There is less freedom of structure in the Alexandrine as used in the lyrical poems of this period, in which, however, the verse is generally resolved by middle rhyme into short lines, as may be seen from the examples in § [150].
§ 148. The structure of the Alexandrine is, on the other hand, extremely irregular in the late Middle English Mysteries and the Early English Moral Plays, where, so far as we have observed, it is not employed in any piece as the exclusive metre, but mostly occurs either as the first member of the above-mentioned Poulter’s Measure, and occasionally in uninterrupted sequence in speeches of considerable length. We cannot therefore always say with certainty whether we have in many passages of Jacob and Esau (Dodsley’s Old Plays, ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii, pp. 185 ff.) to deal with four-beat lines or with unpolished Alexandrines (cf. Act II, Sc. i). In other pieces, on the other hand, the Alexandrine, where it appears in passages of some length, is pretty regularly constructed, as, for instance, in Redford’s Marriage of Wit and Science (Dodsley, ii, pp. 325 ff.), e.g. in Act II. Sc. ii (pp. 340–1):
How mány séek, that cóme | too shórt of théir desíre:
How mány dó attémpt, | that daíly dó retíre.
How mány róve abóut | the márk on évery síde:
How mány think to hít, | when théy are much too wíde:
How mány rún too fár, | how mány light too lów:
How féw to góod efféct | their trávail dó bestów! &c.
The caesura and close of the line are in this passage, which comprises eighteen lines, monosyllabic throughout.