 Hi! Today we would like to explain and exemplify the rhyming patterns used in early modern English texts, especially in texts written by William Shakespeare. We need to understand these in order to analyse the segmental phonological structures of the words within these texts. To explain these rhythmical principles, I'm supported by my colleague, Martin Küster, who can do this much better than me. Hello Martin! Hello Jürgen! Let's start with the Iambic pentameter. This meter is often presented in Shakespearean plays. It is a meter where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one. Each line contains five of these diselabic units, also called feet, hence the term pentameter. Here's an example from Romeo and Juliet. It wears the nating gale and not the lark. Another very common meter used in Shakespeare is the trochaic tetrameter. It is a series of four feet that contain a stressed syllable before an unstressed one. So a line should ideally be eight syllables in total and end in an unstressed syllable. Listen to this example from a mid-summer night's dream where Puck says, Fairy king, attendant Merrick, aid you here, the mourning lark. In the middle of the lines, regardless of the meter, we usually have a pause. The technical term for this effect is cesura, which comes from Latin and means cut. This inner break occurs in almost every verse that is preceded by an enjambment. When a semantically coherent unit, for example a sentence or a clause, exceeds one verse and thus takes up part of the next, the cesura often marks the transition from one unit to the next. Here is an example from Shakespeare's Richard II. Me thinks I am a prophet new inspired, and thus expiring, do foretell of him. Although Shakespeare is likely to have known about and mostly adhered to the classic literary standards, there are many deviations. Very often Shakespeare extends the meter by one or two syllables, either before or after a cesura. Some verses have additional syllables or lack some. The heavens themselves, the planets and the center. Some others are divided among two or more characters. If that her breath will mist or stand the stone, way then she lives. Is this the promised end? This means that in a conversation of two or more characters, each of them speaks only a part of the line. As for the rhyming patterns, Shakespeare commonly wrote his plays in blank verse. Blank verse is an unrhymed iambic pentameter. Here are two examples. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. This royal throne of kings deceptored ale. Interestingly, Shakespeare often signaled a change of scenes or the entering of new characters by means of a so-called couplet, that is, two lines whose final words rhyme. Here is an example from Romeo and Juliet. But no more deep will they ender it may nay, than your consent gives strength to make it flay. So, thanks for joining us. We hope that this short video lecture helps to understand the metrical patterns in texts written by William Shakespeare and enable you to work out the segmental phonological properties more accurately.