(Hearne ed., vol. i. pp. xcix, c.) Lines 15-22 may be paraphrased thus: "If it were made in _rime couée_, in _rime strangere_, or _rime entrelacée_, there are plenty of those who read English who could not have put the tail-verses together; so that either in the tail-verse or the _baston_ some would have been confused, and many men that heard it would not know how it went." The "interlaced" (alternate) rime was a familiar form. _Baston_ seems usually to be an equivalent for "stanza" or "stave." It seems uncertain whether by _rime strangere_ Manning had in mind any particular form of stanza or rime-arrangement. Stand wel, moder, under rode, Byholt þy sone wiþ glade mode; Blyþe, moder, myht þou be! Sone, hou shulde y blyþe stonde? Y se þin fet, y se þin honde Nayled to þe harde tre. (Song from Harleian MS. 3253; Böddeker's _Altenglische Dichtungen_, p. 206.) Listeth, lordes, in good entent, And I wol telle verrayment Of mirthe and of solas; Al of a knyght was fair and gent In bataille and in tourneyment, His name was sir Thopas ... An elf-queen wol I love, y-wis, For in this world no womman is Worthy to be my make In toune; Alle othere wommen I forsake, And to an elf-queen I me take By dale and eek by doune! (CHAUCER: _Sir Thopas_, from _Canterbury Tales_. ab. 1385.) The tail-rime stanza had become a favorite for the metrical romances of the fourteenth century; but Chaucer evidently saw its inappropriateness for long narrative poems, and ridiculed it--with certain other elements of the romances--in this _Rime of Sir Thopas_. The Host is made to interrupt the story: "'Myn eres aken of thy drasty speche; Now swiche a rym the devel I beteche! This may wel be rym dogerel', quod he." My patent pardouns, ye may se, Cum fra the Cane of Tartarei, Weill seald with oster schellis; Thocht ye have na contritioun, Ye sall have full remissioun, With help of buiks and bellis. (SIR DAVID LINDSAY: _Ane Satyre of the Three Estates._ ab. 1540.) Seinte Marie! levedi briht, Moder thou art of muchel miht, Quene in hevene of feire ble; Gabriel to the he lihte, Tho he brouhte al wid rihte Then holi gost to lihten in the. Godes word ful wel thou cnewe; Ful mildeliche thereto thou bewe, And saidest, "So it mote be!" Thi thone was studevast ant trewe; For the joye that to was newe, Levedi, thou have merci of me! (_Quinque Gaudia._ In Mätzner's _Altenglische Sprachproben_, vol. i. p. 51.) Here the principle of the tail-rime is extended to four tail-verses. See also the specimen on p. 111, below. All, dear Nature's children sweet, Lie 'fore bride and bridegroom's feet, Blessing their sense! Not an angel of the air, Bird melodious or bird fair, Be absent hence. (Song from _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, by Shakspere and Fletcher. pub. 1634.)