and septenaries and alexandrines are used interchangeably. Dr. Triggs says, in his notes on the poem in McLean's edition of Zupitza's _Übungsbuch_, that lines 5, 6, 9-18, 25-28, 39, 40, 43, 44, 49-54, 57, 58, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70-72, 74, 75 are alexandrines. (Introduction, p. lxii.) The English tendency toward indifference to regularity in the counting of syllables is also noticeable. In the same way the early poem called "The Passion of our Lord" (ed. Morris, E.E.T.S. xlix. 37), which is thought from the heading--"_Ici cumence la passyun ihesu crist en engleys_"--to be a translation from the French, shows a preponderance of alexandrines, although it opens in septenary. See also such poems as the "Death," "Doomsday," etc., in the _Old English Miscellany_. The alexandrine was easily confused by the Middle English writers, not only with the septenary, but with the native "long line," and it is often difficult to say just what rhythm was in the writer's mind. Thus a line like "Be stille, leve soster, thin herte the to-breke," from the _Judas_, may be regarded either as an alexandrine or a long four-stress line. In Westsex was þan a kyng, his [name] was Sir Ine. Whan he wist of the Bretons, of werre ne wild he fine. Messengers he sent thorghout Inglond Unto þe Inglis kynges, þat had it in þer hond, And teld how þe Bretons, men of mykelle myght, Þe lond wild wynne ageyn þorh force and fyght. Hastisly ilkone þe kynges com fulle suythe, Bolde men and stoute, þer hardinesse to kiþe. In a grete Daneis felde þer þei samned alle, Þat ever siþen hiderward Kampedene men kalle. (ROBERT MANNING of Brunne: _Chronicle of Peter de Langtoft_. Hearne ed., vol. i. p. 2. ab. 1325.) This poem is one of the very few representatives of distinctly alexandrine verse in Middle English. The original poem being in alexandrines, Manning followed it closely. In the first part, however, he put rimes only at the ends of the verses, whereas later he introduced internal rime, thus resolving the verse into short lines of three stresses. Schipper observes that the four following lines are each representative of a familiar type of the French alexandrine: "Messengers he sent þorghout Inglond Unto the Inglis kynges, þat had it in þer hond." "After Ethelbert com Elfrith his broþer, Þat was Egbrihtes sonne and ȝit þer was an oþer." (_Englische Metrik_, vol. i. p. 252.) The so-called _Legend-Cycle_ is also marked by a sort of alexandrine couplet. (See ten Brink's _English Literature_, Kennedy trans., vol. i. p. 274.) O! think I, had I wings like to the simple dove, This peril might I fly, and seek some place of rest In wilder woods, where I might dwell far from these cares. What speedy way of wing my plaints should they lay on, To 'scape the stormy blast that threatened is to me? Rein those unbridled tongues! break that conjured league! For I decipher'd have amid our town the strife.