This metre was afterwards revived.

6: 9. was rarely met with except in the tumbling verse;

I purposed war : yet I fained truce.

Thus did I Frenche Kinge for the love
1

M. for M.

K. James, 4.

of thee.

Same, 4.

6:10. and 6: 11. are two of the commonest verses in the triple measure. They are also of constant occurrence in the tumbling verse;

In this wretched world: I may no longer dwell.

M. for M. K. James, 14.

Our herald at armes to King Jem❘ye did say.

M. for M. Flodd. Field, 4.

With all the hole sorte: of that glorious place.

Skelton's El. 31.

As per fightly as could be thought | or devysed.

Same, 23.

VERSES BEGINNING WITH SECTION 61.

67: 1. and 67: 2. are extremely rare, but when lengthened are found both in Anglo-Saxon and in our later alliterative meters;

Thai kyssit thair luffis, at thair partyng,

The King wmbethocht | him off | a thing,
That he fra thaim on fute wald ga.

geslog on æt sæc|ce: sweord a ec|gum.

Of ædra gehwæne egor stream as.

The Bruce, 2. 747.

War Song.

Cæd.

In setting and sowing: swonke* | full sore.

But japers and Jang|lers: jud as children.

P. Ploughman.

Same.

These verses of ten syllables are the shortest that are found in Piers Plowman. They are rarely met with in alliterative poems of a later date;

.

His sore | exclamations: made | me afferde.

And held with the commons under a cloke].

M. for M. K. James, 2.

Skelton's El. 11.

Cæd.

Tha wær on geset te : wide and side.

And rawyt with his ragemen: ringles and broches.

P. Ploughman.

In glot enye God | wote : gon | they to bed de.

61: 5. is almost peculiar to the tumbling verse;

Yet were we in nom|ber: to his | one three].

Same.

M. for M. K. James, 8.

I trowe | he doth neither: God love | nor dread].

Same, 12.

That buf fits the Scots | bare: they lacked none].
M. for M. Flod. Field, 20.

But by them to know lege: ye may

attayne.

Skelton's El. 19.

67: 6. belongs to the triple measure, and as the rhythm runs continuously through the line, it has survived the tumbling verse, of which it once formed one of the most striking features. The lengthened verse is found in Piers Plowman.

In peaceable man er: I ruled my land.

M. for M. Kg. James, 2.

*The e is, I believe, a blunder of the transcriber.

Full friendly and faithful my subjects I fand.

:

Full boldly their big men against | me did come].

Same. 3.

Flod. Field. 17.

Your hap was unhappy to ill | was your spede].

Skelton's El. 9.

"Twas I won the wager: though you | hit the white, And being a winner: God give you good night.

Tam. of the Shrew, 5. 2.

And leneth it los elles: that lecherye haunteth.

P. Ploughman.

There hoved an hund red in hoaves of selkle.

:

Same.

Which soul fast and loose | Sir: came first | from Apollo. B. Jons. Fox, 1. 2.

6l: 9. and 67: 10. are only found in the tumbling verse and some of the most slovenly specimens of the triple

measure;

Ye had not been able to have said | him Nay.

Skelton's El. 10.

And could not by fals|hode : either thrive | or thie|.

M. for M. Kg. James, 9. ·

For sorrowe and pity: I gan nere | to resorte.
Now room for fresh game sters who do will

Same, 4. you to know.

B. Jons. Fox, 1. 2.

As blithe and as art less: as the lambs | on the lea],
And dear to my heart as the light to my ee.

Burns. Auld Rob Morris.

Of the verses beginning with 6 ll. we have one 6 ll: 2. which still keeps its station in our poetry. It belongs to that class of verses, which have the triple rhythm running through both sections. This was doubtless the cause of its surviving. It is found occasionally in the tumbling

verse;

Bothe temporal and spiritual: for | to complayne.

Skelton's El. 26.

Why then thy dogmatical silence hath left | thee—
Of that an obstrep erous lawyer bereft | me.

B. Jons. Fox, 1. 2.

In the same loose metre, we sometimes meet with such a verse as 6 l: 10.

The Baron of Killerton and both As tones were there].

M. for M. Flodd. Field, 10.

CHAPTER IV.

VERSE OF FIVE ACCENTS.

OUR verse of five accents may be divided into two sections, whereof one contains two, and the other three accents. Accordingly as it opens with one or other of these sections, the character of its rhythm varies materially. We shall in the present chapter pass under review those verses, which begin with the section of two accents.

Before, however, we proceed, I would make one or two observations on a subject, which has already been touched upon in the opening of the last chapter. Gascoigne thought that in a verse of ten syllables, the pause would "be best placed at the ende of the first four syllables." He adds, however, soon afterwards, "In rithme royall it is at the writer's discretion, and forceth not where the pause be until the end of the line." Now as the stanza, known by the name of the rhythm royal, was borrowed from the French, this strengthens an opinion already mooted, that, with the other peculiarities of foreign metre, the flow of its rhythm was introduced into our poetry. But that it quickly yielded to the native rhythm of the language is clear, no less from the versification of such poets. as have survived to us, than from the silence of contemporary critics. Gascoigne is the only writer who alludes to this license-a strong proof that it was not generally recognised even as a peculiarity of the rhythm royal.