§ =264. The bob-wheel stanzas.= This important class of bipartite unequal-membered anisometrical stanzas was very much in vogue in the Middle English period. They consist (see § 222) of a _frons_ (longer verses of four stresses, or Septenary and Alexandrine verses) and a _cauda_, which is formed of shorter verses and is joined to the _frons_ by one or several 'bob-verses', belonging generally to the first part or 'upsong' (in German _Aufgesang_). Sometimes it is doubtful whether these stanzas belong to the bipartite or to the tripartite class, on account of the variety of rhymes in the _frons_. But as they mostly consist of two quite unequal parts, they certainly stand in a closer relationship to the bipartite stanzas. A simple stanza of this kind on the scheme _A A₇ C₁ B₇_ occurs in William of Shoreham (printed in short lines on the model _A₄ B₃ C₄ B₃ d₁ E₄ D₃_): _Nou here we mote in this sermon of ordre maky saȝe, Then was bytokned suithe wel wylom by the ealde lawe To aginne, Tho me made Godes hous and ministres therinne._ A six-lined stanza of Alexandrines and Septenaries on the scheme _A A B B₆ c₁ C₆_ is found in the poem _On the evil Times of Edward II_ (Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 323). Another variety originated by the breaking up of the longer verses into short ones by inserted rhyme, as in the closing stanzas of a poem by Minot (ed. Hall, p. 17) according to the formula _A B A B A B A B₃ c₁ A C₃_; cf. the last stanza: _King Edward, frely fode, In Fraunce he will noght blin To make his famen wode That er wonand tharein. God, that rest on rode, For sake of Adams syn, Strenkith him maine and mode, His reght in France to win, And have. God grante him graces gode, And fro all sins us save._ A similar form of stanza (_A B A B A B A B₃ c₁ B C₃_) is used in the Romance of _Sir Tristrem_; that of the Scottish poem _Christ's Kirk on the Green_, however, is formed on the model _A₄ B₃ A₄ B₄ A₄ B₃ b₁ B₄_. § =265.= Still more common than stanzas of this kind composed of even-beat verses, are those of four-stressed rhyming verses with or without alliteration. Under this head comes a poem in Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 69 (cf. § 60), on the scheme _A A A A₄ B₃ c₁ C₃ B₄_, or rather _A A A A₄ b₂ c₁ c₂ B₄_, the bob-verse being thus inserted in the _cauda_. The common form comes out more clearly in another poem, ibid., p. 212 (st. 1, quoted pp. 100-1), corresponding to _A A A A₄ b₁ c c₂ b₂_, where _A A A A₄_ are verses of four stresses, _b a_ one-stressed bob-verse or the half-verse of a long line, _c c₂ b₂_ half-verses of two stresses. _The Tournament of Tottenham_ (Ritson's _Anc. Songs_, i. 85-9) is written in a similar form of stanza with the formula _A A A A₄ b c c c b₂_; the cauda consisting of five verses with two stresses only.