"Acephalous" or nine-syllable lines:
Twen|ty bo|kes clad | in blak | or reed. (Prol. 274.)
(c) Alexandrines:
Westward, | right swich | ano|ther in | the op|posite.
(K. T. 1036.)
So sor|weful|ly eek | that I | wende ver|raily.
(Sq. T. 585.)
XV. Later Middle English Period
Variations from Strict Iambic Norm in Gower.
(a) Trochaic substitution:
Ūndĕr | the gren|e thei | begrave.
(Conf. Am. i. 2348.)
(b) Anapæstic substitution:
Sometime | in cham|bre sometime | in halle.
(iv. 1331.)
Of Je|lousi|e, but what | it is
(v. 447.)
(if the dissyllabic "ie" is insisted on).
And thus | ful oft|e about|e the hals.
(v. 2514.)
It was | fantosm|e but yet | he heard.
(v. 5011.)
(It will be observed that in these four instances, all acknowledged by Professor Macaulay, the final e is required to make the trisyllabic foot, though the first instance differs slightly from the others. I should myself add a large number where Mr. Macaulay sees only "slur," but in which occur words like "ever" (i. 3), "many a" (i. 316, 317), or syllables like "eth," which must be valued in one case at least here—
To breaketh and renneth al aboute,
(Prol. 505.)
where Mr. Macaulay reads "tobrekth," and where the copyists very likely made it so.)
(c) Acephalous lines:
Very rare if the e be always allowed. Perhaps non-existent.
XVI. Transition Period
Examples of Break-down in Literary Verse.
(a) Lydgate's decasyllabic couplet:
Ther he | lay to | the lar|kè song [ ̆ ̄ ]
With no|tès herd|è high | up in | the ayr.
The glad|è mor|owe ro|dy and | right fayr,
Phe|bus al|so cast|ing up | his bemes
The high|e hyl|les ʌ | gilt with | his stremes.
(Story of Thebes, 1250 sqq.)
(3, tolerable; 2, ditto, with hiatus at cæsura; 1, last foot missing; 4, "acephalous"; 5, syllable missing at cæsura.)
(b) His rhyme-royal:
This is | to sein |—douteth | never | a dele—
That ye | shall have | ʌ ful posses|sion
Of him | that ye | ʌ cher|rish now | so wel,
In hon|est man|er, without|e offen|cioun,
Because | I know|e your | enten|cion
Is tru|li set | in par|ti and | in al
To loue | him best | and most | in spe|cial.
(Temple of Glass, st. 16.)
(Two examples (2 and 3) of the so-called "Lydgatian" missing syllable at cæsura.)
(c) A typical minor, John Metham, in Amoryus and Cleopes, stanza 1:
The charms | of love | and eke | the peyn | of Amo|ryus | the knyght
For Cleo|pes sake | and eke | how bothe | in fere
Lovyd | and af|tyr deyed, | my pur|pos ys | to indight.
And now, | O god|dess, I thee | beseche | off kun|ning that | have | syche might,
Help me | to adorne | ther charms | in syche | maner
So that | qwere this | matere | doth yt | require
Bothe ther | lovys I | may compleyne | to loverys | desire.
(A fourteener, a decasyllable, an Alexandrine, a sixteener, and three decasyllables, the last very shaky either as that or as an Alexandrine! In fact, sheer doggerel of the unintended kind.)
XVII. Transition Period
Examples of True Prosody in Ballad, Carols, etc.
(a) Chevy Chase:
The Per|cy out | of Northum|berland,
And a vow | to God | made he,
That he | would hunt | in the moun|tains
Of Chev|iot within | days three,
In the mau|gre of dough|ty Doug|las
And all | that ever with | him be.
(It must be observed that this modern spelling exactly represents the old prosodically. The reader will then see that there are no liberties, on the equivalent system, except the crasis of "-viot" and "ever." The former, insignificant in any case, is still more so here, for the actual Northumbrian pronunciation is or was "Chevot"; while if "ever" changes places with "that," there is not even any crasis needed. For a piece so rough in phrase, and copied by a person so evidently illiterate, the exactness is astonishing.)
(b) "E.I.O.":
To doom | we draw | the sooth | to schaw
In life | that us | was lent,
