Whon bei gon ricchest men on array

Hou sone bat god hem may degrade
And sum tyme þenk on gesterday.

The riming is difficult; one rime is used six times, another four times and the third twice. The Pearl is written in this stanza, and alliteration is also regularly used; cp. ll. 1—12: Perle plesaunte to prynces paye,

To clanly clos in golde so clere!
Oute of Oryent, I hardyly saye,

Ne proued I neuer her precios pere,
So rounde, so reken in vche araye,
So smal, so smope her sydez were;
Queresoeuer I jugged gemmez gaye,
I sette hyr sengeley in synglere.
Allas! I leste hyr in on erbere;
burg gresse to grounde hit fro me yot.
I dwyne, fordolked of luf-daungere,

Of þat pryuy perle wythouten spot.

NOTE. On the close connection of the stanzas in this poem by means of refrain and concatenatio, see § 163.

The construction is laxer, when the conclusion has two new rimes, a ba ba babcded, as in the second political song in Böddeker, written in riming alliterative verses: Ich herde men vpo mold make muche mon etc.

We find the same rime order in the Old Testament poems MS. Seld. Supra 52 of the Bodleian; see Heuser, Anglia 31, 1 ff. But here the opening has four beats and the conclusion three beats,

a baba ba b c dc dg, e.g. Genesis stanza 3:

This boke that is the bybyll cald,

And all that owtt of yt is drawn,

For holy wrytt we sall yt hald

And honour yt euer os our awn.
All patriarkes and prophettes yt tald,
So on per saynges sekerly ar knawn,
And all wor fygurs fayr to fald,

How coymmyng of Crist mygt be knawn.
God graunt us Crist to knaw

All our form faders crauyd,
And so to lere is law,

That our sawlis may be sauyd.

The stanza of A Prayer to the Virgin Mary (Vernon MS. EETS. 117, p. 735) is also anisometrical (a, b, a, bз a, b a b c d e dз):

Heil sterre of be see so briht.
þow graunt vs to ben vr gyde!
Godes holi moder riht,

bi worschipe walkep wyde.
Alwey mayden porw his miht,

how sittest bi his syde.
Blesset gate of heuene liht,
þow rede vs riht to ryde.
Ladi we ben maked al glad
For pou weore meoke ifounde.
Godes moder weore bu maad,
Iblesset beo þat stounde.

§ 174. The Tristrem Stanza ababababy bc. The romance of Sir Tristrem (ed. Kölbing, Heilbronn 1882) is written in an eleven-line stanza; the opening has eight verses of three beats with alternate rime, then follows a bob-verse (of one beat), finally come two verses be with three beats. The scheme is a ba ba ba b c1 b c, or, since Greek

letters are used for the bob-verse, a ba ba bab,

71 b cg; cp.:

bis semly somers day

In winter it is nougt sene;

bis greues wexe al gray

þat in her time were grene.
So dop þis world, y say,
Ywis and nougt at wene,
be gode ben al oway

Our elders bat haue bene

to abide.

Of a knigt is þat I mene;

His name is sprong wel wide.

The conclusion of the stanza of Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight has two more verses of three beats See § 166.

a1 ba bag.

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The conclusion of the stanza of William of Shoreham's De septem sacramentis (ed. Konrath EETS. ES. 86) bears some relation to that of the Tristrem stanza. The opening corresponds to the common metre (§ 170. 229). The scheme is a,b,c,b,d,ed; cp. stanza 1:

Sonderliche his man astoned

In his owene mende,

Wanne he note neuer wannes he compe,
Ne wider he schel wende;

And more,

bet al his lyf his here imengde

Wipe sorwe and eke wipe sore.

Since verses 1. 3. 6 do not rime, it would be more correct perhaps to arrange the lines as eptenaries and put the scheme aa81b7. Thus st. 2:

And wanne he deipe, ne mey me wite woder he comeb to wisse;

Bote as a stock per lipe bet body wipe-boute alle manere blisse.

Wat þenkeste?

An hondred winter gef a leuepe bat his lyf mid þe lengeste. $ 175. Thirteen-line Stanza ababababy d d d c. In some plays of the Towneley Mysteries we find a five-line conclusion of the form 7 ddd cg, 21 following an opening of verses, irregularly constructed, with three beats and alternate rime. The scheme is abababab, dddcg. See Noah 1. 100ff. in Schipper's Übungsbuch 8th ed. p. 176 ff.:

Therfore shalle I fordo

Alle this medille-erd
With floodis that shalle flo
And ryn with hidous rerd.
I haue good cause therto,
For me no man is ferd.

As I say shal I do,

Of veniance draw my swerd

And make end

Of all that beris life,

Sayf Noe and his wife,

For thay wold neuer stryfe

With me ne me offend.

We find the same rime scheme in some riming alliterative poems of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Here the opening consists of eight alliterative long-lines with alternate rime, which are followed either by a bob-verse (The Pistil of Swete Susanne) or by an alliterative long-line (Rauf

Coilsear, Golagrus and Gawain, The Awntyrs of Arthur, The Buke of the Howlat). The three following lines, which rime together, are somewhat like the first half-verse of an alliterative long-line, and the thirteenth verse, which rimes with the ninth, is somewhat like the second half-verse of the alliterative long-line (cp. § 179). The scheme of the stanza is either a bababab, 1 dd d1 cg, 21 e.g. The Pistil of Swete Susanne, stanza 1:

þer was in Babiloine a barne in þat borw riche bat was a jew jentil and Joachim he hiht.

He was so lele in his lawe,

Of alle riches pat renke
His innes and his orchardes
Halles and herbergages
To seche porw pat citee
Of erbus and of erberi

per lyued non hym liche, arayed was he riht,

were with a deope diche, heiz vpon hiht. per nas non siche so auenauntly idiht bat day

Wiþinne be sercle of sees,
Of erberi and alees,

Of alle maner of trees
Sobely to say,

or a baba ba b c d d d cg, e.g.

Arthur, st. 1:

The Awntyrs of

In the tyme of Arthur ane aunter bytydde

By the Tarnewathelane, as be boke telles,

Whane he to Carlele was comen and conquerour kydde
Withe dukes and dussiperes þat with þe dere dwelles,
To hunte at þe herdes pat longe had bene hydde.
One a day bei hem dighte to be depe delles,
To felle of be femailes in forest and frydde,
Fayre by be firmyschamis in frithes and felles.

Thus to wode arne bei went be wlonkest in wedes