Acting Shakespeare - John Barton - Judi Dench Masterclass Part 4 - Set Speeches and Soliloquies - 4K - video Dailymotion

Shakespeare Network

"Barton’s legacy is the most exhilarating tribute one can pay to Shakespeare." Maximianno Cobra - Shakespeare Network - Founder and Artistic Director  The Royal Shakespeare Company founder John Barton holds a masterclass featuring: - CAST - JUDI DENCH IAN MCKELLEN PATRICK STEWART BEN KINGSLEY DAVID SUCHET PEGGY ASHCROFT and members of the RSC: Tony Church, Sinead Cusak, Mike Gwilym, Susan Fleetwood, Sheila Hancock, Terry Hands, Lisa Harrow, Alan Howard, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Jane Lapotaire, Michael Pennington, Richard Pasco, Norman Rodway and Donald Sinden.  Playing Shakespeare - The series features nine master classes on Shakespearean performance.   First group - Objective Things:   - Part One: The Two Traditions - Elizabethan and Modern Acting - Part Two: Using the Verse - Heightened and Naturalistic Verse - Part Three: Language & Character - Making the Words One's Own - Part Four: Set Speeches & Soliloquies - Taking the Audience with You  Second group - Subjective Things: - Part Five: Irony & Ambiguity - Text That Isn't It Seems - Part Six: Passion & Coolness - A Question of Balance - Part Seven: Rehearsing the Text - Orsino and Viola  - Part Eight: Exploring a Character - Playing Shylock - Part Nine: Poetry & Hidden Poetry - Three Kinds of Failure  John Bernard Adie Barton, CBE (26 November 1928 – 18 January 2018), was a British theatre director and teacher whose close association with the Royal Shakespeare Company spanned more than half a century.  Co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, John Barton was, with Trevor Nunn and Peter Hall, one of the legendary theatre directors whose work and acting collaborations in the mid twentieth century would effect the course of Shakespeare on stage in successive decades. His biography includes a range of landmark production through the sixties and seventies (including the 1969 Twelfth Night with Judi Dench as Viola, and the 1970 A Midsummer Night's Dream with Patrick Stewart as Oberon), and with his abilities in helping actors through workshops, his presence and influence are felt even further.  This recording is for educational purposes only and is covered under Fair Use doctrine - Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.  Read the unabridged plays online: https://shakespearenetwork.net/works/plays  _______________________________  FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN - DONATIONS - Shakespeare Network Website and YouTube Channel:  Donate with PayPal or GoFundMe today: https://shakespearenetwork.net/company/support-us/donate-now  _______________________________  Screen Adaptation - Co-Production : MISANTHROPOS – Official Website - https://www.misanthropos.net Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6946736/

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:12♪♪

00:25So far, we've talked of what an actor needs to look for in Shakespeare's text to help

00:53him. The same point could be made by looking at things a different way round. What must

00:59the actor do if he is to help and hold his audience? Let me take you back to something

01:05that I said at the beginning. I don't believe that most audiences really listen to a complex

01:10text unless the actor makes them do so. I know I don't. I know that my attention wanders

01:17if the actors don't hold me. I believe when this happens, the main reason is that the

01:23actor is what I would call generalising, i.e. playing the general state of mind or

01:29mood or emotion which the speech suggests to him. It's so easy to play a kind of summary

01:36of a speech and not to discover it for the first time it is spoken line by line. This

01:42problem particularly comes up with soliloquies and long or set speeches. With them, both

01:49actor and audience have to work harder than they do with dialogue. That's because a dialogue

01:55contains an obvious story or argument or clash or confrontation. One character persuades,

02:01one character resists and so on. With a set speech, it's very easy for the play to lose

02:07its momentum and for the story to become becalmed. So, what's to be done about this? How within

02:15a long speech can the actor make the audience feel the story is still moving along? Here,

02:22even more than elsewhere, he must be deeply inside the situation as we stressed at the

02:28very beginning. He must find the language and the audience must feel that the play is

02:35moving on and going somewhere. So, he must take them with him. So, let's clear and have

02:42a look at some examples. Let's look at a famous set speech marred for us by being so

02:53much quoted in anthologies. Portia's The Equality of Mercy is Not Strained seems to pre-exist

03:01because we know it so well. Actually, in context, it's a spontaneous outburst triggered by Shylock's

03:08aggression to her in the court. Have a go. Is your name Shylock? Shylock is my name. Of a

03:21strange nature is the suit you follow. Yet, in such rule that the Venetian law cannot impugn

03:28you as you do proceed. Antonio, you stand within his danger, do you not? Aye, so he says. Do you

03:35confess the bond? I do. Then must the Jew be merciful. On what compulsion must I tell me that?

03:42The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place

03:52beneath. It is twice blessed. Let me just stop you for a moment because we've got a little bit too

03:57gentle and it's to do with you not pressurizing her enough. You see, the little dialogue at the

04:03beginning is the trigger to this spontaneous outburst from her. But only if you press on her

04:09can she bounce back at you. Take me literally if you will. I'll press on you. That will be nice. Is your name Shylock? Shylock is my name. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow. Yet, in such rule that the Venetian law cannot impugn you as you do proceed.

04:24Antonio, you stand within his danger, do you not? Aye, so he says. Do you confess the bond? I do. Then must the Jew be merciful. On what compulsion must I tell me that? The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed. Let me just stop you for a moment because we've got a little bit too gentle. I'll press on you. Take me literally if you will. Is your name Shylock? Shylock is my name. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow. Yet, in such rule that the Venetian law cannot impugn you as you do proceed. Antonio, you stand within his danger, do you not? Aye, so he says. Do you confess the bond? I do. Then must the Jew be merciful. On what compulsion must I tell me that? The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice

04:54droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.

05:01It is twice blessed.

05:03It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

05:08Tis mightiest in the mightiest.

05:11It becomes the throne of monarch better than his crown.

05:15His scepter shows the force of temporal power,

05:18the attribute to awe and majesty,

05:21wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.

05:25But mercy is above this sceptered sway.

05:29It is enthroned in the hearts of kings.

05:33It is an attribute to God himself.

05:37And earthly power doth then show likest gods

05:40when mercy seasons justice.

05:44Therefore, Jew, though justice be thy plea,

05:50consider this, that in the course of justice,

05:55none of us should see salvation.

05:57We do pray for mercy.

06:01And that same prayer should teach us all

06:04to render the deeds of mercy.

06:06Good, much better.

06:08Now, I said a set speech must move and take

06:12the audience along with it.

06:14If we feel it has a story and it's going somewhere,

06:17we'll go along with it.

06:18Now, how does the actor achieve this?

06:21Most set speeches break, I think, into three.

06:24They pick up something in the immediate situation

06:26and respond to it.

06:27They then explore the situation or problem,

06:30which makes up the bulk of the speech.

06:32And they then resolve what's been explored

06:34and either come to some conclusion

06:36or perhaps decide that there is no conclusion.

06:39An obvious example is J-Quiz, All the World's a Stage.

06:44I suppose it's the most obvious set speech of all.

06:49All the world's a stage.

06:54All the men and women, merely players.

07:00They have their exits and their entrances.

07:05And one man in his time plays many parts.

07:11His acts being seven ages...

07:17At first, the infant,

07:21mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

07:25Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel

07:29and shining morning face,

07:32creeping like snail unwillingly to school.

07:36Then the lover, sighing like furnace,

07:41with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow.

07:47And a soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

07:53jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

07:57seeking the bubble, reputation,

08:02even in the cannon's mouth.

08:07And then the justice,

08:11in fair round belly,

08:14with good capon lined,

08:17with eyes severe, beard of formal cut,

08:21full of wise sores and modern instances.

08:29And so he plays his part.

08:34The sixth age shifts into the lean and slippered pantaloon,

08:40the spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

08:46his youthful holes well saved,

08:51a world too wide for his shrunk shank.

08:57And his big manly voice,

09:00turning again toward childish treble,

09:04pipes and whistles in his sound.

09:10Last scene of all that ends this strange, eventful history

09:23is second childishness and mere oblivion.

09:31Sans teeth.

09:35Sans eyes.

09:39Sans taste.

09:46Sans everything.

09:50Great.

09:53You certainly made me feel I hadn't heard that before.

09:56Very broken up, that, wasn't it?

09:58Very broken up.

09:59But you made me feel you were doing it for the first time.

10:03Good.

10:04Good.

10:08Now let's look at another problem.

10:11Some long speeches are written very rhetorically and formally.

10:15They have a terrific rhythm which can take over

10:17and make it all sound unreal.

10:19So let's take a bit of Richard III,

10:22where the old Queen Margaret, banished and broken,

10:26exults over the miseries of Queen Elizabeth, who succeeded her.

10:39O thou didst prophesy the time would come

10:42when I would wish for thee to help me curse that bottled spider,

10:46that foul bunch-backed toad.

10:50I call thee then

10:54the vain flourish of my fortune.

11:00I call thee then poor shadow,

11:04painted queen,

11:07a sign of dignity,

11:10a breath, a bubble,

11:13a queen in jest,

11:16only to fill the scene.

11:18SHE LAUGHS

11:21Where be thy husband now?

11:24Where be thy brothers?

11:26Where are thy two sons?

11:28Wherein dost thou joy?

11:31Who kneels and sews and says,

11:33God save the queen,

11:36decline all this and see what now thou art.

11:42O happy wife, a most distressed widow,

11:46for joyful mother, one that wails the name,

11:51for queen, a very catiff, crowned with care,

11:55for she being feared of all, now fearing one,

12:00for she commanding all, obeyed of none.

12:06Thus hath the course of justice wheeled about

12:12and left thee but a very prey to time.

12:24There, that was a good balance

12:26of the mixture of the flow and the sweep of the verse

12:30and getting a lot of variety.

12:32Now, let's stick with this question

12:34of taking the audience with one a bit longer.

12:37Sometimes Shakespeare explores

12:39a single emotional moment and situation

12:42with text that at first blush seems literary.

12:45And the speaker seems much more articulate

12:48than he could possibly be

12:49if he was really in the actual situation.

12:52In Titus Andronicus, for instance,

12:54Titus has just seen a woman

12:56who has just seen a man

12:58who has just seen a woman

13:00For instance, Titus has just seen

13:02his daughter Lavinia with her hand

13:05and her tongue cut off.

13:07She's just been mutilated and ravished.

13:10And Titus himself has just had his hand cut off.

13:14But one of the problems with such a speech

13:16is that in real life the emotion of the speaker

13:18would be much greater than his power

13:20to articulate that emotion in words.

13:23So it's very understandable

13:24if an actor confronted with such a speech

13:27recoils from the literary content

13:29and tries to express the emotion to the full

13:32and leaves the words to take care of themselves.

13:35Ah!

13:38Ah!

13:40Here I raise this one hand up to heaven

13:44and bow this feeble ruin to the earth.

13:48If any power pities wretched tears,

13:51to that I call!

13:54What?

13:56Will thou kneel with me?

13:58Do then, dear heart,

14:01for heaven shall hear our prayers,

14:04for with our sighs we'll breathe the welkin dim

14:10and stain the sun with fog.

14:13But yet let reason govern thy lament.

14:17If there were reason for these miseries,

14:19then into limits could I bind my woes.

14:23When the heavens doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?

14:27When the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad,

14:31threatening the welkin with his big swollen face?

14:35And wilt thou have a reason for these coils?

14:39I am the sea!

14:45Hark how her sighs do blow.

14:49She is the weeping welkin, I the earth.

14:54Then must my sighs be moved by her tears.

14:58Then must my earth with her continued tears

15:01become a deluge, overflowed and drowned.

15:06For why?

15:08My bowels cannot hide her woes,

15:12but like a drunken must I vomit them.

15:17Bravely done.

15:19Now, what happened?

15:22We got a powerful sense of Titus's feelings,

15:26but did we follow what he was saying or did we listen?

15:31Or did the emotion take over and in a sense replace the text?

15:36Yes, frankly.

15:38Yes.

15:39How do you know you weren't listening?

15:41I think the key here is perhaps Titus asking in an earlier speech,

15:46what shall we do?

15:48It's a question once again of intentions.

15:51I suspect that the only way to play the speech

15:53and to make the audience both listen and feel the emotions

15:56is for Titus to try to come to terms

15:59with the incredible and the impossible.

16:02He needs the words to deal with the reality,

16:05partly to accept it, partly to shut it out.

16:09So let's try it again

16:12and find each image with as much difficulty as we can

16:16and try to use the words to cope with the emotions.

16:20OK.

16:26Hmm.

16:29Oh.

16:31Here I raise this one hand up to heaven

16:36and bow this feeble ruin to the earth.

16:40If any power pities wretches' tears,

16:44to that I call.

16:47What?

16:49Wilt thou kneel with me?

16:52Do then, dear heart,

16:55for heaven shall hear our prayers

16:59or with our sighs

17:02will breathe the welkin dim

17:05and stain the sun with fog.

17:09Yet let reason govern thy laments.

17:14If there were reason for these miseries,

17:18then into limits could I bind my woes.

17:22When the heavens doth weep,

17:25doth not the earth o'erflow?

17:29When the winds rage,

17:32doth not the sea wax mad,

17:35threatening the welkin with his big swollen face?

17:39Wilt thou have a reason for these calls?

17:47I am the sea.

17:50Mark how her sighs do blow.

17:54She is the weeping welkin,

17:57I the earth.

18:00Then must my sea be moved by her sighs?

18:06Then must my earth, with her continued tears,

18:10become a deluge, overflowed and drowned?

18:15For why?

18:18My bowels cannot hide her woes,

18:22but like a drunkard must I vomit them.

18:27All right. Well, I think it does prove the point again.

18:31That was much, much more something I could go with.

18:35Now, let's take another speech where the emotion of the speaker may also get on top of what's being said.

18:41In King Henry IV, Hotspur's widow, Lady Hotspur,

18:46is trying to persuade Northumberland, Hotspur's father, not to raise another rebellion.

18:51Northumberland didn't join his son in the battle in which he was killed,

18:55so he's largely responsible for his son's death.

18:59Now, the difficulties here are similar to those in the speech from Titus.

19:03A balance has to be found between Lady Hotspur's need to express her grief,

19:08her anger with Northumberland, and her wish to persuade him not to go to war.

19:13If she lets her emotions carry her away, she may put his back up.

19:18So have a go. The emotions must be there, but you must channel them to get what you want.

19:25Oh, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!

19:33The time was, father, that you broke your word,

19:37when you were more endeared to it than now,

19:40when your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,

19:44through many a North would look to see his father bring up his powers,

19:48but he did long in vain.

19:50Who then persuaded you to stay at home?

19:56There were two honours lost, yours and your son's,

19:59and yours, the God of heaven, brighten it,

20:02for his it hung upon him as the sun in the grey vault of heaven,

20:08and by his light did all the chivalry of England move to do brave acts,

20:14so that in speech, in gait, in diet, in affections of delight,

20:20in military rules, humours of blood,

20:23he was the mark and glass, copy and book that fashioned others.

20:29And him?

20:32Oh, wondrous him!

20:36Oh, miracle of men!

20:40Him did you leave?

20:44Never! Oh, never!

20:47Do his best.

20:49Never! Oh, never do his ghost the wrong

20:53to hold your honour more precise and nice with others than with him.

21:00Let them alone!

21:04The Marshal and the Archbishop are strong.

21:08Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,

21:12why might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck, have talked of Monmouth's grave?

21:19I shall come back to this question of balancing text and emotion

21:23in a later programme.

21:25The point I want to show here is that in a set speech,

21:28the actor always needs to go for the argument,

21:31and if he doesn't, he won't take his audience with him.

21:35So now let's take an extreme example, a real monster.

21:40Let's have a look at the Archbishop of Canterbury.

21:44Tony, he's explaining to King Henry V

21:47that his claim to the French throne is lawful,

21:50and it's a solemn situation with the council all there,

21:53and yet the speech is in part comic.

21:56So go for the argument and see if you can make us follow it clearly,

22:00and keep a balance between the juggle of two balls in the air

22:04of seriousness and comedy.

22:06I don't want to say too much about it,

22:08but a few other important points to remember

22:10are that you'll need variety,

22:12because monotony in a long speech is fatal if you stick to one tempo,

22:17and you mustn't be too quick or too slow, but to think quickly,

22:21and then you'll find the natural tempo.

22:24A tall order, have a go.

22:27My learned Lord, we pray you to unfold

22:31why the Law Salic, which they have in France,

22:34should or should not bar us in our claim.

22:37Then hear me, gracious Sovereign,

22:40and you peers that owe yourselves your lives and services

22:45to this imperial throne.

22:49There is no bar to make against Your Highness' claim to France,

22:54but this, which they produce from pheromone,

22:59in terram salicam,

23:02mulieres ne succedant.

23:05Ah.

23:06No woman shall succeed in Salic land.

23:11Which Salic land?

23:13The French, unjustly closed to be the realm of France,

23:17and pheromone, the founder of this law on female bar.

23:23Yet their own authors faithfully affirm

23:26that the land Salic is in Germany,

23:29betwixt the floods of Saler and the Elbe,

23:31where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,

23:34there left behind and settled certain French,

23:36who, holding in disdain the German women

23:40for some dishonest manners of their life,

23:44established then this law

23:46to which no female shall be inheritrix in Salic land.

23:52Which Salic, as I said, twixt Elbe and Saler,

23:54is at this day in Germany called Meissen.

24:01Then doth it well appear the Salic law

24:04was not devised for the realm of France,

24:07nor did the French possess the Salic land

24:10until 421 years after defunction of King Pheromone,

24:16idly supposed the founder of this law,

24:19who died within the year of our redemption, 426,

24:22and Charles the Great subdued the Saxons

24:24and besieged the French beyond the river Saler in the year 805.

24:29Besides, their writers say

24:33King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,

24:37did, as heir general being descended of Blithild,

24:40which was daughter to King Clotaire,

24:43make claim and title to the crown of France.

24:46Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown of Charles,

24:50the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male of the true line

24:54and stock of Charles the Great,

24:56to find his title with some shows of truth,

25:00though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught,

25:04conveyed himself as the heir to the Lady Lingard,

25:09daughter to Charlemagne, who was the son of Louis the Emperor

25:13and Louis the son of Charles the Great.

25:15Also, King Louis X, sole heir to the usurper Capet,

25:20could not keep quiet in his conscience,

25:24wearing the crown of France,

25:26till satisfied that fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,

25:32was lineal of the Lady Ermengarde,

25:36daughter to Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine,

25:39by the witch marriage the line of Charles the Great

25:42and united to the crown of France.

25:46So that, as clear as is the summer sun,

25:51King Pepin's title, Hugh Capet's claim,

25:55King Louis' satisfaction,

25:57all appear to hold in right and title of the female.

26:03So do the kings of France unto this day.

26:07Howbeit, they would hold up this Salic law

26:11to bar Your Highness claiming it from the female

26:14and rather choose to hide them in a net

26:18than amply to unbar their crooked titles,

26:22usurped from you and your progenitors.

26:26Bravo. Bravo.

26:28Thank you very well.

26:31There's one particular kind of set speech

26:34which many actors find the hardest problem of all.

26:37What should they do with a soliloquy?

26:41A situation where a character is almost always alone

26:44and seems to be talking to himself.

26:47Should it be done to oneself or should it be done to the audience?

26:51Well, there are very few absolute rules with Shakespeare,

26:54but I personally believe that it's right 99 times out of 100

26:58to share the speech with the audience

27:01and a grave distortion of Shakespeare's intention to do it to oneself.

27:05If the actor shares the speech, it'll work.

27:08If he doesn't, it'll be dissipated and it will disappear

27:12and the audience won't listen properly.

27:14So let's take some test cases.

27:17I'm not trying to find a definitive way of doing a soliloquy.

27:20There's no such thing.

27:22Only the approach to them.

27:24Are there, in fact, any rules?

27:26Only are three basic points.

27:29It must arise out of a situation.

27:31It must have a story and it must be spontaneous.

27:34The actor must make the language his own.

27:37It must be real.

27:39Jane, come and give us a bit of Cressida.

27:42It comes at the end of a long scene in Troilus and Cressida

27:45in which her uncle Pandarus tries to persuade her

27:48to go to bed with Troilus, who loves her.

27:53Now, you'd like me to do this to myself?

27:55Do it to yourself the first time, yeah.

27:57All right.

28:01Words, vows,

28:04gifts, tears,

28:07and love's full sacrifice he offers

28:10in another's enterprise.

28:13But more in Troilus thousandfold I see

28:16than in the glass of Pandarus' praise may be.

28:19Yet hold I off.

28:23Women are angels wooing.

28:25Things won are done.

28:27Joy's soul lies in the doing.

28:30Hold it there. Thank you.

28:32Now, you see what happened?

28:34First line or two, one got interested in her

28:37and her vanity and her self-absorption.

28:39But then the speech got stuck

28:41because she went on playing the same thing

28:44and it became generalised and about her vanity

28:47rather than making us listen

28:49and go with the thoughts that she had to share with us.

28:51So now go to the opposite extreme

28:53and share it just totally with your audience

28:56and show off and flaunt to your audience.

29:01Words, vows,

29:04gifts, tears,

29:07and love's full sacrifice he offers

29:11in another's enterprise.

29:14But more in Troilus thousandfold I see

29:18than in the glass of Pandarus' praise may be.

29:21Yet hold I off.

29:25Women are angels wooing.

29:28Things won are done.

29:30Joy's soul lies in the doing.

29:38That she, beloved,

29:41knows not that knows not this.

29:44Men prize the thing ungained

29:47more than it is.

29:50That she was never yet that ever knew

29:54love got so sweet

29:57as when desire did sue.

30:00Therefore this maxim

30:03out of love I teach.

30:06Achievement is command,

30:09ungained beseech.

30:13Then though my heart's content

30:16firm love doth bear,

30:18nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear.

30:20Great. That was beautifully shared.

30:22Well, it proves the point, doesn't it?

30:24First version, it gets stuck, it gets constipated.

30:28Second time, by sharing totally,

30:31she takes you along and you go with her,

30:34so the story moves on.

30:36What do you think?

30:38Well, I think

30:40if you're doing a speech on an empty stage,

30:44why are you doing it?

30:46I mean, you're not doing it to yourself.

30:48You're not telling yourself things that you already know,

30:50so the whole point of it must be to share it with the audience,

30:53to let them in

30:55on what the character's private story is

30:59as being quite separate from her function

31:02in the whole story of the play.

31:04If the moral is

31:06that just as you share your thoughts

31:08with another actor, another character,

31:10when you're playing a scene,

31:12so that process of sharing

31:14has to go on when you're left alone.

31:16But it's a wonderful means of

31:19getting one up on everybody else

31:21cos it's just you and them and you're saying,

31:23look, this is what I'm really thinking

31:25and this is the way I'm going to behave after I finish the speech,

31:28so you're going to be in on what my innermost thoughts are.

31:31That's right, so you keep the suspense going.

31:33Yes, yes. Great. Hopefully.

31:35Good. Thank you.

31:37Now, let's look at a bit of early Shakespeare verse

31:40which we heard at the very beginning of our series.

31:43Here again we have a strong rhetorical rhythm

31:47and yet the speaker needs to be very simple

31:50and very human.

31:52Henry VI is brooding on his situation

31:55and his army's situation

31:57engaged in battle with the Yorkists.

32:06This battle

32:08fares like to the morning's war

32:11when dying clouds contend with growing light.

32:16What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,

32:19can neither call it perfect day nor night.

32:25Now sways it this way like a mighty sea

32:28forced by the tide to combat with the wind.

32:32Now sways it that way

32:34like the selfsame sea

32:36forced to retire by fury of the wind.

32:41Sometime the flood prevails and then the wind.

32:44Now one the better, then another best,

32:47both tugging to be victors, breast to breast.

32:51Yet neither conqueror nor conquered.

32:58So is the equal poise of this fell war.

33:08Oh, God.

33:11Methinks it were a happy life

33:14to sit upon a hill as I do now,

33:18to carve out dials quaintly, point by point,

33:24thereby to see the minutes how they run.

33:30How many makes an hour full complete?

33:33How many hours brings about the day?

33:36How many days will finish up a year?

33:39How many years a mortal man may live?

33:45When this is known, then to divide the times.

33:51So many hours must I tend my flock.

33:54So many hours must I take my rest.

33:57So many hours must I contemplate.

34:03Yes?

34:04So many hours must I...

34:05So many hours must I sport myself.

34:09So many days my youths have been with young.

34:13So many weeks ere the poor fools will e'en.

34:17So many years ere I shall shear the fleece.

34:20So, minutes, hours, days, months and years,

34:27passed over to the end they were created,

34:32would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.

34:40Oh, what a life with this.

34:44How sweet, how lovely.

34:48Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade to shepherds

34:53looking on their silly sheep

34:55than doth a rich embroidered canopy to kings

34:59that fear their subject's treachery.

35:04Oh, yes, it doth.

35:08A thousandfold it doth.

35:17Now, let's have a go at a soliloquy

35:20which at first sight seems very hard to follow.

35:23It's also a soliloquy in rhyme.

35:26In The Midsummer Night's Dream,

35:28Helena is lamenting the complexities of her love life,

35:33especially for Demetrius, whom she dotes on.

35:37But he's in love with her best friend, Hermia.

35:40So, Sue, come and have a go

35:42and make your argument as clear as you can.

35:46OK.

35:55How happy some or other some can be.

36:00Through Athens, I am thought as fair as she.

36:04But what of that?

36:06Demetrius thinks not so.

36:09He will not know what all but he do know.

36:13And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

36:17so I, admiring of his qualities,

36:20things base and vile, holding no quantity,

36:25love can transpose to form and dignity.

36:32Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,

36:36and therefore is winged Cupid painted blood.

36:40Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste.

36:45Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.

36:51And therefore is love said to be a child,

36:54because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

37:00As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

37:05so the boy love is perjured everywhere.

37:09For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne,

37:13he hailed down oaths that he was only mine.

37:17And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

37:21so he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

37:30I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight.

37:34I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight.

37:37Then to the wood will he to-morrow night pursue her.

37:40And for this intelligence, if I have thanks,

37:43it is a dear expense.

37:46But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

37:49to have his sight thither and back again.

37:54I thought that was very clear, Sue.

37:56Yeah?

37:57What I thought was very good was because you were half using the script,

38:02it helped you to work it out as you went.

38:05And as you were working it out, we worked it out with you.

38:08It's the sort of speech that when one knows too well,

38:10it's easy to start generalising with.

38:12But you took me with you, took your audience with you,

38:15because you were working it out.

38:17And that's something we forget to do sometimes.

38:19It would be quite fun to have done it in travelling, really,

38:21to have been walking across the stage and having...

38:24..meaning to go off much earlier and being caught having to...

38:28Yes? That's right. That would be a good way of doing it.

38:31That's excellent. Good.

38:33OK. Right, thank you.

38:35Now, let's look at a different point.

38:37What does the actor do

38:39if a soliloquy seems to be partly to the audience,

38:42partly to himself and partly to someone else?

38:46We'll have a go now at Othello's soliloquy

38:49before he kills his wife Desdemona.

38:52Here's Desdemona, asleep.

38:56And just two points.

38:58First of all, remember that the speech is very much in monosyllables,

39:03and when a Shakespearean speech is in monosyllables,

39:05it's always good counsel not to rush it too much,

39:08so take your time.

39:10But be very clear in it,

39:12whether you're talking to Desdemona or the audience,

39:15or yourself or your friend there.

39:23It is the cause.

39:26It is the cause, my soul.

39:30Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars.

39:34It is the cause.

39:41Yet I'll not shed her blood.

39:45Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow,

39:49and smooth as monumental alabaster.

39:54Yet she must die,

39:56else she'll betray more men.

40:01Put out the light, and then...

40:06Put out the light.

40:09If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,

40:12I can again thy former light relume,

40:15should I repent me.

40:17But once, put out thy light,

40:20thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature.

40:24And I know not where is that Promethean heat

40:28that can thy light relume.

40:34When I have plucked the rose,

40:37I cannot give it vital growth again.

40:41It needs must wither.

40:45I'll smell it on the tree.

40:51Oh, bar me breath.

40:55That almost persuades justice herself to break her sword.

41:01One more.

41:03One more.

41:11Be thus when thou art dead,

41:15and I will kill thee,

41:17and love thee after.

41:21One more.

41:23And this the last.

41:27She wakes.

41:31Most of the soliloquies we've looked at

41:34have a strong and clear through-line and argument.

41:37But sometimes the situation which a soliloquy explores

41:41is much more muddled.

41:43And sometimes it may be a terrific mixture

41:46of, say, comedy and seriousness.

41:48So, Judy, come now and let's do Vala's ring soliloquy.

41:53Here's your ring.

41:55She's disguised as a boy.

41:57Malvolio has brought her a ring from Olivia,

42:00who's fallen in love with her.

42:02So what are your main feelings when you come to this soliloquy?

42:07Well, it's a wonderful opportunity to share

42:10just what a dilemma she's in with the audience,

42:12and she actually can speak directly to the audience and say,

42:15this is the situation I'm in,

42:17and how would you like to be in this situation?

42:20Share, as ever. Our word is share.

42:23I think if you go for the mixture,

42:26share the mixture of the funny side of the situation

42:29and the horrors of it,

42:31so that it's a mixture all the time of the pain and the comedy.

42:34OK. Try.

42:41I left no ring with her.

42:43What means this lady?

42:50Fortune forbid.

42:52My outside have not charmed her.

42:58She made good view of me.

43:00Indeed so much that sure me thought her eyes had lost her tongue,

43:03for she did speak in starts distractedly.

43:08She loves me, sure.

43:11The cunning of her passion invites me in this churlish messenger.

43:14None of my lords ring. Why, he sent her none.

43:19I am the man.

43:23If it be so as it is.

43:26Poor lady, she would better love a dream.

43:31Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,

43:35wherein the pregnant enemy does much.

43:39How easy is it for the proper false in women's waxen hearts

43:43to set their forms.

43:46Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,

43:50for such as we are made of, such we be.

43:54How will this fadge?

43:56My master loves her dearly,

43:58and I, poor monster, fond as much on him,

44:01and she mistaken seems to dote on me.

44:04What will become of this?

44:07As I am man, my state is desperate for my master's love.

44:12As I am woman, now alas the day.

44:18What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe?

44:22Oh, time!

44:24Thou must untangle this, not I.

44:28It is too hard a knot for me to untie.

44:33A very hard knot to untie indeed.

44:37Now, we can't dodge it any longer.

44:40What about to be or not to be?

44:43If we're in doubt, there's one very good rule to follow.

44:48If we're in doubt, there's one very good rule to follow.

44:51In acting and directing, we must see the complexities,

44:56but we must try to be simple.

44:59So much has been said and written about Hamlet

45:02that it seems at times to bring out a special madness

45:05in whoever writes or talks about it.

45:07I'm not getting at literary criticism,

45:09but listen for a moment to a passage

45:11from one of the world's leading theatrical magazines,

45:15which cater for theatrical practitioners.

45:19This ambiguity is one of the significant aesthetic counterparts

45:22of the broad philosophic drift defining the modern age.

45:26In theatre, Hamlet predicts this epistemologic tradition.

45:30The execution of a deed steadily loses way

45:32to a search for the personal modality of the deed.

45:35So a search for Hamlet's character

45:37within the various mandates of his social position.

45:39The conflict is not a conflict of equal and contending social properties.

45:43Scripture fades in Hamlet against the incandescence

45:46of its hero's characterologic vitality.

45:49This exemplifies the leading aesthetic problem

45:51of the actor in modern theatre.

45:54The interpretation of action

45:56through characterologic nuance and rarefaction.

46:02Michael, come and follow that.

46:05But where to begin?

46:07Why don't you do what we've been trying earlier

46:11and try taking it at first to yourself

46:13and let's go through the process of seeing how that works, OK?

46:22To be or not to be, that is the question.

46:28Whether it is nobler in the mind

46:31to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

46:35or to take arms against a sea of troubles

46:39and by opposing end them.

46:42OK.

46:44Now, we see and we observe him, but we don't share.

46:50We see someone generally under stress,

46:53but do we travel with his thoughts?

46:56So now try it the other way, share it with us.

47:00Everything we've said tonight comes up here.

47:03You must take us with you, you must work it out as you go

47:07and don't work yourself up emotionally into the situation.

47:10You see clearly that the words have never been said

47:13or thought by any actor ever before.

47:16Give us a taste of your rarefaction.

47:21To be or not to be, that is the question.

47:25Whether it is nobler in the mind

47:29to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

47:33or to take arms against a sea of troubles

47:37and by opposing end them.

47:42To die.

47:44To sleep no more.

47:47And by a sleep, to say we end the heartache

47:51and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,

47:55it is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

47:59To die.

48:01To sleep.

48:04To sleep perchance to dream.

48:07Ay, there's the rub.

48:10For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

48:13when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause.

48:18There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.

48:24For who would bear the whips and scorns of time?

48:28The oppressor's wrong.

48:30The proud man's contumely.

48:33The pangs of despised love.

48:36The law's delays, the insolence of office

48:39and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes

48:42when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin.

48:47Who would farrell's bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life

48:55but that the dread of something after death,

48:59that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns,

49:05puzzles the will

49:08and makes us rather bear those ills we have

49:11than fly to others that we know not of.

49:15Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.

49:21And thus the native hue of resolution

49:24is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.

49:30And enterprises of great pitch and moment

49:35with this regard their currents turn awry

49:40and lose the name of action.

49:46Well, there are obviously an infinite number of ways

49:51of interpreting a set speech.

49:54Even so, I do believe that some general conclusions can be drawn.

49:58It's dangerous to do a long speech too solemnly, for instance,

50:02and it doesn't work if the audience stands back

50:06and observes the character thinking.

50:08The actor must open himself to his audience

50:11because he needs to share his problems.

50:14In dialogue, a character reaches out to another character

50:18and in a soliloquy, a character reaches out to the audience.

50:21There's no great difference between the two.

50:24The principle is the same.

50:26So the moral is the text must be shared.

Acting Shakespeare - John Barton - Judi Dench Masterclass Part 4 - Set Speeches and Soliloquies - 4K

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