{"id":"01KG8B0BVCTCVDQ69YGX8GPP7X","cid":"bafkreihlack4e72mow4ucjb4sikn7ig4fqr3h6mtxiogtizd57gozrwgom","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreibrghdoo25n524dccaaqlhygfddpfojljfw6avn26kihekb3zlgfa","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0151.jpg","height":1778,"key":"pdf-page-1769806505249-jacowj2is4b","label":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0151.jpg","page_number":151,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":400594,"text":"Notes\n145\nis in verbs like cry^ die, sue, etc., the -ed of which is very rarely, if\never, made a separate syllable.\nShakespeare's Use of Verse and Prose in the Plays. —\nThis is a subject to which the critics have given very little attention,\nbut it is an interesting study. In this play we find scenes entirely\nin verse or in prose, and in which the two are mixed. In general,\nwe may say that verse is used for what is distinctly poetical, and\nprose for what is not poetical. The distinction, however, is not\nso clearly marked in the earlier as in the later plays. The second\nscene of M. of V., for instance, is in prose, because Portia and\nNerissa are talking about the suitors in a familiar and playful\nway ; but in T. G. of V., where Julia and Lucetta are discussing\nthe suitors of the former in much the same fashion, the scene is in\nverse. Dowden, commenting on Rich. II., remarks : \" Had Shake-\nspeare written the play a few years later, we may be certain that\nthe gardener and his servants (iii. 4) would not have uttered\nstately speeches in verse, but would have spoken homely prose,\nand that humour would have mingled with the pathos of the scene.\nThe same remark may be made with reference to the subsequent\nscene (v. 5) in which his groom visits the dethroned king in the\nTower.\" Comic characters and those in low life generally speak\nin prose in the later plays, as Dowden intimates, but in the very\nearliest ones doggerel verse is much used instead. See on 10\nabove.\nThe change from prose to verse is well illustrated in the third\nscene of AI. of V. It begins with plain prosaic talk about a busi-\nness matter ; but when Antonio enters, it rises at once to the higher\nlevel of poetry. The sight of Antonio reminds Shylock of his hatred\nof the Merchant, and the passion expresses itself in verse, the ver-\nnacular tongue of poetry.\nThe reasons for the choice of prose or verse are not always so\nclear as in this instance. We are seldom puzzled to explain the\nprose, but not unfrequently we meet with verse where we might\nexpect prose. As Professor Corson remarks {Introduction to Shake'\nMERRY WIVES — lO","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:05.249Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1084},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG89K4N3KNPAGDJAVRPVWBA4","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KG89JREDR8WY5QQGYR5FZRDY","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:07.884Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:55:10.793Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFH6ETXGRVD10WPNP3007D6"}}