We have arrived at the letter "D" in the search for the encycopaedic mind of "William Shakespeare" and it would seem 'much further to go'. But within Shakespeare’s accomplished literary toolbox we also find the use of Diacope (di-a'-co-pee) which is the close repetition of words broken by one or two intervening words:

“Done like a Frenchman: turn and turn again.” Henry VI Pt. 1, 3.3.17.

Diacope is an example of Repetition.

The use of Dialysis (Gr: “dismembering”) occurs whenever an argument, analysis or line of enquiry for and against a situation or person are listed rationally and therefore disposed and put in their proper place or level of importance/status.

Another rare literary device is Diasyrmus (di'-a-syrm-os) which is the rejection of a position by comparing it to something very stupid or ridiculous. Diasyrmus is an example of Comparison.

A metrical line which lacks a syllable in the middle and at the end is described as Dicatalectic but see also Acatalectic and Catalexis.

Another dramatic or literary technique is Dichotomy which is the contrast between two things that are represented as being opposed or opposite, e.g, good and evil, black and white, thought and action, etc.

 

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” Macbeth,1.3.39

Dichotomy is an example of: Comparison, Parallelism

In a totally different vein, there is the use of ecphonema whenever an expression of joy, delight or amazement begins a sentence or line, eg: Oh, Ah, or Whoah, although expressions could just as easily be Nay, Tut, Tisk, etc. Shakespeare’s most common use of ecphonema is the exclamation “Oh!”, which occurs in nearly every play he wrote:

"Oh for a Muse of fire!" (Henry Vth)

"O absence, what a torment would’st thou prove." (Sonnet 39)

Oh, speak again bright angel! (Romeo & Juliet)

O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb. (Julius Caesar)

Oh, that this all too solid flesh would melt. (Hamlet)

O! How much more doth beauty beauteous seem. (Sonnet 54)

But other uses can be found in Venus & Adonis: “Lo! Here the gentle lark, weary of rest”.

A rather obscure and rarely used technique from the Greek meaning “leaving out” is Ellipsis (el-lip'-sis) which is applied whenever words, or entire sentences are deliberately omitted or redacted leaving the reader to deduce what they might be. They might be used in secret communications or as an encrypted sentence but more usually by printers and compositors. Usually, several characters are embedded within the brackets such as a hyphen (-) or even several hyphens (---), a dotted line (...) or an asterisk (*), depending on the circumstances of the omission or who redacted them. The use of blanks between the brackets is unusual if rarely employed as far as I am aware. This occurs in only one of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (#126) and no viable reason has yet been given for its use by academics or researchers as far as I know. But it also applies to the omission of one or more words, which are intuitively assumed by the listener or reader or omitting a word implied by the previous clause:

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.” (The Merchant of Venice, Act 1. Scene 2.1 ) Ellipsis is an example of Omission.

The use of Enallage (e-nal'-la-ge) is the intentional use of a different gender, person, case, number, or tense when another is expected to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase:

“This dream of mine—

Being now awake, I’ll queen it no inch farther,

But milk my ewes and weep.” (A Winter's Tale, Act 4. Scene 4.490)

Enallage is an example of: Substitution

Another rare use of rhetoric is Enthymeme (en’-thy-meem) which is an argument in which a premise is omitted but simply implied, or which bases a conclusion on the truth of its contrary:

“Marked you his words? He would not take the crown;

Therefore ’tis certain he was not ambitious.” (Julius Caesar, Act 3. Scene 2.82)

Enthymeme is an example of Omission.

The envelope is where an entire stanza with some slight variation from beginning to end is repeated yet again as if echoing its meaning, this is often found in lyrics composed by Shakespeare [chorus].

Another term Epanados (e-pan'-o-dos) is the repetition of the chief points in a discourse, especially in reverse order of that in which they were previously treated.

“Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

How to divide the conquest of thy sight.

Mine eye my heart thy picture’s sight would bar,

My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.

My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie, ” (Sonnet 46)

It is a type of chiasmus, which is the inversion of the verbal structure of phrases using the same words. Also similar to antimetabole, in which the two phrases are not just inverted but suggest opposing meanings. Epanados is an example of Parallelism, Repetition.

A frequently employed literary and poetical device is Epanalepsis which is the repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. Repetition of words after intervening words for emphasis, or the repetition of words at beginning and end of line, phrase, clause, or sentence:

“Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe.” (Julius Caesar, Act 3. Scene 2.14)

While epanalepsis (Gk: “taking up again”) is used whenever a figure of speech that begins a phrase or verse that is repeated somewhere else within another phrase or stanza:

King Claudius:

'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,

To give these mourning duties to your father:

But, you must know, your father lost a father;

That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious sorrow: (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 2).

Epanalepsis is an example of Repetition.

For the most part many of these so-called archaic techniques of repetition from Greek and Roman times have been abandoned by modern poets and it is hardly surprising since they are often considered contrived or simply distracting and difficult to read at the best of times. In effect it is as if the record player had got stuck and constantly repeats the same sound over and over again! However, it is often found in many modern musical compositions.

Where the normal or accepted rules of prosody are ignored there is an asynartete (Greek: “disconnected”) or asyntactic (Greek: “unarranged”) non-grammatical arrangement of words or verses in a variety of metrical forms. Or autotelic (Greek: “self-existing”) meaning that the poem or drama has no purpose or direct meaning (“art for art’s sake”).

Not wishing to bore the reader exhaustively with all these obscure, at least to the layman, literary tools, trawling through the plays and poetry there is also the use of Epenthesis (e-pen'-thes-is) which is the adding of an extra syllable or letters in the middle of a word (also called infixation).

“I have but with a cursitory eye / O’erglanced the articles.” (Henry V, Act 5. Scene 2.69) Epenthesis is an example of Augmentation.

In drama Epanorthosis (Gk: “setting straight again”) is whenever a statement or figure of speech is employed by someone who is corrected either by themselves on reflection or by another actor who might comment on the validity of their initial assertion.

In rhetoric or within oratory the term Epideitic refers to a statement that praises or blames someone in public for some triumph, error or disaster. For example a funeral oration, panegyric or public occasion. See Encomium, Epithalamion or Ode.

An epilogue as every student of poetry or drama should know is a short speech given at the end of the play. Epilogues are found in “The Tempest”, “All’s Well That Ends Well”, “Henry VIIIth”, Henry Vth, Henry IVth Part 2”, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Love’s Labours Lost”, and “As You Like It”.

Similar in theme or function to an epilogue is the epimythium which is an attempt to summarise the inherent moral of a fable usually at the end of the narrative. If it occurs at the beginning it is known as a promythium.

However, the frequent use of Epimone (e-pi'-mo-nee) is the repetition of a phrase or question; dwelling on a point:

“Remember thee? Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat

In this distracted globe. Remember thee?” Hamlet, 1.5.99.

Epimone is an example of Repetition.

Often employed in classical rhetoric, Epiphonema is a term for an exclamation or reflection that strikingly sums up a previous passage or discourse—a kind of moral of the story. It derives from the Latin epiphōnēma from Greek epiphṓnēma (a witty saying), from epiphōneîn “to mention by name, call out, address,” composed of a prefixal use of the preposition epí “upon, on” and phōneîn “to make a sound.” Phōneîn is derived from phonḗ “sound, tone, voice,” ultimately seen in a variety of English words, such as Anglophone, microphone, phonetics, phonology, polyphony, and (tele)phone. Oh, what euphonious words derive from ancient Greek!

While there is also found the use of Epistrophe (e-pis'-tro-fee) from the Greek “upon turning” which is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses, lines, or sentences:

“Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that he is?” (All's Well That Ends Well, Act 4. Scene 1.45)

But see also anaphora, the repetition of words at the beginning, and mesodiplosis, the repetition of words in the middle. Epistrophe is an example of Repetition.

In drama if an actor wished to argue against someone thereby shaming them into confession or admit an impediment they employ an Epiplexis (Gk: “on stroke”), in effect it is akin to awakening their innate conscience. A typical example can be found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet when he decides to put on a play entitled “Murder of Gonzago” to prompt the conscience of Claudius into admitting he was responsible for his father’s death.

The term Epitasis from the Greek meaning nearing manifestation occurs in drama just before a climactic event approaches, when the plot thickens when it precedes the catastrophe.

An Epithalamion is usually a song or poem recited in the bridal chamber on the night of a wedding (eg: Spenser’s “Epithalamion) although an entire play was normally celebrated for a wedding for example “Midsummer Night’s Dream” was performed for the wedding of the Earl of Derby to Elizabeth de Vere, “As You Like It” was performed for the marriage of Henry Wriosthesley (Shakespeare’s patron) to Elizabeth Vernon, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” was probably performed for the marriage of Edward de Vere to Anne Cecil, and “Measure For Measure” for the marriage of Susan de Vere to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Indeed, the “Merry Wives Of Windsor” was probably written in anticipation of a marriage between Queen Elizabeth Ist to the Duke of Alencon but which never occurred.

As any aspiring poet or academic knows an Epithet is a noun-adjective combination as a means for amplification or further description, epithets can be semantically redundant or unusual. They are sometimes the literary source of nicknames:

“A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life,” (Romeo and Juliet, Act 1.Pro.1.)

Also see transferred epithet. An Epithet is an example of Augmentation.

Another important use in Greek prosody is Epizeuxis (e-pi-zook'-sis) which  is the repetition of words or phrases without intervening words:

 “O horror, horror, horror!

 Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee! (Macbeth, Act 2 scene 2.3.73.)

Epizeuxis is an example of Repetition

The term Erotema (e-ro-tem'-a) is a classical term for a type of rhetorical question. Erotema is an example of Substitution.

The term Exordium is an introduction to a speech to catch the attention of the listeners:

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” (Julius Caesar, 3.2.82)

Exordium is an example of Augmentation.

Shakespeare’s imagery and vast literary references include the legal and social elements of the Inns of Court, geography, history, war and weaponry, sports and games, classical mythology, drama, the natural world, sea-faring, hunting and falconry, astrology, medicine, art and culture, fashion, gardening and animal husbandry, fencing and fighting, the stage, religion, the occult/magic, paganism, folklore, metaphysics and oratory. Furthermore, to write so accurately about these subjects he would have had a library containing over 3,000 books and yet in the final last will and testament of the Stratford actor, William Shakspere there is no mention of any library, any books or manuscripts. No, not even a bible. Why was it necessary to perpetuate the myth and legend of William Shakespeare and who was responsible for this grandiose conspiracy and fraud on the world?

Furthermore, how did a relatively unknown and uneducated actor from Stratford-on-Avon become a universally popular and illustrious author of some 38 plays and several volumes of poetry? Having little or no primary education how would he become acquainted with the techniques of classical poetry, English, Greek and Roman history, as well as the political, legal, and social mores of Elizabethan court society? Indeed, how was this relatively illiterate man, who could barely sign his own name, able to develop an extraordinary vocabulary of some 29,000 words of which 1,700 were coined by him in such a short space of time. Why was his death in 1616 not eulogised and nationally mourned as a literary and dramatic genius? How could a man who had never known military service describe the historical battlefield so accurately and with such personal experience. If the man from Stratford had never travelled abroad how could he have known so much about the geography, customs and cultural traditions of towns and countryside in Venice, Padua, Antwerp and Rome?