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A Study of Shakespeare's Versification from APPENDICES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
The Monosyllabic Foot
The monosyllabic foot occurs with great frequency; in the eleven latest plays there is an average of one in 8¼ lines, and in Macbeth and Lear one in 6½ lines. In the earlier plays (the Comedies) the average is much lower, one in 15 lines, A Midsummer Night's Dream showing only one in 26¼ lines. In the Histories the average is lower still, one in 17. Of these the three parts of Henry VI, which contain so little that is Shakespeare's, show fewest, an average of one in 27. The First Part stands at the bottom of the whole list, with one in 35½. On the other hand, the average for 2 Henry IV and Henry V is one in 9½, and that for Shakespeare's share of Henry VIII (a late play) one in 9.
Numerous examples have emerged in the previous pages, and the following—mainly instances of the foot's occurrence in the fourth place (or fifth in an Alexandrine), where it is least frequent—will serve to illustrate further the use of this important feature.
Would ⋮ they | make | peace? ∧ | Terrible | hell
Make war upon their spotted souls for this!
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