479 Transactions. 



(16) Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, 

 and love thee after '• 



(6) One more, and this the last : 



(7) So sweet was ne'er so fatal. 



(9) I must weep, but they are cruel tears : 

 (12) This sorrow's heavenly ; it strikes where it doth 

 love. 

 (2) She wakes. 



Here there are twenty sentences, with 218 syllables, an average 

 of not quite eleven syllables to a sentence. Again it will be noted 

 that the longest are those containing imagery. Alter the deed, 

 all but the last sentences are pure emotion : — 



Yes : — 'tis Emilia : — by-and-by. — 



She's dead ! 



'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death ; 



The noise was high. — 



Ha ! no more moving ? 



Still as the grave. — 



Shall she come in ? Were't good ? 



I think she stirs again. — 



No.— What's best to do ? 



If she comes in, she'll sure speak to my wife. 



My wife ! my wife ! what wife ? 



I have no wife! 



O, insupportable ! 



O, heavy hour ! 



Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse of sun and 



moon ; 

 And that the affrighted globe should yawn at alteration. 



This passage from " Othello " has been taken- at random as an 

 emotional passage : many others may be found where the average 

 is about ten. syllables to a sentence, such as Lear ii, 4, beginning 

 " The king would speak with Cornwall," and v, 3, " 0, you are 

 men of stones ! " which both average slightly under nine ; 

 Hamlet, i, 4, beginning " Angels and ministers of grace, de- 

 fend us ! " which averages eleven ; Hamlet, iii, 4, " Look here, 

 upon this picture and on this," and iii, 4, " Ecstasy ! . . ." 

 both of which average slightly over eleven. 



Though the natural way would be to write or print the 

 sentences as above, such a disjointed manner, whilst perfectly 

 correct for acting, would break the consecutiveness of rhythm 

 in reading ; and the ten-syllable d line, the general average 

 of a sentence, has been adopted for readers. One advantage 

 of printing them as breathing sentences would be that they 

 would serve as a visible index to the fluctuating emotions. 



CHAPTER, V. 



Rime. 



1. As suggested in Chapter II, section 3, rime has been 

 largely instrumental in disguising the metre, and at the same 



