Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare

Transcription

1 Word detectives Teaching notes This resource was originally published on the Collaborative Learning website and was designed with EAL students in mind. Collaborative learning is not about simplifying tasks, but about making difficult work more co-operative and playful. Much Ado About Nothing presents more difficulties than most at word level and particularly in the prose passages. This activity tries to provide a way into word study that could be used at all phases and by all students. It encourages co-operative talk around modern meanings, and coaxes students into making intelligent guesses as to what Shakespeare meant. It is in effect an alternative approach to the glossary - text - dictionary one. The idea here is to first help students to focus on their understanding of what the word means in modern parlance (a good opportunity for collaborative talk), and then have a collaborative go at understanding the word in a Shakespearean context. You could provide dictionaries and the text of the play to encourage them to find their way around the text and look up line numbers. If you are working at KS3 each pair could be given no more than five or six words and quotations so that when they feed back to the other pair and subsequently to the rest of the class there will be only a few experts in the class for the words they have studied Page 1 of 7

2 Introduction Words work hard and carry a lot of meanings. The words stay around for us to use, but the meanings change over the years. Much Ado About Nothing contains a large number of words that carry disappeared meanings. This activity turns you into word detectives. Instructions This activity works best if you are in groups of four. You work as two pairs. Each pair needs a set of cards. First sort the cards into word cards and quotation cards. Then do the following tasks. Choose a word card and decide on its present day meaning with your partner. Write one or two sentences on a slip of paper that show its meaning well. Find the quotation card where Shakespeare uses the word. Now exchange your word card, the quotation card and your sentences with the other pair. Look at the word in Shakespeare s quotation. Can you work out his meaning? Try to write a modern sentence using Shakespeare s meaning of the word. Share your sentence with the other pair, and with the rest of the class when invited Page 2 of 7

3 Word detectives words and quotations sort Leon: How many gentlemen have you lost in the action? Mess.: But few of any sort, and none of name. Act 1 Scene 1 line 5 measure Leon.: Did he break out into tears? Mess.: In great measure. Act 1 Scene 1 line 23 badge Mess.: I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him, even so much that joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness. Act 1 Scene 1 line 20 guarded Bene.:The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither. Act 1 Scene 1 line 266 bills Beat.: He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng d Cupid at the flight, and my uncle s fool, reading the challenge, subscrib d for Cupid and challenged him at the burbolt. Act 1 Scene 1 line 36 break Ant: if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Act 1 Scene 2 line 13 flight Beat.: He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng d Cupid at the flight, and my uncle s fool, reading the challenge, subscrib d for Cupid and challenged him at the burbolt. Act 1 Scene 1 line 37 top Ant: if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Act 1 Scene 2 line Page 3 of 7

4 difference Beat.: In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one, so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse Act 1 Scene 1 line 65 wit Leon : Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? Act 1 Scene 2 line 15 block Beat.: He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. Act 1 Scene 1 line 72 carriage Don John:I had rather be a canker in the hedge than a rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any. Act 1 Scene 3 line 27 repair Don Pedro: In the meantime good, good Signor Benedick, repair to Leonato s Act 1 Scene 1 line 256 stomach Don John: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man s jests; eat when I have stomach Act 1 Scene 3 line 14 books Mess.: I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. Act 1 Scene 1 line 74 humour Beat.: I thank God and my cold blood, I am not of your humour for that; I would rather hear a dog bark at crow, than a man swear he loves me. Act 1 Scene 1 line Page 4 of 7

5 shrewd Leon.: By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue. Act 2 Scene 1 line 17 light on Leon.: You may light on a husband that hath no beard. Act 2 Scene 1 line 28 kind Leon.: If the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know our answer. Act 2 Scene 1 line 59 apprehend Leon.: Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. Act 2 Scene 1 line 71 passing Leon.: Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly Act 2 Scene 1 line 71 shrewdly Leon.: Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly Act 2 Scene 1 line 71 banquet Don John: Come, let us to the banquet. Act 2 Scene 1 line 156 Mark Bene.: I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. Act 2 Scene 1 line Page 5 of 7

6 conjure Bene.: I would to God some scholar would conjure her, for certainly while she is here a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary Act 2 Scene 1 line 237 queasy Don Pedro: in despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. Act 2 Scene 2 line 355 drift Don Pedro: Go in with me and I will tell you my drift. Act 2 Scene 1 line 358 temper Bora.: The poison of that lies in you to temper. Act 2 Scene 2 line 19 stale Bora.: spare not to tell him that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio,,to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero. Act 2 Scene 2 line 23 shift Don Pedro: No, no, faith; thou sing st well enough for a shift Act 2 Scene 3 line 79 stalk Claud.: O ay, stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits. Act 2 Scene 3 line 94 gull Bene.: I should think this is a gull, but that the white bearded fellow speaks it. Act 2 Scene 3 line Page 6 of 7

7 tender Leon.: If she should make tender of her love, tis very possible he ll scorn it Act 2 Scene 3 line 175 proper Claud.: He is a very proper man. Act 2 Scene 3 line 178 sadly Bene.:This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne; they have the truth of it from Hero. Act 2 Scene 3 line 214 bent Bene.: It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it must be requited. Act 2 Scene 3 line 216 luxurious Claud.: She knows the heat of a luxurious bed. / Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. Act 4 Scene 1 line 39 approved Claud.: Not to be married, not to knit my soul / With an approved wanton. Act 4 Scene 1 line 43 tale Dog.: Fore God, they are both in a tale. Act 4 Scene 2 line 39 naughty Dog.: Thou naughty varlet! Act 4 Scene 2 line Page 7 of 7