Xiii. Later Middle English Period

Potentially Metrical Lines in Langland (see Book II).

Decasyllables:

For Ja|mes the gen|tel bond | it in | his book.

(A. i. 159.)

Thus I | live lov|eless lik|e a lu|ther dogge.

(A. v. 97.)

Alexandrines:

And ser|ved Treu|the soth|lyche | somdel | to paye.

(C. viii. 189.)

Adam | and A|braham | and Y|say the | prophete.

(B. xvi. 81.)

Fourteeners:

But if | he wor|che well | there-with | as Do|wel him | techeth.

(B. viii. 56.)

Of a|ny sci|ence un|der son|ne the se|ven arts | and alle.

(B. xi. 166.)

A large number might be added where the pronunciation which was shortly to come in necessarily makes such lines, though they may not have been intended as such; for instance--

Take we | her words | at worth, | for her | witness | be true;

(B. xii. 125.)

and even octosyllables will appear--

Ne no say robe in rich[e] pelure;

(A. iii. 277.)

partly explaining to us the chaos of lines in fifteenth-century poetry.