Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 921.  Friday, 10 December 1993.
 
(1)     From:   William Godshalk <
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        Date:   Thursday, 09 Dec 1993 22:56:51 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 4.0913  Re: Teaching, Reading, and Seeing Shakespeare
 
(2)     From:   Michael Sharpston <
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        Date:   Friday, 10 Dec 1993 12:00:00 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   RE: SHK 4.0886 Re: Teaching and Reading Shakespeare
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           William Godshalk <
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Date:           Thursday, 09 Dec 1993 22:56:51 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 4.0913  Re: Teaching, Reading, and Seeing Shakespeare
Comment:        Re: SHK 4.0913  Re: Teaching, Reading, and Seeing Shakespeare
 
If Helen Ostovich is referring to my experiment in prosing blank verse, I'd
like to defend myself. In answer to her question, yes, I really hate it when my
students turn blank verse into prose. I harangue them on the use of the virgule
- which really puzzles them. But in my assignment, I gave my students a passage
changed into prose, and the first thing I asked them to do was to turn it back
into poetry. And I am pleased to report that they carried out this part of the
assignment with amazing accuracy. I was amazed in any case.
 
Comically enough, the transformation into prose didn't seem to help their
comprehension very much - even with my parentheses and commas to help guide
them. I was hoping for better results.
 
What if I ask them to explain the structure of Shakespeare's sentences,
commenting on problems and difficulties?
 
Yours, Bill Godshalk
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Michael Sharpston <
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Date:           Friday, 10 Dec 1993 12:00:00 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 4.0886 Re: Teaching and Reading Shakespeare
Comment:        RE: SHK 4.0886 Re: Teaching and Reading Shakespeare
 
I like Hardy Cook's idea of using audiotapes.  It is less active than reading
out loud in class, but also less socially daunting.  And listening to a Walkman
is almost like thinking something, it is so intimate.  The music of the blank
verse should go right into the brain.  Certainly I know chunks of Gielgud as
Hamlet by heart, just from listening to the tape many times as a teenager (no
Walkman then).
 
          Michael Sharpston
          
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