_Enhástyng hím, | tíl he wás at lárge._ Lydgate, Story of Thebes, 1075. _The tíme doth páss, | yét shall nót my lóve!_ Wyatt, p. 130. While this metrical licence may mostly be attributed to want of technical skill in Middle English poets, it is frequently employed in the Modern English period, as the last example shows, with distinct artistic intention of giving a special emphasis to a particular word. Several Middle English poets, however, make but scant use of this licence, e.g. the author of _The Owl and the Nightingale_ and Gower, while some of them, as Orm, never use it at all. § =85.= These latter poets, on the other hand, make very frequent use of another kind of rhythmical licence, viz. =level stress= or _hovering accent_, as Dr. Gummere calls it; i.e. they subordinate the word-accent or the syntactic accent to the rhythmic accent, and so far violate the principal law of all accentual metre, which demands _that those three accents should fall on one and the same syllable_. This licence is found chiefly in metres of a certain length, e.g. in the Septenary or in the iambic five-foot line, but not so frequently in shorter metres, as the resulting interruption of the flow of the rhythm is not so perceptible in long as in short lines. The least sensible irregularity of this kind occurs when the (syntactically) less emphatic of two consecutive monosyllabic words is placed in the arsis, as in the following lines: _For whý this ís more thén that cáuse is._ Chaucer, H. of Fame, 20. _There ís a róck in thé salt flóod._ Wyatt, p. 144. _Now seemeth féarful nó more thé dark cáve._ ib. p. 210. If the accented syllable of a word consisting of two or more syllables is placed in the thesis, and the unaccented one in the arsis, the licence is greater. This is a licence often met with in Middle English poetry, as e.g.: _I wílle not léyf you álle helpléss | as mén withóuten fréynd._ Towneley Myst. p. 182. _Of clóth-makýng | she hádde súch an háunt._ Chaucer, Prol. 447. _With blóod likewíse | ye múst seek yóur retúrn._ Surrey, p. 117. The effect is still more harsh, if inflexional endings are used in this way, though this does not often occur. The following are examples: _Þa béodes hé b=eo=d=é=þ therínne._ Pater Noster, 23. _Annd áȝȝ =a=fft=érr= þe Góddspell stánnt._ Orm. 33. _All þúss iss þátt h=a=llgh=é= g=o=ddsp=é=ll._ ib. 73. In most cases dissonant rhythmical accentuations of this sort are caused by the rhyme, especially in Middle English poetry, e.g.: _Sównynge alwáy th' encrés of his wynnýnge. He wólde the sée were képt for ény thínge._ Chaucer, Prol. 275.