_Þèr þas =c=níhtes =c=ómen | bi=f=òren þan =f=ólc-=k=ínge._ Lay. 13818-19.
_Ah of éou ich wùlle i=w=íten | þurh =s=óðen èouwer =w=úrðscìpen._ ib. 13835-6.
_A móre[gh]e bò þe dáy gan sprìnge, | þe kíng him ròd an húntìnge._ Horn 645-6.
_He wàs þe faíréste, | ànd of wít þe béste._ ib. 173-4.
Unaccented inflexional syllables as a rule stand in the thesis of a verse. Only in exceptional cases, which admit of a different explanation (see above, pp. 74 and 76), they may bear the rhythmical accent if the rhyme demands it.
That a thesis in Layamon's _Brut_ and in _Alfred's Proverbs_ may be disyllabic or even trisyllabic both in the beginning and the middle of a line is evident from the many examples quoted above.
In _King Horn_, where the division of the original long lines into two short ones has been carried out completely, and where the rhythm of the verse has consequently become more regular, the thesis, if not wanting entirely, as usually the case, in the types C, D, E, is generally monosyllabic. But, as the following examples, _faírer ne mì[gh]te_ 8, _þe paíns còme to lónde_ 58, _þanne schólde withùten óþe_ 347, will show, disyllabic theses do also occur, both after the first and second arsis, and in the beginning of the line.
[96] Some less important examples, of which the metrical character is not quite clear, are mentioned by Luick, Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii. p. 144.
[97] In this passage and for the future we refrain from indicating the quantity of the vowels. The rhythmic accentuation is omitted, as being very uncertain in this passage.
[98] Viz. the so-called _Proverbs of King Alfred_ (ed. by R. Morris, E.E.T.S., vol. XLIX), and Layamon's _Brut_, ed. by Sir Frederic Madden, London, 1847, 2 vols.
[99] Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii. p. 10, and _Altgermanische Metrik_, p. 139.
[100] On the nature of these rhymes, cf. § 53 and the author's paper, 'Metrische Randglossen,' in _Englische Studien_, x. 192 ff., chiefly pp. 199-200.
[101] In Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii. pp. 145-7.
[102] Cf. our remarks in Book I, Part II, on the Septenary Verse in combination with other metres.
[103] Cf. Wissmann, _King Horn_, pp. 59-62, and _Metrik_, i, pp. 189-90.
[104] _Signs of Death_ in _Old Engl. Misc._ (E. E. T. S.), p. 101.