Tardo in | ciel ried|i e di|utur|no serba
Fausto il | tuo aspet|to al pop|ol di | Quirino.

Even Alcaics, unceremoniously handled by a shifting of the accent, which is violent disregard of quantity, yield like results. Thus:

Atqui | scie | bat quæ | sibi | barbarus.

Or in Italian:

Eppur | conob|be ciò | ch'il man|igoldo.

The accentual Sapphics of the middle ages throw some curious light upon these transmutations of meter. In a lament for Aquileia (tenth century) we find these lines:

Bella sublimis inclyta divitiis,
Olim fuisti celsa ædificiis.

Here, instead of the Latin Sapphic, we get a loose sdrucciolo rhythm. The meter of the Serventese seems built upon this medieval Sapphic model. Here is an example[630]:

O Jeso Cristo, padre onipotente,
Aprestame lo core con la mente
Che rasonare possa certamente
Un servientese.

When the humanistic Italians tried to write Italian Sapphics, they produced a meter not very dissimilar. Thus in the Certamen Coronarium[631]: