Et la biauté qui ont mon cuer ravi,
Et la plaisir enyvré de folour,
Le dous regart qui me mist en errour;
Et loyauté qui souffre et a souffert
Qu'en lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert.
This metre is much used by our poet; it occurs in the Lyf of St. Cecile, the Clerkes Tale, the original Palamon and Arcite, the Compleint to his Lady, An Amorous Complaint, Complaint unto Pitè, Anelida, Of the Wretched Engendring of Mankinde, the Man of Lawes Tale, the Compleint of Mars, Troilus, Words to Adam, Parliament of Foules, the Prioresses Tale, and Lenvoy to Scogan. It occurs thrice repeated, with a refrain, in Against Women Unconstant, Compleint to his Purs, Lak of Stedfastnesse, Gentilesse, and Truth; as well as in the Balade introduced into the Legend of Good Women, ll. 249-269.
The Envoy to 'Fortune' also consists of a seven-line stanza, but the arrangement of the rimes is different, there being only two rimes in place of the usual three.
This metre was much used by Hoccleve, Lydgate, King James I of Scotland, and others; but is now uncommon.
[§ 56]. Terza rima. We have only a few lines of terza rima, in the Compleint to his Lady; see vol. i. p. 76.
[§ 57]. Ten-line stanza. A ten-line stanza occurs in the