The result is that in the course of time whole passages made up of lines of the same rhythmical structure (A + A1) are common in the dramatic poetry of this period, as e.g. in the Prologue to _Gammer Gurton's Needle_: _As Gámmer Gúrton, with mánye a wýde stítch, Sat pésynge and pátching of Hódg her mans bríche, By chánce or misfórtune, as shée her gear tóst, In Hódge lether brýches her néedle shee lóst._ Possibly this preference of the type A1 in the second half line may go back to the influence of the difference between the rhythmical structure of the first and the second hemistich of the alliterative line in early Middle English poetry. § =70.= This view derives additional probability from the manner in which lines rhythmically identical with the alliterative hemistich are combined into certain forms of stanza which are used in the above-mentioned dramatic poems, especially in Bale's _Three Lawes_. For in this play those halves of tail-rhyme stanzas, which form the 'wheels' of the alliterative-rhyming stanzas previously described (§§ 61 and 66) as used in narrative poetry and in the mysteries, are completed so as to form entire tail-rhyme stanzas (of six or eight lines) similar to those mentioned in § 65. This will be evident from the following examples: _With holye óyle and wátter, I can so =cl=óyne and =cl=átter, That I =c=án at the látter Manye súttelties contrýve. I can worke wýles in báttle, If I do ónes but spáttle, I can make =c=órn and =c=áttle, That =th=éy shall never =th=rýve._ ll. 439-446. _I have chármes for the plówgh, And álso for the cówgh, She shall geue mýlke ynówgh, So lóng as I am pléased. Apace the mýlle shall gó, So shall the crédle dó, And the músterde querne alsó No mán therwith dyséased._ ll. 463-470. The difference in rhythm which we have previously pointed out between the lines of the body of the stanza (corresponding to first halves of the alliterative line) and those of the tail (corresponding to second halves) may again be observed in most of the stanzas of this play, although not in all of them. In other passages the sequence of rhymes is less regular; e.g. in ll. 190-209, which rhyme according to the formulas _a a a b c c b_, _d d b e e b_, _e e e f g g f_. § =71.= Lastly, we must mention another kind of verse or stave originating in the resolution of the four-beat alliterative line into two sections, and their combination so as to form irregular tail-rhyme stanzas, viz. the so-called Skeltonic verse. This kind of verse, however, was not invented (as is erroneously stated in several Histories of English Literature) by Skelton, but existed before him, as is evident from the preceding remarks. The name came to be given to the metre from the fact that Skelton, poet laureate of King Henry VII, was fond of this metre, and used it for several popular poems.