In the first place, we must note that in the earlier collections of Mystery Plays (_Towneley Mysteries_, _York Plays_, and _Ludus Coventriae_) the rhyming alliterative long line, popular, as we have seen, in lyric and in narrative poetry, is also used in the same or cognate forms of stanzas. But the form of verse in these Mysteries, owing to the loss of regular alliteration, cannot with propriety be described as the four-beat alliterative long line, but only as the four-beat long line. In many instances, however, the remnants of alliteration decidedly point to the four-beat character of this rhythm, as e.g. in the following stanza of the _Towneley Mysteries_ (p. 140): _Moste =m=ýghty =M=áhòwne | =m=éng you with =m=ýrthe, Both of búrgh and of tówne | by =f=éllys and by =f=ýrthe; Both =k=ýng with =c=równe | and =b=árons of =b=írthe, That =r=ádly wylle =r=ówne, | many =g=réatt =g=ríthe Shalle be hápp; Take =t=énderly in=t=ént What =s=óndes ar =s=ént, Els =h=ármes shall ye =h=ént And =l=óthes you to =l=ap._ In this form of stanza the different groups of lines or even single lines are frequently, as e.g. in the so-called _Processus Noe_ (the _Play of the Flood_), very skilfully divided between several persons taking part in the dialogue. The interlaced rhyme in the long lines connects it with the stanza form of the lyric poem quoted above (p. 100), and the form of the 'cauda' relates it to that of the lyric poem quoted (p. 101), and in this respect is identical with that of _The Pistill of Susan_. The rhythmic treatment of the verses is, both with regard to the relation between rhyme and the remnants of alliteration and to the use of the Middle English types of verse, on the whole the same as was described in §§ 62-4 treating of this form of verse in narrative poetry. The types A and A1, B C and B C1, are chiefly met with; now and then, however, type C1 also occurs in the second hemistich, as e.g. in the verses _that wold vówch sáyf_ 172, _of the tént máyne_ 487, _wille com agáne sóne_ 488, of the _Play of the Flood_ mentioned above. But in the 'cauda' the difference explained in § 65 between first and second short lines forming the close of a stanza is often very regularly observed.