On the =structure of this metre= the opinions of scholars differ a good deal less than on that of the progressive or free form of the alliterative line. Yet there are a few adherents of the four-beat theory who apply it to the alliterative line of this epoch, amongst others Rosenthal ('Die alliterierende englische Langzeile im 14. Jahrhundert,' _Anglia_, i. 414 ff.). The two-beat theory, on the other hand, has been upheld also for this form of the alliterative line by Prof. W. W. Skeat, _Essay on Alliterative Poetry_, Percy Folio MS. 1867 (ed. Furnivall and Hales), by the present writer in _Englische Metrik_, i, pp. 195-212, and by Prof. Luick, _Anglia_, xi, pp. 392-443 and 553-618, and subsequently in Paul's _Grundriss_, ed. 2, II. ii, pp. 161-3. § =53. The use and treatment of the words in the verse= is on the whole the same as in the Old English period. The chief divergence is, that in this period of the language the difference between long and short syllables was lost, in consequence of the lengthening of short vowels in open syllables which had taken place in the interval, and that consequently the substitution of a short accented syllable and an unaccented one for a long accented syllable (the so-called resolution) was no longer admissible. Otherwise syllables with a primary accent, syllables with a secondary accent, and unaccented syllables are treated just as in the Old English poetry. Accented syllables are as a rule placed in the arsis, as are also second parts of compounds. Other syllables with secondary accent (derivative and inflectional syllables) are only in exceptional cases placed in the arsis of a verse.