The history of the primitive alliterative line follows very different lines of development in the various Teutonic nations. In Old High German, after a period in which the strict laws of the verse were largely neglected, it was abandoned in favour of rhyme by Otfrid (circa 868). In Old English it kept its place as the only form of verse for all classes of poetical composition, and continued in use, even after the introduction of Romanic forms of metre, during the Middle English period, and did not totally die out till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The partial revival of it is due to the increased interest in Old English studies, but has been confined largely to translations. As an occasional rhetorical or stylistic ornament of both rhymed and unrhymed verse, alliteration has always been made use of by English poets. NOTES: [1] _Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache_, zweite Ausgabe, p. 624, Berlin, 1868. [2] _Metrik der Griechen_, 1ª, 500. [3] It should be remarked that in Sanskrit, as in the classical languages, that prominence of one of the syllables of a word, which is denoted by the term 'accent', was originally marked by pitch or elevation of tone, and that in the Teutonic languages the word-accent is one of stress or emphasis. [4] _Handbook of Phonetics_, § 263. [5] _Die physiologischen Grundlagen der neuhochdeutschen Verskunst_, 1871, p. 2. [6] Sweet, _Handbook of Phonetics_, Oxford, 1877, p. 92. [7] Cf. _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1875-6, London, 1877, pp. 397 ff.; _Chapters on English Metre_, by Prof. J. B. Mayor, 2nd ed., pp. 5 ff. [8] _Transact._, p. 398. [9] They are used by Puttenham, _The Arte of English Poesy_, 1589, Arber's reprint, p. 141. [10] J. Grimm's ed. of _Andreas and Elene_, 1840, pp. lv ff. [11] Cf. Lehrs, _de Aristarchi studiis Homericis_, 1865, p. 475. [12] Cf. J. Huemer, _Untersuchungen über die ältesten lateinisch-christlichen Rhythmen_, Vienna, 1879, p. 60. [13] In the Icelandic terminology this is _skothending_, Möbius, _Háttatal_, ii, p. 2. [14] Cf. Sievers, _Altgermanische Metrik_, § 18. 2. CHAPTER II THE ALLITERATIVE VERSE IN OLD ENGLISH