of "end-stopt" or "run-on" lines. Speaking generally, end-stopt lines close a sentence, a clause, or a phrase. The others, of course, break up these three structural elements of language. Here we have one of the best of all possible tests of Shakespeare's metrical development; for between such contrasts as 12'4 per cent. of overflow in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," to 46 per cent. in "Cymbeline," the gradations are fairly even.

(f) Light and Weak Endings. Bound up with the foregoing, and indeed following from it, is the metrical characteristic of light and weak endings, of lines, that is to say, which end (though these are indefinable) with pronouns, auxiliaries, and the lighter notional words generally, and of lines that end (more definitely) with relational words-prepositions, that is, and conjunctions; and with the latter lines, I may remark, the overflow is more rapid. Like the former, and for the same reason, this test of light and weak endings is fairly reliable; and statistics will be furnished in Table II.

(g) The Speech-Ending Test. Nor is this by any means disconnected with the four preceding; at first the poet finds it convenient to end line and speech together; later, and as a result of his freer versification, the speeches end not only at the close, but also within the line. Again, the change is continuous, and a useful index of date, and it advances from about 1 in 100 in "The Comedy of Errors" to about 88 in 100 in "The Winter's Tale."

Most of these metrical and other particulars are exhibited in the following Table, which is based on the labours of Ingram, Fleay, Hertzberg, König, and others.

NOTE.-In the above Table, the figures of the columns headed "Percentage of Rhyme," "Feminine Endings," "Run-on lines," and "Speech-Endings" are those of König (Chap. VII); but as Dr. Bradley has pointed out ("Shake

spearean Tragedy," p. 474), König's 17'1 for "Pericles" ("Speech-Endings") must be an error. Possibly it represents the un-Shakespearean portions; or we should deduct 17'1 from 100, and write 82'9. Dr. Bradley substitutes (for "Pericles ") 71 for Acts III., IV., and V., and 19 for Acts I. and II. Dr. Bradley also doubts König's percentage for "Othello," and thinks that 41°4 should read 58'6. For "Timon" the same authority gives 74'5 for the Shakespearean portions, whereas the 62'8 of König represents the whole play. Further, under this head of "Speech-Endings," Dr. Bradley's figures for the four great tragedies are, "Hamlet," 57, "Othello,” 54, "King Lear," 69, and “Macbeth," 75.

In the foregoing Table I have arranged the thirty-seven plays as nearly as I can in a chronological order;1 and with regard to the column headed,,“ Pentameter Rhymes" (i.e., chiefly the Iambic Pentameter rhyming couplet), I must remark that it does not include the couplets of the Play Scene in "Hamlet,” nor of the Masque in "The Tempest," nor of the Vision in "Cymbeline," nor of the Chorus in "The Winter's Tale," nor of the Prologue and Epilogue in "Henry VIII." I may add that the column headed "Speech-Endings" gives the percentage of speeches whose end is not co-incident with the end of a line; and that the figures in the columns headed "Feminine Endings " and "Run-on Lines" also represent a percentage.

Next, as to the Light and Weak Endings, I give them in a separate Table (II), for in many of the plays, chiefly those of earlier date, they do not occur in appreciable numbers. Also, the estimate of verse in each play differs slightly in this Table.

1 But much of this, of course, is doubtful, and the very first play, "Henry VI. Part I.," may be of later date; in the Stationers' Books (1623), it seems to be styled, "The Thirde Parte of Henry the Sixt," and in 1602, what are now the Second and Third Parts were apparently entered in the Registers as the First and Second.

TABLE II.-LIGHT AND WEAK ENDINGS (MOSTLY
ACCORDING TO PROFESSOR INGRAM).

With regard to the above Table, it may be added that "Timon" and "Macbeth" seem to mark the transition to Shakespeare's later and more rapid style of verse, which he employs increasingly till the close.

Other figures relating to "The Two Noble Kinsmen " are, for Shakespeare's part: (a) light endings, 1 in 21; (b) weak endings, I in 32; (c) feminine endings, 1 in 3'4; and for Fletcher's part: (a) light endings, 1 in 445; (b) weak endings, 1 in 1,426; and (c) feminine endings, 1 in 19. These figures afford a remarkable contrast, which may be further stated as 50 light endings in Shakespeare to 3 in Fletcher; 34 weak endings in Shakespeare to I in Fletcher; and as to run-on lines, these in Shakespeare are 1 in 2°1, and in Fletcher 1 in 5'26.