A History of English Versification

by J. Schipper

[54] Besides the unaccented syllables of polysyllabic words, many monosyllables, such as prepositions, pronouns, &c., are unstressed, and occur only in the theses.

[55] This rule applies to modern English also, as in words like bírth-rìght.

[56] If this cross alliteration is intentional. See Sievers, Altger. Metrik, p. 41.

[57] See Koch, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache, Weimar, 1863, i. 156.

[58] Compare Streitberg, Urgermanische Grammatik, 1900, § 143, p. 167, or Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik, 1897, i, p. 407, § 349.

[59] For exceptions to these rules see Englische Metrik, i, pp. 43, 45.

[60] Koch adds wiðǽftan, wiðfóran, wiðnéoðan.

[61] Sievers, Beiträge, x. 225, and Angelsächsische Grammatik³, §§ 410, 411, 415.

[62] For details on these points and on the question of the treatment of forms in which vowel contraction is exhibited in the MSS. see Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik, §§ 74–77, and Beiträge, x. 475 ff.

[63] ‘Elements,’ Sweet, Anglo-Saxon Reader, § 365.