It must be noticed that the terms 'iamb', 'trochee', 'double iamb' (= pyrrhic + spondee), convenient though they may be, are not suited to describe. modern English verse, since in English verse we have not such definite metrical unities as exist in the classical languages. Since there are so many gradations possible dependent on the kinds of words used and the sentence-structure, there is no definite difference between an ‘iamb' and a 'trochee'. Between a spoken 'iamb', such as to bé, and a 'trochee', such as taken there are so many intermediate degrees that one person may read as an 'iamb' what another reads as a 'trochee'; cp. Mayor, A Handbook of Modern English Metre, p. VIII f. The following extracts will serve to illustrate Shakespeare's blank verse at different periods of his activity. The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God himself, And earthly power doth then show likest God's That in the course of justice none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy, And that same prayer doth teach us all to render (The Merchant of Venice IV, 1, 184 ff.) Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up They that have done this deed are honourable: I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: I am no orator, as Brutus is; But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, That love my friend; and that they know full well And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus, (Julius Cæsar III, 2, 214 ff.) Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, (Hamlet I, 2, 1 ff.) Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves; I here abjure; and when I have requir'd - (The Tempest V, 1, 33 ff.) § 218. Dramatic Blank Verse before and after Shakespeare. Shakespeare's immediate predecessors and followers used blank verse for drama almost exclusively. Each used it in his own way, as a careful analysis shows; cp. Schipper EM II, 1, 270 ff., Grdr. p. 218 ff. 230 ff. and the following detailed studies: -- Knaut, Über die Metrik Ro- - Schröer, Die Anfänge des Blankverses, Anglia, 4, 1 ff. — Max Wagner, The English Dramatic Blankverse before Marlowe, Osterode 1881/82. Schipper, De versu Marlowii, Bonn 1867. Doleschal, Der Versbau in Thomas Kyds Dramen, Steyr 1892. bert Greenes, Halle 1890. chungen zu George Peele, Herrigs Archiv 85, 269 ff. Elste, Der Blankvers in den Dramen Chapmans, Halle 1892. Kupka, Über den dramatischen Vers Thomas Dekkers, Halle 1893. von Scholten, Metrische Untersuchungen zu John Marstons Trauerspielen, Halle 1886. Wilke, Metrische Untersuchungen zu Ben Jonson, Halle 1885. Wilke, Anwendung der rime-tests und doubleending-tests auf Ben Jonsons Dramen, Anglia 10, 512 ff. Boyle, Beaumont, Fletcher and Massinger, Engl. Stud. 5, 74 ff.; 8, 39 ff.; 9, 209 ff.; 10, 383 ff. Boyle, Blankverse and metrical tests, Engl. Stud. 16, 440 ff. O. Schulz, Über den Blankvers in den Dramen Thomas Middletons, Halle 1892. Meiners, Metrische Untersuchungen über den Dramatiker John Webster, Halle 1893. Hannemann, Metrische Untersuchungen zu John Ford, Halle 1889. P. Meyer, Metrische Untersuchungen über den Blankvers Drydens, Halle 1897. Speerschneider, Metrische Untersuchungen über den heroischen Vers in John Drydens Dramen, Halle 1897. $219. Milton's Blank Verse. The epic blank verse in Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained is, in many respects, different from that of the drama. The greater irregularities of dramatic verse such as an admixture of verses which are too long or too short, or occasional use of rime, cannot be allowed in epic blank verse. Milton avoids the epic caesura, and rarely uses feminine endings. Equally rare are two consecutive unstressed syllables, since the extra syllables are generally elided or slurred. This is often shown by the printing. Milton therefore evidently attempted to make his blank verse strictly decasyllabic; cp. Lewis, Principles p. 32f.: "In Paradise Lost especially, all lines which have supernumerary syllables were probably normalized in the poet's own consciousness by elision, or syncope, or some similar process. . . There are no lines in Paradise Lost which cannot be reduced to the normal by some such device." But Lewis adds.: "but to our unsophisticated ears the process is often over-violent, and I myself do not try to read Milton as I think he intended." The more closely the poet adheres to a fixed number of syllables, the freer he is in the distribution of stresses; and thus Milton makes frequent use of inverted accent and other contrasts between word-strees and verse-stress. His caesura is also movable, and his use of enjambement very frequent (over 50%), and a long pause frequently occurs within the verse. sentences and periods. He is very fond of long |