Tymbre[5] us faire scone[6] hus,
At thy burth,[7] at thy bare,[7]
Sainte Nicholaes, bring us wel thare.
These lines are almost regular, and the rhyme in the second couplet is perfect.
The Brut, with its ragged four-accented and nearly rhymeless lines, shows no further advance; but the Ormulum, though it does without rhyme, is remarkable for the regularity of its meter. Then during the thirteenth century there comes a large number of poems, chiefly romances and homilies. Much of the verse, such as in Horn, Havelock the Dane, and the works of Manning, is in couplet form. It is nearly doggerel very often, and hesitates between four and five feet. This is the rough work that Chaucer is to make perfect. The following example of this traditional verse should be carefully scanned:
For Engelond ys ful ynow of fruyt and of tren,
Of wodes and of parkes, that joye yt ys to sen.
Of foules and of bestes of wylde and tame also.
Of salt fysch and eche fresch, and fayr ryueres ther to.
Of welles swete and colde ynow, of lesen and of mede.