_Almyghty and al merciable Quene, To whom that al this world fleeth for socour To have relees of sinne, sorwe, and teene! Glorious Virgyne, of alle floures flour, To thee I flee, confounded in errour! Help, and releve, thou mighty debonaire, Have mercy of my perilous langour! Venquysshed m' hath my cruel adversaire._ Chaucer uses the same stanza in some other minor poems, and also in _The Monkes Tale_; besides this we find it often in Lydgate, Dunbar, Kennedy; more rarely in Modern English poetry; e.g. in Spenser's _Shepheard's Cal., Ecl. XI_, S. Daniel's _Cleopatra_, &c. Now and then some other eight-lined stanzas occur, e.g. one with the formula _a b a b b c c b_ in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Venus_, and in the _Flyting_ by Dunbar and Kennedy. The scheme _a a b b c d c d_ is used in a love-song (_Rel. Ant._ i. 70-4). In the Modern English period we have stanzas on the schemes _a ~ b a ~ b c c d ~ d ~₄_ (in Sidney, _Psalm XLIII_), _a b a b c c c b₄_ (Scott, _Helvellyn_, p. 472), _a ~ b a ~ b c ~ c ~ d ~ d ~₂_ (Moore); cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 369-71. There are also eight-lined stanzas formed by combination with tail-rhyme stanzas, as _a a b a a b c c₄_, _a a b c c d d b₄_, but they are not frequent; a stanza corresponding to the formula _a a b a a b c c₄_ we have in Spenser, _Epigram III_ (p. 586); and the variety _a a b c c d d b₄_ (the _cauda_ being enclosed by the _pedes_) occurs in Moore. The same peculiarity we find in stanzas formed on the scheme _A A b c b c A A₄_ (Moore), or _a a b c b c d d₄_ (Wordsworth, ii. 267); cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 372, 373. § =270.= Stanzas of a still larger compass are of rare occurrence in Middle English poetry. =A nine-lined stanza= corresponding to the formula _a a b a a b b c c₅_ we have in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Mars_; it seems to be formed from the _rhyme royal_ stanza, by adding one verse to each _pes_; but it might also be looked upon as a combination with the tail-rhyme stanza. Another stanza of this kind, with the formula _a a b a a b b a b₅_, is used in Chaucer's _Complaynt of Faire Anelyda_ and in Dunbar's _Goldin Targe_. A similar stanza, corresponding to the formula _a a b c c b d b d₄_, occurs in Modern English poetry in John Scott, _Ode XII_. Other stanzas used in the Modern English period are formed with parallel rhymes, as e. g. on the scheme _a a a b b b c c c₄_ (Walter Scott, _Lady of the Lake_, p. 187); forms with crossed rhymes throughout or partly are also used, as e.g. by Wyatt, p. 121, according to the formula _a b a b c c c d d₅_: