ELICA MIWA

Author: ELICAMIWA

  • Shallow Story of Deep Love [Shakespeare For You]

    Shallow Story of Deep Love [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 That’s on some shallow story of deep love.  How young Leander cross’d the Hellespont.

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    One of the “hard-to-understand” phrases for the modern audience.  Leander is a Greek mythological character who is in Hero and Leander story.  It is a love tragedy so popular during Shakespearean era.  Hero and Leander were in love secretly.  Leander swam the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) to see her every night.  But one night, he lost the way and drowned.  Shakespeare refers the theme of Hero & Leander many times. 

    From this line, two gentlemen of Verona interchange conversation for a minute, on shallow, deep, love, and boots, aa a word-association game.  So, be playful.  Pick up the word you want to change the meaning upside down.  Win the game.

  • Wilt Thou Be Gone? [Shakespeare For You]

    Wilt Thou Be Gone? [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Wilt thou be gone?

    — Proteus, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    You can say this in any tone, feeling, and style.  You can say this sadly.  You can say this nonchalantly as if he doesn’t really care, although he really doesn’t want him to go.  You can say this as if you had enough.  Or, you can say this as if he is your love, which is possible during Shakespearean era.

    The same phrase is used by Juliet in the famous bed scene.

  • See The Wonders Of The World [Shakespeare For You]

    See The Wonders Of The World [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I rather entreat thy company
    To see the wonders of the world abroad
    Than, living dully sluggardized at home,
    Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Whether this play is the first written one or not, it is certain one of his earliest.  

    Putting that in mind, “To see the wonders of the world abroad” must be young William’s great desire, for he repeats this idea in another earliest play “The Taming of the Shrew,” and as we know, he traveled many places in his imagination all through his writing history.  

    So, say the line “to see the wonders of the world” with fully positive excited energy like you are about to go to your dream pop-rock concert or baseball games of Dodgers.  

    Then, put a tone of disgust in “dully sluggardized” and “shapeless idleness”.

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  • Shakespeare’s First Ever Line? [Shakespeare For You]

    Shakespeare’s First Ever Line? [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus;
    Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits.

    — Valentine, Two Gentlemen of Verona 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    If this play is the first ever written play by William Shakespeare, this phrase is the first ever written line by Will himself.  Valentine is about to leave Verona to see the bigger world.  It seems his best mate Proteus is trying to stop him.  Speak the line as if you are telling your best friend not to stop you enjoying your life with excitement.

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  • I Am Not Worth This Coil [Shakespeare For You]

    I Am Not Worth This Coil [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 I would that I were low laid in my grave:  I am not worth this coil that’s made for me.

    — Arthur, King John 2-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Arthur is a young boy who is supposed to be the king of Ireland, England, and parts of France, but abducted and killed at the age of 16  This phrase is at the point he is surrounded by many bloody nobles and is about to forcefully separated from his mother.  He says this to his mother.

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  • Where Having Nothing [Shakespeare For You]

    Where Having Nothing [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Where having nothing, nothing can be lose.

    — Earl of Warrick, Henry VI  3-3

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Be sincere.  Believe in what you say.

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  • If There Be No Great Love In The Beginning [Shakespeare For You]

    If There Be No Great Love In The Beginning [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 If there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt.

    — Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Have a try to persuade someone that, even  without love,  marriage can be still a good thing.  But Slender misuse a word, when he has to use “increase”, but “decrease”.  What kind of person would do that?

  • Too Much Of A Good Thing [Shakespeare For You]

    Too Much Of A Good Thing [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?

    — Rosalind, As You Like It 4-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    Rosalind, as a boy, wants her loved one to see an honest reality of a girl, for he (Orlando) idealises his love.  “Desire too much” leads to greed which is one of  the Seven Deadly Sins.  Let her play a playful wanton boy who allures an adult man into some mischiefs.  It’s important that in Shakespearean time, no woman wore trousers.  Rosalind must be feeling so free in her outfit now.

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  • Mend Your Speech [Shakespeare For You]

    Mend Your Speech [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 Mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes.

    — King Lear, King Lear 1-1

    [ACTING TIPS]

    You may act as a strict angry father, threatening his daughter.  You may act as a tender kind father, giving a life-hack tip to his daughter.  Try many things.  Never let the fixed prototype of “King Lear” stop you acting freely.

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  • We Wound Our Modesty [Shakespeare For You]

    We Wound Our Modesty [Shakespeare For You]

    🎭 We wound our modesty and make foul the clearness of our deservings,
    When of ourselves we publish them.

    — Steward, All’s Well That Ends Well 1-3

    When you praise or boast of your own past good deeds, that will harm you.  You would be recognised as not modest, and people would doubt if  those good deeds were true, and you would lose your credibility.

    Don’t boast of yourself!

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