The iambic octameter, like many other meters, was the subject of experimentation in the English Renaissance, but tended to split into shorter lines. Here is an example by "Master Edwards" from The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576):

  *     /  | *    /   |   *    /   | *    /     |  *    /    |  *   /    |  *  / | *   /
The sailing ships with joy at length do touch the long-desired port,  [desirèd]
The hewing ax the oak doth waste, the battr'ing cannon breaks the fort;
Hard haggard hawks stoop to the lure, wild colts in time the bridle tames;
There is nothing out of ure but to his kind long time it frames.