Some specimens of the verse with the editor’s scansion are: ‘téacheð us þùrh a bísnè,’ 117/4: ‘Þis hús þe ùre láuèrd | spékeð òf, is sèolf þe món,’ 117/8: ‘þe éarèste is Wárschìpe | icléopet, ànt te óðèr | is gástelìch Stréncðè,’ 118/36: ‘Wárschìpe, þet àa is wáker, | ìs offéared, lèste súm | fortrúste hìm ant fèole oslép,’ 118/53: ‘hwuch só he mèi préouìn | þùrh his bóc, þèt is ón | euch súnnè ibréuèt,’ 119/72. Now Bartels points out that in Layamon’s verse there is no _enjambment_ and no beginning of a clause in the middle of a half-line. Furthermore, there is no rhythm in these lines which remotely resembles either the recitative of Layamon’s alliterative line or the syllabic measure of his rhymed lines. But the fatal objection is the absence of alliteration or rhyme, for without one of these or a combination of the two there is no verse at all in Middle English; they are of the essence of its form. For Orm is an eccentric and absolutely isolated; his verse would be recognizable by his contemporaries as such only in virtue of the rigid uniformity of its rhythm. Sawles Warde is written in the same rhythmic prose, and by the same author, as AR and the other pieces mentioned on p. 373, including the Wohunge of Ure Lauerd (OEH i. 269-87) and the Ureisun of God Almihti (id. 200-3). The evolution of this style is easily followed. The writer began his literary career with his memory well stocked with alliterative formulae and other phrases, derived in some small measure from the pre-Conquest literature, but mostly from a body of popular poetry which is represented by isolated pieces like the Worcester Fragments. His first writings, SJ and SM, are overloaded with them, and they have impressed their peculiar movement more or less on the stretches of prose which link them together. Accordingly many passages in SJ for example approach much more nearly to verse than anything in Sawles Warde. Take at random 143/68-72:-- sei me hwi þu forsakest[;] þi sy ant ti selhðe. þe weolen ant te wunnen[;] þe walden awakenen. ant waxen of þe wedlac[;] þet ich reade þe to. hit nis nan eðelich þing[;] þe refschipe of rome. ant tu maht ȝef þu wult[;] beon burhene leafdi. ant of alle þe londes[;] þe þerto liggeð. This has the right swing, and its slightly faulty alliteration could easily be mended, yet Saint Juliana is not verse. In SK, HM, AR, and SW we can observe a gradual and progressive diminution of this borrowed matter, but the verse cadences persist to the end.