THE METRE OF THE PLAY. It should be understood at the outset that metre, or the mechanism of verse, is something altogether distinct from the music of verse. The one is matter of rule, the other of taste and feeling. Music is not an absolute necessity of verse; the metrical form is a necessity, being that which constitutes the verse. The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed passages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed or blank verse; and the normal form of this blank verse is illustrated by the first line of the present play: "In sooth, I know not why I am so sad." This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th) accented, the odd syllables (1st, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of five feet of two syllables each, with the accent on the second syllable. Such a foot is called an iambus (plural, iambuses, or the Latin iambi), and the form of verse is called iambic. This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain modifications, the most important of which are as follows: 1. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a female line; as in the third line of the first scene: “But how I caught it, found it, or came by it." The rhythm is complete with by, the it being an extra eleventh syllable. In line 69, we have two extra syllables, the rhythm being complete with the second syllable of Antonio. 2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an even to an odd syllable; as in lines 18, 19: " 'Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind, In both lines the accent is shifted from the second to the first syllable. This change occurs very rarely in the tenth syllable, and seldom in the fourth; and it is not allowable in two successive accented syllables. 3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the line; as in lines 29, 47, and 48. In 29 the second syllable of burial is superfluous; in 47 the word us; and in 48 the second syllable of merry. Line 48 has also the unaccented final syllable in easy, making it a female line. 4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immediately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse; as, for instance, in lines 12 and 13. In 12 the first syllable of overpeer and the last of traffickers are metrically equivalent to accented syllables; and so with the last syllable of reverence in 13. Other examples are the last syllable of Antonio in lines 39, 73, 122, and 130, and that of Portia in 166. In 166 Portia must be made distinctly a trisyllable (as in ii. 7. 43 and 47), but in 165 (as often) it is virtually a dissyllable. 5. In many instances in Shakespeare words must be lengthened in order to fill out the rhythm: (a) In a large class of words in which e or i is followed by another vowel, the e or i is made a separate syllable; as ocean, opinion, soldier, patience, partial, marriage, etc. For instance, line 8 of the first scene of the present play appears to have only nine syllables, but ocean (see note on the word) is a trisyllable. In 102 opinion is a quadrisyllable (but a trisyllable in 91); occasions has five syllables in 139; and many similar instances are mentioned in the Notes. This lengthening occurs most frequently at the end of the line. (6) Many monosyllables ending in r, re, rs, res, preceded by a long vowel or diphthong, are often made dissyllables; as fare, fear, dear, fire, hair, hour, your, etc. In iii. 2. 297: "Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault," hair is a dissyllable. If the word is repeated in a verse it is often both monosyllable and dissyllable; as in iii. 2. 20: "And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so," where either yours (preferably the first) is a dissyllable, the other being a monosyllable. In J. C. iii. 1. 172: “As fire drives out fire, so pity, pity," the first fire is a dissyllable. (c) Words containing / or r, preceded by another consonant, are often pronounced as if a vowel came between the consonants; as in T. of S. ii. 1. 158: "While she did call me rascal fiddler" [fidd(e)ler]; All's Well, iii. 5. 43: "If you will tarry, holy pilgrim" [pilg(e)rim]; C. of E. v. 1. 360: "These are the parents of these children" [childeren, the original form of the word]; W. T. iv. 4. 76: "Grace and remembrance [rememb(e)rance] be to you both!" etc. (d) Monosyllabic exclamations (ay, O, yea, nay, hail, etc.) and MER. OF VEN.IO |