frequent the variation is generally in the English octosyllables of the period, we may believe that even Gower, notwithstanding his metrical strictness, occasionally introduced it into his verse. It may be noted that the three lines just quoted resemble one another in having each a pause after the first word.

With all this ‘correctness,’ however, the verses of the Mirour have an unmistakably English rhythm and may easily be distinguished from French verse of the Continent and from that of the earlier Anglo-Norman writers. One of the reasons for this is that the verse is in a certain sense accentual as well as syllabic, the writer imposing upon himself generally the rule of the alternate[Pg xlvi] beat of accents and seldom allowing absolutely weak syllables[J] to stand in the even places of his verse. Lines such as these of Chrétien de Troyes,

[Pg xlvi]

and these of Frère Angier,

.

.

.

.

.

.

are quite in accordance with the rules of French verse, but very few such lines will be found in the Mirour. Some there are, no doubt, as 3327:

or 3645:

So also 2925, 3069, 4310 &c., but they are exceptional and attract our notice when they occur. An illustration of the difference between the usage of our author and that of the Continent is afforded by the manner in which he quotes from Hélinand’s Vers de la Mort. The text as given in the Hist. Litt. de la France, xviii. p. 88, is as follows (with correction of the false reading ‘cuevre’):

Gower has it

He may have found this reading in the original, of which there are several variants, but the comparison will none the less illustrate the 

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