Merchant of Venice. - Repositories

192 NOTES
most delicate and sensitive, and capable of making us feel ana
understand what words could never express. If then we would
think and feel with Shakespeare, we must respond to the rhythm
of his verse. Where prose occurs in the play, there is usually
some change in the characters, or some variation in emotion.
The Normal Verse. —In the verse of Shakespeare's dramas
the normal line is as follows: —
^ ^ .^ ^ ^
" In sooth, I I know | not why | I am | so sad : " (
— L, i., 1.
This verse consists of five feet; it is therefore called a pentameter.
Each foot consists of two syllables, of which the
second is accented ; each foot is called an iambus. This gives
to the verse the full name of " iambic pentameter."
Variations in the Number of Feet- — But Shakespeare is a
poet, an artist, and he seeks not regularity and monotony but
melody and variation. In the first place the number of syllables
in the line is not always exactly ten. The following line
has three extra syllables, which make an extra foot and one
unaccented syllable besides : —
" Because | you are | not sad. | Now by ] two-head | ed Ja ) nus,"
— L, i., 50.
Such a line is called a hexameter, or an Alexandrine, and
is not common in this play. Very frequently, however, as in
this same line, a single unaccented syllable will be "left over."
In this case the verse is said to have a feminine ending. Lines
also occur of less than ten syll9,bles, although a verse left incom-