#Vocabulary:# The foreign element in these texts is small. French are bikehte bikeihte (first appearance), cunin kuning, ermine (f. a.), martres 50/362 (f. a.), sabeline (f. a.), serueden, werre: sōt is pre-Conquest French, soht 30/30, written for sŏtt, a pre-Conquest Latin borrowing: Sathanas with _th_ is French. Scandinavian are bene, efninges eueningges (influenced by #efen#), ille, laȝe loȝe, lofte, niþinges, þralles þrelles, wrange wronge, and possibly fruden frute, lan 32/64: baþe boþe in a Southern text may descend from OE. #bā þā# (Björkman, 108). #Metre:# The Septenarius is a purely syllabic metre of seven feet, with or without end-rhyme, fashioned on the model of such mediaeval Latin verse as the well-known méum | ést pro|pósit|úm || ín ta|bérna | móri; the first section of the line having four stresses with a masculine and the second three with a feminine ending. The trochaic rhythm of the verse is very often changed into iambic by the addition of a syllable as prelude before either half of the verse: the full scheme is accordingly (x)x́xx́xx́xx́ || (x)x́xx́xx́x̀. This is perfectly exemplified in the Ormulum with its invariable line of fifteen syllables, but in the PM, the earliest known attempt at the metre in English, the influence of the native prosody is strong, and a regular line like Þe Món | þe wúl|e sík|er bón || to háb|ben Gód|es blíssè L 39 is uncommon. The following scansions of L illustrate the deviations from the norm of the verse: ich ém | nu áld|er þénẹ | ich wés || awín|tre ént | a láre Ich wél|de má|re þénẹ | ich déde || mi wít | áhte | bon máre Wel lóngẹ | ich háb|be chíld | ibón || a wórd|e ént | a déde þáh ich | bó a | wíntre | áld || to ȝúng | ich ém | on réde v́nnet | líf ich | hábbẹ i|léd || ⁊ ȝét | me þíngþ | iléde 5 þénnẹ ich | mé bi|þénche | wél || ful sárẹ | ich mé | adréde mést al | þét ich | hábbẹ i|dón || bífealt | tó child|háde Wel látẹ | ich háb|be mé | biþócht || búte | Gód me nu | réde Fólẹ id|el wórd | ich hábbẹ | iquéðen || sóððen | ich spék|e kúðe fóle | ȝúnge | dédẹ i|dón || þe mé | ofþínch|et núðe 10 Mést al | þét me | líkedẹ | ér || nú hit | mé mis|líkeð þa múch|el fúl|iéð | his wíl || híne | sólf he bi|swíkeð Ich míh|te háb|be bét | idón || héfdẹ ich | þé i|sélþe Nú ich | wáldẹ ah | ích ne | meí || for éldẹ | ⁊ fór | unhélþe Élde | me ís | bistól|en ón || ér ich | hít | wíste 15 ne míchtẹ | ich séon | bifór|e mé || for smí|ke né | for míste Érȝe | we béoð | to dón|e gód || ⁊ to úf|elẹ ál | to þríste Marẹ éi|e stónd|eð mén | of mónne || þánnẹ hom | dó of | críste þe wél | ne dóð | þe hwílẹ (þe) | ho múȝen || wél oft | hít schal | rówen þénnẹ _ho_ | máwen | scúlen ⁊ | répen || þét ho | ér | sówen 20 Dó he | to gód|e þét | he múȝe || þe hwílẹ (ꝥ) | he bó | alíue ne líp|nie ná | món | to múchel || to chíld|e né | to wíue [þé] þe | hím | sólue | forȝét || for wí|ue né | for chílde