Shakespeare and the Versification of English Drama, 1561-1642

Evolution of Verse Form, Plots and Characters in English Plays (mid-16th to mid-19th centuries)

“…It was played during Christmas celebrations given by the Inner Temple in 1561 and then at Whitehall before Queen Elizabeth on January 18, 1562. Its syllabic structure was modeled on the French decasyllable with a caesura after syllable 4, though the stressing alteration was clearly iambic (see Table 1 in Tarlinskaja 2014). Another tragedy, closely following "Gorboduc" and staged at Gray's Inn, was Gascoigne and Kinwelmarche's "Jocasta" (1566).…”

“…Rhymed couplets and symmetrical line rhythm are typical features of Classicism, both in poems and some plays. Classicism loved operas; one of the most notable plays by Lewis Theobald is an opera libretto "Orestes" (1731) composed in symmetrical iambic pentameter (Tarlinskaja 2014).…”

Ants Oras: Did He Know Russian “Formalists”?

“…the much later work by Richard Proudfoot who tested the length of polysyllables in the line when dealing with the authorship of the contested play Double Falsehood (Proudfoot 2012). In a short chapter on line endings (1966: 36-37) Oras analysed the frequency of feminine endings and of what he called "pyrrhic endings" in Milton's works, that is, unstressed syllables on position 10 in masculine endings of lines, something that I did in greater detail in my books (Tarlinskaja 1976(Tarlinskaja , 1987(Tarlinskaja and 2014. He also noted, in passing, Milton's use of disyllabic suffix -ion in such words as appariti-on and self-delusi-on (1966: 37), one more parameter that I used later (Tarlinskaja 2014).…”

“…In a short chapter on line endings (1966: 36-37) Oras analysed the frequency of feminine endings and of what he called "pyrrhic endings" in Milton's works, that is, unstressed syllables on position 10 in masculine endings of lines, something that I did in greater detail in my books (Tarlinskaja 1976(Tarlinskaja , 1987(Tarlinskaja and 2014. He also noted, in passing, Milton's use of disyllabic suffix -ion in such words as appariti-on and self-delusi-on (1966: 37), one more parameter that I used later (Tarlinskaja 2014). He noticed, perceptively, that disyllabic -ion was not a mere archaism but a marker of an elevated, sonorous style (Oras 1966: 37).…”

“…Shakespeare's evolution proceeded from the most frequent break after position 4 (as in Romeo and Juliet) to a transition period of equal percent of breaks after positions 4 and 6 (Henry V) to the most frequent break falling after position 6 (Cymbeline). As Ants Oras showed with his "pauses", Shakespeare's evolution did not proceed smoothly: Hamlet has a "peak" of syntactic breaks after position 6 while Troilus and Cressida, a later play, went back to an equal percent of breaks after positions 4 and 6 (Tarlinskaja 2014, cf. with Bruster 2014.…”