Act i. sc. i.
Mar. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!
THE speeches of Flavius and Manillas are in blank verse. Wherever regular metre can be rendered truly imitative of character, passion, or personal rank, Shakspeare seldom, if ever, neglects it. Hence this line should be read:
What mean\\\'st by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow!
I say regular metre: for even the prose has in the highest and lowest dramatic personage, a Cobbler or a Hamlet, a rhythm so felicitous and so severally appropriate, as to be a virtual metre.
Ib. sc. 2.
Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.
If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterizing Brutus even in his first casual speech. The line is a trimeter,each dipobia containing two accented and two unaccented syllables, but variously arranged, as thus;
u u | u u | u u
A soothsayer | bids you beware | the......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1135
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |