Othello II.iii. 264–267, III.iii. 155–161.
Syllabication. If there is room at the end of a line for one or more syllables of a word, but not for the whole word, divide the word, unless this involves cutting off only a single letter, or cutting off only two letters of a long word. No hard and fast rule for all words can be laid down. The principles most frequently applicable are:
(a) Divide the word according to its formation:
know-ledge (not knowl-edge); Shake-speare (not Shakes-peare); de-scribe (not des-cribe); atmo-sphere (not atmos-phere);
(b) Divide “on the vowel:”
edi-ble (not ed-ible); propo-sition; ordi-nary; espe-cial; reli-gious; oppo-nents; regu-lar; classi-fi-ca-tion (three divisions allowable); deco-rative; presi-dent;
(c) Divide between double letters, unless they come at the end of the simple form of the word:
Apen-nines; Cincin-nati; refer-ring; but tell-ing.
(d) Do not divide before final -ed if the e is silent:
treat-ed (but not roam-ed or nam-ed).