§ 129. The contemporaneous literary productions of the Midlands and South written in this metre generally observe a mean between the free and the strict versification of the two northern groups.
These are inter alia The Story of Genesis and Exodus, The Owl and Nightingale, The Lay of Havelok, Sir Orfeo, King Alisander, several compositions of Chaucer’s,[143] as, for instance, The Book of the Duchesse, The House of Fame, Gower’s Confessio Amantis, and others. The last work, as well as The Owl and Nightingale, is written in almost perfectly regular iambic verses, in which the syllables are strictly counted. The other compositions more frequently admit the familiar rhythmical licences and have a freer movement, but none to the same extent as the Pater Noster. In artistic perfection this metre presents itself to us in Chaucer, who was particularly skilful in employing and varying the enjambement. A short specimen from his House of Fame (ll. 151–74) will illustrate this:
Fírst sawgh I thé destrúccióun
Of Tróy, thórgh the Gréke Synóun,
Wíth his fálse fórswerýnge,
And his chére and hís lesýnge
Máde the hórs broght into Tróye,
Thorgh whích Tróyens lost ál her joýe.
And áfter thís was gráve, allás,
How Ílyóun assáyled wás