Hudibras
The Presbyterian knight-errant Hudibras and his squire Ralpho, tilting at Puritan hypocrisy in three parts of galloping octosyllabic couplets, the mock-epic that gave English the word 'hudibrastic.'
Measured across the book
Across its 11,382 lines, 95% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 95% to 96%). Alliteration runs at 0.98 times what shuffling the words would give (0.20 observed against 0.20 expected). 29% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
Part I: Canto Iiambic tetrameter · AABB · 934 linesPart I: Canto IIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 1186 linesPart I: Canto IIIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 1388 linesPart II: Canto Iiambic tetrameter · AABB · 932 linesPart II: Canto IIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 894 linesPart II: Canto IIIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 1198 linesPart III: Canto Iiambic tetrameter · AABB · 1614 linesPart III: Canto IIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 1698 linesPart III: Canto IIIiambic tetrameter · AABB · 796 linesPart III: An Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to His Ladyiambic tetrameter · AABB · 360 linesPart III: The Lady's Answer to the Knightiambic tetrameter · AABB · 382 lines
About this text
Public domain. Text from Hudibras, Project Gutenberg ebook #4937. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.