Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/205

186 IX. In the Drama of St. Meriasek there are no less than ten classes of stanza, counting by the number of lines to the stanza, and these may be considerably multiplied by alternating or mixing seven-syllabled with four-syllabled lines in various orders, and by varying the number of sets of rhymes to a stanza and the order of those rhymes. Perhaps one of the most elaborated (1. 168–180) will serve as a specimen. It is a thirteen-lined stanza of twelve seven-syllabled lines, and one (the ninth) four-syllabled line, with four sets of rhymes, rhyming A B A B A B A B C [four syllables] D D D C.

It is evident that by varying the number of lines and rhymes to a stanza, varying the distribution of the rhymes, and mixing lines of different length, an almost