II. With Initial Truncation.
III. With Internal Truncation after the caesura.
IV. With Initial Truncation and Truncation after the caesura.
In this five-foot metre all the Germanic licences of the even-beat rhythm may occur in the same way as in the other even-beat metres. The caesura, for instance, may occur in both (or all three) varieties in the five-foot verse of Chaucer and of many other poets, either after or within any of the remaining feet. Hence the structure of this metrical form gains to an extraordinary degree in complexity.
By the mere fact that the variations adduced above may also occur after the first, third, and fourth foot, the number of verse-forms produced by the above-mentioned types of caesura in combination with initial truncation and the different kinds of verse-ending rises to sixty-four, to say nothing of the other metrical licences due to inversion of accent, level stress, and the presence of hypermetrical unaccented syllables at the beginning, or in the middle and the end of the line. At any rate, the varieties of even-beat metres, especially of the five-foot verse, resulting from these metrical licences, are much more numerous than those connected with the five main types of the alliterative hemistich. The great diversity of rhythm allowed by this metrical theory has, indeed, been objected to, but evidently without sufficient reason, and, as it seems, only because of the unfamiliarity of the idea.
§ 153. This variable position of the caesura is, however, not found in the earliest specimens of this metre presented to us in the two poems in the Harl. MS. 2253 dating from the second half of the thirteenth century, which are edited in Wright’s Specimens of Lyric Poetry, Nos. xl and xli (wrongly numbered xlii).[149] These are written in tripartite eight-lined, anisometrical stanzas of the form a4 b3 a4 b3 c5 c5 d7 d5, in which the fifth, sixth, and eighth lines are evidently of five feet. Ten Brink,[150] it is true, says that he has not been able ‘to convince himself that this was a genuine instance of a metre which—whether in origin or character—might be identified with Chaucer’s heroic verse, although in isolated instances it seems to coincide with it’. According to my conviction, there is not the slightest doubt as to the structure of these verses as lines of five feet, and Ten Brink has not expressed any opinion as to the nature of the verse to which they must otherwise be referred.[151]
In both these poems there occur only verses of the type indicated by the formulas 3, 4, 7, 12:
Among the Germanic licences the presence of a disyllabic initial or internal thesis is most noticeable in these which are, so far as is known, the earliest five-foot verses in English poetry; as, e.g. in xli. 33, 34:
§ 154. The main difference between Chaucer’s five-foot verse and these early specimens of this metre is that the caesura does not always occupy a fixed place in it, but is liable to shift its position.[152] It is either masculine, epic, or lyric, and occurs chiefly after the second or in and after the third foot, or in the fourth, so that there are thus (in Chaucer’s verse and that of most of the following poets) six main types of caesura:
1. Masculine (monosyllabic) caesura after the second foot; the principal kind (types 1 and 3):
2. Feminine (disyllabic) epic caesura after the second foot; far rarer (types 2 and 4):
3. Feminine (disyllabic) lyric caesura in the third foot; more frequent than the preceding (types 10 and 12):
4. Masculine (monosyllabic) caesura after the third foot (first subordinate type to 1 and 3 = 1 a and 3 a):
5. Feminine (disyllabic) epic caesura after the third foot, rare (first subordinate type to 2 and 4 = 2a and 4a:
6. Feminine lyric caesura in the fourth foot (first subordinate type to 10 and 12 = 10a and 12a):
Besides these six principal caesuras we also find all the three types occurring in rarer instances in the corresponding remaining positions of the verse, namely, after the first or in the second foot, and after the fourth or in the fifth foot. Enjambement often gives rise to logical caesuras in unusual positions, alongside of which another metrical caesura is generally noticeable in one of the usual positions:
By the various combinations of such principal and subordinate caesuras the number of the varieties of this metre is increased to an almost unlimited extent. Many lines also are devoid of the caesura completely, or, at most, admit, under the influence of the general rhythm, a light metrical caesura without any strict logical need, as, for instance, when it occurs after a conjunction or a preposition, as in the verses:
§ 155. The end also of the line may be either masculine or feminine. Both kinds occur side by side on a perfectly equal footing, the feminine endings probably somewhat oftener in Chaucer’s verse owing to the numerous terminations consisting of e or e + consonant which were still pronounced at his time. Besides the variety in the caesura and the end of the verse, the well-known licences of even-beat rhythm play a considerable part; as, for instance, inversion of accent, ordinary and rhetorical, at the beginning of the verse and after the caesura: rédy to wénden Prol. 21; Sýngynge he wás ib. 91; Schórt was his góune ib. 93; Tróuthe and honóur, frédom and cóurteisíe ib. 46.
Although omission of the anacrusis is on the whole unfrequent, it yet undoubtedly occurs (cf. p. 137, footnote):
Disyllabic theses are often found initially and internally.
Similar rhythmical phenomena are caused by the slurring of syllables, such, e.g., as Many a, tharray from the array, &c., &c., in regard to which reference should be made to the chapter on the metrical value of syllables.
Level stress occurs most frequently in Chaucer in rhyme: fifténe: Trámasséne 61–2; daggére: spere 113–14; thing: writýng 325–6. Enjambement and rhyme-breaking are used by him with great skill (cf. §§ 92, 93)
§ 156. In later Middle English this metre on the whole retained the same character, and individual poets vary from one another only in a few points.
Of Gower’s five-foot verse only short specimens are preserved. Like his four-foot verse, they are very generally regular. Inversion of accent is the licence he most often employs. Gower uses almost exclusively the masculine caesura after the second foot and the lyric caesura in the third foot. But epic caesura also occasionally occurs in his verse:
A decline in the technique of the five-foot verse begins with Lydgate and Hoccleve.
These writers deprived the caesura of its mobility and admitted it almost exclusively after the second beat. Hoccleve uses hardly any caesuras but the masculine and lyric, whilst in Lydgate’s verse epic caesura is often met with (cf. p. 211). Both indulge in the licences of initial truncation and omission of the unaccented syllable after the caesura (cf. l. c.) as well as level stress and the admission of several unaccented syllables at the beginning of the verse and internally; there are even cases of the omission of unaccented syllables in the middle of the verse:
The slight license of inversion of accent is also taken advantage of.
Stephen Hawes and Barclay again imparted to this line greater freedom with regard to the caesura. And yet the metre exhibits under their hands, in consequence of the frequent occurrence of disyllabic initial and internal theses, a somewhat uneven rhythm.
The ablest of the successors of Chaucer, in technique as in other respects, are the Scots: Blind Harry, Henrysoun, King James I, Douglas, and Dunbar. The verse of Dunbar, in particular, stands on an equality with Chaucer’s in rhythmical euphony, while David Lyndesay often struggles with difficulties of form, and, by frequent use of level stress, offends against the first principle of even-beat rhythm, viz. the coincidence of the metrical accent with the natural accentuation of the word and sentence.
§ 157. In Modern English the rhymed five-foot verse remains essentially the same as in the Middle English period. Feminine rhymes are indeed rarer than in Middle English poetry in consequence of the disuse of flexional endings.
For the same reason, and owing to the advance in technical execution, the epic caesura is also rarer. Still, examples of this as well as of the other kind of caesuras employed by Chaucer are found in Modern English:
In positions nearer to the beginning or the end of the line the different kinds of caesura are also rare in Modern English, and occur mostly in consequence of enjambements.
In Wyatt’s poems epic caesuras are found in comparatively large number; in Spenser, on the other hand, they are probably entirely lacking, owing to a finer feeling for the technique of the verse.
Inversions of accent occur in the usual positions and at all times with all the poets. Level stress, on the other hand, is more frequently detected in such poets as do not excel in technical skill, as, for instance, in Wyatt and Donne, who also admit initial truncation, and more rarely the omission of a thesis in the middle of the line. In their poems disyllabic theses also often occur initially and internally, while more careful poets more rarely permit themselves these licences. To Wyatt’s charge must be laid further the unusual and uncouth licence of unaccented rhyme, such rhymes, for example, as begínnìng: eclípsìng, p. 56, 1–3; dréadèth: séekèth, inclósèd: oppréssèd 54, &c. In other poets this peculiarity is hardly ever found.
§ 158. In narrative poetry the five-foot verse rhyming in couplets, heroic verse, was a favourite metre. As a close in the sense coincides with that of each couplet, this metre tends to assume an epigrammatic tone, especially since enjambement seldom occurs after the Restoration. To avoid the monotony thus occasioned, many Restoration poets linked three verses together by one and the same rhyme, whereby the regular sequence of couplets was then interrupted wherever they pleased. Sometimes such threefold rhymes (triplets) serve the purpose of laying a special stress on particular passages, a practice which is, moreover, to be observed as early as in some contemporaries of Shakespeare, e.g. in Donne. A somewhat freer structure than that of the heroic verse is, as a rule, exhibited by the five-foot line when employed in poems in stanza form. In this verse a considerable part is played by enjambement. This also holds good for the rhymed five-foot verse employed in dramatic poetry, which usually rhymes in couplets, though alternate rhymes are occasionally used.
After Lyly’s The Maid’s Metamorphosis, entirely written in heroic verse, this metre was chiefly employed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries for prologues and epilogues. Rhymed five-foot verses frequently occur in Shakespeare’s earlier dramas, e.g. in Romeo and Juliet, where their technical structure is found to be fairly strict. In his later dramas, on the other hand, e.g. in the Prologue and Epilogue to Henry VIII, the heroic verse is, on the analogy of the freer treatment of his later blank verse, also more loosely constructed. Enjambement, and the caesuras connected with it after the first and fourth accents, are often met with.
§ 159. Dryden’s dramatic heroic verse does not differ essentially from that of his satirical poems and translations. After Dryden returned to blank verse for dramatic writing, heroic verse ceased to be employed for this purpose. Rhymed verse, rhyming in couplets and stanzas, however, still continued to be in vogue in lyrical, satirical, didactic, and narrative poetry.
Pope’s heroic verse is still more uniformly constructed than that of Dryden. Both poets hardly ever employ any caesura but the masculine and the lyric after the second and third beat, and the end of the line is almost exclusively masculine. Initial truncation or the absence of an unaccented syllable internally is hardly to be met with in their poems. The earlier diversity in the structure of this line was (under the influence of the French models whom they closely imitated) considerably restricted. Even transposition of accent occurs comparatively seldom, so that the word-accent generally exactly coincides with the rhythmical accent. Enjambement is, however, employed more frequently by Dryden than by Pope; and the former, moreover, occasionally admits at the close of a triplet a verse of six feet, while Pope, in his original poems, completely avoids triplets as well as six-accent lines. The breaking of rhyme both poets purposely exclude.
A similar uniform character is exhibited by the heroic verse of most of the poets of the eighteenth century. It is not before the nineteenth century that this metre, in spite of the persistence of individual poets, e.g. Byron, in adhering to the fashion set by Pope, again acquires greater freedom. Shelley and Browning, for instance, are fond of combining lines of heroic verse by enjambement so as to form periods of some length. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and others again admit couplets and triplets with occasional six-foot lines at the close. But the caesura remains nearly always restricted to the places which it occupies in Pope’s verse, and the close of the line is masculine. Keats only often indulges in feminine rhymes.
It is, however, remarkable that such rhymes more often occur in five-foot verses combined in stanzas when employed for satirical and comic compositions, as e.g. in Byron’s Beppo and Don Juan. In these poems the disyllabic thesis, the slurring of syllables, and other rhythmical licences, also more frequently occur.
§ 160. The Beginnings of Modern English Poetry. Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, i. 31, speaks of Surrey and Wyatt as having originated the modern period of English poetry. This is true in so far as their poems are the first to show clearly—especially in metrical form—the influence of the spirit of the Renaissance, which had been making itself felt in English Literature for some time past. The new tendencies manifested themselves not only in the actual introduction of new rhythms and verse-forms borrowed from Classical and Italian poetry, but also in the endeavour to regulate and reform the native poetry according to the metrical laws and peculiarities of foreign models, especially of the ancient classics.
There were, indeed, several features of classical poetry which invited imitation, and the introduction of which produced the chief differences between Modern English and Middle English versification. These features are:
First, the quantitative character of the ancient rhythms as opposed to the accentual character of English verse. Secondly, the strict separation of rising and falling rhythms. In Middle English we have only the rising rhythm, which, however, sometimes becomes a falling one if the first thesis is wanting. Finally, the absence of rhyme in the poetry of the ancients, whereas in late Middle English poetry—apart from some North-English and Scottish productions written in the conservative, rhymeless form of the alliterative line—rhyme is all but universal.
§ 161. The heroic couplet, the most popular and most important metre in later Middle English poetry, was, naturally, first of all influenced by the new classical movement.
It was the Earl of Surrey who, by dispensing with the rhyme, first transformed this metre into what is now known as Blank Verse. He adopted the unrhymed decasyllabic line as the most suitable vehicle for his translation of the second and fourth books of the Aeneid, written about 1540. In so doing, he enriched modern literature with a new form of verse which was destined to take a far more important place in English poetry than he can have foreseen for it. In its original function, as appropriate to the translation of ancient epic poetry, it has been employed by many late writers, e.g. by Cowper in his version of Homer; but this is only one, and the least considerable, of its many applications. Shortly after Surrey’s time blank verse was used for court drama by Sackville and Norton in their tragedy of Gorboduc (1561), and for popular drama by Marlowe in Tamburlaine the Great (1587).
From the latter part of the sixteenth century onwards it has continued to be the prevailing metre for dramatic poetry, except for a short time, when its supremacy was disputed by the heroic couplet used by Lord Orrery, Davenant, Dryden, and others. Meanwhile blank verse had also become the metre of original epic poetry through Milton’s use of it in his Paradise Lost; and in the eighteenth century it was applied to descriptive and reflective poetry by Thomson and Young.
It is uncertain whether Surrey invented it himself on the basis of his studies in classical rhymeless poetry, or whether he was influenced by the example of the Italian poet Trissino (1478–1550), who, in his epic Italia liberata dai Goti and in his drama Sofonisba, introduced into Italian poetry the rhymeless, eleven-syllabled verses known as versi sciolti (sc. della rima, i.e. freed from rhyme). There are at least no conclusive grounds for accepting the latter view, as there are some peculiarities in Surrey’s blank verse which are not met with in Trissino, e.g. the occurrence of incomplete lines, which may have been introduced after the model of the unfinished lines found occasionally amongst Vergil’s Latin hexameters.
Blank verse being in its origin only heroic verse without rhyme,[154] we may refer for its general rhythmical structure to what we have said on this metre. The rhythmical licences of this and the other iambic metres discussed in §§ 82–8 are common also to blank verse. But in addition to these, blank verse has several other deviations from the normal rhymed five-foot iambic verse, the emancipation from rhyme having had the effect of producing greater variability of metrical structure. It is for this reason it has been thought advisable to treat heroic verse and blank verse in separate chapters.
At first, it is true, the two metres are very similar in character, especially in Surrey; with the further and independent development of blank verse, however, they diverge more and more.
§ 162. In conformity with Surrey’s practice in his heroic verse, which, as we have seen, usually had masculine rhymes, his blank verse has also as a rule masculine endings, and is thus distinguished not only from Chaucer’s heroic verse, which frequently had feminine endings, but from the blank verse of later poets like Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries.
As to the principal kinds of the caesura after the second and third foot there is no material difference between Surrey’s blank verse and the heroic verse of the same period (cf. §§ 154, 157).
The Epic caesura occurs occasionally after the second foot, e.g.:
but apparently not after the third, although it does not seem to have been avoided on principle, as we often find lyric caesuras in this place, and even after the fourth foot:
The run-on line (or enjambement) is already pretty frequently used by Surrey (35 times in the first 250 lines), and this is one of the chief distinctions between blank verse and heroic verse. In most instances the use of run-on lines is deliberately adopted with a view to artistic effect. The same may be said of the frequent inversion of rhythm. On the other hand, it seldom happens that the flow of the metre is interrupted by level stress, missing thesis, or the use of a disyllabic thesis at the beginning or in the interior of the verse.[155] As to the peculiarities of the word-stress and the metrical treatment of syllables in Surrey, the respective sections of the introductory remarks should be consulted. Apart then from the metrical licences, of which it admits in common with heroic verse, the most important peculiarities of Surrey’s blank verse are the masculine endings, which are almost exclusively used, and the frequent use of run-on lines.
Cf. the opening lines of the fourth book of his Aeneid:
§ 163. With regard to the further development of this metre in the drama of the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries we must restrict ourselves to a brief summary of its most important peculiarities, for details referring the reader to Metrik, ii, pp. 256–375; for bibliography see ib., pp. 259–60.
The employment of blank verse in the court drama hardly brought about any change in its structure. In Gorboduc, apart from a few instances in which a line is divided in the dialogue between two speakers (generally two and three feet) and the occasional (for the most part no doubt accidental) use of rhyme, the blank verse is exceedingly similar to that of Surrey, having masculine endings with hardly any exceptions.
This character was maintained by blank verse in all the other court plays of this time, only occasionally rhyming couplets are used at the end of a scene in Gascoigne’s Iocasta, and prose passages now and then occur in Lyly’s The Woman in the Moon.
The next and greatest step in the further development of the metre was its introduction into the popular drama by no less a poet than Marlowe in his drama Tamburlaine the Great (1587). Marlowe’s mastery over this metrical form was supreme. His skill is shown in his use of the inversion of accent, particularly the rhetorical inversion, to give variety to his rhythm, e.g.:
In his practice with regard to the caesura, the suppression of the anacrusis, and the use of disyllabic theses in the interior of the verse, he differs little from his predecessors. One distinctive feature of his verse is that he usually gives their full syllabic value to the Teutonic inflexional endings (-ed, -est), as well as to the Romanic noun- and adjective-suffixes; as -iage, -iance, -ion, -eous, -ial &c. (cf. §§ 102–7).
By a frequent use of these endings as full syllables which is not always in conformity with the spoken language of his time, his verse obtains a certain dignity and pathos; cf. the following lines:
Allied with this is the fact that Marlowe still has a great predilection for masculine endings, although feminine endings are also met with now and then, especially in his later plays. Run-on lines do not often occur, but many two- and three-foot lines as well as heroic couplets are found at the end of longer speeches, scenes, and acts.
The blank verse of Greene, Peele, Kyd, and Lodge has a similar structure to that of Marlowe, especially as regards the prevalence of masculine endings. The verse of Greene and Peele, however, is rather monotonous, because generally the caesura occurs after the second foot. On the other hand, the metre of Kyd and Lodge stands in this respect much nearer to that of Marlowe and in general shows greater variety.[156]
§ 164. The blank verse of Shakespeare,[157] which is of great interest in itself, and moreover has been carefully examined during the last decades from different points of view, requires to be discussed somewhat more fully.
It is of the first importance to notice that Shakespeare’s rhythms have different characteristic marks in each of the four periods of his career which are generally accepted.[158] For the determination of the dates of his plays the metrical peculiarities are often of great value in the absence of other evidence, or as confirming conclusions based on chronological indications of a different kind; but theories on the dates of the plays should not be built solely upon these metrical tests, as has been done, for instance, by Fleay. Such criticisms, generally speaking, have only a subordinate value, as, amongst others, F.J. Furnivall has shown in his treatise The Succession of Shakespeare’s works and the use of metrical tests in settling it (London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1877. 8º).
The differences in the treatment of the verse which are of greatest importance as distinctive of the several periods of Shakespeare’s work are the following:
§ 165. In the first place the numerical proportion of the rhymed and rhymeless lines in a play deserves attention. Blank verse, it is true, prevails in all Shakespeare’s plays; but in his undoubtedly earlier plays we find a very large proportion of rhymed verse, while in the later plays the proportion becomes very small.
Some statistical examples, based on careful researches by English and German scholars, may be quoted to prove this; for the rest we refer to the special investigations themselves.
In Love’s Labour’s Lost, one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, we have 1028 rhymed lines and 579 unrhymed. In The Tempest, one of his last plays, we find 1458 unrhymed and only two rhymed five-foot lines. In the plays that lie between the dates of these two dramas the proportion of rhymed and unrhymed verse lies between these two numbers. In Romeo and Juliet, e.g. (which belongs to the end of Shakespeare’s first period, though Fleay thought it a very early play) we have 2111 unrhymed and 486 rhymed five-foot lines; in Hamlet (belonging to the third period) there are 2490 unrhymed and 81 rhymed lines.
In many cases, however, the use of rhyme in a play is connected with its whole tone and character, or with that of certain scenes in it. The frequency of rhymes in Romeo and Juliet finds its explanation in the lyrical character of this play. For the same reason A Midsummer Night’s Dream, although it is certainly later than Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo and Juliet, shows a larger proportion of rhymed lines (878 blank: 731 rhymes). This seems sufficient to show that we cannot rely exclusively on the statistical proportion of rhymed and unrhymed verses in the different plays in order to determine their chronological order.
§ 166. The numerical proportion of feminine and masculine endings is of similar value. In the early plays we find both masculine and feminine endings; the masculine, however, prevail. The number of feminine endings increases in the later plays. On this point Hertzberg has made accurate statistical researches. According to him the proportion of feminine to masculine endings is as follows:
Love’s Labour’s Lost 4 per cent., Romeo and Juliet 7 per cent., Richard III 18 per cent., Hamlet 25 per cent., Henry VIII 45·6 per cent.[159] This proportion, however, as has been shown by later inquiries,[160] does not depend solely on the date of the composition, but also on the contents and the tone of the diction, lines with masculine endings prevailing in pathetic passages, and feminine endings in unemotional dialogue, but also in passionate scenes, in disputations, questions, &c.
§ 167. The numerical proportion of what are called ‘weak’ and ‘light’ endings to the total number of verses in the different plays is similarly of importance. These are a separate subdivision of the masculine endings and are not to be confused with the feminine. They are formed by monosyllabic words, which are of subordinate importance in the syntactical structure of a sentence and therefore stand generally in thesis (sometimes even forming part of the feminine ending of a line), but which under the influence of the rhythm are used to carry the arsis. To the ‘weak’ endings belong the monosyllabic conjunctions and prepositions if used in this way: and, as, at, but (except), by, for, in, if, on, nor, than, that, to, with; as e.g. in the three middle lines of the following passage taken from Henry VIII (III. ii. 97–101):
The ‘light’ endings include a number of other monosyllabic words, viz. articles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, that are used by Shakespeare in a similar way.
These are, according to Ingram, am, are, art, be, been, but (=only), can, could, did(2), do(2), does(2), dost(2), ere, had(2), has(2), hast(2), have(2), he, how(3), I, into, is, like, may, might, shall, shalt, she, should, since, so(4), such(4), they, thou, though, through, till, upon, was, we, were, what(3), when(3), where(3), which, while, whilst, who(3), whom(3), why(3), will, would, yet (=tamen), you.
According to Ingram, the words marked (2) are to be regarded as light endings ‘only when used as auxiliaries’; those marked (3), ‘when not directly interrogative’; those marked (4), ‘when followed immediately by as.’ Such belongs to this class, ‘when followed by a substantive with an indefinite article, as Such a man.’ There are hardly any weak or light endings in the first and second periods of Shakespeare’s work. In the third they occur now and then and become more frequent in the last period. So we have e.g. in Antony and Cleopatra (1600) 3·53 per cent.; in The Tempest (1610) 4·59 per cent.; in Winter’s Tale (1611) 5·48 per cent.
In the application of this test we must chiefly keep in mind that these two groups of words are only to be considered as ‘weak’ and ‘light’ endings when they form the last arsis of the line, as is the case in the lines quoted from Henry VIII; but they are to be looked upon as part of a disyllabic or feminine ending if they form a supernumerary thesis following upon the last arsis:
§ 168. Intimately connected with the quality of the line-endings is the proportion of unstopt or ‘run-on’ and ‘end-stopt’ lines, or the frequent or rare use the poet makes of enjambement. Like the feminine, weak, and light endings, this metrical peculiarity also occurs much more rarely in Shakespeare’s earlier than in his later plays. According to Furnivall’s statistics, e.g. in Love’s Labour’s Lost one run-on line occurs in 18·14 lines; in The Tempest, on the other hand, we have one run-on line in 3·02 lines; in Winter’s Tale the proportion rises to one in 2·12.
As in the later plays run-on lines are often the result of the use of weak and light endings, we may perhaps assume with Hertzberg that at times the poet deliberately intended to give a greater regularity to the verse, if only by introducing the more customary masculine endings. From this point of view, then, both the weak and light endings and the run-on lines would have much less importance as metrical and chronological tests than they otherwise might have had.
§ 169. But there is another peculiarity of Shakespeare’s rhythms noticed by Hertzberg which is of greater value as a metrical test; viz. the use of the full syllabic forms of the suffixes -est, and especially of -es or -eth in the second and third pers. sing., as well as that of -ed of the preterite and of the past participle. These tests are all the more trustworthy because they do not so much arise from a conscious choice on the part of the poet as from the historical development of the language. This is indicated by the fact that the slurring of these endings prevails more and more in the later plays.
According to Hertzberg’s statistics the proportion of fully sounded and slurred e is as follows:
| 1 H. VI. | T. Andr. | 1 H. IV. | H. VIII. | |
| 3 Pers. Sing. | 15·58% | 6·4% | 2·25% | 0% |
| Pret. and P.P. | 20·9% | 21·72% | 15·41% | 4·2% |
It thus appears that in this respect also there is a decided progress from a more archaic and rigorous to a more modern usage.
These are the five chief distinctive marks of Shakespeare’s verse in the different periods of his dramatic work. Besides these, Fleay has pointed out some other characteristics distinctive of the first period, namely, the more sparing use of Alexandrines, of shortened verses, and of prose, and the more frequent use of doggerel verses, stanzas, sonnets, and crossed rhymes.
§ 170. There are, however, some other rhythmical characteristics that have not yet been sufficiently noticed by English or German scholars, probably because they cannot be so easily represented by means of statistics.
The caesura is of special importance. Although from the first Shakespeare always allowed himself a great degree of variety in the caesura, he prefers during his first and second period the masculine and lyrical caesura after the second foot; in his third period, in Macbeth especially, both the masculine and lyrical caesura occur as frequently after the third foot, and side by side with these the epic caesura after the second and third foot pretty often (§ 90); during the fourth period a great many double caesuras occur corresponding to the numerous run-on lines.[161]
The old-fashioned disyllabic pronunciation of certain Romanic terminations (as -ion, -ier, -iage, -ial, &c.), so often met with in Marlowe, is not uncommon in Shakespeare, chiefly in his early plays, but also in those of later date (cf. § 107).
As to inversion of rhythm (cf. § 88), it is a noteworthy feature that during the first period it occurs chiefly in the first foot and afterwards often in the third also.
Disyllabic theses may be found in each of the five feet, sometimes even two at the same time: