(i) Lines in which there are not five strong stresses are very plentiful; e.g.

I' pri' | thee', and | I'll pay' | thee boún | teously' (i. 2. 52).

In the fifth foot particularly, the stress is very often extremely slight.

(i) On the other hand, lines in which there are two stressed syllables in one foot are not rare.

But falls' in'to | abate' | ment' and low' price' (i. 1. 13).
thou' must' | un'tang' | le this', I not I' (ii. 2. 38).

O' Time'!

A foot with a double stress is nearly always preceded by a pause, or by a foot with a very weak stress only.

(iii) It will be observed that there are never fewer than three strong stresses; that any foot in which there is no strong stress must at any rate have one syllable with a weak stress; and that very often such a foot has two weak stresses; preventing the feeling that the line is altogether too light. Thus a syllable which is quite unemphatic acquires a certain stress merely by length, as in some of the above cases. And, speaking broadly, a very strong stress in one foot compensates for a weak stress in the neighbouring foot.

§ 5. Irregularities.

(i) Occasionally lines occur with an extra foot; i.e. an additional stress after the normal ten syllables.

That tyrannous heart | can think? To one of your receiving (iii. 1. 109). But this does not often occur in the course of a speech, and when it does there is usually a break in the middle of the line, as in this instance. It is, however, decidedly common in broken dialogue. Oli. What ho, Malvo lio! Mal.

Here, ma dam, at | your service (i. 5. 281). And this is probably often to be explained by the second speaker breaking in on the first.

(ii) Short lines occur chiefly at the beginning or end of speeches; and in dialogue, a remark which is out of the metre is sometimes interpolated; e.g. in ii. 4. 87, 104.

(iii) As a general rule in the plays, these short lines occur with frequency only in hurried or excited dialogue. Their purpose is not to give variety to the metre, but to produce a dramatic effect of hurried interruption or anxious pause. Sometimes the blank is filled by action on the stage, or by music.

In some of the plays, such short lines are sometimes almost certainly due to the mutilation of the text, passages having been cut out for stage purposes.

(iv) Interjections and proper names (especially vocatives) are frequently extra-metrical.

Do give thee five | fold blazon: not too fast:' | soft! soft! (i. 5. 275).

(v) Similarly after a pause an extra-metrical interjection may come in the middle of a line.

And that I owe | Oli | via. (Ay) but | I know (ii. 4. 103).

In nearly every instance observe that the unusual stress comes either after a pause, whether at the beginning of a line or in the middle; or at the end of a line in which there is a break.

§ 6. Apparent Irregularities.

(i) Difficulties occasionally arise from the fact that words in Shakespeare's day were sometimes accented in a different way from that of the present day, and sometimes even bear a different accent in different places in Shakespeare's own writing. Thus we say 'as'pect', Shakespeare always aspect". On the other hand, we say 'complete', Shakespeare has sometimes 'complete", sometimes com'plete'. In effect we must often be guided by the verse in deciding on which syllable of a word the accent should fall, because custom had not yet finally decided in favour of a particular syllable. Speaking broadly, the tendency of modern pronunciation is to throw the accent far back. On the other hand, however, Shakespeare has 'per'spective', we say 'perspective'.

(ii) Similarly, when two vowels come together (as in words ending with -ion, -ius, -ious, and the like) we are in the habit of slurring the first, and sometimes of blending it with the preceding consonant; so that we pronounce 'ambit-i-on' ambishon'. In Shakespeare the vowel in such cases is sometimes slurred and sometimes not, in the same word in different places; usually the former in the middle of a line, often the latter at the end. In such cases we must be guided simply by ear in deciding whether the vowel is slurred or sounded distinctly. And we have to decide in exactly the same way when we are to sound or not sound the terminal -ed of the past participle. Thus we have in consecutive lines

But in conclusion put strange speech upon me;

I know not what 't was but distraction. (v. 1. 61).

(iii) So again in a particular word, a syllable seems to be sometimes sounded, sometimes not. Thus in Julius Caesar (i. 2. 11), “Set on, and leave no ceremony out", ceremony' is a quadrisyllable, as it is in Henry V., iv. I. 269; but since in every other case it is scanned as a trisyllable, the 'cere' was probably as a rule pronounced as in 'cere-cloth'.

(iv) In a large number of words where a liquid (l, m, n, and especially r) comes next to another consonant, an indefinite vowel sound is sometimes introduced between the two letters (just as now in many places one may hear the word 'helm' pronounced 'hellum'), which may be treated as forming a syllable; e.g. at i. I. 32 'remembrance is pronounced almost rememberance', and at i. 2. 21, 'country' is 'count(e)ry'.

(v) Conversely, a light vowel sound coming next a liquid is often slurred and in effect dropped; so that such words as spirit, peril, quarrel, are often practically monosyllables. (Hence such a form as *parlous'=' perilous'). Thus we have 'nat(u)ral', 'comp(a)ny', 'tyr(a)nnous', 'min(u)te'.

(vi) As the sound of f, l, m, n, r, s, ng can be held out, we occasionally find them before a pause, and especially at the end of a verse, treated as equivalent to an extra syllable. In this play, however, I have noticed no instances.

(vii) th and v between two vowels are often almost or entirely dropped and the two syllables run into one: as in the words 'whether', 'whither', 'other', either', 'ever', 'never', 'even', ‘over'. 'Heaven', 'even' generally, 'brother', 'father' sometimes, are treated as monosyllables.

Vowels separated by a w or an h are habitually slurred and pronounced practically as one syllable.

(viii) Fire' and similar words which in common pronunciation are dissyllables ('fi-er', &c.) are commonly but not always scanned as monosyllables.

So 'dear', 'where', 'fare', &c., are occasionally dissyllables. If i. 5. 237 stands, 'tears' should probably be scanned in the same way. With adorations, | fertile tears'.

And in the like manner at iv. 2. 28:

May live at peace. | He shall conce | ǎl it,

'conceal' appears to be trisyllabic.

(ix) Other ordinary contractions, such as 'we'll' for 'we will', th’ for the before a vowel, &c., though not shown in the spelling, are frequent.