_In a sómer séason, | when sóft was the sónne I shópe me into shróudes, | as I a shépe wére_ (Piers Plowman). and _Hā́m and hḗahsetl | héofena rī́ces_ (Gen. 33). _Scḗop þā and scýrede | scýppend ū̀re_ (ibid. 65). [120] This alliterative-rhyming long line is scanned by the contemporary metrist King James VI in the manner indicated by the accents. [121] The second of these lines is thus marked by Gascoigne as having four stresses. [122] We retain the MS. reading; see Sievers, _Altgerm. Metrik_, p. 17. PART II. FOREIGN METRES DIVISION I. THE FOREIGN METRES IN GENERAL CHAPTER V. INTRODUCTION § =76.= It was not till about 150 years after the Norman Conquest that foreign metres were introduced in English literature under the influence of French and Low Latin versification. For these, too, the general law observed in all accentual poetry holds good, viz. that the word-accent and the syntactical accent must coincide with the rhythmical accent. This rule, however, was easier to observe in the old native four-beat alliterative metre, in which the proportion and order of accented and unaccented syllables admit of many variations, than in metres consisting of equal measures, which follow stricter rules in that respect. In the older native verse accordingly we seldom find deviations from this fundamental rule, whereas in the newer foreign metres they are more frequent and striking. The ordinary native alliterative metre was founded, as we have seen, on the principle that four accented syllables had to occur in each long line, together with an undefined number of unaccented ones, the position and order of those different syllables admitting many variations. The new metres constructed on foreign models during the Middle English period differ from the earlier rhythmic forms by the regularity of the alternation of unaccented and accented syllables and by the uniformity of their feet or measures; they are accordingly styled even-measured or even-beat verses. Four different kinds are to be distinguished, viz. ascending and descending disyllabic measures, and ascending and descending trisyllabic measures, commonly called _iambic_, _trochaic_, _anapaestic_, and _dactylic_ measures. In Middle English poetry, however, only iambic rhythms were used. The three other kinds of rhythms did not come in till the beginning of the Modern English period. With regard to the development of various even-measured rhythms from these four different kinds of feet, it will suffice to consider the iambic and trochaic metres only, as these are the most important, and the formation of the anapaestic and the dactylic metres is to be explained in the same way.