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

-----------------
| Light  |      | Percentage  | Percentage  | Percentage
|endings.| Weak.| of light in | of weak in  |     of
|        |      | verse lines.| verse lines.|    both.
------------------------------------------------------------

------------
Antony &       |        |      |             |             |
Cleopatra,   |   71   |  28  |   2.53      |   1.        |    3.53
Coriolanus,    |   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 Noble      |        |      |             |             |
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 assigned 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
Othello,              |    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.]

[Footnote 284:  Der Vers in Shakspere’s Dramen, 1888.]

[Footnote 285:  In the parts of Timon (Globe text) assigned by Mr. Fleay to Shakespeare, I find the percentage to be about 74.5.  Koenig gives 62.8 as the percentage in the whole of the play.]