Concepts Flashcards
What is prose?
No rhyme or rhythm, normal dialect
Where is prose used?
In novels
Who used prose?
Sometimes shakespeare used prose for servants or lower class characters
What is Blank verse?
Has a regular metre (rhythm) but no rhyme scheme
What is iambic pentameter?
An iamb = two beats/ syllables
Pentameter = 5 x iambs = 10 beats per line
What is verse?
Metre and rhythm
Usually rhyming couplets
What is slapstick humour?
- Physical cruelty
What is a key feature of comedy in relation to artifice? (2)
1 - Reminds its audience that it is a construction
2 - Can break the fourth wall in order to do this
What is inversion? (3)
1 - Something being inverted or reversed
2 - Can be used to free characters from social constraints 3 - Enables us to see how they behave in a different role which is often funny
What is an example of inversion?
When a lower class character is disguised as an upper class character, we could say that the social class has been inverted or that Shakespeare has used inversion
What is commedia dell’arte? (2)
1 - Plays that involves lots of stock characters, who then improvise the specifics of their role
2 - Commedia companies visited England from the late 1570s onwards - TOTS published 1594
What are the features of commedia dell’arte?
1 - scenes between masters and servants - or characters and their ‘betters’ - involving physical comedy (violent)
What are the features of the Pantalone stock character from commedia dell’arte? (3)
1 - Old man
2 - Has greed and status
3 - Mean
What are the features of the Doctor stock character from commedia dell’arte? (2)
1 - Very knowledgeable, yet somehow understands nothing
2 -Waffles on with all his knowledge
What are the features of the Captain stock character from commedia dell’arte? (3)
1 - Comes from elsewhere
2 - Opportunistic and greedy
3 - Boastful ; Full of swagger and bravado which often hides his true cowardly nature
