III. The light and weak ending test.
We have just seen that in some cases a doubt is felt whether there is an 'overflow' or not. The fact is that the 'overflow' has many degrees of intensity. If we take, for example, the passage last quoted, and if with König we consider the line
The taints and blames I laid upon myself
to be run-on (as I do not), we shall at least consider the overflow to be much less distinct than those in the lines
but God above
Deal between thee and me! for even now
I put myself to thy direction, and
Unspeak my own detraction, here abjure
And of these four lines the third runs on into its successor at much the greatest speed.
'Above,' 'now,' 'abjure,' are not light or weak endings: 'and' is a weak ending. Prof. Ingram gave the name weak ending to certain words on which it is scarcely possible to dwell at all, and which, therefore, precipitate the line which they close into the following. Light endings are certain words which have the same effect in a slighter degree. For example, and, from, in, of, are weak endings; am, are, I, he, are light endings.
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 endings. | Weak. | Percentage of light in verse lines. | Percentage of weak in verse lines. | Percentage of 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).