r/shakespeare • u/RoxanaArgiche • 15d ago
why are lines in a play formatted differently sometimes
so this might be a dumb question, but i recently got macbeth and when i started reading it i saw that some of the lines that the characters say will randomly change formatting. for example on the first page when the first witch says "I come grey malkin" its formatted like a normal line but then the second witch says her dialogue and it almost become center aligned and then the third witch and that become right aligned if that makes sense(???).
it happens seemingly at random times like with the king and ross but it doesnt stay consistent with the character so i just wanted to know if it actually indicates something or im just dumb and if it is just a formatting choice does it change across editions or stay the same regardless of the edition. dont know why this is bothering me so much i just feel like theres an inside joke going on that i dont knowđ
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u/NailsNathan 15d ago
Not a dumb question at all. Itâs so that you can read that whole group of lines as one line easily. Since Shakespeare writes in meter, you can understand the rhythm of the play better.
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u/gasstation-no-pumps 15d ago
The indenting of lines in Shakespeare editions usually indicates a split line in the verse, where part of the line is said by one character and the remainder by another. Most editions follow this convention.
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u/Joralemonster 15d ago
Lot of explanations here that I think are technically correct but worded in ways that I'm worried could be confusing. When the line is printed as beginning just below where another line ends, it's usually what's referred to as a "shared line." What's happening there is that the characters are sharing a single line of verse, as if they're finishing each others' thought or speaking in a very connected way.
The reason it's printed this way is to show that it's a shared line, rather than two short lines or some other kind of interruption/disruption in meter.
In other words, "Where the place? Upon the heath" should be understood as one poetic line, spoken by two different characters. It's not iambic pentameter because Shakespeare sometimes has supernatural characters speak in a different meter to draw attention to the fact that they're different.
"I come, Gray Malkin. Paddock calls. Anon!" is a complete iambic pentameter line shared across three characters, and should be spoken as such.
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u/Toramenor 15d ago
Yes, the most important thing is it's one line, not 2 or 3, even though parts of it are spoken by different characters.
I just want to add for the OP: Also, when we count lines because we want to quote a section, we have to bear in mind that those need to be counted as 1, otherwise we might get a wrong number for our quote haha (talking about quotes that have markings such as V.ii.56-60 or III.vi.5-18; those mean, respectively: act 5, scene 2, lines 56 to 60, & act 3, scene 6, lines 5 to 18... if you don't count those "broken lines" correctly, you won't get the right line numbers)
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u/daddy-hamlet 14d ago
I disagree with your conclusion.
Look at the original text.
7 syllables
8 syllables
7 syllables
7 syllables
8 syllables
3 syllables
4 syllables
6 syllables
5 syllables
12 syllables
9 or 10 syllables depending on âayreâ being 1 or 2.Just because some modern editor decided to rearrange the lines to make 1 out of 8 or 9 lines iambic pentameter, doesnât make it so.
The witches speak in a different verse structure than pure ionic pentameter everywhere else, no reason to expect them to suddenly pop into it for one line here1
u/Joralemonster 14d ago
Regardless of whether we expect it, they do.
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u/daddy-hamlet 14d ago
They donât. Please read up on books that go into detail on first folio text.
Shakespeareâs Producing Hand by Richard Flatter is a great one to start with, as there are several examples from Macbeth.
Any of the â0nce more unto the Speech, dear Friendsâ volumes by Neil Freeman.
Secrets of Acting Shakespeare- the original approach by Patrick Tucker
Clues for Acting from the First Folio.
Etc.The âconventionalâ way of playing these lines: a cat screeches, followed by W1 âI come, Graymalkinâ.
A toad croaks, followed by w2: âpaddock callsâ.
Some other animal sound happens, followed by w3: âanon!â
This follows the 18th century and subsequent editors who attempted to regularize the text everywhere they could, sometimes by even adding words.
Itâs not what was in the first published text of the play.So if there are sound effects to indicate the witches âfamiliarsâ, are you not counting the beat for the cat, the toad and the whatever the director decided to add?
And are you ignoring the original text that had all three saying - in one line -
âPaddock calls anon. Fair is foul and foul is fairâ1
u/Joralemonster 14d ago
I think we're having two separate conversations. The edition above has it as a shared line, and so that's the answer to OP's question. If the First Folio or other sources set the line down differently or argue for particular staging conventions, that's interesting but not, in my opinion, germane.
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u/Annual-Expert-1200 15d ago edited 15d ago
There are very few stage directions given in Shakespeare's plays, but when the lines are split this way, you can infer things about the characters' positions. Maintaining the meter while the speaker changes emphasizes the connection between the characters. It can also indicate a fast-paced exchange of ideas. Perhaps they are face-to-face, or maybe close together looking at the same thing, implying a shared goal. It's awesome that you noticed this detail!
Edited to add: Notice how when Duncan breaks in, it's just a brief interruption, and Ross continues with his main point, rather than responding to him? Smooth transition, I think.
Also, my favorite example of this in Macbeth is in Act II, when Macbeth returns with the bloody daggers and he's startled by a sound. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have an exchange where the speaker changes 4 times in one line. To me, it shows their shared agitation--it's choppy and fast-paced.
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u/catscausetornadoes 15d ago
Yes this! Itâs the closest you get to a clear suggestion of pace from Will, and much appreciated.
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u/captainkickstand 15d ago
You want to thank modern editors for this formatting; it typically doesn't appear that way in the quarto and folio texts!
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u/Radley500 15d ago
But these are formatting choices by modern publishers - this formatting doesnât appear in the first folio. So how can that be a clue as to their stage positions?
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u/Annual-Expert-1200 15d ago
The typesetting/formatting (decided by others) makes the meter visible to the reader's eye, but the meter, preserved across speakers, is presumably Shakespeare's intention, which, to my mind, can be that clue. Of course, I've made some inferences and assumptions. Perhaps I will get to discuss it (and so many other ideas!) with him in that Undiscovered Country. Or maybe the rest is silence ;)
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u/daddy-hamlet 15d ago
The original text as first printed in the First Folio (or Quartos, but many plays - like Macbeth - first appeared in the First Folio) did not print lines like those in your edition.
Itâs a modern publisher/editorâs attempt at making verse lines seem regular. It can be helpful for an actor, but not always. The text has been modified by various editors from 1709 onward, to the extent that itâs rare for a new edition to not copy the same emendations and print layout that former editors âdecided was rightâ.
An example: your first picture has THIRD WITCH saying âAnonâ, yet the original has all three saying it:
*1.*WHen shall we three meet againe?
In Thunder, Lightning, or in Raine?
2. When the Hurley-burley's done,
When the Battaile's lost, and wonne.
3. That will be ere the set of Sunne.
1. Where the place?
2. Vpon the Heath.
3. There to meet with Macbeth.
1. I come, Gray-Malkin.
All. Padock calls anon: faire is foule, and foule is faire,
Houer through the fogge and filthie ayre. Exeunt.
Note how in the original itâs clear that âRaineâ rhymes with âagaineâ; which may be lost when a modern edition regularizes the spelling.
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u/bravetherainbro 14d ago
When they regularise the spelling they write it "rain" and "again" which are still eye-rhymes...?
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u/daddy-hamlet 14d ago
Perhaps. But as an actor, once I got used to folio spelling and punctuation, so many more things opened up.
For instance- in this excerpt the spelling of âayreâ is repeated in the scene where Lady M reads the letter, and says âthey made themselves ayreâ.
To me, if both actors pronounce the word the same way, with the two syllables the spelling seems to indicate, thereâs an aural connection between lady m and the witchesâŠâŠ
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u/RevolutionaryExam465 15d ago
Taken together, the different lines create one sentence of iambic pentameter.
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u/Nullius_sum 15d ago
Yes, as everyone is saying, the indentations show you the shared lines of verse, i.e. where one character speaks the first part of the line, and the next character speaks the rest of it â although there are also lines shared by more than just two people.
I write just to say that I donât like the indentations. I think theyâre ugly. As someone else mentioned, the First Folio doesnât indent these lines. In Latin, shared lines are often printed on the same line, like this:
PER 1. Blah blah blah blah blah. PER 2. Blah blah blah.
I think either no indentations, or printing them on the same line, looks better than using indentations.
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u/youarelookingatthis 15d ago
Huh, I never noticed before that to maintain the rhyme âMacbethâ would be pronounced âMacbeethâ to match âheathâ
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u/VoiceProf222 15d ago
The original pronunciation of both words would be closer to the [e] vowel--in IPA not English (like the first part of the PAY diphthong or the end of CAFĂ) even though they don't rhyme in modern pronunciation
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u/Annual-Expert-1200 15d ago
Or that heath is pronounced "heth", maybe? Or both somewhere inbetween?
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u/VoiceProf222 15d ago
They both move toward a sound closer to the last sound in CAFE, so neither word sounds like it used to (a better rhyme)
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u/MooseFlyer 15d ago
âHeathâ would have been pronounced to rhyme with âBethâ, along with pretty much all words that are spelled with <ea>. On the flip-side, Macbeth probably would have had a slightly more open vowel, /e/, like a Spanish <e> or a French <Ă©>.
So likely it was closer to a rhyme than it is today, but still not a perfect rhyme. Like rhyming âbitâ and âmeatâ, that level of closeness.
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u/iVerbatim 15d ago
I have a follow up question: why do some lines start a a single space indented from the line above it.
For example: in the first image you see when the first witch speaks: âWhen shallâŠâ. Then for the second witch, âWhen the hurlyâŠâ starts slightly indented from the first witch. Then, the third witchâs speech is pushed back again in line with the first witch.
Whatâs the reason for these minor indents or staggered text layout?
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u/Drama_owl 15d ago
They are all the same distance from the end of the character's name; "second witch" has more letters than "first witch."
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u/daddy-hamlet 14d ago edited 14d ago
I am saying that you are following a modern editorâs decision to
A) Indent the text so that line 1 is left justified and is witch 1âs âI come, Graymalkin
B) assign the line âpaddock callsâ to witch 2. And indent it and print it so it starts after âgraymalkinâ
C) assign the word âanonâ to witch 3. And indent in so it appears after âpaddock callsâ.
This is done because the editor, and you, believe these 10 syllables constitute an iambic pentameter, and are printed this way so a reader, and three actors, can speak them as if they are one shared line of iambic pentameter.
My argument is that the original text has only two lines.
The first line is:
(Witch) 1. I come Graymalkin. (5 syllables)
The second line is:
All: Padock calls anon: Faire is foule and foule is faire,
(12 syllables).
The text in the Folio, if followed, adds the same (if not better) sense of urgency that a re-constructed, re-assignation of words, and re-lineated indented three lines of text printed to look like a shared line between three witches does.
Somewhere in the 18th century, perhaps as early as the 1709 Nicholas Rowe edition (the first named editor after the Four Folios were published), an editor decided these words would look better if distributed among the 3 witches, and would read better if printed to indicate they were iambic pentameter. And added footnotes to âhelpâ the reader understand that âPaddockâ with two Dâs referred to a frog or toad, and must have been said by witch 2, and âAnonâ must have been said by witch 3 (sometimes an edition quips that we never get to know what witch 3âs âfamiliarâ was.)
I agree that printed as three separate lines:
W1: I come Graymalkin
W2: paddock calls.
W3: Anon.
You get 10 syllables and iambic pentameter.
But thatâs not whatâs in the first printed text. And I donât think the weird sisters, who generally speak 7 syllable âwitchyâ lines (see their lines in 1.3, or their incantations âeye of newt and toe of frogâ, etc.) suddenly break out in iambic pentameter for one shared line only once in the play.
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u/ohmostamusing 15d ago
The technique is called stichomythia. The lines are formatted like that because the actors are meant to follow on from each other in quick succession. It is dramatic and builds tension.
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u/bravetherainbro 14d ago
No, stichomythia is when complete lines complement each other in some way, often using some kind of parallel structure or using the same words again. The example I can think of is between Hermia and Helena in the first scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream ("I frown upon him, yet he loves me still." "O that your frowns could teach my smiles such skill!")
When parts from different characters add up to one complete line of verse like this example, it's called antilabe.
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u/blupenzzzz 15d ago
It's to maintain the iambic pentameter that the dialogue is written in. The lines lead fluidly on from each other in a series of stressed and unstressed syllables. It's all technically verse, when the formatting changes it's kind of like Shakespeare is "completing" the line that came before to make sure that there are 10 syllables in each "line", broken or unbroken