III. Another very common metre in the Dramas consists of stanzas of eight lines of seven syllables, rhyming alternately. Usually the stanza only contains two rhymes, but sometimes, especially if four lines of the eight are given to one character and four to another, the rhymes of the two quatrains are independent of one another.
From the Ordinale de Origine Mundi, fifteenth century. (Eve's speech to Adam after gathering the apple.)
| My pan esen ou quandre | I when I was wandering |
| Clewys an nyl tenewen | Heard on the one side |
| Un el ou talleth cane | An angel beginning to sing |
| A ughafwar an we then. | Above me on the tree. |
| Ef a wruk ow husullye | He did counsel me |
| Frut annethy may torren | Fruit from it that I should break; |
| Moy es Deu ny a vye | More than God we should be |
| Bys venytha na sorren. | Nor be troubled for ever. |
Note the apparent "feminine" rhymes, torren-sorren, which are really rimes riches in the French style.
The whole Poem of the Passion is in this metre, but is written in lines of fourteen syllables.
IV. Four-syllabled lines, often written as eight-syllabled, rhyming alternately. Thus (Passio D. N. J. C. in the Ordinalia, 1. 35):—
| A mester whek gorthys re by | O sweet master, glorified be thou, |
| Pan wreth mar tek agan dysky. | When thou dost so sweetly teach us. |
| Asson whansek ol thepysy, | How we desire all to pray, |
| Lettrys na lek war Thu mercy! | Learned and lay, to God for mercy ! |
