Part 47 (2/2)

1.

3.53 Coriola.n.u.s,

60

44

2.34

1.71

4.05 Pericles,

20

10

2.78

1.39

4.17 Tempest,

42

25

2.88

1.71

4.59 Cymbeline,

78

52

2.90

1.93

4.83 Winter's Tale,

57

43

3.12

2.36

5.48 Two n.o.ble

Kinsmen,

50

34

3.63

2.47

6.10 Henry VIII.,

45

37

3.93

3.23

7.16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, let us turn to our four tragedies (with _Timon_). Here again we have one doubtful play, and I give the figures for the whole of _Timon_, and again for the parts of _Timon_ a.s.signed to Shakespeare by Mr. Fleay, both as they appear in his amended text and as they appear in the Globe (perhaps the better text).

-----------------------------------------

Light.

Weak.

----------------------------------------- Hamlet,

8

0 Oth.e.l.lo,

2

0 Lear,

5

1 Timon (whole),

16

5 (Sh. in Fleay),

14

7 (Sh. in Globe),

13

2 Macbeth,

21

2 -----------------------------------------

Now here the figures for the first three plays tell us practically nothing. The tendency to a freer use of these endings is not visible. As to _Timon_, the number of weak endings, I think, tells us little, for probably only two or three are Shakespeare's; but the rise in the number of light endings is so marked as to be significant. And most significant is this rise in the case of _Macbeth_, which, like Shakespeare's part of _Timon_, is much shorter than the preceding plays. It strongly confirms the impression that in _Macbeth_ we have the transition to Shakespeare's last style, and that the play is the latest of the five tragedies.[290]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 282: The fact that _King Lear_ was performed at Court on December 26, 1606, is of course very far from showing that it had never been performed before.]

[Footnote 283: I have not tried to discover the source of the difference between these two reckonings.]

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