http://mikeymike.vox.com/library/post/shakespeare-music.html Everybody on this blog by now knows that I’m teaching my kids to memorize Shakespeare by singing it. Now I’ve got a book to point to that says why that may indeed work better :). “Music, Language and the Brain” specifically cites Shakespeare for his “wonderfully talented use of rhythm, imagery and auditory patterns.”
People always ask the actors at the Shakespeare Tavern how they learn all those lines. Our Falstaff (etc.) says the verse, with rhyme and rhythm, makes it so easy.