e
as in the euen sillable, but better in the euen, and one verse may begin
in the euen, & another follow in the odde, and so keepe a commendable
proportion. The verse that containeth but two silables which may be in one
word, is not vsuall: therefore many do deny him to be a verse, saying that
it is but a foot, and that a meeter can haue no lesse then two feete at
the least, but I find it otherwise aswell among the best Italian Poets, as
also with our vulgar makers, and that two sillables serue wel for a short
measure in the first place, and midle, and end of a staffe: and also in
diuerse scituations and by sundry distances, and is very passionate and of
good grace, as shalbe declared more at large in the Chapter of proportion
by scituation.

The next measure is of two feete or of foure sillables, and then one word
_tetrasillable_ diuided in the middest makes vp the whole meeter, as thus
_Re-ue- re-ntli-e_

Or a trissillable and one monosillable thus. _Soueraine God_, or two
bissillables and that is plesant thus, _Restore againe_, or with foure
monosillables, and that is best of all thus, _When I doe thinke_, I finde
no fauour in a meetre of three sillables nor in effect in any odde, but
they may be vsed for varietie sake, and specially being enterlaced with
others the meetre of six sillables is very sweete and dilicate as thus.
_O God when I behold
This bright heauen so hye
By thine owne hands of old
Contrivd so cunningly._

The meter of seuen sillables is not vsual, no more is that of nine and
eleuen, yet if they be well composed, that is, their _Cesure_ well
appointed, and their last accent which makes the concord, they are
commendable inough, as in this ditty where one verse is of eight an other
is of seuen, and in the one the accent vpon the last, in the other vpon
the last saue on.
_The smoakie sighes, the bitter teares
That I in vaine haue wasted
The broken sleepes, the woe and feares
That long time haue lasted
Will be my death, all by thy guilt
And not by my deseruing
Since so inconstantly thou wilt
Not loue but still be sweruing_.

And all the reason why these meeters in all sillable are allowable is, for
that the sharpe accent falles vpon the _penulitma_ or last saue one
sillable of the verse, which doth so drowne the last, as he seemeth to
passe away in maner vnpronounced, & so make the verse seeme euen: but if
the accent fall vpon the last and leaue two flat to finish the