vi. 108. ⋀ Hów familiar they bé, Bacòn, ⋀ ⊼.
First pause, the gasp before an interrogatory exclamation. Second pause for Bacon's 'Sit still,' which as a convertible foot is the last of this line and the first of the next.
vi. 176. The foot pause before 'Flees' may allow for a burst of laughter. Wagner suggests 'very fear,' which no compatriot of Greene, if he read the line aloud, can tolerate. Until English is a dead language it will hardly be judicious to encourage foreign emendations of our masterpieces.
(b) Margaret's lines.
iii. 46. Suppression of the first two feet in rapid dialogue. The words 'sent this rich purse' might have been set down before 'To me?' but with what advantage save to fill the pentameter? For the clause has occurred once and the verb twice already in the last six lines. The suppression intensifies the dialogue, and accentuates the mingled surprise and impatience of the speaker.
viii. 132. A rhetorical pause occupies the first foot or the last. Like the preceding instance in so far as the aposiopesis indicates question and surprise. Dy., G., insert 'indeed' before 'mean': easy but needless.
x. 156. Dy. queries 'shall be' after 'wealth.' But the words 'shall be' are implied from the preceding line, and so intentionally omitted. An additional rhetorical emphasis falls upon trash:—
Wealth, ⊼ ⋀ träsh; love, háte; pleàsùre, dispaíre.
xiv. 20. Impassioned soliloquy within an address, like x. 158. The light syllables of the first and second feet are suppressed to increase the effect of the accented syllables: ⋀ Príde ⋀ flätterie and—.