— 13—

A peculiarity of English versification is still to be taken notice of, viz that even such light-weighing terminations as-ing(häppening),-ness(läzinéss),-ment(gövernmént), y(énemy) are able of bearing a stress when standing at the end of an at least trisyllabic word and at the place of the tenth syllable. But these slight syllables may also bear a stress in the middle of the verse, of which fact we afford a very significant example(J. C. III, 2):

But wére I Brütus And Brutus Autony, there wére, an Antony.)

Even monosyllabic words of little prosodical and syntactical value are fit for being accented in the tenth place, e. g.: care, sir; and, but, if, or, of; even the, a, an.

Such a lengthening of syllables and words commonly being of slight prosodical and syntactical value by means of accentuation, is little or not at all employed in Shakspeare's earliest works, but it is most frequently used in those plays which are undoubtedly the product of the latest period of his life. From this reason King Henry the Eighth cannot have been written throughout by Shakspeare, and the three Roman plays: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus are to be assigned to different periods of writing, because the unemphatic monosyllable bearing an accent in the tenth place, is in little use in the first play, of most frequent occurrence in the two others. The respective words in Julius Caesar are: be, is, should, are, may, shall, might, at(See Craik, Prolegomena, page 39 th); and we must add that the words quoted just now are poised with a considerably stronger pressure than«the winged words»: as, and, or, but, if, that, who, which, than, of, to, with, for, because of which state of facts one has recently dated back the play of Julius Caesar to the year 1601, immediately after«As you like it), and before Hamlet(comp. Breitinger, History of English Literature).

Besides the stress the caesura plays an important part in modern verse. Professor Schipper has found the following six caesuras with Chaucer. 1) Männliche Caesur nach dem zweiten Takte, sogenannte gewöhnliche Caesur, e. g.:„The drught of Märche’l hath percéöd to the roote“. 2) Weibliche Caesur nach dem zweiten Takte, sogenannte epische Caesur, e. g.: To Cänterbüry ſ with ful devout corage». 3) Die Caesur zwischen den beiden Taktteilen des dritten Fusses, die gewöhnliche lyrische Caesur, e. g.: And mäde förward! érly for to ryse». 4) Gewöhnliche männliche Caesur nach dem dritten Takte, e. g.: That slépen äl the night] with open eyey. 5) Weibliche epische Caesur nach dem dritten Takte, e. g.:«Hous böndes at chirche döre ſsche hadde fyfe». 6) Die lyrische Caesur zwischen den beiden Taktteilen des vierten Taktes, e. g: That töward Cänterbüry ſwolden ryde». The same caesuras are to be found in the Shakspearian blank verse

To those general qualities of English Heroic and Blank verse, we have to add some select peculiarities in which Shakspeare’s versification is immediately connected with that of his great ancient predecessor out of the Early English Period,— we mean Geoffrey Chaucer (13402— 1400), the father of English poetry and the celebrated author of the Canterbury Tales): not only Spencer but also Shakspeare has his«Chaucerisms».

1) With Chaucer the-ed of past participles is generally sounded, for instance: percéd, entunéd, i-pynchéd(Prol. 2, 123, 151). From Shakspeare we compare:

«Indeéd, it is a stränge dispöséd tune.) J. C. I, 3.