*"Hey - that's weird - how come that really famous line has 11 syllables when every other line in the play only has 10. I wonder if there's something odd about the pronounciation".
Surely English teacher should know about metre and wonder... 'Thane of Glamis, and Cawdor too' (IIRC) wouldn't go dum-di-dum-di-dum-di-dum with 2 syllables in Glamis. You have no idea how little my phone liked that!
"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king"
"Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;"
"The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do"*
Loving the suggestions that the entire play is written in iambic pentameter. How boring would that be?
If you actually count the syllables in the lines, they are all over the pace, and Shakespeare used all sorts of different feet - not just iambs. So you can never really rely on the meter to help you scan the later plays...
Or the rhyme. I remember the struggles I faced at the age of 14 and playing Puck, with the lines:
When in that moment, so it came to pass, (which I only ever pronounced "parse")
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.