V. Early Middle English Period

Conflict or Indecision between Accentual Rhythm and Metrical Scheme.

Layamon.

1. {Þa an|swære|de Vor|tiger-- {of ælc | an vu|ele he | wes wær.

2. {Nulle ¦ ich heom ¦ belauen || {bi mine ¦ quike live.

3. {For Hen|gest is | hider | icumen, {He is | mi fa|der and ich | his sune.

4. {And ich ¦ habbe ¦ to leof-monne || {his dohter ¦ Rowenne.

These four couplets (continuous in the original) exhibit perfectly the process which was going on. (2) is a rather shapeless example of the old scarcely metrical Anglo-Saxon line with a roughly trochaic rhythm; and (4) is not very different. But (3) is a not quite successful, though recognisable, attempt at a rhymed (it is actually assonanced) iambic dimeter or octosyllabic couplet. And (1) is this couplet complete at all points in rhythm, metre, and rhyme--capable, in fact, of being exactly quantified and rendered exactly into modern English, all but the dropped final e:

Thĕn ān|swĕrēd|[ĕ] Vōr|tĭger ŏf īlk | ăn ē|vĭl hē | wăs wāre.