1. Regular alliterative lines, which are very numerous, and at least in the first half of Layamon's _Brut_, possibly throughout the poem, form the bulk, e.g. _Prov._ xv. 247-8, Layamon, 13847-8, 13851-2, 13855-6, 13859-60, 13867-8, 13881-2, or
_=B=úte if he =b=éo | in =b=óke iléred._ Prov. iii. 65-6.
_þat his =b=lód and his =b=rain | =b=á weoren todáscte._ Lay. 1468-9.
2. Rhyme (or assonance) and alliteration combined; equally numerous, e.g. _Prov._ xv. 253-4, Lay. 13841-2, 13845-6, 13869-70, &c., or
_Þat þe =ch=íriche habbe grýþ | and the =ch=éorl beo in frýþ._ Prov. v. 93.
_his =s=édes to =s=ówen, | his =m=édes to mówen._ ib. 95.
_biuóren wende =H=éngest, | and =H=órs him alre =h=[æ´]ndest._ Lay. 13973-4.
_Heo cómen into =h=álle | =h=[æ´]ndeliche álle._ ib. 13981-2.
3. Verses with rhyme (or assonance) only, without alliteration, also not unfrequent, e.g. _Prov._ xv. 249-50 ff., or Lay. 13853-4, &c.
_And his plóuh beo idrýue | to ure álre bihóue._ Prov. v. 97-8.
_þe póure and þe ríche | démen ilýche._ ib. iv. 80-1.
_On Itál[gh]e heo comen to lónde, | þer Róme nou on stóndeþ._ Lay. 106-7.
_fele [gh]ér under súnnan | nas [gh]et Róme biwónnen._ ib. 108-9.
4. Four-beat verses without either rhyme or alliteration, occurring comparatively rarely, and in most cases probably to be attributed to corruption of the text. Examples:
_he may béon on élde | wénliche lórþeu._ Prov. vi. 101-2.
_we habbeð séoue þúsund | of góde cníhten._ Lay. 365-6.
It is certain that these four different forms of verse cannot have been felt by the poets themselves as rhythmically unlike; their rhythmic movement must have been apprehended as essentially one and the same.
§ =44. Nature and origin of this metre. Theories of Trautmann and Luick.= We need not here discuss the theory of Prof. Trautmann, who endeavours to show that the hemistichs of Layamon's verse were composed in imitation of the four-beat short-lined metre in which the Old High German poet Otfrid had written his religious poem _Krist_, a form which, according to Trautmann and his followers, had been frequently employed in late Old English and early Middle English poetry. References to the criticisms of this hypothesis, by the present writer and others, are given by G. Körting in his _Encyklopädie der Englischen Philologie_, p. 388, and by K. Luick in Paul's _Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie_, ed. 2, II. ii. 152. The author of this book, in his larger work on the subject (_Englische Metrik_, i. §§ 67-73), has shown, as English and German scholars had done before him, that Layamon's verse has its roots in the Old English alliterative line. Twelve years after the publication of that work this theory received further confirmation at the hands of Prof. Luick, who has shown in Paul's _Grundriss_ (l.c.) that the five types of the Old English alliterative line, discovered by Prof. Sievers, reappear (although in a modified form) in the lines of Layamon's _Brut_. But we are unable wholly to agree with Prof. Luick's view on the origin and nature of this metre.