ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the importance of visualizing Shakespeare’s language. It begins with an exploration of the actor’s physical role: the paper script containing the part’s dialogue words and a few cue-words and phrases. Using the parts of Juliet and Romeo upon their first encounter, it shows how seeing Shakespeare’s language is essential to a full understanding of how it works. Looking at Romeo and Juliet’s vocabulary, formal structures, and rhyme, it demonstrates that comprehending style visually is an important “way in” to Shakespeare’s works.
