238 Charles Davidson — English Mystery Plays. 



The law of structure has been most coucisely given in the words ;* 

 ^' It [alliteration] consists in the emploj^ment of the same or similar 

 sounds at the beginning of a syllable which receives the primary 

 stress. The second hemistich contains one such alliterative syllable, 

 as a rule that which has the first primary stress ; the first hemistich 

 has regularly two, though frequently only one. The alliterative 

 sound must be the same throughout, if consonantal ; if vocalic, it is 

 usually different in the three syllables." 



It may be affirmed, in general, that the laws of Old English allit- 

 eration obtained in the Middle English period in the septenar line 

 of the Northern English. Sometimes, however, the 7-stress verse 

 was considered as a whole, as in the following example ; sometimes 

 the 4-stress line constituted the verse, and in neither case does the 

 author hesitate to place the two alliterative syllables in either half- 

 verse, as may best suit his convenience. Structural alliteration in 

 Middle English, then, consists of three alliterative syllables under 

 the primary stress, two of which should be in one half-verse — more 

 generally in the first — and one in the other. 



Alliteration for ornament continually increased both in the North 

 and South, showing itself in the following ways — 



1. By excessive alliteration. 



2. By alliteration in semi-stressed syllables. 



3. By alliteration in unstressed syllables. 



4. By alliteration of different consonantal sounds, as f with v or w, 

 s with sh, etc.^ 



5. By disregard of the primary stress in placing alliteration. 

 Ex. 16. Moral Poem, by Richard Rolle de Hampole.^ 



When Adam dalfe li and Eve spdne, 



So spire if hou maj^ spede, 

 Whare was T?an ] the pride of man, 



hat now merres his mede ? 

 Of erthe and lame !1 as was Adam, 

 Nakede to noye and nede. 

 We er, als he, ? naked to be, 



Whills we Jjis lyfe sail lede. 

 With i and oe H borne er we, 



As Salamon vs hig-hte, 

 To travell here ", whills we er fere, 

 As fewle vn-to J>e flyghte. 



1 Cook, p. li. 



2 Die Alliterierende Langzeile, by Rosenthal, Anglia I, p. 440. 



3 E. E. T. S. No. 26. 



