Among the Germanic licences the presence of a disyllabic initial or internal thesis is most noticeable in these which are, so far as is known, the earliest five-foot verses in English poetry; as, e.g. in xli. 33, 34:
Ase stérres beþ in wélkne, | and gráses sóur ant suéte;
Whose lóueþ vntréwe, | his hérte is sélde séete.
§ 154. The main difference between Chaucer’s five-foot verse and these early specimens of this metre is that the caesura does not always occupy a fixed place in it, but is liable to shift its position.[152] It is either masculine, epic, or lyric, and occurs chiefly after the second or in and after the third foot, or in the fourth, so that there are thus (in Chaucer’s verse and that of most of the following poets) six main types of caesura:
1. Masculine (monosyllabic) caesura after the second foot; the principal kind (types 1 and 3):
Whan Zéphirús | eek wíth his swéte bréethe. Prol. 5.
2. Feminine (disyllabic) epic caesura after the second foot; far rarer (types 2 and 4):
To Cáunterbúry[153] | with fúl devóut coráge. ib. 22.
3. Feminine (disyllabic) lyric caesura in the third foot; more frequent than the preceding (types 10 and 12):
And máde fórward | érly fór to rýse. ib. 83.