O
worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other
object
Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me justice, justice, justice, justice.
-Isabella
Measure For Measure Act V, scene i Line 23
Okay, let’s
look at this line; Justice, justice,
justice, justice. I get the idea that today’s line is about someone looking
for justice. Now here’s the thing; I don’t really know anything about this
play. We’ve had one Totally Random line previously from Measure For Measure, but I didn’t go into the play at all on that
one. So I decided to look up a quick synopsis of Measure For Measure, just so I had some idea what it was about.
Wanna know what I found out? It’s a play mostly about questions of morality and
justice. Go figure. Totally Random, eh? I suppose you can say that if it’s a
play about justice then we would be bound to run into lines that talk about
justice. But a line that says ‘justice, justice, justice, justice’? I dunno
about that.
Okay, I’m
gonna let you chew on that one whilst I move on to another topic, iambic
pentameter. I know, I’ve ranted on the old iamb thing before, but I guess I
just can’t seem to get any resolution. So here’s my issue today: If you’re
going to write in iambic pentameter, shouldn’t it all be in iambic pentameter?
I mean, I get that this would be a hard thing to do, but you either do it or
you don’t. The first three lines of today’s Totally Random lines are almost
perfect iambic pentameter (not sure about ‘object’ at the end of the second
line, but…). However, the last line loses it after the first two feet. And gi Ven
me (so far, so good) Ju stice?
No! it’s ju Stice. ju Stice, ju Stice, ju Stice. The accent
in the word ‘justice’, when properly pronounced, is on the second syllable, not
the first. So what’s up with that? Did they pronounce that word differently in
1600? I guess that’s possible. I certainly don’t know. Either way though, you
have to admit that this iambic pentameter thing is pretty light and loose.
Again, I get it that it’s hard to make every line iambic pentameter. I can tell
you that I did write a ten page paper in college that was in iambic pentameter.
Obviously it was a paper about Shakespeare, Henry IV to be exact, and it wasn’t
particularly easy, and it wasn’t anything of Shakespearean quality. But it was
all iambic pentameter, not just some of it. It just doesn’t seem right to me
that you iamb where you can and just lose your iamb as needed; slip out of it
and back in as needed? Then it’s not really iambic pentameter, is it?
So that’s my
rant for the day. And I’ll leave you with the question: What’s with Will’s
iambic pentameter? Why is it so imperfect? You tell me.
Yes, you're right; not iambic pentameter. I believe the verse is called anapestic tetrameter. If you don't recognize this verse and illustration you most certainly suffered through a deprived childhood. You'll also note the Theodore does a pretty darn consistent job with his meter.
2 comments:
My English/Latin teacher used to say that in the line, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Romeo wasn't pronounced "Rome-e-oh" it was pronounced "Rome-yo" to satisfy the iambic. That ALWAYS stuck with me. Perhaps something of that nature is occurring here.
That's a good thought (and interesting that you remember your Shakespeare stuff from high school). I'll have to give the sixteenth century pronunciation more consideration.
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