Of a knyht, þat wes so strong
Of wham god haþ don ys wille;
Me þuncheþ þat deþ haþ don vs wrong,
Þat he so sone shal ligge stille.
Many other examples occur in later poetry, e.g. in Minot, Lydgate, Dunbar, Lyndesay, in Wyatt, p. 119, Burns, p. 59, Walter Scott, p. 160, &c.
Similar stanzas of two-stressed and three-foot verses are only of rare occurrence; we find them e.g. in Percy’s Rel. II. ii. 3; Wyatt, p. 41.
The same stanza, consisting of five-foot verses, was used by Chaucer in his A B C, the first stanza of which may be quoted here:
Almyghty and al merciable Quene,
To whom that al this world fleeth for socour
To have relees of sinne, sorwe, and teene!