Dante, Inf. xvii. 2.
L'oro, e le perle, e i fior vermigli, e i bianchi.
Petr. Son. xxxi.
Non danno i colpi, or finti, or pieni, or scarsi.
Tasso, Ger. Lib. xii. 55.
So the Greeks in their dramatic iambics admitted trisyllabic feet, Æschylus admitting one foot, Sophocles two, Euripides three; while the comic poets, both Greek and Latin, used these feet still more freely, not, however, exceeding the limit of three.
Chaucer did not allow himself the same licence as his masters. He sometimes admits one such foot, rarely two, and three, I believe, only once. He also uses at times the Alexandrine or verse of six feet.
The first who used this verse for the drama in England was Bishop Bale, who in 1538 published three Interludes, as he termed them, or dramatic pieces on Scriptural subjects. Here are a few lines from the one named God's Promises:—
In the begynnynge, before the heavens were create,
In me and of me was my sonne sempyternall,