wixt the green sea and the azur'd vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-bas'd promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have requir'd
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book."
--_Tempest_, V, i, 40-57.

The same reason shows why Shakespeare used less and less rime as his
taste and experience ripened. Rime is a valuable ornament for songs
and lyric poetry generally; but from poetry which is actually to be
acted on the English stage it takes away the most indispensable of all
qualities, the natural, life-like tone of real speech. Notice this in
the difference between the two extracts below. Observe how stilted and
artificial the first one seems; and see how the second combines the
melody and dignity of poetry with the simple naturalness of living
language.

{88}

"This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease,
And utters it again when God doth please.
He is wit's pedler, and retails his wares
At wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve."
--_Love's Labour's Lost_, V, ii, 315-321

"I was not much afeard; for once or twice
I was about to speak and tell him plainly
The self-same sun that shines upon his court
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
Looks on all alike. Will't please you, sir, be gone?
I told you what would come of this. Beseech you,
Of your own state take care. This dream of mine--
Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther,
But milk my ewes and weep."
--_Winter's Tale_, IV, iv, 452-400.

I do not mean to imply by the above that Shakespeare's early verse is
poor according to ordinary standards. It is not; it contains much that
is fine. But it is far inferior to his later work, and it is inferior
in those very details which time and experience alone can teach.

A