The main problem with most actors reading of this, is that they get caught up in the descriptive passages and give them too much weight. What I have tried to do here is sort the meaningful parts from the descriptive fillers. The Fairy Queen is absolutely FURIOUS with her husband, Oberon, and strong emphasis is needed on the important parts. Mostly, adjectives can be tripped over lightly. They give pretty pictures but that is NOT what Titania is on about. Occasionally the adjectives help because of the sound they make (alliteration).- "the Pelting RIVER made SO PROUD" There are many instances where you can ignore the Iambic rhythm and give equal weight to consecutive syllables, simply because your character is SO DAMN RILED! THESE are the FORGE'ries of JEAlousy: [What you just said is a LIE!] [ It is really important to recognise that this monologue starts on a stressed syllable. Deliver this as if you are in the middle of an argument, not at the beginning of something. Try stamping your foot on the FIRST word. ] AND NEVER, since the middle summer's spring, ["Never" is a very angry word] MET WE (on hill, in dale, forest or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or in the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind) [what is inside the brackets here are simply examples of where it was that they met. This is not the essential. It needs to be delivered in a sing-song voice, and with rising impatience, because he has disturbed them with monotonous regularity.] But WITH THY BRAWLS thou hast dis-TURBED OUR SPORT! [THIS is what you have done, you total BASTARD! The word "thy" here is more important than "brawls" The rhythm is "di-DUM-DUM-DUM" not "di-DUM-di-DUM"] THEREFORE the WINDS (piping to us in vain,) As in REVENGE, have SUCK'D UP FROM the SEA (Spit out this alliteration) Contagious FOGS; which falling in the LAND Have every PELTing RIVER made SO PROUD That they have overborne their CONTinents: The OX hath therefore stretch'd his yoke IN VAIN, The PLOUGHman lost his SWEAT, and the GREEN CORN Hath ROTTED ere his youth attain'd a beard; The FOLD STANDS EMPty in the drowned field, And CROWS are fatted with the murrion FLOCK; [This is ghastly!] The Nine Men's Morris is fill'd up with MUD, And the quaint mazes in the wanton green For LACK OF TREAD are UNdistinguishable: [By comparison, this is trivial, but, basically, no-one is having any fun!] The human MORTALS WANT THEIR WINTER here; No night is now with hymn or carol blest: THERFORE the MOON, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, WASHES ALL the AIR, That rheumatic DISEASES do abound: And thorough this distemperature, we see THE SEASONS ALTER: (hoary-headed frosts Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds Is, as in mockery, set): [all the bracketted material once again, is giving examples, but not the main substance of the statement. It is a list of things gone awry; read it with increasing impatience] the SPRING, the SUMMER The childing AUTUMN, angry WINTER, CHANGE Their wonted LIVERIES, and the mazed WORLD, By their INcrease now knows not WHICH IS WHICH: AND THIS SAME PROGENY OF EVILS comes FROM OUR DEBATE, from our dissension; WE ARE THEIR PARENTS and original. NOTE: the SPRING, the SUMMER ,the childing AUTUMN, angry WINTER, change their wonted liveries, This is the major statement about climate change. "Liveries" are the coloured uniforms by which servants of a particular household would be recognised. "Wonted" is "known". The seasons have changed their colours, and become unrecognisable.] AND THIS SAME PROGENY OF EVILS comes FROM OUR DEBATE, from our dissension; WE ARE THEIR PARENTS and original. This is the major statement about who is to blame. "These are the offspring of Evil and we are the parents and originators of the problem. "
Excellent breakdown. I often , no scratch that, ALWAYS think Shakespeares verse offers acting clues and cues. He writes for actors, he is your best friend
Thanks for the awesome response! I'll have to search my notes and find my own breakdown, but this is well thought out and I'm thrilled you took the time to comment
