Note 900 — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
Consisting of four Anapests (˘ ˘ ¯) in which the accent rests upon every third syllable. This kind of verse, which I also call the burlesque Alexandrine (to distinguish it from the other Alexandrines of eleven and fourteen syllables, the parents of our lyric measure: see examples, pp. 151, 152, &c.), was early applied by Robert of Gloucester to serious subjects. That writer's metre, like this of Langland's, is formed on the Saxon models (each verse of his containing a Saxon distich), only instead of the internal alliterations adopted by Langland, he rather chose final rhymes, as the French poets have done since. Take a specimen:
"The Saxons tho in ther power, tho thii were so rive, Seve kingdoms made in Engelonde, and suthe but vive: The king of Northomberlond, and of Eastangle also, Of Kent, and of Westsex, and of the March, therto."
Robert of Gloucester wrote in the western dialect, and his language differs exceedingly from that of other contemporary writers, who resided in the metropolis, or in the midland counties. Had the Heptarchy continued, our English language would probably have been as much distinguished for its different dialects as the Greek; or at least as that of the several independent states of Italy.