ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Shakespeare’s verse and prose, concentrating particularly on work in the area done since the middle of the twentieth century. Much attention is given to blank verse as it is treated in Wright’s 1988 book: Shakespeare’s Metrical Art. The ways in which Shakespeare varied the strict iambic pentameter form are considered in detail, including by varying the position of caesurae. There are also sections dealing with end-stopping and enjambment. Other verse forms, such as the trochaic tetrameter, are also considered, as are the different rhyme schemes Shakespeare uses, including in the Sonnets. A long final section deals with prose, particularly as considered in Vickers (1968): The Artistry of Shakespeare’s Prose. The situations when Shakespeare uses verse, and when prose, are discussed.
