The same thing occurs also where there are two rimes to the stanza. Originally, the extra internal rime was no doubt the cause of the breaking up of the long couplet into two short lines. (See examples in Part Two, in the case of the septenary.)
Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fair!
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae fu' o' care!
(Burns: Bonnie Doon. ab. 1790.)
abab
Þe grace of god ful of miȝt
Þat is king and ever was,
Mote among us aliȝt
And ȝive us alle is swet grace.
(From the Harleian Ms. 913. In Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, vol. i. p. 125.)
Furnivall prints this in long lines with internal rime, which of itself seems to form the short-line stanza from the long lines.
Of al this world the wyde compas
Hit wol not in myn armes tweyne.—
Who-so mochel wol embrace
Litel thereof he shal distreyne.
(Chaucer: Proverb. ab. 1380.)