While reciting "To be or not to be" recently, I discovered a rhythmic pattern that I hadn't really noticed before. At least to me, there seems to be quite a few dactyls, especially in the second half of his famous soliloquy.
Could these interpretations be correct?
The | ìn-sol-ence of| òf-fice, and| the spùrns
That pa|tient mèr-it of |th' ùn-wor-thy takes,
OK, this isn't a dactyl but I didn't know what else to call it. Notice the 2 lines are treated as one and it has a feminine ending.
When he him |sèlf might his qui|èt-us make
With a bàre |bod-kìn?| Who would fàr|dels bear,
To grùnt| and swèat| ùn-der a| wèar-y life,| (or alternatively |un-der a wèar|y life|)
|But that the drèad| of some-thing à|fter death,
(I really don't know what it is I'm supposed to be doing to indicate the diactrics... I hope you will understand me)
To me it seems more natural that you group a bunch of the syllables together (like 3 or 4 of them) in a rushed or slurred speech pattern like someone who may be a little scared or hurried.
Also it seems like at times he is alternating between thought processes, as if he were weighing options on one hand, then on the other hand, so it'd be like: "with a bare bodkin?" (one thought, but then like in a piece of music you have one cadence already but you want to keep the flow going he jumps right into the next) "who would fardels bear".... etc etc etc...
What are your thoughts?