HINTS ON METRE.

I. Regular Type of Blank Verse.

Blank verse1 consists of unrhymed lines, each of which, if constructed according to the regular type, contains five feet, each foot being composed of two syllables and having a strong stress or accent on the second syllable, so that each line has five stresses, falling respectively on the even syllables, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Here is an example from Henry V.: "The singing má sons building roófs | of góld" (1. 2. 198). The rhythm of a line like this is a "rising" rhythm.

Blank verse prior to Marlowe, the great Elizabethan dramatist whose work influenced Shakespeare, was modelled strictly on this type. Further, this early blank verse was what is termed “end-stopt": that is to say, there was almost always some pause, however slight, in the sense, and consequently in the rhythm, at the close of each line; while the couplet was normally the limit of the sense. As an example of this "end-stopt," strictly regular verse, take the following extract from the first play written in blank verse, viz. the tragedy called Gorboduc (1561):

Why should I live and linger forth my time,
In longer life to double my distress?

O me most woeful wight! whom no mishap
Long ere this day could have bereaved hence :
Mought not these hands by fortune or by fate

Have pierced this breast, and life with iron reft?"

1 The metre is sometimes called 'iambic pentameter verse,' but this and other terms, with the symbols, of Greek prosody should be avoided, since classical metres, Greek and Latin, are based on a different principle from English prosody. The basis of classical metre is the "quantity" of syllables, and this is represented by the symbols — (long syllable) and ~(short). The basis of English metre is stress or accent (i.e. the stress laid by the voice on a syllable in pronouncing it); and stress should be represented by the symbols' (strong stress) and' (weak).

If the whole of Henry V. were written in verse of this kind the effect, obviously, would be intolerably monotonous. Blank verse before Marlowe was intolerably monotonous, and in an especial degree unsuited to the drama, which with its varying situations and moods needs a varied medium of expression more than any other kind of poetry. Marlowe's great service to metre, carried further by Shakespeare, was to introduce variations into the existing type of the blank decasyllabic measure. In fact, analysis of the blank verse of any writer really resolves itself into a study of his modifications of the "end-stopt" regular type.

II Shakespeare's Variations of the Regular Type.

The chief variations found in Shakespeare (some of them often combined in the same line) are these:

I. Weak stresses. As we read a passage of blank verse our ear tells us that the stresses or accents are not always1 of the same weight in all the five feet of each line. Thus in the line

"For nów sits éx|pectá|tion ìn | the air" (Prol. II. 8)

we feel at once that the stress in the 4th foot is not equal to that which comes in the other feet. A light stress like this is commonly called a "weak stress." Two weak stresses may occur in the same line, but rarely come together. The favourite place for a weak stress is the last foot, and the use of weak stresses at the end of a line increases in Shakespeare's blank verse, the tendency of which (as we shall see) is more and more to let the sense and rhythm "run on" from line to line. The foot in which a weak stress is least frequent is the first. It is perhaps with prepositions that a weak stress, in any foot, occurs most often. Here are lines with weak stresses:

“And thè | mute wón der lúrk|eth in | men's éars” (1. 1. 49).

'A kíng|dom fòr | a stáge, | prínces | to áct" (Prol. I. 3).

"The poór | mechán|ic pór|ters crówd|ing ìn

Their heavy burdens àt | his nár row gáte" (I. 2. 200, 201). “Rúling | in lárge | and ám|ple ém|perỳ” (1. 2. 226). "Others, like soldiers, ár med in | their stings" (I. 2. 193). "As wálters to the súckling òf | a gúlf" (II. 4. 10).

“The ár[mourèrs, | accóm|plishing | the knights" (Prol. IV. 12).

1 Dr Abbott estimates that rather less than one line of three has the full number of five strong stresses, and that about two lines out of three have four strong stresses.

It may not be amiss to remind the young student that in reading a passage of Shakespeare aloud he should be careful to give the weak stresses as weak, i.e. not lay the same emphasis indiscriminately on all the stressed syllables.

2. Inverted stresses1. The strong stress may fall on the first of the two syllables that form a foot-as the student will have observed in several of the lines quoted above. The following extracts also contain examples:

"Cárry them hére | and thére; | júmping | o'er tímes, Túrning th' accomplishment | of many years

Intò an hour-glass" (Prol. I. 29—31).

"Gálling the gleaned land | with hót | assays,

Gírding with grievous siége | castles | and towns" (1. 2. 151, 152).

"Possess them nót | with féar; | táke from | them nów

The sénse of réck'|ning" (IV. I. 279, 280).

"And cries aloúd, | Tárry, | dear coúsin Súf(folk)"" (IV. 6. 15). "He smil❜d | me in the fáce, | raúght me | his hánd” (IV. 6. 21). Inversion of the stress is most frequent after a pause: hence the foot in which it occurs most often is the first (i.e. after the pause at the end of the preceding line). There may be two inversions in one line, as some of the examples show; but they are seldom consecutive. This shifting of the stress generally emphasises a word. It also varies the regular "rising rhythm" of the normal blank verse by a "falling rhythm."

3.

Extra syllables. Instead of ten syllables a line may contain eleven or even twelve. An extra syllable, unstressed, may occur at any point in the line, and usually comes before a pause: hence it is commonest in last foot (the end of a line being the commonest place for a pause), and frequent about the middle of a line (where there is often a break in the sense or rhythm). Compare

"Why só | didst thoú: | cóme they | of nóble fám'(ly)?" (II. 2. 129). “Léash'd in | like hoúnds, | should fám|ine, swórd | and fíre Croúch for employ(ment). | But pár|don, gén❘tles, áll”

(Prol. I. 7, 8).

1 Cf. Mr Robert Bridges's work, Milton's Prosody, pp. 19-21, where Milton's use of inversions is fully analysed and illustrated in a way that helps the study of Shakespeare's inversions.

a

"Néver was món arch bét ter féar'd | and lóv'd

Than ís | your májes(ty): | there's nót, | I thínk, | a súb(ject)” (II. 2. 25, 26). "And só | the prince | obscúr'd | his cón templá(tion)" (1. 1. 63). "To view the fiéld | in sáfe|ty ànd | dispóse

Of their dead bód(ies). |

I téll | thee trúly, hér(ald)” (IV. 7. 78, 79). An extra syllable, unstressed1, at the end of a line, as in the first and last of these examples, is variously called a "double ending" and "feminine ending." The use of the "double ending" becomes increasingly frequent as Shakespeare's blank verse grows more complex. "Double endings" increase" from 4 per cent. in Love's Labour's Lost to 33 in The Tempest, middle plays such as Henry V. having a percentage of about 18. The percentage of "double endings" is

therefore one of the chief of the metrical tests which help us to fix the date of a play. In fact the use of "double endings" is the commonest of Shakespeare's variations of the normal blank verse. The extra syllable at the end of a line not only gives variety by breaking the regular movement of the ten-syllabled lines, but also, where there is no pause after it, carries on the sense and rhythm to the next line.

Sometimes two extra syllables occur at the end-less commonly, in the middle of a line. Compare

"That never máy | ill office, òr | fell jeál(ousy)" (V. 2. 319). "Took it too eá (gerly): | his soldiers féll | to spoil' (Julius Cæsar, V. 3. 7).

This licence is specially frequent with proper names; compare "My Lord of Westmoreland, | and ún cle Éx(eter)" (II. 2. 70). "My dear | Lord Glóster, ànd | my goód | Lord Éx(eter)”

(IV. 3. 9).

The number of lines with two extra syllables increases much in the later plays of Shakespeare.

4. Unstopt (or Run-on) verse.

The blank verse of Shakespeare's

1 An extra syllable that bears or would naturally bear a stress is rare in Shakespeare. The use of such syllables at the end of a line is a feature of Fletcher's verse, and the frequent occurrence of them in Henry VIII. is one of the metrical arguments that he wrote a good deal of that play. Milton has one or two instances in Comus; cf. 633, "Bore a bright golden flower, but not in thís (soíl)."

2 The metrical statistics in these "Hints" are taken from various sources.

early plays shows clearly the influence of the rhymed couplet which he had used so much in his very earliest work. In his early blank verse the rhyme indeed is gone, but the couplet form remains, with its frequent pause of sense, and consequently of rhythm, at the end of the first line, and its still more frequent stop at the end of the second. Lines of this type mark only the first step in the evolution of blank verse: freedom in the expression of sense and varied rhythm are still absent; and freedom and variety come only when the sense "runs on" from one line to another.

If at the end of a line there is any pause in the sense, however slight-such a pause for instance as is marked with a comma-the line is termed "end-stopt." If there is no pause in the sense at the end of the line it is termed "unstopt" or "run-on." There is a progressive increase of "unstopt" verse in the plays. The proportion of "unstopt" to "end-stopt " lines is in Love's Labour's Lost only 1 in 18 (approximately); in The Winter's Tale it is about 1 in 2. The amount, therefore, of "unstopt" verse in a play is another of the metrical tests by which the period of its composition may, to some extent, be inferred.

The rhythm of a line depends greatly on the sense: where there is any pause in the sense there must be a pause in the rhythm. The great merit of "unstopt " blank verse is that the sense by overflowing1 into the next line tends to carry the rhythm with it, and thus the pauses in the rhythm or time of the verse, instead of coming always at the end, come in other parts of the line.

5. A syllable slurred. "Provided there be only one accented syllable, there may be more than two syllables in any foot. 'It is he' is as much a foot as 'tis he'; 'we will serve' as 'we'll serve'; 'it is over' as ''tis o'er.'

1 The overflow is helped by the use of "light" and "weak" endings to a line. "Light endings" are monosyllables on which "the voice can to a small extent dwell": such as the parts of the auxiliary verbs, be, have, will, shall, can, do; pronouns like I, we, thou, you, he, she, they, who, which, etc.; and conjunctions such as when, where, while. "Weak endings" are those monosyllables over which the voice passes with practically no stress at all-e.g. the prepositions at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, with; also and, but, if, nor, or, than, that: all words which go very closely with what follows and therefore link the end of one line with the beginning of the next. The use of these endings belongs to the later plays. "Light endings" are first numerous (21) in Macbeth (1606), and “weak endings” (28) in Antony and Cleopatra (1608). Some of the early plays have neither "light endings” nor "weak." Some have a very few "light endings." Of "weak endings" no play has more than two up till Antony and Cleopatra. The proportion of these endings-"light" and "weak"-is therefore another of the metrical tests applied to the later plays (Ingram).