Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/383

 MIRACLE CYCLES. 369 being notoriously subjective. The question of metre will necessarily occupy our attention a good deal, since the evidence it affords is of the greatest possible help. I may say at once that the most important metrical forms employed in the cycle are three in number. The first is a stanza of thirteen lines riming ababababcdddc. This rime-form is of a well-known northern pattern, being that of the whole body of Scottish stanzaic alliterative verse, and also of the distinctive com- positions of the great Wakefield playwright. I refer to these stanzas for short as ' thirteeners.' The second is a stanza of eight lines riming aaabaaab or aaabcccb. In some passages the lines are much shorter than elsewhere, and sometimes the eight lines are cut down to six. These variations appear to be intentional. Both longer and shorter forms are very familiar, being for instance the metre of the bulk of the Chester cycle ; they are often known as romance eights and sixes. I refer to them indifferently as 'romance stanzas.' The third metrical form is the eight-line stanza riming ababbcbc. Of this there are two rather well-marked varieties according as the lines are long or short. I call them ' long ' and ' short oCtaves' respectively. Certain other forms, none very elaborate, also appear, and will be described in their proper places. They are less important than the above, and the total range is far less extended than in either of the great northern cycles. There is one critical principle that I wish to lay down as regards metre. It is this, that, although