§ 185. The four-foot trochaic line (discussed above in its relationship to the eight- and seven-foot verse) is the most frequent of all trochaic metres. It likewise occurs either with alternate feminine and masculine rhymes or with rhymes of one kind only. We find it both in stanzas and in continuous verse. The latter form, with feminine rhymes only, we have in Shakespeare’s Tempest, IV. i. 106–9:
Hónour, ríches, márriage-bléssing,
Lóng contínuance, ánd incréasing,
Hóurly jóys be stíll upón you!
Júno síngs her bléssings ón you, &c.
With masculine endings only it is found in Love’s Labour’s Lost, IV. iii. 101:
Ón a dáy—aláck the dáy!—
Lóve, whose mónth is éver Máy,
Spíed a blóssom pássing fáir
Pláying ín the wánton áir.