Rhyming Charter.
The following grant of William the Conqueror may be found in Stowe's Chronicle and in Blount's Ancient Tenures:
HOPTON, IN THE COUNTY OF SALOP.
To the Heyrs Male of the Hopton, lawfully begotten.
From me and from myne, to thee and to thyne,
While the water runs, and the sun doth shine,
For lack of heyrs to the king againe,
I, William, King, the third year of my reign,
Give to the Norman hunter,
To me that art both line [A] and deare,
The Hop and the Hoptoune,
And all the bounds up and downe,
Under the earth to hell,
Above the earth to heaven,
From me and from myne,
To thee and to thyne;
As good and as faire
As ever they myne were.
To witness that this is sooth,[B]
I bite the white wax with my tooth,
Before Judd, Marode and Margery,
And my third son Henery,
For one bow, and one broad arrow,
When I come to hunt upon the Yarrow.
[A] Related, or by lineage.
[B] True.
Accidental Rhymes.
In President Lincoln's last inaugural address occurs the following instance of involuntary rhyme:—
"Fondly do we hope,
Fervently do we pray,
That this mighty scourge of war
May speedily pass away;
Yet, if it be God's will
That it continue until—"
And here the rhyme ceases. Cicero's prose shows, in places, similar instances of involuntary rhyme.