| Act | which are subdivided into scenes. There was not necessarily any clear division between these in a performance. |
| Alliteration | Repetition of consonant sounds. A device related to rhyme. “I am Fortunes fool.” |
| Allusion | An indirect reference to a person, place, or thing – fictitious, historical, or actual.Example: Beware the snake that invited you to dinner. |
| Antithesis | An opposition. Shakespeare often used this to express confusion and conflict. Example: “Not having that which, having, makes them short.” |
| Aside | A line spoken to one or more characters which cannot be heard by the remaining characters; can also be addressed to the audience. |
| Blank verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| Chorus | The character who speaks the prologue – and often the epilogue |
| Clown | In Shakespeare’s plays, this term is most often synonymous with “fool” |
| Comedy | A drama that is light, humorous and satirical in tone and often ends happily |
| Dialogue | When two or more characters talk with each other |
| Epilogue | Usually spoken by a main character at the end of a play, this concludes the play and is often an apology for the play – or a request for applause |
| Foil | A character that works as a contrast to another character may be termed this; an important dramatic tool. |
| Fool | A type-character often kept at court to entertain the nobles. There were “wise” ones, intelligent men hired for entertainment purposes, and natural ones – idiots kept for amusement. Shakespeare’s are usually “wise” |
| Groundling | A condescending term used to refer to the standing audience in the open courtyard. |
| Hyperbole | Figure of speech based on exaggeration and exaggerated images |
| Monologue | A line spoken by one person |
| Oxymoron | A form of antithesis where the opposing words are placed neck to each other. It makes a very strong image. Example: “loving hate” |
| Pathos | Strong emotion. Often used as a comic device, because exaggerated smoothens are often funny. In Shakespeare’s works this comic device is most often employed in connection with lower class characters that accidentally make themselves appear hilarious |
| Prologue | The introduction to/ presentation of the play. Often given to the audience by the character “Chorus”. Often in verse |
| Prose | Shakespeare moved between verse and what in his plays;is characterized by run-on-lines of carried length, no rhyme and no meter. Shakespeare usually has the lower classes speak in this; is also used when the characters talk about the menial things in life. |
| Pun | Word play that makes use of a word that has several meanings. Often Shakespearean’s are bathos |
| Repetition | a favorite device of Shakespeare’s. He used to repeat words and phrases to add drama and contrast to the plays. |
| Rhythm | The recurrence of stresses and pauses in the language of a literary work of a speech: when this falls in to a regular, identifiable patter, we refer to it as meter. |
| Rhyming Couplet | Shakespeare often used this (two rhymed lines) to indicate something important in a play – a shift on stage, for instance an important character entering the stage, a scene/act ending etc |
| Scene | The subdivision of an act. |
| Simile | A comparison that uses “like” or “as” |
| Soliloquy | A line in which a character talks to him/herself and reveals his or her private thoughts. Convention dictates that other characters on stage cannot hear it, but usually the character is alone on stage |
| Sonnet | a 14-line poem in iambic pentameter. It consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EEF GG. usually a lone proem that is divided into three parts. 1. Exposition/problem 2. Volta/turning point 3. Conclusion |
The Merchant of Venice Vocabulary
July 12, 2019