Punctuation in Shakespeare is very important to conveying the thought. Many say that Shakespeare used his punctuation as clues. When you have actors memorizing the plays so quickly it is important to give clues as to what/how to say certain words. I came across two websites: one is a blog (The Bard Blog) and the other is a keenotes.es article. Both websites delve into the punctuation of Shakespeare. In the Bard Blog’s, Speaking With Shakespeare’s Punctuation a more conversational approach is taken to explain. The author even notes how some scholars have changed the punctuation over the years in order to make it more understandable—i.e. re-punctuation. The author uses an excerpt from King Lear to point out that the first folio only has one period in the whole bit of text and compares it to an edited version that is full of punctuation.
In Acting With Shakespeare’s Punctuation found on keenotes.es, readers get a more bulleted version of what to look for in terms of punctuation. The author uses a cut from the first folio of Hamlet then breaks the punctuation down into the categories: commas, semi-colons, colons, dashes, parentheses, and periods/exclamation points/question marks. Interestingly enough, I noticed later on while researching that the Bard Blog article is a suggested link on the keenotes.es page. I highly recommend taking a look at these first folios especially if you have never used/seen a first folio cut before.
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