William Shakespeare Mad Libs
Final Project by Katie Newray
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
English 145: Shakespeare and Performance
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-10:15AM
Table of Contents
I. Mad Libs
a. Hamlet: “To be, or not to be, that is the question:” ……………………… 3
b. Romeo and Juliet: “Conversations in love” ……………………………… 4
c. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Puck’s Amend” …………………………. 5
d. Othello: “Love’s End” …………………………………………………… 6-7
e. Romeo and Juliet: “Queen Mab” ………………………………………… 8
f. Twelfth Night: “I am the man” …………………………………………… 9-10
II. Rationale
……………………………………………………………………… 11-13
III. Works Cited
……………………………………………………………………… 14
Hamlet: “To be, or not to be, that is the question:”
Hamlet
To ____________, or not to ____________, — that is the ____________;
(Verb) (Same Verb)
(Noun)
Whether 'tis nobler in the ____________ to suffer
(Noun)
The slings and _____________ of ____________ fortune,
(Plural
Noun) (Adjective)
Or to take ____________ against a sea of ____________,
(Plural
Noun) (Plural Noun)
And by ____________ end them. To die, to ____________, —
(-ing
Verb) (Verb)
No more—and by a ____________ to say we end
(Verb)
The ____________ and the ____________ natural shocks
(Noun) (Large Number)
That flesh is ____________ to. 'Tis a ____________
(Profession) (Noun)
____________ to be wish'd. To die, to ____________;
(Adverb) (Verb)
To ____________, perchance to ____________. Ay, there's the
____________;
(Verb)
(Verb) (Noun)
For in that ____________ of death what ____________ may come
(Verb) (Plural Noun)
When we have _____________ off this ____________ coil,
(Past Tense
Verb) (Adjective)
Must give us _____________....
(Noun)
(III.i.57-69)
Romeo and Juliet:
“Conversations in Love”
Romeo
If I ____________with my unworthiest ____________
(Verb) (Body Part)
This holy shrine, the _____________sin is this:
(Adjective)
My ____________, two _____________ pilgrims, read stand
(Plural Body Part) (-ing Verb)
To ____________ that rough _____________ with a tender kiss.
(Adjective) (Verb)
Juliet
Good _____________, you do wrong your ______________ too much,
(Noun) (Body Part)
Which ____________devotion shows in this;
(Adjective)
For ____________ have hands that pilgrims’ hands do _____________,
(Noun) (Verb)
And palm to palm is ____________ palmers’ kiss.
(Adjective)
Romeo
Have not saints _____________, and _____________ palmers too?
(Body Part) (Adjective)
Juliet
Ay ____________, lips that they must _____________ in prayer.
(Noun) (Verb)
Romeo
Oh, then _____________ saint, _____________ lips do what hands do.
(Adjective) (Verb)
They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to ____________.
(Noun)
Juliet
Saints do not ____________, though grant for prayers’ sake.
(Verb)
Romeo
Then _____________ not, while my prayer’s effect I take.
(Verb)
[He kisses her.]
(I.v.94-107)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
“Puck’s Amend”
Puck [To the Audience]
If we ____________ have offended,
(Plural Noun)
____________ but this, and all is mended,
(Verb)
That you have but slumbered ____________
(Adverb)
While these ____________did appear.
(Plural Noun)
And this ____________ and ____________ theme,
(Adjective) (Adjective)
No more yielding but a ____________,
(Verb)
____________, do not reprehend.
(Plural Noun)
If you pardon, we will ____________.
(Verb)
And, as I am an ____________ Puck,
(Adjective)
If we have unearned ____________
(Noun)
Now to scape the serpent’s ____________,
(Body Part)
We will make ____________ ere long;
(Noun)
So, ____________ night unto you all.
(Adjective)
Give me your ____________, if we be friends,
(Plural Body Part)
And Robin shall ____________ amends.
(Verb)
(V.i.418-433)
Othello: “Love’s End”
Othello
It is the ______________, it is the ____________, my soul.
(Noun) (Noun)
Let me not name it to you, you ____________stars!
(Adjective)
It is the ____________. Yet I’ll not ____________ her blood,
(Noun) (Verb)
Nor ____________ that whiter ____________ of hers than snow,
(Noun) (Body Part)
And ____________ as ____________ alabaster,
(Adjective) (Adjective)
Yet she must die, else she’ll ____________ more men.
(Verb)
Put out the ____________, and then put out the ____________.
(Noun) (Noun)
If I quench thee, thou ____________ minister,
(Adjective)
I can again thy former light ____________,
(Verb)
Should I repent me; but once put out thy _____________,
(Noun)
Thou cunning’st pattern of ____________ nature,
(-ing Verb)
I know not where is that Promethean ____________
(Noun)
That can thy ____________ relume. When I have plucked thy rose,
(Noun)
I cannot give it ____________ growth again;
(Adjective)
It needs must ____________. I’ll ____________ thee on the tree.
(Verb) (Verb)
[He kisses her.]
Oh, ____________ breath, that dost ____________ persuade
(Adjective) (Adverb)
Justice to break her sword! ____________ more, ____________ more.
(Number) (Number)
Be thus when thou art ____________, and I will kill thee,
(Adjective)
And love thee after. ____________ more, that’s the last.
(Number)
[He kisses her.]
So sweet was ne’er so ____________. I must weep,
(Adjective)
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s ____________;
(Adjective)
It ___________ where it doth love. She wakes.
(Verb)
(V.i.1-22)
Romeo and Juliet: “Queen Mab”
Mercutio
Oh, then, I ____________ Queen Mab hath been with you.
(Verb)
She is the fairies’____________, and she comes
(Profession)
In shape no ____________than an agate stone
(Adjective)
On the ____________ of an alderman,
(Body Part)
Drawn with a ____________of little atomi
(Noun)
Over men’s ____________ as they lie asleep.
(Plural Body Part)
Her chariot is an ____________ hazelnut,
(Adjective)
Made by the joiner ____________ or old ____________,
(Mammal) (Type of Bug)
Time out o’mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners’ ____________,
(Body Part)
The cover of the wings of ____________,
(Type of Bug Plural)
Her traces of the ____________ spider web,
(Adjective)
Her ____________ of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams
(Plural Noun)
Her whip of cricket’s ____________, the lash of film,
(Body Part)
Her wagoner a small ____________-coated gnat,
(Color)
Not half so big as a ____________ little worm
(Shape)
Pricked from the lazy ____________ of a maid.
(Body Part)
(I.iv.53-69)
Twelfth Night: “I am the Man”
Viola [picking up the ring]
I left no ____________ with her. What means this ____________?
(Piece of Jewelry) (Noun)
Fortune forbid my outside have not ____________ her!
(Past Tense Verb)
She made ____________ view of me, indeed so much
(Adjective)
That sure methought her ____________ had lost her ____________,
(Plural Body Part) (Body Part)
For she did speak in starts, ____________.
(Adverb)
She loves me, sure! The cunning of her ____________
(Emotion)
Invites me in the ____________ messenger.
(Adjective)
None of my lord’s ____________? Why, he sent her none.
(Piece of Jewelry)
I am the ____________. If it be so— as ‘tis—
(Noun)
Poor lady, she were better love a ____________.
(Noun)
Disguise, I see, thou art a ____________
(Adjective)
Wherein the ____________ enemy does much.
(Adjective)
How easy is it for the ____________ false
(Adjective)
In women’s ____________ hearts to set their forms!
(Adjective)
Alas, our ____________is the cause, not we,
(Noun)
For such as we are ____________ of, such we be.
(Adjective)
How will this fadge? My master loves her ____________,
(Adverb)
And I, poor ____________, fond as much on him;
(Noun)
And she, ____________, seems to dote on me.
(Adjective)
What will become of this? As I am ____________,
(Noun)
My ____________ is ____________ for my master’s love;
(Noun) (Adjective)
As I am ____________— now, alas the ____________!—
(Noun) (Length of Time)
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia ____________!
(Verb)
O Time, thou must ____________ this, not I;
(Verb)
It is too ____________ a knot for me t’untie.
(Adjective)
(II.ii.17-41)
Rationale
Many students cringe at the thought of reading William Shakespeare. It immediately causes clammy palms, uneasy stomachs, and sweaty foreheads. Often teachers thrust their students headfirst into topics like iambic pentameter, sonnets, comedies, histories and tragedies, and Stratford-Upon-Avon without stopping to realize that Shakespeare is drudgery for students. High school students stumble over Shakespeare’s language and are intimidated by the topics. Making Shakespeare’s works appealing to young students requires a certain amount of fun. Not that there aren't throngs of English majors out there who don't enjoy Shakespeare, but for students whose world doesn’t revolve around the written work, it is very daunting. Creating a fun activity to help engage students into a complex piece of work, such as a work by Shakespeare, can be done through the simplest means.
During the past year, I have had the privilege to observe several High School classes at a local high school. One of these classes was, in fact, beginning their unit on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In the introductory lessons to Shakespeare, the teacher had students look up background information on Shakespeare, the manner in which he wrote, and the Elizabethan times. The students seemed to look at this work as mind-numbingly dull. They went about their research with no real excitement to what they were learning. This is how the idea of using a “fun” activity came to me. If students were given a way to see the entertainment of the words of Shakespeare, perhaps they would be drawn in to reading the plays.
A fun activity, such as Mad Libs, can be used to not only introduce students to the works of Shakespeare, but students can also gain some valuable grammar lessons as well. By creating Shakespearean Mad Libs, students are not only introduced to some of his more famous speeches, but they are also given some grammar lessons as well. Mad Libs is a relatively simple word game that most students understand. They start as conversations, stories, or plot lines with different words removed from them. These words are then replaced by others. For example, if you have two students doing Mad Libs, one would fill in the answers which another one would give. They could ask for things such as verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc. Once they have filled in all of their blanks, students can read aloud their own hilarious stories to each other. Students’ education in grammar seems to take a backseat to their education in works of literature. More time is spent on reading the great works and no time is spent on understanding the mechanics of the written word. Shakespearean Mad Libs would give students a chance to demonstrate knowledge of the basic parts of speech and how to use them.
Creating Shakespearean Mad Libs can not only give students a grammar lesson, but it can also introduce key concepts, characters, and plots for different plays. The soliloquies and conversations I chose to create these Shakespearean Mad Libs represent some of the important concepts of the plays, while allowing students to have fun. For example, the “To be or not to be” speech from Hamlet, is one that everyone knows or has heard at some point in their life. This Mad Lib would allow students to have fun with a speech that they already know. Each Mad Lib represents an integral idea regarding its play. From Romeo and Juliet, I included a speech and a conversation. The “Queen Mab” speech by Mercutio offers fun for the students. There are many ways in which the play speech can be interpreted, adding to the enjoyment of the words. The second from is the sonnet which Romeo and Juliet speak to each other upon meeting. Students could first complete their Mad Lib, and then look at the original lines to see how the sonnet works. The scene from Othello is the one in which the main character Othello, who is deceived Iago, kills his true love Desdemona.
Each Mad Lib can be used as a teaching tool to help students both with grammar and with the understanding of soliloquies and sonnets. It gives them an interesting look into the world of Shakespeare before they become inundated with the complexity of his works. Mad Libs may seem a bit childish to some students, but it still serves an educational purpose. It allows for them to review simple grammar, such as parts of speech, while it allows for them to look at some of the language that is Shakespeare. The Shakespearean Mad Libs would be an entertaining way to engage students into the subject instead of simply feeding them random facts about William Shakespeare’s life a times.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Shakespeare: Stage, Script, Screen. Ed. David Bevington. 133-160.
Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Shakespeare: Stage, Script, Screen. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 571-623.
Shakespeare, William. "Othello." Shakespeare: Stage, Script, Screen. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 646-690.
Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare: Stage, Script, Screen. Ed. David Bevinton. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 506-547.
Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night; or, What You Will." Shakespeare: Stage, Script, Screen. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 284-316.