Syllabus for Week 2, March 31
Need a place to look up words from Mercutio’s speech? Use the Oxford English Dictionary…available to you through NT’s library!
WE HAVE FINISHED SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY, and we ended third quarter with a close reading of an iconic sonnet by the Bard, “My mistresses eyes are nothing like the sun.” A key to reading and understanding Shakespeare is reading the poetry aloud, following the punctuation to help you understand the sentence structure, and finally—perhaps most important—repetition. Repeated listening, with practice in reading meaning—combined with notes, vocabulary, explanatory notes—will crack open understanding. We will finish by tackling the most complex, and perhaps most beautiful speech: Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech. Scholars will also prepare speeches on independent reading, which will be delivered next week. We’ll turn then to our penultimate unit of study: Homer’s Odyssey!
TUESDAY, April 1
Independent reading for 20 minutes. Our focus here with be selecting a part of your reading for “dramatic interpretation.”
Watching a short introduction to Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech.
Small group reading of handout on the aformentioned speech.
HW: Careful re-reading of Mercutio’s speech. If you need to finish or re-watch any of the performances listed below, please do so!
Look up words;
Read out the speech, TWICE, aloud.
WEDNESDAY, April 2
Today, we are going on a deep dive into Mercutio’s speech. What does it MEAN?
Read speech around, one word per person.
Read it again, this time ONE line per person.
Read it one last time, each reader completing a colored “chunk” of text.
When answering questions in the boxes, start with this resource. Read through the notes on Shakespeare Online to help you complete the large format Q&A worksheet on the speech.
A good resource for looking up words is ShakespearesWords, a dictionary of language no-longer-in-use.
Another interesting source for information on Queen Map, but of specious origin.
Refer to the notes in the Folger edition of the play as your definitive resource on questions.
HW: Finish answering the questions inside the boxes (NOT the last question at bottom).
A brief overview of Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech starts around minute 18:30
You want the ESSENTIAL edition, not the full (all black cover) edition.
FRIDAY, April 4
Reminder: Independent Speeches start next week. We have an odd schedule, two late starts, and no anchor day. Practice your speech at home. Make sure you know how to access your review slide AND mirror your iPad.
Independent reading.
Returning to Mercutio. (You should have completed all the answers to the questions in boxes.) What is this speech ABOUT?
For the second part of class, we will watch the Globe Theater’s performance of The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, picking up with 2.5, Mercutio’s death.
HW: Share your slide with Ms. Craig (craigl@nths.net) and Mr. Easton (eastonp@nths.net). Practice your speech. Obtain your copy of The Essential Homer’s Odyssey by Stanley Lombardo.
