.

The test founded on this distinction is, within its limits, the most
satisfactory of all, partly because the work of its author can be
absolutely trusted. The result of its application is briefly as follows.
Until quite a late date light and weak endings occur in Shakespeare's
works in such small numbers as hardly to be worth consideration.[289]
But in the well-defined group of last plays the numbers both of light
and of weak endings increase greatly, and, on the whole, the increase
apparently is progressive (I say apparently, because the order in which
the last plays are generally placed depends to some extent on the test
itself). I give Prof. Ingram's table of these plays, premising that in
_Pericles_, _Two Noble Kinsmen_, and _Henry VIII._ he uses only those
parts of the plays which are attributed by certain authorities to
Shakespeare (_New Shakspere Soc. Trans._, 1874).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Light | | Percentage | Percentage | Percentage
|endings.| Weak.| of light in | of weak in | of
| | | verse lines.| verse lines.| both.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antony & | | | | |
Cleopatra, | 71 | 28 | 2.53 | 1. | 3.53
Coriolanus, | 60 | 44 | 2.34 | 1.71 | 4.05
Pericles, | 20 | 10 | 2.78 | 1.39 | 4.17
Tempest, | 42 | 25 | 2.88 | 1.71 | 4.59
Cymbeline, | 78 | 52 | 2.90 | 1.93 | 4.83
Winter's Tale, | 57 | 43 | 3.12 | 2.36 | 5.48
Two Noble | | | | |
Kinsmen, | 50 | 34 | 3.63 | 2.47 | 6.10
Henry VIII., | 45 | 37 | 3.93 | 3.23 | 7.16
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, let us turn to our four tragedies (with _Timon_). Here again we
have one doubtful play, and I give the figures for the whole of _Timon_,
and again for the parts of _Timon_ assigned to Shakespeare by Mr. Fleay,
both as they appear in his amended text and as they appear in the Globe
(perhaps the better text).

-----------------------------------------
| Light. | Weak.
-----------------------------------------
Hamlet, |