Shakespeare's Poetic Style ( p 452)

• audiences expected actors in tragedies and histories to speak in verse

• Shakespeare varies the pattern within the framework of iambic pentameter, and sometimes writes lines of more or fewer than ten syllables, always making sure that the rhythm of the verse is appropriate to the meaning and mood of the speech

• BLANK VERSE: unrhymed verse written in iambic pentameter, although there is also a good deal of rhyme

• end-stopped lines: to appear objective and capable as a decision maker

• midline caesuras: to emphasize the plain-speaking manner

• Shakespeare never follows any rule slavishly

• when Shakespeare shifts from verse to prose it is always in order to contribute to change the tone and mood of a scene

iambic pentameter ( U/ I )

trochaic ( I/ U )

• Enjambement : run on line ---- end stop line