is meaning run over into the next line without a
pause, and he hesitates to introduce those extra syllables which give
such wonderful variety to his later work. As he grows older, he also
uses more prose. _Romeo and Juliet_ has 405 lines of prose in a total
of 3052 lines, while _Hamlet_, a tragedy of 3931 lines, has 1208 lines
of prose.

His treatment of his characters is even a more significant index to
his growth than the form of his dramas. In the earlier plays, his men
and women are more engaged with external forces than with internal
struggles. In as excellent an early tragedy as _Romeo and Juliet_, the
hero fights more with outside obstacles than with himself. In the
great later tragedies, the internal conflict is more emphasized, as in
the cases of Hamlet and Macbeth. "See thou character" became in an
increasing degree Shakespeare's watchword. He grew to care less for
mere incident, for plots based on mistaken identity, as in _The Comedy
of Errors_; but he became more and more interested in the delineation
of character, in showing the effect of evil on Macbeth and his wife,
of jealousy on Othello, of indecision on Hamlet, as well as in
exploring the ineffectual attempts of many of his characters to escape
the consequences of their acts.

Sources of his Plots.--We should have had fewer plays from
Shakespeare, if he had been compelled to take the time to invent new
plots. The sources of the plots of his plays may usually be found in
some old chronicle, novel, biography, or older play. Holinshed's
_Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland_, published when
Shakespeare was fourteen years old, gives the stories of Lear,
Cymbeline, Macbeth, and of all the English kings who are the heroes of
the historical plays. As Holinshed is very dry reading, if Shakespeare
had followed him closely, for instance, in _King Lear_, the play would
have lost its most impressive parts. There is not in Holinshed even a
suggestion of the Falstaff of _Henry IV_., that veritable "comic
Hamlet," who holds a unique place among the humorous characters of the
world.

North's translation of Plutarch's _Lives_, published when Shakespeare
was fifteen years old, became his textbook of ancient history and
furnished him the raw material for plays like _Julius Caesar_ and
_Antony and Cleopatra_.

TABLE OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS[23]

Play Total Prose Blank Penta- Rimes, Songs Publ- Supp-
of meter Short