Page:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Tolkien and Gordon - 1925.djvu/159

 Of the OE. types A, B, and C are still in use in ME.:

A: ''Tícius to Túskan.

''Gáwain I hátte.

B: ''Such gláum ande glé.

''of a dére társ.

Type AB is common. It already existed in OE. as type A with an introductory syllable.

Examples:

The three-lift types may be classified thus:

In the (ii) types (when the lifts are in juxtaposition) there is a slight rhythmic pause in place of an unaccented element. Usually the lifts so placed are the first and second.

The metre is sometimes obscured by the copyist's carelessness of final unaccented -e, which he dropped at will. It is usually not essential to the metre, but at times it is, and then the copyist leaves a half-line incomplete. Such are: