trochee this most frequently occurs after a pause or at the beginning of a line, e.g., i. 2, 143

An with / mé's meet / that I can fashion fit /,

and i. 3, 17:

Not to be ov / verruled / idle / old man /.

2. In addition to the iambus and trochee we find feet consisting of two syllables both equally accented; the foot corresponds to the Latin and Greek spondee which was made up of two syllables long in quantity, e.g., i. 4, 215:

Whó is | ít that | cán téll / mé whó | Íám | ?

and i. 4, 246 :

Mý traín /áre mén / óf chóice / ánd rár/ést párts /.

3. Further variety is introduced :—

(a) By the insertion of one or even two extra syllables called hypermetric, because they are outside the metre, e.g., i. 4, 235:—

Saddle / my horses call / my train / together,

This weaves itself / perforce / into / my business. N.B.-Hypermetric syllables occur very frequently in the case of proper names, e.g., ii. 1, 26:—

Upon his party 'gainst / the Duke / of Al / bany.

(b) By the use of "weak" or "light" endings consisting of monosyllables at the end of the fifth iambus upon which. there is practically no stress placed at all. Such monosyllables are for the most part prepositions, conjunctions, personal pronouns, and parts of auxiliary verbs, e.g., ii. 4, 107, 108, 110, 111.

(c) By the slurring over of syllables in the pronunciation of them, e.g., i. 4, 321 :

:

Take you some company and / away / to horse /.

and ii. 1, 39:

Mumbling of wicked charms /, conjuring / the moon /.

(d) By the frequent occurrence of incomplete or half-lines which were used by poets (Virgil frequently has them) to make a sentiment peculiarly emphatic, but in a dramatist were generally completed by a movement or gesture or some "stage business," e.g., ii. 1, 36, 41, 42.

(e) By the substitution of a line containing six iambic feet (a hexameter or Alexandrine) for the usual pentameter, e.g., ii. 1, 103 :

Been well / informed of them and / with such / cautions /. Where blank verse was not employed by Shakespeare we find either rhymed verse ("heroic" couplets) obtaining or prose is introduced. With regard to the former in his earlier plays, such as the comedy Love's Labour's Lost, the great dramatist made use of the heroic couplet so frequently that he would appear to have been at this stage of his career in doubt as to which form of metre, blank verse or rhyme, would be the tool best suited to his craft. When, however, he had definitely decided in favour of blank verse the rhymed couplet began rapidly to decrease, and in the later plays is mostly used only for the sake of variation; in King Lear rhyme usually serves to indicate the conclusion of a scene or the exit of one of the dramatis personæ (see i. 1, 165-66 ; v. 3, 328-29). Of course the scraps of fantastic doggerel which emanate from the fool would not suit the dignity of blank verse.

In the case of prose Shakespeare uses it in the comic parts such as the speeches of the fool in Lear, in commonplace or vulgar dialogue such as the conversation between Kent, Gloucester and Edmund which begins the play, also in that between Lear and Edmund in disguise, in all letters and proclamations (e.g., iv. 6, 239; v. 3, 112), and sometimes in cases when apparently Shakespeare thought blank verse would be too stilted and unnatural to express intense passion or madness, as when Lear, encountering Edgar who is posing as a Bedlamite (iii. 4), lapses from verse into prose as his insanity overcomes him.

KING LEAR.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

KING LEAR.

ACT I.

SCENE I. KING LEAR'S palace.

Enter KENT, GLOUCESTER, and EDMUND.

Savored

KENT. I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

GLO. It did always seem so to us: but now, in the division of the kingdom, it appears not which of the dukes he values most; for equalities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither 5 can make choice of either's moiety.

EDM. My services to your lordship.

KENT. I must love you, and sue to know you better.

EDM. Sir, I shall study deserving.

GLO. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. 10 The king is coming. [Trumpets sound without.

Enter KING LEAR, CORNWALL, ALBANY, GONERIL, REGAN,

CORDELIA, and Attendants.

LEAR. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester.
GLO. I shall, my liege. [Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EDMUND.
LEAR. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

Give me the map there. Know we have divided
In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age,
Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

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