For the fact, as of The former, I confess it; but with what Base wrongs I was unwillingly drawn to it, To my few words there are some other proofs To witness this for truth. The “double” or “feminine” ending is the outstanding feature of Fletcher’s verse. _Cf._ _Fatal Dowry_, V., 2, 137: ROCHFORT. You say you are sorry for him; A grief in which I must not have a partner. ’Tis I alone am sorry, that when I raised The building of my life, for seventy years, Upon so sure a ground, that all the vices Practised to ruin man, though brought against me, Could never undermine, and no way left To send these grey hairs to the grave with sorrow, Virtue, that was my patroness, betrayed me. (Gifford inserts “when” in that third line.) Five instances in nine lines. Fleay (_Shakespeare Manual_, p. 171) points out that in Shakspere’s part of _Henry VIII_ the proportion of double endings to blank verse is 1 to 3; in Fletcher’s, 1 to 1·7. The weak and sugary effect of double endings is very apparent in Rowe’s _Fair Penitent_, the eighteenth-century play, based on _The Fatal Dowry_. Boyle (_E. S._, v. 74) takes six of Massinger’s plays: _The Unnatural Combat_, _The Duke of Milan_, _The Bondman_, _The City Madam_, _The Bashful Lover_, and _The Guardian_. These are his conclusions: “The plays show in general a high percentage of double endings, generally 40 per cent, or more. The percentage of run-on lines is a little lower, but seldom sinks for more than a scene below 30 per cent. The light and weak endings together make 5 to 7 per cent. The versification is exquisitely musical. There are very few rhymes.” The corresponding figures for Fletcher are: double endings, over 50 per cent.; run-on lines, under 20 per cent.; and light and weak endings almost negligible; rhyme, rare. Shakspere in his later manner (e.g., _The Tempest_) has 33 per cent. double endings. (_E. S._, vi. 71.) 169 Fleay (_Shakespeare Manual_, p. 123) takes a piece of Dryden’s _All for Love_, and rewrites it, as far as metre (and metre only) is concerned, in the styles of Fletcher, Beaumont, Massinger, Greene, and Rowley. 170 IV., 3, 5-24. 171 I., 2, 49-71.