A line or verse generally contains four accented syllables, separated from each other by one or by two unaccented syllables, so that there are some instances of trisyllabic feet, as in ll. 817, 834, 2035, 2301, 2791, 3020, 3073, 2313, &c. In ll. 692, 695, two accented syllables are put close together without being separated by an unaccented one, which is altogether wanting. In some passages we find lines of three accented syllables alternating with those of four accents, as in ll. 575–582, 763–770, 839–846, 871–878, 2287–2290, &c. But in most cases lines with four accents follow each other in an unbroken succession, as in ll. 1–372, 995–1010, 1026–1029, 1067–1107, 1147–1154, 1731–1734, &c. A few instances of verses with more than four accented syllables are also to be met with in the «Sowdan». They are either due to the author and therefore intended, as in l. 37, where the poet almost literally imitates his original,[79] or they may be considered as due to some clerical error, in which case the metre generally can be restored by a slight emendation. A verse has generally an iambic effect, that is to say, the first foot begins with an unaccented syllable, which is followed by an accented one. Frequently, however, the first accented syllable is preceded by two unaccented ones, as in ll. 41, 75, 127, 151, 367, 849, 1060, 1815, 1819, 2289, 2758, &c. There are some instances of the first foot consisting of a single (accented) syllable only, the unaccented one being altogether wanting, as in ll. 2120, 2288, 2374, 2394, &c. DATE OF THE POEM AND NAME OF THE AUTHOR. George Ellis attributes the present poem to the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century. “I think,” he says in his «Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances», ed. Halliwell, p. 380, “it would not be difficult to prove from internal evidence, that the present translation[80] cannot be earlier than the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century.” [p-xlvi] Having seen from the summary of grammatical peculiarities that there is a great similarity between the language of Chaucer and that of the composer of this romance, we might be inclined to consider the latter as a contemporary of Chaucer. From some passages of the «Sowdan», which seem to contain allusions to Chaucerian poetry, we may conclude that the poet must have known the «Canterbury Tales». Thus ll. 42–46:— “Whan kynde corage begynneth to pryke, Whan ffrith and felde wexen gaye, And every wight desirith his like, Whan lovers slepen with opyn yȝe, As Nightingales on grene tre” . . . appear to be imitated from the «Prologue of the Canterbury Tales», ll. 10–12:— “And smale fowles maken melodie, That slepen al the night with open eye, So priketh hem nature in her corages.” Further on we remark in ll. 939–40:— “O thow, rede Marȝ Armypotente, That in the trende baye hase made þy trone.” some traces of resemblance with the «Knight’s Tale», ll. 1123–26:—