Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben Thornton
I' Shakespeare even, 'tis common to find contractions. Oft-found they have e'er been, no? Where is the evidence that they are uncommon?
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That's largely, though, to make the words fit the metre of the blank verse that most of Shakespeare's plays are written in. (eg "e'er" is one syllable compared to two syllables for "ever"). If you look at examples of prose in Shakespeare, as opposed to poetry, contractions are much less common.