Rhyming Couplets and Blank Verse

The play is written almost entirely in either blank verse or rhyming couplets. Blank verse is unrhymed verse written in predominantly iambic feet. An iambic foot consists of two syllables, in which the stress falls on the second syllable. Blank verse is usually written in iambic pentameters. A pentameter is a ten-syllable line with five stresses. In act 1, scene I, for example, Alcippus's line, “To lead on twenty thousand fighting Men,” is an iambic pentameter, as is his “Those Eyes that gave this speaking life to thine,” in act 5, scene 2. However, Behn writes with a great deal of variation, and much of the blank verse in the play does not follow strict iambic pentameter or any regular metrical pattern. Shorter lines are common.

Much of the play is written in rhyming couplets, a pair of rhymed lines. For example, the two lovers Aminta and...