§ =168.= Intimately connected with the quality of the line-endings is the proportion of unstopt or 'run-on' and 'end-stopt' lines, or the frequent or rare use the poet makes of enjambement. Like the feminine, weak, and light endings, this metrical peculiarity also occurs much more rarely in Shakespeare's earlier than in his later plays. According to Furnivall's statistics, e.g. in _Love's Labour's Lost_ one run-on line occurs in 18·14 lines; in _The Tempest_, on the other hand, we have one run-on line in 3·02 lines; in _Winter's Tale_ the proportion rises to one in 2·12. As in the later plays run-on lines are often the result of the use of weak and light endings, we may perhaps assume with Hertzberg that at times the poet deliberately intended to give a greater regularity to the verse, if only by introducing the more customary masculine endings. From this point of view, then, both the weak and light endings and the run-on lines would have much less importance as metrical and chronological tests than they otherwise might have had. § =169.= But there is another peculiarity of Shakespeare's rhythms noticed by Hertzberg which is of greater value as a metrical test; viz. the use of the full syllabic forms of the suffixes _-est_, and especially of _-es_ or _-eth_ in the second and third pers. sing., as well as that of _-ed_ of the preterite and of the past participle. These tests are all the more trustworthy because they do not so much arise from a conscious choice on the part of the poet as from the historical development of the language. This is indicated by the fact that the slurring of these endings prevails more and more in the later plays. According to Hertzberg's statistics the proportion of fully sounded and slurred _e_ is as follows: 1 _H. VI._ _T. Andr._ 1 _H. IV._ _H. VIII._ 3 Pers. Sing. 15·58% 6·4% 2·25% 0% Pret. and P.P. 20·9% 21·72% 15·41% 4·2% It thus appears that in this respect also there is a decided progress from a more archaic and rigorous to a more modern usage. These are the five chief distinctive marks of Shakespeare's verse in the different periods of his dramatic work. Besides these, Fleay has pointed out some other characteristics distinctive of the first period, namely, the more sparing use of Alexandrines, of shortened verses, and of prose, and the more frequent use of doggerel verses, stanzas, sonnets, and crossed rhymes. § =170.= There are, however, some other rhythmical characteristics that have not yet been sufficiently noticed by English or German scholars, probably because they cannot be so easily represented by means of statistics.