QUOTING SHAKESPEARE

Writing Portfolio – Evidence Support (MLA)

TIPS FOR QUOTING

If the verse is one to four lines long, you should use the line division symbol (/) to indicate the beginning of the next line. Here is an example:

ROMEO & LOVE

Romeo’s self-centered childish play towards himself and unaware of the person he loves is revealed in the following example: “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, / Too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn” ( Act I, Sc. 5, 25). That is to say, ………

> 4 LINES

However, if your verse runs longer than four lines, you must write the lines one below the other as you do when you write poetry

QUOTE SET-OFFRomeo’s elaborate and extravagant terms of beauty and love reveal his exaggerated infatuation for Rosaline when he says,

Love is smoke raised with the fumes of signs;Being purged, a fire sparkling in lover’s eyes.Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.What is it else? A madness most discreetA choking gull and preserving so sweet. (Act I, Sc. 1, 5).

Moreover, it is evident that Romeo is in love with the idea of love littering his speech with exaggerated language such as an oxymoron in the last line revealing that his love is only skin deep for Rosaline.