Shakespearean Monologues - To Rhyme, or Not to Rhyme?

Question

For my high school's production of Romeo and Juliet, we have to memorize a Shakespearean monologue over the summer. It must be gender-appropriate [which sucks] and relatively age-appropriate. No British accents either.

I've chosen to do a monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's the one at the end of Act I, Scene I, where Helena is whining about Demetrius and Hermia, and ends up deciding that she's going to tell Demetrius where Hermia went with Lysander.

The ending stanza? is 'But herein mean I to enrich my pain/To have his sight thither and back again.' My question is, do I rhyme pain with again? Or do I leave it as 'uh-gen'?

I'd be very much obliged to anyone who could help me out with my situation. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

again is usually pronounced as in "a gain in the stock market", which would make it rhyme with pain.  The British pronounce uh-gen to make it accessible to Americans.  Shakespeare wrote it to deliberately rhyme.  These characters RELISH the language, and rhyming is part of the 'cleverness' of the speech.  They enjoy the rhymes.  It is dumbing it down for American ears to do otherwise.  British accents are unnecessary-that's what 'Mid-Atlantic' means.  Clear and crisp.

Answer 2

don't worry about the pronunciation with shakespeare. you do NOT have to have a british dialect in order to do shakespeare much less perform it. the main challenge with his works is to a) know what the heck you're saying and b) be able to sound and communicate to your audience what you think is being said...not to sound british. knock that way little detail out of your head. follow the punctuation. if you follow the punctuation instead of the rhyme at the end of each sentence, you find a conversational aspect of shakespeare's work. his natural iambic pentimeter rhythm and the thoughts of the character is what you need to focus on and don't even worry about rhyming.

Answer 3

You do not have to rhyme and it will probably sound fake and forced if you do.  Your teacher has told you no British accents so pronounce the word naturally.  In his time, I'm sure that Shakespeare wrote it to rhyme, but performing it in your natural accent is perfectly acceptable.  The thing that makes Shakespeare move you is the ebb and flow of the words.  The beauty is the language he is providing you with, the words he uses, not how they are pronounced.  (Unless it is something with an -ed on the end which could inturrupt the flow of the iambic pentameter).