This second graph displays the frequency to which artistic terms appear within Shakespeare's later plays. Once again, the length of each line represents the span of each play, so the points indicate where in the play artistic terms occur. Like the first graph, this graph is also interactive.

A character named Shadow certainly skews the results for Henry 4 Part 2! But the use of counterfeit, especially as it pertains to appearances and acting is significant in the Act 4, Scene 3 exchange between Rosalind and Oliver in As You Like It. Moments like this, which blend verbal and visual deceit, are delightfully fruitful when discussing the metadramatic function of artistic terms used in performance.

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Once again, these next two graphs are extensions of the first, but they include a search for many more terms. Because of limitations in Voyant technology, these graphs are static, but they are useful in showing the how artistic terms appear in relation to one another once the search expands. Like the first graph, I focused on searching for variants of terms in order to gain a fuller understanding of the frequency to which these terms appear.

Interestingly, before Hamlet's famed Hecuba speech in Act 2 Scene 2, the term shadow appears quite frequently to contrast with substance. A part of Hamlet's philosophical inwardness, his references to shadows indicate his suspicion towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

The fact that artistic terminology tapers off in Shakespeare's later work is perhaps worthy of more exploration. One might expect, for example, that plays such as Cymbeline and The Tempest would include more artistic references given their visual nature. The fact that they do not opens up questions pertaining to chronology, the course of English Renaissance artistic and dramatic theory, and genre, especially given that these two plays are part of the small cohort of Shakespeare's late romances.

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