Some anachronisms as to particular allusions have been pointed out. The irregular, or Pindaric measure as it has been called, used in the song to Aella, in the verses on the Mynster, and in the chorus in Goddwyn, was not employed till a much later aera. There are also in the Aella some lines in blank verse, not introduced among us till the time of Surrey, who adopted it from the Italian. Another criterion of a more general nature, which has not yet, at least that I am aware, been applied to those compositions, is, I think, very strongly against the antiquity of them; and that is, that the intention and purpose of the writer in the longer pieces is not sufficiently marked and decisive for the remoter ages to which they are ascribed. In the early stages of a language, before conventional phrases have been formed, and a stock of imagery, as it were, provided for the common use, we find that the plan of a work is often rude and simple indeed, but that it almost always bears evident signs of having subsisted anteriorly in the mind of the writer as a whole. If we try Aella, the longest of the poems, by this test, we shall discover strong evidence of its being modern. A certain degree of uniformity is the invariable characteristic of the earlier productions of art; but here is as much desultoriness and incoherence, as can well he possible in a work that makes any pretensions to a plan. On this internal proof alone I should not hesitate in assigning it to Chatterton rather than to Rowley, to the one who luxuriated in an abundance of poetic materials poured out before him for his use or his imitation, rather than to the other who had comparatively but a few meagre models to work upon. Where he is much inspirited by his subject, being thrown off his guard, he forgets himself and becomes modern, as in these lines, from which I have removed nothing but the old spelling. _First Dane_. Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus, the chief, is slain; The Saxons come, with Aella at their head; Let's strive to get away to yonder green; Fly, fly! this is the kingdom of the dead. _Second Dane_. O gods! have Romans at my anlace bled? And must I now for safety fly away? See! far besprenged all our troops are spread, Yet I will singly dare the bloody fray. But no; I'll fly, and murder in retreat; Death, blood, and fire shall mark the going of my feet. The following repetitions are, if I mistake not, quite modern: Now Aella _look'd_, and _looking_ did exclaim; and, He _falls_, and _falling_ rolleth thousands down. As is also this antithetical comparison of the qualities of a war-horse to the mental affections of the rider: Bring me a steed, with eagle-wings for fight, Swift as my wish, and as my love is, strong. There are sometimes single lines, that bear little relation to the place in which they stand, and seem to be brought in for no other purpose than their effect on the ear. This is the contrivance of a modern and a youthful poet.