Tumbling Verse is a coarse, highly stressed, four-beat meter that may be a survival of Anglo-Saxon meter and is certainly close to folk meters or ballads and songs. The following example comes from Gammer Gurton's Needle by "Mr. S.', a play written in the 1560s:

          /            /                  /                /
As Gammer Gurton with many a wide stitch

        /                /                   /                        /
Sat piecing and patching of Hodge her man's breech,

           /                /                /                /
By chance or misfortune as she her gear tossed,

        /                        /                /                /
In Hodge's leather breeches her needle she lost.
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