recording of Ellen Terry performing Juliet's "Come, vial" soliloquy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKssqbesfZo
We spent quite a bit of time on Juliet's "vial" soliloquy in class this year - which is not particularly relevant to anything, except that we spent a lot of time talking about how the verse picks up the pace as it goes along, as Juliet's shorter, more measured sentences become this long tangle of a sentence that keeps breaking off and starting over, as she gets more and more frantic. It's interesting to listen to an acclaimed Victorian actress recite the speech, presumably in a way that audiences approved of,* as it's so different: stately, and magisterial, and I'm sure thrilling, but not frantic in the way I'd expect it to be based on the language. But acting styles change, of course.
*My favorite Ellen Terry story - not that I have tons of them or anything - is still that guy who proposed to his sweetheart by saying basically, "Since Ellen won't, will you?" I should find that anecdote again.
We spent quite a bit of time on Juliet's "vial" soliloquy in class this year - which is not particularly relevant to anything, except that we spent a lot of time talking about how the verse picks up the pace as it goes along, as Juliet's shorter, more measured sentences become this long tangle of a sentence that keeps breaking off and starting over, as she gets more and more frantic. It's interesting to listen to an acclaimed Victorian actress recite the speech, presumably in a way that audiences approved of,* as it's so different: stately, and magisterial, and I'm sure thrilling, but not frantic in the way I'd expect it to be based on the language. But acting styles change, of course.
*My favorite Ellen Terry story - not that I have tons of them or anything - is still that guy who proposed to his sweetheart by saying basically, "Since Ellen won't, will you?" I should find that anecdote again.