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
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute to God himself,

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

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 deeds of mercy.

(The Merchant of Venice IV, 1, 184 ff.)

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.

They that have done this deed are honourable:
What private griefs they have, alas! I know not,
That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

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
That gave me public leave to speak of him.
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know,
Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor poor dumb
mouths,

And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

(Julius Cæsar III, 2, 214 ff.)

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted

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
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves,

Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this war-like state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along: for all, our thanks.

(Hamlet I, 2, 1 ff.)

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war: to the dread-rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd and let them forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic

I here abjure; and when I have requir'd
Some heavenly music, which even now I do
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And, deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

-

(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-
Penner, Metrische Untersu-

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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
In spite of his strict ad-