In my previous post about watching "Hamlet" with my husband, I contemplated the ideas behind Shakespeare's shift between prose and verse. I was curious to see why this happened and so I posed this question to Dr. Hope and inquired if he had done any research on it or knew of anyone that had.
Here's the reply I just received:
Hi Kaleigh
we haven't looked at this yet, though it would not be too difficult to do, and I'm sure would produce interesting results. I'm sure the shifts are not random.
There is a basic pattern of class here: generally higher class characters speak verse, and lower class prose, but this is by no means *always* true.
Do you know Brian Vickers' book *The Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose*? Well worth a look
best
Jonathan
So, no definitive answers, but speculation. And I got another reference to look into! That's a bonus right? :)
Here's the reply I just received:
Hi Kaleigh
we haven't looked at this yet, though it would not be too difficult to do, and I'm sure would produce interesting results. I'm sure the shifts are not random.
There is a basic pattern of class here: generally higher class characters speak verse, and lower class prose, but this is by no means *always* true.
Do you know Brian Vickers' book *The Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose*? Well worth a look
best
Jonathan
So, no definitive answers, but speculation. And I got another reference to look into! That's a bonus right? :)
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