You múst look wondrous sád tòo.— | I néed not lóok sò.
ib. V. iii. 105.
The following passage from The Maid’s Tragedy[165] shows the character of Fletcher’s rhythms:
Mel. Fórce my swoll’n héart no fúrther; | Í would sáve thee.
Your gréat maintáiners áre not hére, | they dáre not:
’Wóuld they were áll, and árm’d! | I wóuld speak lóud;
Here’s óne should thúnder tó them! | will you téll me?
Thou hást no hópe to ’scápe; | Hé that dares móst,
And dámns awáy his sóul | to dó thee sérvice,
Wíll sóoner fetch méat | fróm a húngry líon,
Than cóme to réscue thée; | thou’st déath abóut thee.
Who hás undóne thine hónour, | póison’d thy vírtue,
Ánd, of a lóvely róse, | léft thee a cánker?
Evadne. Lét me consíder.
Mel. Dó, whose chíld thou wért,
Whose hónour thóu hast múrder’d, | whose gráve open’d
And só pull’d ón the góds, | thát in their jústice
They múst restóre him | flésh agáin, | and lífe,
And ráise his drý bònes | tó revénge his scándal.
§ 175. There are no plays extant written by Beaumont alone; plays, however, from Fletcher’s pen alone do exist, and we can thus gain a clear insight into the distinctive features of his rhythm and style, and are so enabled to determine with some prospect of certainty the share which Beaumont had in the plays due to their joint-authorship. This has been attempted with some success by Fleay, and especially by Boyle.[166]
The characteristics of Beaumont’s style and versification may be summed up as follows:
He often uses prose and verse, rhymed and unrhymed verses in the same speech; feminine endings occur rarely, but there are many run-on lines; occasionally we find ‘light’ and ‘weak’ endings; double theses at the beginning and in the interior of the line are met with only very seldom. His verse, therefore, is widely different from Fletcher’s; cf. the following passage from The Maid’s Tragedy (II. i, pp. 24–5):