Maddie Blackwell's Recommendations
Inaugural Cues
In a script, an inaugural cue is the first cue that introduces a new character to the action of a play. Stern and Palfrey assert, “Although looking in general at characters’ first lines has always been thought to be important, looking at their early or ‘inaugurating’ cues is never really considered. But it can be profoundly revealing” (97). In other words, understanding of a character is gained not only by examining their first lines, but also by considering what words prompted that response.
Early modern actors did not have access to full scripts, so cues supplied the actor with potentially crucial information about the play and their character. As Stern and Palfrey explain, “Inaugurating cues are consistently used to instruct the actor in his own basic character, the range of passions his part will entail, and his relationship to plot” (97). Essentially, as actors studied their roles, cues helped them understand their character’s identity, the issues they may face, their motivations, and their trajectory in the plot.
The materials below will help students think deeply about the importance of roles/parts in drama and help them access the central themes present in each play. Students can also use these cues to consider or predict each character’s trajectory. There are no “right” answers, but this activity is a way to get students thinking about plot and character, while also encouraging close reading.
Hamlet
______________________ and my son –
Hamlet: [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
(Issues of paternity/family)
Macbeth
______________________ charm’s wound up.
Macbeth: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
(Magic/enchantment…Macbeth’s awareness of this?)
Othello
________________________ under the ribs.
Othello: ‘Tis better as it is.
(Under the ribs… Heart? Issues of love/violence).
Taming of the Shrew
_____________________ you any wife?
Katherine: I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
(Issues of marriage)
False or Premature Cues
False or premature cues introduce to the script an unwritten sense of tension or annoyance. Because actors were provided with limited rehearsal time, Shakespeare and other playwrights “seem to have enwrapped their ‘direction’ into the form in which they wrote their plays…they produced texts that, divided in parts, would bring about the action required in performance” (Stern 88). In other words, the textual structure itself often contained embedded direction to the actors.
Understanding the potential meaning behind cues can aid students immensely in understanding the mood or conflict in a scene. For example, the frustration and interruption that will occur from false cues will immediately inject a sense of anger into the scene. For a scene such as the one included below from The Merchant of Venice, it even serves to inform meaning. According to Stern, “reading the text without an awareness of the cueing system makes Shylock’s speech nonsense: why does he keep demanding silence when he is the only one talking?” (88). Therefore, allowing students to access this cueing system will clear up possible confusion about the text’s meaning. Furthermore, understanding the cues in a scene - like those in the conversation below from Romeo and Juliet - may help students appreciate the occasionally comedic nature of the play. As the Nurse carries on, the false cues in this scene result in Juliet and her mother repeatedly interrupting her story, lending more humor and meaning to Lady Capulet and Juliet’s pleas for the Nurse to desist.
It would also be helpful to see/hear these scenes acted out. You might choose to have your students pair up and perform these scenes so that they themselves can experience the frustration of being interrupted or responding to a false cue. Alternately, you might call on two volunteers to act out a scene with cue scripts in front of the class. This too will replicate the sense of humor or frustration needed for these scenes. Have students think about how false cues like this would affect the actors, the mood of the scene, and the play as a whole. This is a good time to emphasize the play as a living thing (particularly in light of how interactive theater was during the seventeenth-century).
Merchant of Venice
Shylocke:
I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:…
I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Solanio:
_____________________ have my bond.
It is the most impenetrable cur
That ever kept with men.
Romeo and Juliet
Nurse:
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me: but, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
And then my husband--God be with his soul!
A' was a merry man--took up the child:
'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
______________________ hold thy peace.
Nurse:
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
_________________________ nurse, say I.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_____________________________ and said “Ay”.
Lady Capulet:
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_____________________ and said “Ay”.
Juliet:
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
This next activity might be helpful to do before starting a play or near the play’s beginning. It addresses issues of decoding the text and increases understanding of character. In general, when working with cue scripts, it can be helpful to have students consider the implication of roles/parts as discussed in the introduction to cue scripts. Half of the class should receive one character’s lines for a scene (Cue Script 1) and the other half of the class should receive the other half of the dialogue (Cue Script 2). First, have students work alone, answering the following questions based on the cue script that they received:
- What do you know about your character based on your part?
- What do you know about the other character in the scene?
- Can you tell what’s going on in this scene?
- What do you think will happen next?
After this, you may choose for students using the same cue script to meet and discuss their answers to these questions to compare understanding. Then, each student should pair up with a student who has the opposite cue script. Each group should be made up of a student with Cue Script 1 and a student with Cue Script 2. With their partners, students should perform their scenes. (This should be fun! Have students stand up and attempt to get into their roles a little bit.) After performing, the pairs should discuss how they answered their questions and how their answers may have changed after performing the entire scene. You may choose to debrief afterwards with a class discussion about how their understanding of the text may have changed through performance.
In a script, an inaugural cue is the first cue that introduces a new character to the action of a play. Stern and Palfrey assert, “Although looking in general at characters’ first lines has always been thought to be important, looking at their early or ‘inaugurating’ cues is never really considered. But it can be profoundly revealing” (97). In other words, understanding of a character is gained not only by examining their first lines, but also by considering what words prompted that response.
Early modern actors did not have access to full scripts, so cues supplied the actor with potentially crucial information about the play and their character. As Stern and Palfrey explain, “Inaugurating cues are consistently used to instruct the actor in his own basic character, the range of passions his part will entail, and his relationship to plot” (97). Essentially, as actors studied their roles, cues helped them understand their character’s identity, the issues they may face, their motivations, and their trajectory in the plot.
The materials below will help students think deeply about the importance of roles/parts in drama and help them access the central themes present in each play. Students can also use these cues to consider or predict each character’s trajectory. There are no “right” answers, but this activity is a way to get students thinking about plot and character, while also encouraging close reading.
Hamlet
______________________ and my son –
Hamlet: [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
(Issues of paternity/family)
Macbeth
______________________ charm’s wound up.
Macbeth: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
(Magic/enchantment…Macbeth’s awareness of this?)
Othello
________________________ under the ribs.
Othello: ‘Tis better as it is.
(Under the ribs… Heart? Issues of love/violence).
Taming of the Shrew
_____________________ you any wife?
Katherine: I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates?
(Issues of marriage)
False or Premature Cues
False or premature cues introduce to the script an unwritten sense of tension or annoyance. Because actors were provided with limited rehearsal time, Shakespeare and other playwrights “seem to have enwrapped their ‘direction’ into the form in which they wrote their plays…they produced texts that, divided in parts, would bring about the action required in performance” (Stern 88). In other words, the textual structure itself often contained embedded direction to the actors.
Understanding the potential meaning behind cues can aid students immensely in understanding the mood or conflict in a scene. For example, the frustration and interruption that will occur from false cues will immediately inject a sense of anger into the scene. For a scene such as the one included below from The Merchant of Venice, it even serves to inform meaning. According to Stern, “reading the text without an awareness of the cueing system makes Shylock’s speech nonsense: why does he keep demanding silence when he is the only one talking?” (88). Therefore, allowing students to access this cueing system will clear up possible confusion about the text’s meaning. Furthermore, understanding the cues in a scene - like those in the conversation below from Romeo and Juliet - may help students appreciate the occasionally comedic nature of the play. As the Nurse carries on, the false cues in this scene result in Juliet and her mother repeatedly interrupting her story, lending more humor and meaning to Lady Capulet and Juliet’s pleas for the Nurse to desist.
It would also be helpful to see/hear these scenes acted out. You might choose to have your students pair up and perform these scenes so that they themselves can experience the frustration of being interrupted or responding to a false cue. Alternately, you might call on two volunteers to act out a scene with cue scripts in front of the class. This too will replicate the sense of humor or frustration needed for these scenes. Have students think about how false cues like this would affect the actors, the mood of the scene, and the play as a whole. This is a good time to emphasize the play as a living thing (particularly in light of how interactive theater was during the seventeenth-century).
Merchant of Venice
Shylocke:
I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond:
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:…
I'll have my bond; I will not hear thee speak:
I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
I'll have no speaking: I will have my bond.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Solanio:
_____________________ have my bond.
It is the most impenetrable cur
That ever kept with men.
Romeo and Juliet
Nurse:
Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she--God rest all Christian souls!--
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me: but, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua:--
Nay, I do bear a brain:--but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
And then my husband--God be with his soul!
A' was a merry man--took up the child:
'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'
______________________ hold thy peace.
Nurse:
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.'
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone;
A parlous knock; and it cried bitterly:
'Yea,' quoth my husband,'fall'st upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' it stinted and said 'Ay.'
_________________________ nurse, say I.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_____________________________ and said “Ay”.
Lady Capulet:
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_____________________ and said “Ay”.
Juliet:
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
This next activity might be helpful to do before starting a play or near the play’s beginning. It addresses issues of decoding the text and increases understanding of character. In general, when working with cue scripts, it can be helpful to have students consider the implication of roles/parts as discussed in the introduction to cue scripts. Half of the class should receive one character’s lines for a scene (Cue Script 1) and the other half of the class should receive the other half of the dialogue (Cue Script 2). First, have students work alone, answering the following questions based on the cue script that they received:
- What do you know about your character based on your part?
- What do you know about the other character in the scene?
- Can you tell what’s going on in this scene?
- What do you think will happen next?
After this, you may choose for students using the same cue script to meet and discuss their answers to these questions to compare understanding. Then, each student should pair up with a student who has the opposite cue script. Each group should be made up of a student with Cue Script 1 and a student with Cue Script 2. With their partners, students should perform their scenes. (This should be fun! Have students stand up and attempt to get into their roles a little bit.) After performing, the pairs should discuss how they answered their questions and how their answers may have changed after performing the entire scene. You may choose to debrief afterwards with a class discussion about how their understanding of the text may have changed through performance.