The two movements in triple rhythm, anapestic and dac-
tylic, are much closer in character than are iambic and
trochaic. We saw in the previous chapter that the trochaic
is more unstable than the iambic, that the genius of the
language leans so strongly toward the iambic that long
trochaic lines almost inevitably swing toward the more
natural movement. This instability is true to an even
greater extent in the relationship of dactylic to anapestic
verse, so that there are comparatively few poems that keep
distinctive the special character of dactylic movement. In
most respects, then, we may treat both kinds of triple
rhythm as one. In the questions pertaining to the use of
light stresses and extra accents they present the same
problems. In their origin and history they may be reviewed
together.

Though literary verse from the early English period down
almost into the eighteenth century was prevailingly iambic
or trochaic, the irregular native English rhythm persisted
in much of the popular poetry, and occasionally appeared
in the work of experimenters like Skelton and Spenser. Many
of the romances, ballads, and miracle plays are either in
"tumbling" rhythm or in a rough duple rhythm that often
falls into duple-triple, but such freedom was scorned by the
literary poets.

In the midst of this tumbling verse the anapestic move-
ment seems in sporadic instances to have developed by
accident. The first dozen or so lines of Skelton To MaystresMargaret Hussey

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