period the proportion of unstopped lines is almost one in two.
(D) A special manifestation of the tendency toward unstopped lines, which appears in later plays, is the introduction of ‘light’ and ‘weak’ endings,[1] where the line ends, not simply without a punctuation point or logical pause, but in the middle of a prepositional phrase, between a subject pronoun and its verb, after an auxiliary verb (am, can, have, do, etc.) or a conjunction such as ‘and,’ ‘or,’ ‘than,’ etc. Here there is not only no logical pause, but the mechanical tendency to pause at the close of the line is definitely prohibited and the two verses completely agglutinated. Such lines barely exist in earlier plays, but become a marked mannerism after Macbeth.
(E) Another minor development illustrating Shakespeare’s tendency to substitute flexibility for mechanical precision is the habit of ending speeches in the middle instead of at the close of a line. In earlier plays characters usually speak in blocks of complete ten-syllable verses; in later plays animation and naturalness are gained by frequently splitting a line between two speakers or leaving the last line of a speech incomplete.
Most metrical tests can never be mathematically precise, since the data they are based on—pronunciation, pause, punctuation—are in part a matter of personal taste and habit, and no two calculators will compile identical lists of statistics. Nor, even if the calculations could be made altogether mechanical and scientific, would the tests establish an absolutely accurate order of priority for the plays; for the trend on the poet’s part was unconscious and instinctive, and was
- ↑ Light endings are supposed to be less entirely incapable of stress than weak, but the distinction is shadowy.
