n the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries numerous monkish narrative poems (_mester de
clerecia_) were written in this measure:

En el nonbre del Padre,--que fizo toda cosa,
E de don Jhesu Christo,--Fijo dela Gloriosa,
Et del Spiritu Sancto,--que egual dellos posa,
De un confessor sancto--quiero fer vna prosa...
(Gonzalo de Berceo)

The old Alexandrine fell before the rising popularity of
the _arte mayor_ verse early in the fifteenth century. In
the eighteenth century a 13-syllable Alexandrine appears
in Spanish in imitation of the classic French line. This
later Spanish Alexandrine is not composed of two distinct
half-lines. It also has, like its French page lxvii
prototype, alternate couplets of masculine and feminine
lines (_versos agudos_ and _versos llanos_ or _graves_).
Thus, Iriarte:

En cierta catedral una campana habia
Que solo se tocaba algun solemne dia
Con el mas recio son, con pausado compas,
Cuatro golpes o tres solia dar, no mas.

There is an inner rhythmic accent on the sixth syllable.
Iriarte also revived the older Alexandrine, but without
hiatus:

Cuando veo yo algunos,--que de otros escritores
A la sombra se arriman,--y piensan ser autores...

Recent poets have revived the old Alexandrine.[33] Thus,
Ruben Dario uses it, even retaining the hiatus between the
half-lines; but instead of grouping the lines in quatrains
with monorime, as the old monks did, he uses assonance
in alternate lines, which is, so far as I know, without
precedent:

Es con voz de la Biblia--o verso de Withman
Que habria que llegar--hasta ti, icazador!
Primitivo y moderno,--sencillo y complicado,
Con un algo de Washington--y mucho de Nemrod...
(p. 211, ll. 1-4)

[Footnote 33: For their use of this line with ternary
movement, see p. lxxix.]

Lines of five or six syllables usually have a mingled
binary and ternary movement:

Una barquera
Halle bizarra,
De pocos anos
Y muchas gracias.
(N. Moratin)
page lxviii
Sali a las diez
A ver a Clori
(No lo acerte):
Horas menguadas
Debe de haber...
(L. Moratin)

Lines of 5+5 syllables (_versos asclepiadeos_) are
occasionally written:

Id en las alas--del raudo cefiro,
Humildes versos,--de las floridas
Vegas que diafano--fecunda el Arlas,
Adonde lento--mi patrio rio
Ve los alcazares--de Mantua excelsa.
(L. Moratin)