Ne la|tin, ne law, | may help | ane haw,[36] But rath|ely us | repent. The cross, | the crown, | the spear | bees bown, That Je|su rug|ged and rent, The nail|ès rude, | shall thee | conclude With their | own ar|gument. With E | and O take keep | thereto, As Christ | himself | us kenned We com|e and go | to weal | or woe, That dread|ful doom | shall end.
(Spelling modernised as before, but not a word altered.)
XVIII. Transition Period
Examples of Skeltonic and other Doggerel.
(a) Skelton:
I.
Mirry | Marga|ret
As mid|somer flower,
Gen|tyll as fau|coun
Or hauke | of the tower—
With sol|ace and glad|ness,
Much mirth | and no mad|ness,
All good | and no bad|ness:—
So joy|ously,
So maid|enly,
So wom|anly.
Her de|menyng
In ev|ery thyng
Far far | passyng
That I | can indite
Or suffyce | to write.
(Crown of Laurel.)
II.
But to make | up my tale,
She bru|eth nop|py ale,
And ma|kethe there|of sale,
To travel|lers, || to tink|ers,
To sweat|ers, || to swink|ers,
And all | good || ale-drink|ers
That will noth|ing spare
But drynke | till they stare
And bring | themselves bare,
With "now | away | the mare,
And let | us slay Care,
As wise | as an hare."
(Elinor Rumming.)
(b) Examples from Heywood and other interludes.
(1) Continuous long doggerel:
I can|not tell | you: one knave | disdains | another,
Wherefore | take ye | the tone | and I | shall take | the other.
We shall | bestow | them there | as is most | conven|ient For such | a coup|le. I trow | they shall | repent That ev|er they met | in this | church here.
(2) Singles:
(Shortened six.) This | wyse him | deprave, (Octosyllable.) And give | the ab|solu|tion. (Irregular decasyllable.) The aboun|dant grace | of the | powèr | divyne (Alexandrine.) Preserve | this aud|ience | and leave | them to | inclyne. (Irregular fourteener.) Then hold | down thine | head like | a pret|ty man | and take | my blessing.
(In all these examples the doggerel is probably intended; that is to say, the writers are not aiming at a regularity which they cannot reach, but cheerfully or despairingly renouncing it.)
XIX. Transition Period
Examples from the Scottish Poets.
(a) Barbour (regular octosyllables):
The kyng | toward | the vod | is gane,
Wery, | for-swat and vill | of vayn;
Intill | the wod | soyn en|terit he,
And held | doun to|ward a | valè,
Quhar throu | the vod | a vat|tir ran.
Thiddir | in gret | hy went | he than,
And | begouth | to rest | hym thair,
And said | he mycht | no for|thirmair.
(One "acephalous" line.)
(b) Wyntoun (octosyllables somewhat freer):
Thir sev|yn kyng|is reg|nand were
A hun|der ful|ly and for|ty year, And fra | thir kyng|is thus | can cess In Ro|me thai che|sit twa con|sulès.
(IV. ii. 157–160.)
(c) Blind Harry (regular decasyllables on French model):
Than Wal|lace socht | quhar his | wncle suld be;
In a | dyrk cawe | he was | set|dul|fullè,
Quhar wat|ter stud, | and he | in yrn|yss strang.
Wallace | full sone | the brass|is wp | he dang;
Off that | myrk holl | brocht him | with strenth | and lyst,
Bot noyis | he hard, | off no|thing ellis | he wyst.
So blyth | befor | in warld | he had | nocht beyn,
As thair | with sycht, | quhen he | had Wal|lace seyn.
(d) James I. (rhyme-royal):
For wak|it and | for-wal|owit, thus | musing,
Wery | forlain | I list|enyt sod|dynlye,
And sone | I herd | the bell | to ma|tyns ryng,
And up | I rase, | no lon|ger wald | I lye:
Bot soon, | how trow|e ye? Suich | a fan|tasye
Fell me | to mynd | that ay | me thoght | the bell
Said to | me, "Tell | on, man, | what the | befell."
(e) Henryson (ballad measure; slight anapæstic substitution):
Makyne, | the night | is soft | and dry,
The wed|dir is warm | and fair, And the gre|nè wuid | richt neir | us by To walk | out on | all quhair: Thair ma
