Speech Lengths in Early Modern Plays

In 2005, Hartmut Ilsemann announced his discovery that until 1599, Shakespeare's plays contained more speeches of nine words than any other length; but after 1599, that length dropped to four words. The change has been described as sudden, and Ilsemann linked it to the opening of the Globe theatre. This note shows that the change Ilsemann found in Shakespeare is also clearly visible in his contemporaries generally, dispelling the suggested link with the Globe. It shows that the change was gradual, not sudden, and suggests that it was caused by a gradual increase in the use of blank verse lines split between speakers in plays generally.