_Áftur kýng Báthulf | Léir ys sóne was kýng, And régned síxti ȝér | wél þoru álle þýng. Up þe wáter of Sóure | a cíty óf gret fáme He éndede, and clépede yt Léicestre, | áftur is ówne náme. Þre dóȝtren þis kýng hádde, | þe éldeste Górnorílle, Þe mýdmost hátte Régan, | þe ȝóngost Córdeílle. Þe fáder hem lóuede álle ynóȝ, | ác þe ȝóngost mést: For héo was bést an fáirest, | and to háutenésse drow lést. Þó þe kýng to élde cóm, | álle þré he bróȝte Hys dóȝtren tofóre hým, | to wýte of hére þóuȝte._ § =145.= At the end of the thirteenth century the Septenary and Alexandrine were, however, relegated to a subordinate position by the new fashionable five-foot iambic verse. But we soon meet them again in popular works of another kind, viz. in the Miracle Plays, especially in some plays of the _Towneley Collection_, like the _Conspiratio et Capcio_ (p. 182), and actually employed quite in the arbitrary sequence hitherto observed, Alexandrine sometimes rhyming with Alexandrine, Septenary with Septenary, but, more frequently, Alexandrine with Septenary. A passage from the Towneley Mysteries may make this clear: _Now háve ye hárt what Í have sáyde, | I gó and cóm agáyn, Therfór looke yé be páyde | and álso glád and fáyn, For tó my fáder I wéynd, | for móre then Í is hé, I lét you wýtt, as fáythfulle fréynd, | or thát it dóne bé. That yé may trów when ít is dóne, | for cértes, I máy noght nów Many thýnges so sóyn | at thís tyme spéak with yóu._ This metre is also employed in many Moral Plays with a similar liberty in the succession of the two metrical forms. But we may often observe in these works, as, for instance, in Redford's _Marriage of Wit and Science_ (Dodsley, ii, p. 325 sq.), that Alexandrines and Septenaries are used interchangeably, though not according to any fixed plan, so that sometimes the Septenary and sometimes the Alexandrine precedes in the couplet, as, for instance, in the last four lines of the following passage (Dodsley, ii, p. 386): _O lét me bréathe a whíle, | and hóld thy héavy hánd, My gríevous fáults with sháme | enóugh I únderstánd. Take rúth and píty ón my pláint, | or élse I ám forlórn; Let nót the wórld contínue thús | in láughing mé to scórn. Mádam, if Í be hé, | to whóm you ónce were bént, With whóm to spénd your tíme | sometíme you wére content: If ány hópe be léft, | if ány récompénse Be áble tó recóver thís | forpássed négligénce, O, hélp me nów poor wrétch | in thís most héavy plíght, And fúrnish mé yet ónce agáin | with Tédiousnéss to fíght._