It is no small merit of his to have shown for the first time that the five types of rhythmic forms pointed out by Sievers as existing in the alliterative line are met with also in each of the four forms of verse of Layamon’s Brut and of the Proverbs. And here it is of interest to note that not only are the normal types of frequent occurrence (chiefly in the Proverbs), but the extended types also, especially in Layamon’s Brut, are met with even more frequently.
On account of our limited space only a few examples of each of the five types can be given in this handbook.
Instead of quoting hemistichs or isolated short lines as examples of each of the single types A, B, C, D, E, we prefer always to cite two connected short lines, and to designate the rhythmic character of the long line thus originating by the types of the two hemistichs, as follows: A + A, A* + B, B* + C, C* + E, &c., where A*, B*, C* signify the extended types, to be discussed more fully below, and A, B, C, &c., the normal types. This mode of treatment is necessary in order that our examples may adequately represent the structure of the verse. The short lines are always connected—either by alliteration, by rhyme (or assonance), or by both combined, or sometimes merely by identity of rhythm—into pairs. These pairs of short lines are regarded by Luick as even-measured couplets, while we regard them as alliterative long lines; but on either view each of them forms a coherent unity. We believe that an examination of the couplet or long line as an undivided whole will show unmistakably that the assumption of the even-measured character of Layamon’s verse is erroneous, or at least that it applies only in certain cases, when the metre is strongly influenced by Romanic principles of versification. The examples are for the most part the same as those which Prof. Luick has quoted,[101] but we have in all cases added the complementary hemistichs, which are generally of somewhat greater length:
A + A: Ich hátte Héngest, | Hórs is my bróðer. Lay. 13847–8.
A*+ A: and ích be wulle rǽchen | déorne rúnen. ib. 14079–80.
B + A: þær þa sǽxisce mén | þæ sǽ isóhten. ib. 14738-9.
B(E?) + A: hw hi héore líf | léde schólde. Prov. i. 15–16.
A + B: lónges lýves, | ac him lýeþ þe wrénch. ib. x. 161–2.
B*+ A: vmbe fíftene ȝér | þat fólc is isómned. Lay. 13855–6.
B + C: and eoure léofue gódd | be ȝe tó lúteð. ib. 13891–2.