Inversion
<p>Shakespeare also reverses the order of the stresses in some iambi to help emphasize certain words or ideas. If you look closely at the fourth iambus in the Hamlet quote above, you can see how he has placed an emphasis on the word “that” by inverting the stresses.
Occasionally, Shakespeare will completely break the rules and place two stressed syllables in the same iambus, as the following quote from <i>Richard III</i> demonstrates:
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<p><b>Now</b> is / the <b>win-</b> / -ter of / <b>our dis-</b> / con<b>tent</b>
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<p>In this example, the fourth iambus emphasizes that it is “our discontent,” and the first iambus emphasizes that we are feeling this “now.”</p>