Sometimes the rime extends, apparently, over more than two syllables; but it will be found that, in such a case, the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable can either be suppressed, or consists of the shortest possible sound. Ex. _sw['e]venis_, _sw['e]ven is_, really _sw['e]v'nis_, _sw['e]v'n is_; B 4111. _B['e]ryis_, _m['e]ry is_; B 4155. _Vict['o]ri[:e]_, _gl['o]ri[:e]_; A 2405. _Merc['u]ri[:e]_, _m['u]ry[:e]_; A 1385. _M['a]ri[:e]d_, _t['a]ri[:e]d_; B 3461. _B['e]ri[:e]d_, _a-bl['a]keb['e]ri[:e]d_; C 405. _To-sc['a]t'red_, _y-fl['a]t'red_; D 1969. _Contr['a]ri[:e]_, _Ianu['a]ri[:e]_; E 2319; &c.[40] Note that feminine rimes are extremely numerous, and are sometimes kept up through whole stanzas in such a poem as Troilus. Thus, in Troilus, iii. 407-434, we find four consecutive stanzas, or twenty-eight consecutive lines, in which every rime is feminine; and this is by no means an extreme case. Feminine rimes are extremely old in English, and are found even in Anglo-Saxon. s. 43. The most striking examples are those in which the feminine rime is composed of two distinct words, as these prove at once the reality of the final _-e_. Thus _Ro-me_ rimes with _t['o] me_; A 671. _You-the_ rimes with _allow thee_ (aluu.dhe); F 675. _Ty-me_, with _by me_; G 1204. Similarly, the final _-es_ of the plural substantive constitutes a syllable, as shewn by such a rime as _werk-[:e]s_, _derk is_; G 64. In such a case, some scribes write _werkis_ for _werkes_, to make the rime more complete, but it is quite needless, as there is no necessity for an absolute coincidence of vowel-sound in a mere unaccented syllable. In Lenvoy a Scogan, 15, it would be quite absurd to alter _goddes_ to _goddis_(!), merely because it rimes with _forbod'is_; the really weak part of the rime is in the linking of the short _o_ in _goddes_, with the longer _o_ in _forbode_. For the same reason, the rime of _lyte is_ with _dytees_ (HF. 621) is good enough; indeed, we cannot write _dytis_ (as Ten Brink proposes to do) because the word meant is the plural of _ditee_. Unusual rimes of this sort are still in common use, especially where a slightly humorous effect is intended; and this may very well excuse the above examples, as well as such rimes as _Davit_[41] (for _David_), _eructavit_, D 1933; _saveth_, _significavit_, A 661; _wounded_, _wounde hid_, B 102; _agon is_, _onis_[42], D 9; and the like.