Harrison William Cooke, Thomas Johns, Richard Browne, Edward (see iii.) Andrews, Richard. XII. SERVANTS OF THE DUKE OF YORK AND ROTHSAY. PART I I. CHAPTER I. ON METRICAL TESTS AS APPLIED TO DRAMATIC POETRY. PART I.-SHAKESPEARE. (Read before the New Shakspere Society, March 13, 1874.) THIS subject has scarcely at all, and never sytematically, been hitherto worked out. The portion of the dramatic literature of England to which I have directed my attention in this respect has been that which is usually called the Elizabethan period, and comprises the following authors: Greene, Peele, Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Chapman, Massinger, Ford, Marston, and Shakespeare, in their entire works; and portions of Dekker, Middleton, Rowley, Heywood, and others. My first two papers are designed to gather together the results I have arrived at with regard to some of the greatest of these, viz. Massinger, Beaumont, Fletcher, and especially Shakespeare. But before entering into details it may be advisable, as the subject is new to so many, to endeavour to clearly point out the nature of these tests and their object. First, then, as to their nature. Malone and others had long ago been struck by the difference of style in Shakespeare's plays produced at different periods, and had in a vague sort of way used one of these tests at any rate as an indication of chronological arrangement. I allude to the frequency of rhyming lines. Bathurst has since also indicated a metrical test for the same purpose, viz. the unstopped line. But the vague manner in which the rhyme test has been used may be shown by one example: Hallam in his Literature of Europe says, "Were I to judge by internal evidence, I should be inclined to place this play" (i.e., Romeo and Juliet)" before the Midsummer Night's Dream:" and then alleges, among other reasons as a justification of this inference, "the great frequency of rhymes" in Romeo and Juliet. Now, in fact, there are, as will be seen on reference to the table, p. 16, nearly twice as many rhymes in Midsummer Night's Dream: so that the argument actually tells the other way. I cannot speak definitely as to the stopped-line test, not having worked it out; but Bathurst's arrangement is evidently based only on the general impression derived from reading the plays,-which in the case of plays that were not written all at one time, or in one style, is sure to be deceptive, -and to be founded chiefly on the last acts. Beyond this I know of nothing that has been done of a similar kind, except that in his examination of Henry VIII. Mr. Spedding tabulated the number of double endings in that play.' This, however, is the great step we have to take; our analysis, which has hitherto been qualitative, must become quantitative; we must cease to be empirical, and become scientific: in criticism as in other matters, the test that decides between science and empiricism is this: "Can you say, not only of what kind, but how much? If you cannot weigh, measure, number your results, however you may be convinced yourself, you must not hope to convince others, or claim the position of an investigator; you are merely a guesser, a propounder of hypotheses." But is not metre too delicate a thing to be put in the balance or crucible in this way? Is it possible so to examine the outer form in which genius has clothed itself, as to obtain any definite results? Do not the great men of any particular time resemble each other? Do not the lesser men imitate them? Can we always distinguish a poet from his imitators and is not any trick of melody easily acquired and reproduced? There is something in these objections, but not much. We can always distinguish the Professor Ingram has since done an admirable paper on Shakespeare's weak endings (September 1875). great men from each other by sufficient care; and imitators, who have no style of their own, seldom survive their own time to trouble us. If they do, their intrinsic worthlessness shows up in some way or other, as we shall see in the course of these inquiries. In order to show, however, the kind of work before us more distinctly, I have taken a piece of Dryden's "All for Love," (10 lines), and rewritten it, as far as metre (and metre only) is concerned, in the styles of Fletcher, Beaumont, Massinger, Greene, and Rowley, The original runs thus : : "I know thy meaning. But I have lost my reason, have disgraced When first I came to empire, I was borne Fletcher's Metre. "I know thy meaning: But I have lost my reason, and have disgraced me : I saw it prest by others hands and sát still : "What should I do there then? You are brave captains, Beaumont's. "I understand; but now my reason's lost : It prest by other hands: then to my youth But Beaumont's style is often more like Massinger's. Massinger's. "I know thy meaning, but have lost my sense, It prest by other hands and smiling Fortune His sword by his side: plumes of a pound weight by him, FLETCHER, Bonduca, v. 2. "Insatiate Julius, when his victories BEAUMONT, Triumph of Honor, Sc. 2. |