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This article focuses on a group of Middle English romances composed in four-line stanzas rhyming abab. Surviving examples of this form include Thomas of Erceldoune, The Sowdone of Babylon, The Knight of Courtesy, and the fragmentary Partonope of Blois. Since these romances are from different dialect areas, the verse form appears to have been a popular one in medieval England. Examining the quality of the rhymes in the extant manuscripts, we show that both the original poets and the scribes of these romances were happy to tolerate imperfect rhyme. Two common types of imperfect rhyme, \"feature rhyme\" and \"subsequence rhyme,\" are discussed, and we provide analogues for such rhymes in medieval and modern song, from nursery rhymes to Latin hymns. We conclude by suggesting that the use of so-called \"imperfect\" rhyme is linked with oral performance and that it was in fact perfectly acceptable in this context.

Thorlac Turville-Petre observes that any statement about the alliterative patterns in the existing manuscript of the Morte Arthure is true only of the text as it stands in this unique manuscript and is likely to misrepresent the practices of the poet itself. Jefferson and Putter explore the types of evidence which might nevertheless enable them to make judgments about the poet's metrical practice, judgments based not only on the readings of the manuscript itself but also on material drawn from the sources, from Malory, and from Thornton's scribal practice elsewhere.

The question of final -e in Middle English verse is of serious importance to metrists, historical linguists, and editors. In the study of metre, the status of final -e is a determining factor in the syllable count: there are few lines in any Middle English poem where -e does not affect scansion. Here, Jefferson and Putter examine in detail the use of inflectional -e and -(e) in infinitives in a selected corpus of alliterative poetry.

Jefferson reviews English Alliterative Verse: Poetic Tradition and Literary History by Eric Weiskott.