Mr. Great-With-Accents

I have a student whom we will refer to as Mr. Great-With-Accents and while reading Act One, Scene One of Romeo and Juliet in class the other day, I pulled out the ol' prop box to get my period four students properly attired. Mr. Great-With-Accents was portraying the role of Prince (that's Prince Escalus for those of you who don't teach Shakespeare's classic tragedy... which I assume is most of you) so he had a purple robe and a crown to wear upon his head.

There was a lot of thumb-biting and threatening of stealing Montagues' maidenheads before the Prince made his grand appearance. But GRAND APPEARANCE he did make!

When it came time for Mr. Great-With-Accents to take the stage, he did so with open arms and a booming voice. Just as Prince Escalus is meant to do, Mr. Great-With-Accents parted the red/blue sea of Capulets and Montagues (my students wear appropriately colored crowns while acting out the drama) and demanded attention.

He then proceeded to read the following without stammering or stumbling over the antiquated language:

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,

Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel — Will they not hear? What, ho! You men, you beasts

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage

With purple fountains issuing from your veins —

On pain of torture, from those bloody hands

Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground.

And hear the sentence of your movèd prince. Three civil brawls bred of an airy word,

By thee old Capulet and Montague,

Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets,

And made Verona's ancient citizens

Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments,

To wield old partisans in hands as old,

Cankered with peace to part your cankered hate. If ever you disturb our streets again,

Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. For this time, all the rest depart away.

You, Capulet, shall go along with me;

And Montague, come you this afternoon,

To know our farther pleasure in this case, To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.

Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

To a lot (if not most) of you, this is probably a rather dull exchange. But let me tell you... when Mr. Great-With-Accents read the above lines, he did so with fluctuating accents.

He began with a British accent, because that's what another student had requested everyone use (and, surprisingly, many of them did). A British accent was apparently too mundane for Mr. Great-With-Accents, however. About a third of the way through his presentation, he began to roll his R's and pretend he was Scottish. That was my favorite! And then, for no logical reason, the ruler of Verona became an Australian native. It was hilarious!

When I praised Mr. Great-With-Accents at the end of class, he merely shrugged his shoulders and said quite humbly, "I used to act when I was a little kid."

Today he portrayed Juliet, which was equally amusing. Decked out in a wig, a tiara, and heart glasses, Mr. Great-With-Accents stood on a desk (it was the balcony scene, after all) and managed a British accent in a high-pitched voice. It was wonderful!

I'm kind of excited about what comes next! Fingers crossed that Mr. Great-With-Accents accepts another role. 🤞🏼