Furthermore, the fact that in some (not all or even most) of the passages, where end-rhyme is used almost exclusively, e.g. in the passage quoted above (ll. 13883-940), an even-beat rhythm is distinctly noticeable, can be explained quite naturally by the influence of the Norman-French original, the even-measured verses of which the poet was translating. But even supposing that Layamon _intended_ to use the primitive Germanic four-beat song-metre in his translation of Wace's _Chronicle_, although it certainly was not intended for singing, what can have been his reason for composing the first half of his work, and a very considerable portion of the rest, in a rhythmical form which only to a small extent shows the peculiarities of a rhyming even-beat metre, whereas the main part of it consists of the native unevenly stressed alliterative verse? It is quite incorrect to say that the author in the course of his work not unfrequently fell back into the alliterative verse. The fact is just the opposite: the author started by using the native alliterative verse to which he was accustomed, and gradually came to adopt the rhymed verse of the Norman-French chronicle which he was translating, without, however, entirely giving up the former metre. Alliteration and end-rhyme, which he used sometimes separately and sometimes in combination, were evidently looked upon by Layamon as equally legitimate means for connecting his hemistichs or short lines. § =45. Number of stresses.= Quite as unfounded as the assertion that Layamon's verse is of an even-beat nature is the other assertion that it contains two primary and two secondary accents, and that the second of these secondary accents in verses with disyllabic endings may fall on a syllable which by its etymology ought to have no accent. This statement is refuted by the treatment of rhyme in Layamon's _Brut_ and in some earlier poems of a similar form or containing the same kind of verse. Not only in the _Brut_, but also in several Old English and earlier Middle English poems, we meet both with regular rhymes and with simple assonances and other still more imperfect correspondences in sound intended to serve as rhymes. Examples of actual rhyme in the _Brut_ are the monosyllabic pairs: _seon: beon_ 13837-8, _king: þing_ 13883-4, _cniht: riht_ 13887-8; besides inexact rhymes like _mon: anān_ 13605-6, 13615-16, _mon: dōn_ 13665-6, 13677-8, _wīn: in_ 14349-50, 14998-9, _chin: wīn_ 14994-5; disyllabic rhymes: _icúmen: gúmen_ 13787-8, _gṓde: flṓde_ 13791-2, _sṓhten: rṓhten_ 13803-4, _ṓðer: brṓðer_ 13841-2, _chī̀lde: wī́lde_ 13870-1, _pḗre: hḗre_ 13871-2, _hálle: álle_ 13981-2. We see no reason to accent these last-mentioned rhymes differently from similar rhymes occurring in Old English poems, as e.g. _wédde: aspḗdde_ Andr. 1633, _wúnne: blúnne_ ib. 1382, _bewúnden: gebúnden_ Jud. 115, _stúnde: wúnde_ Byrhtn. 271, &c.