l connected with this development has already been
discussed in another connection under Internal Evidence. Internal
evidence, however, that one play is later than another, is nothing else
than the marks of intellectual growth in the poet's mind between those
two dates. We arrange the plays in order according to indications of
intellectual growth, just as one could fit together again the broken
fragments of a nautilus shell, guided by the relative size of the ever
expanding chambers. So, in {86} discussing Shakespeare's development,
we must bring up much old material, examining it from a different point
of view.

+Meter+.--In the first place, the poet develops wonderfully in the
command of his medium of expression; that is, in his mastery of meter.
What is meant by the fact that as Shakespeare grew older, wiser, more
experienced, he used more run-on lines, more weak endings, more
feminine endings? Simply this, that by means of these devices he
gained more variety and expressiveness in his verse. A passage from
his early work (in spite of much that is fine) with every ending alike
masculine and strong, and with every line end-stopped, harps away
tediously in the same swing, like one lonely instrument on one
monotonous note. His later verse, on the other hand, with masculine
and feminine endings, weak ones and strong, end-stopped and run-on
lines, continually relieving each other, is like the blended music of a
great orchestra, continually varying, now stern, now soft, in harmony
with the thought it expresses. Below are given two passages, the first
from an early play, the second from a late one. In print one may look
as well as the other; but if one reads them aloud, he will see in a
moment how much more variety and expressiveness there is in the second,
especially for the purposes of acting.

"Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour,
But think upon my grief, a lady's grief,
And on the justice of my flying hence,
To keep me from a most unholy match,
Which heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues.
I do desire thee, even from a heart.

{87}

As full of sorrows as the sea of sands,
To bear me company and go with me;
If not, to hide what I have said to thee,
That I may venture to depart alone."
--_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, IV, iii, 27-36.

"By whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 't