Thursday, July 4, 2013

In Act I, scene vii, of Macbeth, are there masculine and/or feminine line endings, and if so, in what verses?

According to href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_M.html#meter_anchor">Literary Terms and
Definitions
, masculine and feminine endings are defined
as:


readability="9">

masculine: If a line
ends in a standard iamb, with a final stressed syllable, it is said to have a masculine
ending.
feminine: If a line ends in a lightly
stressed syllable, it is said to be
feminine.



With regard to
Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Act I, scene vii, I have provided
examples of each, based upon the definitions above.


A
feminine line ending (unstressed) is found in the following hypercatalectic
(hypercatalectic: extra unstressed beat) quotation:


readability="5">

We'd jump' / the life' / to come'. / But in' /
these cas' / -es~...
 (7)



Stress is found as
follows: jump, life, come, in, cas-.


The line contains five
stressed feet as shown by the five stressed words. The
-es of "cases" is the extra
hypercatalectic syllable of the line and it is unstressed, making this a feminine line.
Iambic pentameter, Shakespeare's favored form of writing, stresses beats as one
unstressed followed by one stressed beat: syllable counts can be misleading because of
elision and pauses.


Another feminine unstressed line ending
is found in the following quote:


readability="5">

It were' / done quick' / -ly. If_the' / as -sas'
/ -si -na' / tion~
 (2)



Stress is found as
follows: were, quick-, if_the, -sas-, -na-. The words "if" and "the" are elided to form
one beat. According to dictionaries, "assassination" can only be stressed
asSASsiNAtion.


The best way to calculate meter is to scan
the beat: Some students clap the beat out, some count beats on their fingers. If I get
stumped--and these two lines are tough because the words used contain multiple
syllables--I use a pencil and put a stress mark over syllables that must, according to
dictionary entries, carry stress and work from there.


A
masculine ending is:


readability="8">

~ Blood_y' / in -struc_tions', / which, be' /
-ing taught', / re -turn'...
(9)



Stress is found as
follows: blood_y, -struc_tions, be-, taught, -turn.  This is a difficult one because it
has both a headless (headless: acephalus) first foot, with an elision between the two
syllables of "bloody," followed by a second elision in "instruc_tion" between the 2nd
and 3rd syllables. "Return" must be stressed on the last syllable, making this a
masculine line.


Another feminine ending
is:



Of his' /
own cham' / -ber_and used' / their ve' / -ry dag' / -gers~
(76)



"Chamber" must be
stressed on cham- and "daggers" must be stressed on dag-, so they determine the line
stress. There is also an elision between "-ber" and "and" that makes one beat. Stress is
found as follows: his, cham-, used, ve-, dag-. That leaves
-gers as an extra unstressed syllable
in a hypercatalectic feminine line.


It would appear that in
this scene, there are more regular iambic masculine endings than hypercatalectic
feminine endings. Feminine endings will always have an unstressed final beat as in these
hypercatalectic iambs or as in regular trochees and regular dactyls, and masculine
endings will always have a stressed final beat as in regular iambs and anapests or as in
catalectic trochees and catalectic dactyls ( href="http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_C.html#catalectic_anchor">catalexis:
adding or omitting final or beginning unstressed syllables).

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