and very often in the course of the poem, e.g. ll. 22, 29, 30, 37, &c., so that it acquires a loose, iambic-trochaic cadence; further, the absence of an unaccented syllable in the middle of the line (line 2); inversion of accent in line 9, and again in line 81, _Láverd he ís of álle scáfte_; two unaccented syllables at the beginning and in the interior of the verse in 4; light slurrings ll. 1, 3, 5; only ll. 7 and 10 are regularly constructed throughout. The same proportion of regular to irregular verses runs through the whole poem, in which, besides the licences mentioned, that of level stress is also often to be met with, especially in rhymes like _w+u+rþ+í+ng: héovenkíng_ 99-100; _h+a+t+í+ng: king_ 193-4, 219-20; _fóndúnge: swínkúnge_ 242-3. § =127.= The treatment of the caesura in this metre also deserves, special mention, for this, as has already been stated, is one of the chief points in which the four-foot even-beat metre differs from the four-stress metre, as represented either by the old alliterative long line or by the later non-alliterating line. For there must be a caesura in every four-beat verse, and it must always be found in one definite place, viz. after the second beat next to any unaccented syllable or syllables that follow the beat, the line being thus divided into two rhythmically fairly equal halves. On the other hand, for the four-foot verse, not only in this, its earliest appearance, but in the rest of Middle and Modern English literature, the caesura is not obligatory, and when it does occur it may, theoretically speaking, stand in any place in the line, although it most frequently appears after the second foot, particularly in the oldest period. The caesura may (§ 80) be of three kinds: (1) Monosyllabic or masculine caesura: _Ne képeð he nóht | þet wé beon súne._ 18. (2) Disyllabic or feminine caesura, two kinds of which are to be distinguished, viz. (_a_) Lyric caesura, within a foot: _And ȝéfe us míhte | þúrh his héld._ 240. (_b_) Epic caesura caused by a supernumerary unaccented syllable before the pause: _Ure gúltes, láverd, | bon ús forȝéven._ 173. These three kinds of caesura, the last of which, it is true, we meet here only sporadically, may thus in four-foot verse also occur _after_, as well as _in_ the other feet. Thus we find in the very first line, a lyrical caesura after the first foot: _Ure féder | þét in héouene ís._