Iambic Pentameter is just what it sounds like. There are words that are stressed and unstressed and 10 syllables a line.
Example: Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Thou (stressed) art (unstressed) more (stressed) Lov (unstressed) ely (stressed) and (unstressed) more (stressed) temp (unstressed) er (stressed) ate (unstressed).
10 syllables.
That is besides the point however. What you need to look at is punctuation. Iambic Pentameter is of course and most definitely used in his plays, but when acting it out, you don't want to sound so sing-songy. That should be saved more for his sonnets.
There is a rule for the punctutation used in his plays. At a period, wait a second before you read on. At a comma, wait a half second before you continue on. And if there is no punctutation at the end of the line, continue on as if the line continued on. It makes it ten times easier for the audience to understand and it sounds like it should.
For example: (from Macbeth *which happened to be open right next to me rofl*)
"Imfirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll guild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt."
That is how it looks. However you should read it like this:
Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll guild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their fault.
You also want to read at a somewhat fast pace. It might sound odd, but it helps the audience to understand better.
ETA: The Leonardo Decaprio version is not very acurate lol. It's good, but not something to watch if you want to see "Romeo and Juliet". That modern version does not show it how Shakespeare intended it.
