ǽueralche ȝére | heo béreð chíld þère.
þat beoð an us féole | þat we fǽren scólden;
ne míhte we bilǽue | for líue ne for dǽðe,
ne for náuer nane þínge, | for þan fólc-kìnge.
þús we uerden þére | and for þí beoð nu hére,13879–80
to séchen vnder lúfte | lónd and godne láuerd.
These extracts illustrate only the general metrical character of the two literary monuments, the versification of which in many passages considerably deviates from the type here exhibited. It frequently shows a still more arbitrary mixture of the different kinds of verse, or a decided preference for some of them over the others. But the examples given will suffice to show that here, as in the two passages from the Saxon Chronicle quoted above, we have four different kinds of verse distinguished by the different use of rhyme and alliteration, viz.:
1. Regular alliterative lines, which are very numerous, and at least in the first half of Layamon’s Brut, possibly throughout the poem, form the bulk, e.g. Prov. xv. 247–8, Layamon, 13847–8, 13851–2, 13855–6, 13859–60, 13867–8, 13881–2, or
Búte if he béo | in bóke iléred.Prov. iii. 65–6.
þat his blód and his brain | bá weoren todáscte.Lay. 1468–9.