Note 19 — PART TWO
Reading edition
One may easily find other instances of the sporadic appearance of the same measure in the midst of irregular "long lines" or rough alexandrines and septenaries. Compare, for example, the following, from early plays in Manly's Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama:
"To be alone, nor very convenyent." "Ye shall not touche yt, for that I forbede." "But ye shuld be as godes resydent." "And many a chaumbyr thou xalt have therinne." "In this flood spylt is many a mannys blood." "Therfore be we now cast in ryght grett care."
The context of many of these lines shows that they were intended to be read as four-stress rather than five-stress; but such examples serve to make clear how easily English rhythm would fall into the decasyllabic line.