No attempt can be made to represent adequately the blank verse of Shakspere. The specimens, chosen respectively from his earlier, middle, and later periods, illustrate the trend of development of his verse. In the earlier period it was characterized by the slight use of feminine endings and _enjambement_; in the later by marked preference for both, and by general freedom and flexibility. In other words, Shakspere's own development represents, in a sort of miniature, that of the history of dramatic blank verse. According to Furnivall's tables, the proportion of run-on lines to end-stopped lines in _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ is one in ten, while in _The Tempest_ it is one in three. The increased use of "light" and "weak" endings is closely analogous. Professor Wendell says of the verse of _Cymbeline_: "End-stopped lines are so deliberately avoided that one feels a sense of relief when a speech and a line end together. Such a phrase as 'How slow his soul sail'd on, how swift his ship' is deliberately made, not a single line, but two half-lines. Several times, in the broken dialogue, one has literally to count the syllables before the metrical regularity of the verse appears.... Clearly this puzzling style is decadent; the distinction between verse and prose is breaking down." (_William Shakspere_, p. 357.)[29] I, that did help To fell the lofty cedar of the world Germanicus; that at one stroke cut down Drusus, that upright elm; withered his vine; Laid Silius and Sabinus, two strong oaks, Flat on the earth; besides those other shrubs, Cordus and Sosia, Claudia Pulchra, Furnius and Gallus, which I have grubbed up; And since, have set my axe so strong and deep Into the root of spreading Agrippine; Lopt off and scattered her proud branches, Nero, Drusus; and Caius too, although replanted. If you will, Destinies, that after all, I faint now ere I touch my period, You are but cruel; and I already have done Things great enough. All Rome hath been my slave; The senate sate an idle looker-on, And witness of my power; when I have blushed More to command than it to suffer: all The fathers have sat ready and prepared, To give me empire, temples, or their throats, When I would ask 'em; and, what crowns the top, Rome, senate, people, all the world have seen Jove but my equal; Cæsar but my second. 'Tis then your malice, Fates, who, but your own, Envy and fear to have any power long known. (BEN JONSON: _Sejanus_, V. iv. 1603.)