e's students who can appreciate the true nature of the English
versification in our elder poets is increasing, and will increase more
as the opportunity is furnished them of studying Shakespeare himself.

Of course we do not mean to give here an essay on Shakespearian
versification. Those who would study it may best be referred to Capell,
in spite of the erroneous taste of his day, to Sidney Walker, and
especially, if they are earnest students, to Dr Guest's _History of
English Rhythms_.

We will only state some of the differences between Shakespearian
versification and that which has now become our normal prosody; namely,
such as have excited an ambition of correcting in later editors. There
is a large number of verses which a modern ear pronounces to want their
first unaccented syllable. The following we quote as they appear in F1,
in the opening of the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_:

No, I will not, for it boots thee not. I. 1. 28.

Fire that's closest kept burns most of all. I. 2. 30.

Is't near dinner-time? I would it were. I. 2. 67.

These lines are all corrected by editors; and it is evident that there
would be little trouble in altering all such lines wherever they occur:
or they may be explained away, as for instance in the second cited,
'fire' doubtless is sometimes pronounced as a dissyllable. Yet to
attempt correction or explanation wherever such lines occur would be
ill-spent labour. A very impressive line in the _Tempest_ is similarly
scanned:

Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since. I. 2. 53.

Where we are rightly told that 'year' may be a dissyllable. Yet that one
word should bear two pronunciations in one line is far more improbable
than that the unaccented syllable before 'twelve' is purposely omitted
by the poet; and few readers will not acknowledge the solemn effect of
such a verse. As another example with a contrary effect, of impulsive
abruptness, we may take a line in _Measure for Measure_:

Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo. IV. 3. 88.

This last example is also an instance of another practice, by modern
judgement a license, viz. making a line end with two unaccented
'extrametrical' syllables.

Two very effective lines together, commencing similarly to the last, are
in the same Play:

Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. V. 1. 309, 310.

Another irregularity is a single strong syllable