In Modern English this beautiful stanza was very popular up to the end of the sixteenth century; Shakespeare, e.g., wrote his _Lucrece_ in it; afterwards, however, it unfortunately fell almost entirely out of use (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 364). The same form of stanza, composed of two-, three-, or four-foot verses also occurs almost exclusively in the Early Modern English period (cf. ib., § 363). Some varieties of this stanza, mostly formed of three-, four-, and five-foot verses, correspond to the schemes _a b a b c c b₄_ (e.g. in Akenside, Book I, Ode iii), _a b a b c b c₅_ (Spenser, _Daphnaïda_, p. 542), _a b a b c b c₂_ (R. Browning, vi. 41). Other stanzas of seven lines are _a b a b c c a₄_, _a a b b c c a₄_, _a a b b a c c₄_, _a b a b C d C₃_, _a a b b c c c₄_, _a b a b c c c₄_, _a b a b c c c₅_, _a b a c c d d₅_ (for specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 365, 366). § =269. Eight-lined isometrical stanzas= are also frequently used in the Middle and Modern English period, though not so often as those of six and seven lines. The scheme _a b a b b a b a_, formed from the simple equal-membered stanza of eight lines _a b a b a b a b_, it would seem, by inversion of the last two couplets, is rare in Middle English. We find it in the _Digby Plays_, consisting of four-foot verses. In Modern English, too, it is not very common; we have an example in Wyatt, e.g. pp. 118, 135, and another in the same poet, formed of five-foot verses (_a b a b b a b a₅_), p. 135. Much more in favour in the Middle as well as in the Modern English period is the typical form of the eight-lined stanza, corresponding to the scheme _a b a b b c b c_. It is formed from the preceding stanza by the introduction of a new rhyme in the sixth and eighth verses, and it had its model likewise in a popular ballade-stanza of Old French lyrical poetry. In Middle English poetry this stanza is very common, consisting either of four-stressed verses (e.g. in _The Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathia_, E. E. T. S., vol. 44, and _On the death of the Duke of Suffolk_, Wright's _Polit. Poems_, ii. 232) or of four-foot or five-foot verses. As an example of the form consisting of four-foot verses we may quote a stanza from Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 246: _Alle þat beoþ of huerte trewe, A stounde herkneþ to my song Of duel, þat deþ haþ diht us newe Þat makeþ me syke ant sorewe among! Of a knyht, þat wes so strong Of wham god haþ don ys wille; Me þuncheþ þat deþ haþ don vs wrong, Þat he so sone shal ligge stille._ Many other examples occur in later poetry, e.g. in Minot, Lydgate, Dunbar, Lyndesay, in Wyatt, p. 119, Burns, p. 59, Walter Scott, p. 160, &c. Similar stanzas of two-stressed and three-foot verses are only of rare occurrence; we find them e.g. in Percy's _Rel._ II. ii. 3; Wyatt, p. 41. The same stanza, consisting of five-foot verses, was used by Chaucer in his _A B C_, the first stanza of which may be quoted here: