Liographical Sketch of the Author. ers 
for retention in the memory. ‘There are, however, two ex- 
ceptions worthy of special notice: firstly, the ‘‘ Preface to the 
Buier” (see p. 14) and the ‘‘ Comparison between Champion 
Countrie and Severall” (see p. 140), which are the first ex- 
amples of a metre afterwards adopted by Prior and Shenstone, 
and generally believed to have originated with the latter: 
secondly, the ‘“‘Author’s linked verses” (see p. 204), a species 
of what Dr. Guest calls Inverse Rhime in the following passage 
from his ‘“‘ History of English Rhythms” :? “Inverse Rhime is 
that which exists between the last accented syllable of the first 
section, and the first accented syllable of the second. It appears 
to have flourished most in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
I do not remember any instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, but it 
is probably of native growth.? A kindred dialect, the Icelandic, 
had, at an early period, a species of rhime closely resembling 
the present—the second verse always beginning with the last 
accented syllable of the first. It is singular that the French 
had in the sixteenth century a rhime like the Icelandic, called 
by them /a rime entrelassée. ‘The present rhime differed from it, 
as it was contained in one verse . . . Thus:— 
‘These steps| both veach|| and ¢each| thou shalt| 
To come| by ¢hrift|| to shzf¢| withal|.’—Tusser. 
‘The pilpers /oud|| and /oud|er blew\, 
The dan|cers gwzck|| and guzck|er flew|.’—Burns.” 
The following are Tusser’s principal peculiarities :— 
1. The use of a plural noun with a verb singular. This very 
frequently occurs. ‘‘ Some,” too, is almost invariably treated thus. 
LViol=i. pp: 136; 7- 
2 A very curious example is printed from Harl. MS. 913 in ‘‘ Early English 
Poems,” ed. Furnivall, pp. 21, 2. 
