The main rhythmic character of the verse is again indicated here by the frequent occurrence of the types A and A1. The types BC, BC1, C, C1, however, likewise occur pretty often, and the two last types present serious obstacles to the assumption that the lines of these poems were ever recited with an even beat. But how exactly these poems were recited or to what sort of musical accompaniment can hardly be definitely decided in the absence of external evidence. The first verses of a West-Midland poem of the end of the thirteenth century (Wright's _Political Songs_, p. 149) may serve as a specimen: _Ich herde =m=én vpo =m=óld | =m=áke muche =m=ón, Hou hé beþ i=t=éned | of here =t=ílýnge: =G=óde ȝeres and córn | bóþe beþ a=g=ón, Ne képeþ here no =s=áwe | ne no =s=óng =s=ýnge._ The second hemistichs in ll. 2 and 4 belong to type C. In other poems also, with lines of more regular rhythm (chiefly type A), this type may be met with now and then, e.g. in a poem published in Wright's _Specimens of Lyric Poetry_, p. 25, especially in the second hemistich, e.g. _haueþ þis =m=ái =m=ére_, line 9, _and þe =g=ýlófre_, line 40, _þat þe =b=ór =b=éde_, line 44. It is not difficult to distinguish such rhymed four-beat alliterative lines from those of four measures which have fairly regular alliteration, for the long line of the native metre always has a somewhat looser fabric, not the even-beat rhythmic cadence peculiar to the iambic verse of four measures, and, secondly, it always has a caesura after the first hemistich, whereas the even-beat verse of four measures may either lack distinct caesura or the caesura may occur in other places in the verse as well as after the second arsis. This will be evident by comparing the following four-beat verses of the last stanza of a poem in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 31: _=R=íchard | =r=óte of =r=ésoun =r=ýght, =r=ýkeníng of =r=ým ant =r=ón, Of =m=áidnes =m=éke þóu hast =m=ýht, on =m=ólde y hólde þe =m=úrgest =m=ón;_ with the following first four-beat alliterative lines of another poem (ibid. p. 25): _Ichot a =b=úrde in a =b=óure, | ase =b=éryl so =b=rýght, Ase =s=áphir in =s=élver | =s=émly on =s=ýht, Ase =i=áspe þe =g=éntil, | þat =l=émeþ wiþ =l=ýht, Ase =g=érnet in =g=ólde, | and =r=úby wel =r=ýht._ In similar lines are written several other poems, as _=M=on in þe =m=one_ (ibid. p. 110); _Of =r=ibaudz y =r=yme_ (Wright's _Pol. Songs_, p. 237); and five songs by Laurence Minot (nos. ii, v, ix, x, xi), written in the middle of the fourteenth century. § =60.= In other poems the four-beat long lines used in the main part of the stanza are followed by shorter lines forming the cauda, which in part are of a variable rhythmic cadence either of three beats (or three measures) or of two beats, as e.g. in the well-known poem in Percy's _Reliques_, ii, p. 1.[113] The first stanza may be quoted here: