 2)

There is a fair behavior in thee, captain;
And, though that nature with a beauteous wall
Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee
I will believe thou hast a mind that suits
With this thy fair and outward character. II.ii.47-51)

Viola means that the captain's courteous behavior suggests his inward worth. Courtesy can of course be false, but Renaissance theory often saw it as the natural outward expression of good will. We value the heart of gold under a rough exterior more than most people did in the sixteenth century: a failure in manners suggested an inner failing, either stupidity or some kind of depravity. Viola says here that the captain's courtesy is a sort of handwriting (character) that expresses his inward character, his unpolluted mind. How are issues of courtesy important in the world of this play?

Troilus and Cressida (Mar. 9)

In Act Three, Scene Two, the two lovers and Pandarus make formal vows and in doing so associate themselves with their traditional emblematic roles in literature. Thus Cressida is conventionally an emblem of woman's falsity. Can the Cressida that the play constructs be comprehended as such an emblem, or does Shakespeare in some way complicate or deconstruct the emblem?

Measure for Measure (Mar. 16)

One way in which Measure for Measure is a problem play is that it confronts characters with moral dilemmas. Most strikingly, Isabella is confronted with a choice whether or not to give her virginity to Angelo in order to save her brother's life. I regularly poll my English 304 classes at the beginning of our study of the play whether or not in their opinion she should do so, with results that I will report in class. In a one-page comment say what you think, and give a brief justification for your view. (I know that this is a naive question that you shouldn't have to answer and that people shouldn't confuse drama with real life, but I won't show your answer to my colleagues if you won't tell on me for asking.)

King Lear (Mar. 30)

King Lear begins with a terrible mistake, Lear's condemnation of Cordelia's answer after he accepts the professions of love by Goneril and Regan. In some ways the scene is like an old folk tale: "Once upon a time there was an old king who had three daughters . . . ." What elements of the opening scene are in keeping with such a folk-tale atmosphere? Are there elements of a more sophisticated Renaissance court intrigue?

Macbeth (Apr. 13)

The characters in Macbeth are much concerned with what is involved in being manly or womanly. Thus in her soliloquy at Act I, Scene v, lines 38 ff., Lady Macbeth utters a sort of monstrous, inverted prayer:

Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.

Is her prayer answered? What does this motif in the play imply about gender roles as social constructions or as built on human nature?

Timon of Athens (Apr. 20)

Timon of Athens is a play about money, that remarkable human invention for the purpose of valuing and exchanging goods. One might think of gold and silver coins as natural signs, that is, signs whose value is intrinsic to them as metals, rather than artificial signs like paper money, which has no intrinsic value. However, when gold and silver become useful, as when they occur in a necklace or photographic film, they cease being money. Thus their value as money is conventional, an agreed fiction that has nothing to do with their use value. How does the play deal with this paradox about the meaning of money?

Antony and Cleopatra (Apr. 27)

This play is built on the contrast between Rome and Alexandria. Choose some one element of that contrast, trace it through the play, and then write a comment on its significance. For example, one might consider food and drink in this play full of feasting. The Romans are supposed to be superior to the pleasures of food and drink, while Cleopatra's court provides them in lavish display. However, the most elaborate feast in the play is among Romans on Pompey's galley. What the Romans scorn, they also hunger for.

The Tempest (May 4)

I want everybody to sign up for one of the motifs in a list that I will pass around the week before. Your job will be to locate that motif both in The Tempest and in the other plays we have studied. Then write a comment comparing its use in The Tempest with the other occurrences.

First paper, due March 13: Choose some one scene from the plays we have read so far. (It need not be an officially designated scene in our text but should be a unit with dramatic punctuation at beginning and end, like an entrance or exit or a shift to a different grouping of characters.) Take careful notes on the scene, including what we as an audience should see, hear, and think in the scene. Look for links to other parts of the play. Then write a paper of five to seven pages on the topic: how does this scene contribute to establishing or developing the distinctive world of the play? Note that you need not consult outside criticism for this paper and should certainly avoid making your text a gathering of other critics' opinions. Of course if you do use criticism, you should document that by annotation or a bibliography as appropriate.

Second paper, due May 1: Find some one image or image cluster that is important in one of the plays. Gather all of the occurrences of it in the play. Notice the various contexts, the qualities of the image that are emphasized, the ways that it links up with other elements of the play. Then write a paper that discusses how your image works in the play. In this case I do want you to read at least one piece of criticism on the play and include it in a bibliography, but I strongly suggest that you do the gathering and thinking about the image before reading or looking back at the criticism. You may refer to the criticism in your paper or not as seems appropriate given the ideas you are developing.

It is perfectly appropriate to discuss your papers with others. I will be glad to consult with you about topics and any problems you may have in the process of planning and writing your papers. I will be glad to look at a draft. Each paper should be roughly 5-7 pages of normal double-spaced typing. Neat, legible corrections are perfectly acceptable. You need not footnote references to the plays from our text; simply include act, scene, and inclusive line numbers in a form like the following: (II.ii.23-27).

If we can set up a time, I would be glad to watch your group rehearse and to offer suggestions. Also you can ask me any questions about problems in the scene, though I don't guarantee to have the answers. If you feel nervous, that actually helps up to a point. And keep in mind that you and your fellows in the scene probably know more about it than anyone else in the class, including me, if you have put in some time on careful thought and hard rehearsing.

These scenes should be rather short, but it is essential to catch every mood and shift of feeling in your character. What is your object, the thing or things you as the character are striving for in this scene? What are the inner and outer obstacles to it? What are the things you aren't saying? How are you reacting when you don't speak? What is said by your posture, your movements, any objects or bits of costume you may have?

Be sure to get together and rehearse your scene several times through. Prepare for the rehearsal process by learning your lines and thinking through your character. It would be good if you can read the whole play from the point of view of your character. Know the meanings of the words, allusions, etc., in your part.

As you rehearse, concentrate on the language. Memorize your lines as accurately as possible, and keep your pronunciation clear. Don't drop ending d's, t's, and other consonants. Listen for rhythms and repeated sounds and words. Use the rhetoric rather than fighting it or making it low-key. In general play things big, with exaggeration rather than understatement.

Try to get inside your character, reacting as he or she would react. People don't usually think things like "I am a villain" or "I am a silly person." Keep in mind that as a character you don't know what is going to happen next in the scene. In a long speech discover it as you go along, thinking and feeling as you go. When you say something, say it clearly to someone. In a soliloquy or aside, try saying it to one person in the audience. (You can shift from one person to another.)

Think of rehearsal and even the actual performance as a time of experiment and exploration. Don't reject things until you actually try them even if you are pretty sure they won't work. Try different approaches: movements, inflections of the lines, reactions to what is said. Don't foreclose possibilities on the basis of some view of what the play is about. Don't ask, "Is this right?" but "What happens if I do it this way?" Of course you finally have to choose, but make your final choices as late as possible.

822.33 / 79B896 Bullough, Geoffrey, ed. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, vols. 1-8

822.33 / 7C127E Calderwood, James & Harold Toliver, eds. Essays in Shakespearean Criticism

822.33 / 7D345 Dean, Leonard F., ed. Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism

822.33 / 7F948 Frye, Northrop A Natural Perspective

822.33 / 7H212W Harbage, Alfred Shakespeare: A Reader's Guide

822.33 / 7KA59 Kernan, Alvin, ed. Modern Shakespeare Criticism

PR 2991 / W6 Lenz, Carolyn et al., eds. The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare

822.33 / R113 Rabkin, Norman Shakespeare and the Common Understanding

PR 2976 / R4 Schwartz, Murray M. & Coppelia Kahn, eds. Representing Shakespeare: New Psychoanalytic Essays

822.33 / 77SpS Spurgeon, Caroline Shakespeare's Imagery and What it Tells Us

820.9 / T468E Tillyard, E.M.W. The Elizabethan World Picture

822.33 / 7T698 Traversi, Derek A. An Approach to Shakespeare

822.33 / 7Y84 Van Doren, Mark Shakespeare

PR3112 / 9W14 Wells, Stanley, ed. Shakespeare: Select Bibliographical Guides

822.33 / 7Y64 Young, David The Heart's Forest

Call Number / Author / Title

PR3065 / A37 1992 Adelman, Janet Suffocating Mothers

822.33 / 7B233 Barber, C.L. Shakespeare's Festive Comedy

822.33 / 7B72 Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy

PR2976 / C336 1987 Cavell, Stanley Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare

822.33 / 71KLE Elton, W. R. King Lear and the Gods

822.33 / 7G767P.2 Granville Barker, H. Prefaces to Shakespeare, 2 vols.

PR2976 / G737 1988 Greenblatt, Stephen Shakespearean Negotiations

822.33 / 7KC Knight, G. Wilson The Crown of Life

822.33 / 7K Knight, G. Wilson The Wheel of Fire

PR2991 / N37 1985 Neely, Carol Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare's Plays

PR2983 / S449 1993 Young, David, ed. Shakespeare's Middle Tragedies

822.33 / 77My _____________. Something of Great Constancy