Shakespearean Terminology
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Created by:
julbugjsa3 on June 13, 2009
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22 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 apostrophe | a figure of speech addressing a person, personified object, abstract quality, or idea as if it were actually present. |
| aside | a remark spoken in a low voice by a character in a play; it is heard by the audience but not by the other characters- tells about a character's thoughts and feelings. In this dramatic convention the actor directly addresses the audience. |
| blank verse | unrhymed but otherwise regular verse, usually iambic pentameter—the rhythm resembles the natural rhythm of spoken English. The freedom gained through the lack of RHYME is offset by the demands for variety |
| caesura | a pause or break in a line |
| double entendre | - a statement that is deliberately ambiguous, one of whose possible meanings is risque or suggestive of some impropriety. |
| enjambment | verse in which the sense of meaning runs on from one line to the next; lines that are not end-stopped. This occurs in RUN-ON LINES. |
| epilogue | a speech to the audience at the end of the play, often asking for applause |
| feminine ending | line in iambic pentameter with an additional unstressed syllable at the end of the line |
| masculine ending | a stressed syllable ending a verse line |
| folio | a large sheet of paper 18" X14" |
| Quarto | a sheet of paper approximately 9" X 7" |
| dramatic irony | the audience knows information that the characters do not |
| verbal irony | saying one thing but meaning another |
| malapropism | inappropriate, muddled or mistaken use of words. |
| meter | regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry- may be used to emphasize particular words or ideas to create a certain mood; the inner rhythmical structure of a line |
| prose | all language not in verse; used mainly, but not always, for comedy, madness, low status, characters, letters and proclamations |
| pun | when a word has two or more different meanings the ambiguity can be used for comic or serious effect |
| soliloquy | a speech delivered while the speaker is alone, calculated to inform the audience of what is passing in the character's mind |
| sonnet | a poem almost invariably of fourteen lines and following one of several set rhyme schemes. |
| stichomythia | - rapidly alternating single lines spoken by two characters. It is a sort of line-for-line verbal fencing match in which the principles retort sharply to each other in lines that echo and vary the opponent's words. |
| syntax | sentence structure; the way in which words, phrases, and clauses are arranged in a sentence. |
| verse | strongly patterned language (basic unit of verse is a line) |
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