The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed passages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed or _blank_ verse; and the normal form of this blank verse is illustrated by the second line of the prologue to the present play: "In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."
This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th) accented, the odd syllables (1st, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of five _feet_ of two syllables each, with the accent on the second syllable. Such a foot is called an _iambus_ (plural, _iambuses_, or the Latin _iambi_), and the form of verse is called _iambic_.
This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain modifications, the most important of which are as follows:--
1. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a _female_ line; as in the 103d line of the first scene: "Here were the servants of your adversary." The rhythm is complete with the third syllable of _adversary_, the fourth being an extra eleventh syllable. In iv. 3. 27 and v. 3. 256 we have two extra syllables,--the last two of _Romeo_ in both lines.
2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an even to an odd syllable; as in line 3 of the prologue, "From ancient grudge break to new mutiny," where the accent is shifted from the sixth to the fifth syllable. See also i. 1. 92: "Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate;" where the accent is shifted from the second to the first syllable. This change occurs very rarely in the tenth syllable, and seldom in the fourth; and it is not allowable in two successive accented syllables.
3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the line; as in line 7 of the prologue, where the second syllable of _piteous_ is superfluous. In i. 1. 64 the third syllable of _Benvolio_, and in line 71 below the second syllable of _Capulets_ and the second _the_ are both superfluous.
4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immediately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse; as, for instance, in lines 1, 3, and 7 of the prologue. In 1 the last syllable of _dignity_ and in 3 the last of _mutiny_ are metrically equivalent to accented syllables. In 7 the same is true of the first syllable of _misadventur'd_ and the third of _overthrows_. In iv. 2. 18 ("Of disobedient opposition") only two regular accents occur, but we have a metrical accent on the first syllable of _disobedient_, and on the first and the last syllables of _opposition_, which word has metrically five syllables. In _disobedient_ there is an extra unaccented syllable.