Th'ineuitable prosecution of disgrace and horror This line, with its eight feet catalectic, has given much metrical trouble. Its predecessor and successor are adequately correct, but this line is certainly a notable violation of the laws of blank verse. To utter these words, proclaiming his open shame, must have cost Anthony's proud spirit a fierce struggle; every word is a torture, and his emotion must have been almost uncontrollable before he could bring himself to utter ‘disgrace’ and ‘horror.’ Wherefore, disregarding all metrical laws whatsoever, I would, with a long pause after ‘of,’ put ‘disgrace and horror’ in a separate line, and allow the other lines to remain undisturbed. Although this arrangement is, in effect, for the benefit of the eye, yet through the eye it conveys an intimation of the way in which, as I think, it should be spoken.—Ed.
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1907.
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