SELECTIONS FROM
EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
1130-1250

223

NOTES

Abbreviations: AR Ancren Riwle, ed. Morton; Archiv [für das Studium der neueren Sprachen]; BH Blickling Homilies, ed. Morris; CM Cursor Mundi, ed. Morris; ES Englische Studien; GE Genesis and Exodus, ed. Morris; HM Hali Meidenhad, ed. Cockayne; KH King Horn, ed. Hall; L Layamon, ed. Madden; NED New English Dictionary; OEH i Old English Homilies, ed. Morris First Series; OEH ii Second Series; OEM Old English Miscellany, ed. Morris; ON Owl and Nightingale, ed. Wells; PRL Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, second edition; SJ St. Juliana, ed. Cockayne; SK St. Katherine, ed. Einenkel; SM St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne; VV Vices and Virtues, ed. Holthausen.

I. WORCESTER FRAGMENTS

A

2. ⁊ = and: ond apparently does not occur in the twelfth century. [writen]: Varnhagen supplies bec. Comp. ‘þa writen me beoð to icume,’ L 9131. awende. Bede translated into English the Gospel of S. John and some extracts from Isidore (Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummer, i. pp. lxxv, clxii).

3. ꝥ . . . þurh, by which. The preposition separated from its relative and placed with the verb is common in ME. See Anklam, Das Englische Relativ im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert, pp. 15-19, 44-6. Comp. in these texts, þet . . . bi, 72/182; inne, 84/45, 131/104; of, 38/155, 66/96, 116, 117/8, 139/11, 211/476; on, 96/53, 179/112; to, 142/75, 79, 143/98; þe . . . embe, 81/77; inne, 11/3, 4; mide, 81/79; offe, 85/84; one, 83/9, 119/73; to, 96/54; uppe, 84/71; þer . . . in, 7/59, 54/1, 147/148; of, 64/61; on, 106/210; to, 89/32; wið, 48/300. Similarly hem . . . to, 193/564; þa . . . to, 96/58.

4. C[not]ten: completed by Holthausen, Archiv, cvi. 347. Comp. ‘siȝewulf . . hine befran . . be ȝehwylcum cnottum þe he sylf ne cuþe,’ Interrogationes Sigewulfi, ed. MacLean, 58/12; ‘Ich habbe uncnut summe | of þeos cnotti cnotten,’ SK 1150, 1; and 202/168. With unwreih, comp. ‘Ac Augustinus se wisa us onwreah þas deopnysse,’ AS. Homilien, ed. Assmann, 5/103; ‘him þa toweardæn þing unwreah ⁊ swytelode,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 98/17; Cursor, 22445. questiuns: probably Bede’s In Libros Regum Quaestiones Triginta, answering questions put by Nothelm (Plummer, p. cli). But there appears to have been a work known as Bedae Quaestiones in utrumque Testamentum (Plummer, clv note), and there may be a reference to such of his commentaries as were replies to the queries of Acca, Bishop of Hexham. hoteþ: Wright supplies we after þe as in 6, but hoteþ may mean here ‘are called,’ though the passive sense is commoner in Central than in Early ME.

5. derne diȝelnesse. Comp. ‘Þatt dærne diȝhellnesse | Þatt writenn wass þurrh Moysæn,’ Orm 12945; and 125/296.

6. For Aelfric the Abbot see Skeat in E. E. T. S., O. S. 114, pp. xxii-xliv. 226 The writer appears not to know his translations of Joshua, Judges, Esther, and possibly Job. His identification of Aelfric with Alcuin, who liked to call himself Albinus, is possibly due, as MacLean suggests, to the former having translated Alcuin’s Sigewulfi Interrogationes (p. 47, and Anglia, vi. pp. 463, 4).

7. bocare. Comp. ‘Beda, se mæra bocere,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 22/210. [fif]: supplied by Varnhagen.

8. Vtronomius: probably a blunder, but possibly an original attempt at abbreviation. Or the writer may have had in mind the explanation given in De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae, ‘Deuteronomium, hoc est, iterationem Legis,’ S. Augustini Op., iii. App. p. 13a. Observe that he places the title next to Exodus; he would know from Jerome’s preface that it means ‘secunda lex.’ Numerus: so Ælfric, ‘on Lyden Numerus and on Englisc Getel,’ Grein’s Prosa, i. p. 179.

10. þet weren. Comp. for the singular of the demonstrative, 80/35: ‘Soðlice ða eagan þæt bioð ða lareowas, & se hrycg þæt sint ða hiremenn,’ Gregory’s Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, 28/12; ‘hwet beoð þas vii ȝeate? Det beoð ure egan,’ OEH i. 127/29. Sometimes the verb also is singular, as at 76/8. Similarly hit, it, 117/13, 190/450. bodeden: this verb usually takes an acc. as here, so 15/86; ‘bodian þa soðen ileafen,’ OEH i. 97/31; but ‘bodiende umbe godes riche,’ id. 95/19.

11. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, d. 709. Ripum: Ripon; Beda’s Inhrypum (Plummer, i. 183, ii. 104). Johan of beoferlai, Bishop of York, d. 721. He is commonly associated with the foundation of a monastery at Beverley in Yorkshire, but see Memorials of Beverley Minster, Surtees Society, 1898, pp. xv-xix. Beverley is Beoforlic in AS. Chron. MS. D 721 (but written about 1070 A.D.); Beoferlic in MS. E; Bevrelie in Domesday (see Stolze, Zur Lautlehre der AE. Ortsnamen im Domesday Book, p. 28, and Zachrisson, Anglo-Norman Influence on English Place-Names, p. 152). Cuþb[ert], Cudberct, Bishop of Lindisfarne, d. 687. Dunholm occurs in AS. Chron. MS. D 1056 as the oldest name; Durham descends from AN. Dureme. The episcopal mint from Beke 1283 A.D. to Langley 1437 A.D. has Dunholm, Dunelm, and Dureme indifferently. The seal of Richard de Marisco (1217-1226) has Dunholmensis. Comp. Zachrisson, 133-5. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, 962-91, Archbishop of York, 972-91, d. 992 (see Keller, pp. 11-21). For Latin books attributed to him, see Wright, Biographia, i. pp. 466, 7. Worcester in AS. Charters is Wigeran or Wiogeran Ceaster, also Wigernaceaster, Wigraceaster; in Domesday, Wirecestre. Egwin, Bishop of the Hwiccas, i.e. see of Worcester; founder of the Abbey of Evesham, d. 717 A.D. For 227 works attributed to him, see Wright, Biographia, i. p. 227. heoueshame: in Domesday Evesham; in the foundation charter Egwin writes, ‘In quo loco (i.e. Ethomme) quum beata Virgo Maria cuidam pastori gregum, Eoves nomine, comparuisset (ob cujus viri sanctitatem eundem locum Eoveshamiam nuncupavi),’ Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, ed. Macray, p. 18. æl[dhelm], Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Sherborne, d. 709 A.D. (Plummer’s Bede, ii. pp. 308, 9). William of Malmesbury says in his Gesta Pontificum, p. 336, ‘nativae quoque linguae non negligebat carmina; adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi . . . nulla umquam aetate par ei fuerit quisquam.’ He is said to have translated the Psalms. Swiþþun, Bishop of Winchester, d. 862. æþelwold, pupil of S. Dunstan, Abbot of Abingdon, Bishop of Winchester, 963, d. 984 A.D. In the Latin Life by Ælfric as revised by Wulfstan, it is recorded, ‘Dulce namque erat ei adolescentes et iuvenes semper docere, et latinos libros anglice eis solvere,’ Acta Sanctorum, August, i. p. 94. His translation of the Rule of S. Benedict was edited by Schröer in the Bibliothek der AS. Prosa, ii. Kassel, 1885-8. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, d. 651. Biern: Birinus, Bishop of Winchester, d. 650. The spelling with ie appears to be analogic with the i-umlaut in such words as ierre, and so to belong to the scribe’s original. wincæstre: in the Chronicle, anno 744, Wintanceaster; Venta Civitas in Bede. [Pau]lin, Paulinus, the Missionary Bishop of York, and, after 634 A.D., Bishop of Rochester, seems more likely than the less-known Cuichelm, Bishop of Rochester, suggested by Wright. The MS. has lin not lm. rofecæstre: in AS. Chronicle, anno 604, Hrofesceaster; ‘in ciuitate Dorubreui, quam gens Anglorum a primario quondam illius, qui dicebatur Hrof, Hrofæscæstræ cognominat,’ Beda, i. 85. Dunston. S. Dunstan was Bishop of Worcester, 957-9, Bishop of London, 958, 959, Archbishop of Canterbury, 959, d. 988. ælfeih: S. Ælfheah, succeeded Æþelwold as Bishop of Winchester in 984 A.D., became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006, and was martyred by the Danes in 1012 A.D. cantoreburi: a French spelling, as Canteberi, 10/174; contrast Cantuarabirȝ, 11/4. L has still Cantuarie buri, 94/15; Cantwareburi, 2821; where O has Cantelburi.

15. on englisc, repeating 9. The writer does not mean that all these produced works in English, but only to contrast them with French-speaking clerics.

16. Comp. ‘Si ergo lumen, quod in te est, tenebrae sunt, ipsae tenebrae quantae erunt?’ S. Matt. vi. 23.

17. nu is: so Wright and Varnhagen, but read nu beoþ; for beo lore, those teachings, is plural.

228

19. lorþeines, teachers, apparently an ἅπ. λεγ., of which the second element represents OE. þegn, servant, disciple. Comp. the usual ‘larþawes,’ 15/82, ‘lorþeu,’ 20/68, ‘lorþeawes,’ 84/61, ‘larðewes,’ OEH ii. 41/28 (OE. *lārðēowas), ‘lareaw,’ OEH i. 241/21 (OE. lārēow). losiæþ, in the rarer intransitive use, perish. Comp. ‘ꝥ þa men ne losien, þe on him ilyfæð,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 2/31, 34/1, 38/23; ‘þenne losiað fele saulen,’ OEH i. 117/18. forþ mid, together with, also with, here in the rare adverbial use. Comp. ‘þenne losiað fele saulen ⁊ he seolf forð mid for his ȝemeleste,’ OEH i. 117/18; ‘& him seolf þer forð mide,’ L 608. It is common as a preposition, as at 40/176, 77/55, 195/611; ‘his þenegas forð mid him þe he þyder brohte,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 528/645; ‘forswoleȝeð þene hoc forð mid þan ese,’ OEH i. 123/11.

20. ‘Sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, expandit alas suas, et assumpsit eum, atque portavit in humeris suis,’ Deut. xxxii. 11, spoken of God’s care and training of his people. See Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. 60, for an elaborate application of the text.

22. to worlde asende. Comp. ‘fram Gode hider on world sended,’ BH 209/23.

23. [festen &c.]. Comp. 190/438, 10/154. The sense required is, That we should put our full trust in him.

B, C

1. en earde is probably the remnant of on middenearde; elsewhere the writer uses eorþe for the uncompounded word.

2. And all the created things which pertain to it, i.e. to the earth. With isceæftan comp. ‘He iscop þurh þene sune alle isceafte,’ Frag. F 47, 34/84, 130/80, 139/17, 187/356. For the position of to comp. on, 2/4; fore 4/21, 23; 96/53, 54, mostly with relative pronouns. [s]cu[l]en, the tops of long s and l are cut off, as also those of h and f in the next line. It is not an auxiliary verb with ellipsis of a verb of motion (H., B.); it has independent meaning as in ‘Þas wyrte sculon to (= are proper for) lungen sealfe,’ Leechdoms, iii. 16/6.

3. [þe]ne. Singer’s þonne, then, next, adopted by H., may be right.

4. Comp. ‘se us lif forgeaf | Leomu lic and gæst,’ Christ, 775, 6, for which Grau, Quellen . . . der älteren germ. Darstellungen des jüngsten Gerichtes, p. 39, gives as source the poem ascribed to S. Cyprian, De resurrectione mortuorum, ‘Qui sibi conplacitum hominem formavit in aevum, | Hanc manibus caram dilexit fingere formam | Decoramque suam voluit inesse figuram, | Spiritu vivificam adflavit vultibus auram,’ Opera, ed. Hartel, iii. App. 310/51, 57-9. ileide on, put into, a meaning apparently without a parallel; perhaps, entrusted to.

5. Softliche, painlessly. isom[nede]. H. completed Singer’s isom[ne]. sor idol, a painful parting; comp. l. 8.

6. ꝥ = þet; see 3/43. The child by crying at its birth predicts the sorrowful separation of soul and body at death; comp. 2/23-28; ‘Þæt cild, þe bið acænned, sona hit cyð mid wope | ⁊ þærrihte witegað þissere worulde geswinc | ⁊ þa toweardan costnunga,’ AS. Hom. ed. Assmann, 77/126-8; ‘Quotquot nascuntur, vox illis prima doloris: | Incipit a fletu vivere quisquis homo,’ S. Anselm, p. 199, col. 2 b; ‘Omnis homo cum dolore mundum ingreditur, cum dolore iterum egreditur. Mox natus plorat, quia laborem et dolorem sibi futurum pronunciat,’ Honorius Augustod. Migne, P. L. clxxii, col. 1083.

7. The line is too short, but Buchholz’s conjecture is too long for the gap. Perhaps the original had hit woaneþ ⁊ weopeþ · ⁊ mænet þeo weowe.

8. B. translates siþ here and at 2/16 by ‘weg’; rather lot, experience, as in ‘wa heom þæs siðes þe hi men wurdon,’ Wulfstan, 27/3; ‘minegede 235 alle his wrecche siðes, þe he þolede on þis wrecche worelde,’ OEH ii. 169/8; ‘weop for hire wei-sið | wanede hire siðes; ꝥ heo wæs on liues,’ L 25846-8. For compounds with siþ see 2/27. sori, not ‘schmerzlich,’ B, but mournful, sad.

9. Haufe’s completion is based on l. 28, where the verb is intransitive, but the construction is supported by, ‘for þat he deleð þe sowle; and þe lichame, þanne he wit of þisse woreld,’ OEH ii. 7/3. But the usual construction is seen in ‘gif he þurh ferliche deð; saule fro þe lichame deleð,’ id. 61/31, and it would be better to read [fro li] came here, for the position of ⁊ is awkward. Another construction is shown in ‘wið þone lichaman seo sawle gedælan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 164/17.

10. weopinde ⁊ woniende, so, ‘wop and woninge,’ VV 17/32; see 42/231 note.

11. Haufe’s completion is too short, Singer’s too long, for the gap. For [swo], stressed form, comp. 3/4.

12. he, i.e. licame. walkeþ ⁊ wendeþ, tosses and turns in his bed. [oftes]iþes H. followed by B., who afterwards expressed his preference for [þe weas]iþes, based on ‘ȝet ic wulle þe ætwi[ten þ]e weasiþes,’ Frag. G 7. Singer read [his si]þes.

13. wo me, though written as one, are separate words; coalesced they become wumme; comp. 121/133; ‘wumme ꝥ ich libbe,’ SJ 72/5; ‘wumme ꝥ ich shal wunien on uncuðe erde,’ OEH ii. 149/10; ‘wel me,’ 210/441.

15. greoning . . . woaning: comp. 2/25; 196/662; ‘Heo woneþ ⁊ groneþ day and nyht,’ OEM 152/187.

16. biwunden. See 2/27, 79/13, 81/79, and for similar phrases comp. ‘swo faste bunden ⁊ swo biwunde þarinne,’ OEH ii. 11/9; ‘mid sorȝen ibunden,’ L 12635; ‘mid sorinesse bistonden,’ OEH ii. 147/26, 181/1.

17-21. Comp. ‘Hyse eres shullen dewen, | & his eyen shullen dymmen, | & his nese shal sharpen, | & his skyn shal starken,’ PRL 253/3-6, and the similar piece OEM 101/1. An adaptation of the last quoted line has been inserted at l. 19 to restore the alliteration. For him, comp. 80/47. deaueþ, become deaf, a rare meaning, but paralleled in the quotation above. OE. ā-dēafian has that meaning; see Deave, NED. So too scerpeþ, l. 18, grows sharp, usually means to make sharp.

19. scorteþ. Comp. ‘[þin] tunge is ascorted,’ Frag. G, l. 9. The phrase appears to be without parallel: the corresponding texts have, ‘And þi tunge voldeþ,’ OEM 101/4; ‘& his tonge shal stameren, oþer famelen,’ PRL 253/8.

20. teoreþ, flags, droops. Comp. ‘Ðin mægn is aterod · and þa mihte þu næfst,’ Ælfric, Lives, i. 86/611.

236

21. [siden]. S reads heorte, H muþ; something more extensive is wanted, and sides is often used vaguely for body (see passages in Minot, i. 15 note). liggeþ . . . stille occurs again, Frag. E 11, otherwise one might be tempted to conjecture, liggeþ he stan stille, as in Minot, ii. 32, with improved alliteration.

23. at, as in ‘beræfed | At þene eorþliche weole,’ Frag. C 7, 8. So L, ‘biræiuie hine at liue,’ MS. C 9205: it is the usual construction in the older version (but simple dat. in ‘biræfued þan liue,’ 15283), while MS. O has regularly of. With the meaning seize it takes the acc., ‘he biræuede mine æhte,’ MS. C 8801. also, an emphasized so, quite so, all the: comp. al = entirely, 2/29.

26, 27. So . . . so, even as, even so. feorþsiþ: comp. 135/117, 3/41, 24/189, 119/74: similar combinations are ‘balesið,’ L 567; ‘fæisið,’ L 3731; ‘houdsiþ,’ ON 1586; ‘sorhsiðes,’ L 11109; ‘vnsiþ,’ ON 1164; ‘wosið,’ OEH ii. 209/3; ‘wræc-sið,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 538/808.

29. This line is repeated with variations as a sort of refrain, Frag. C 15, 37; D 9, 16, 42; F 19.

30. iflut, transferred from the bed to ashes laid on the floor in the form of a cross. Comp. ‘Sori is the fore | Fram bedde to the flore,’ Rel. Ant. i. 160; ‘on flore licgende, bestreowod mid axum, on stiðre hǽran,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 516/30; ‘Postremo redimens elemosinis malefacta | Ipsaque confessus mortuus in cinere est,’ Epicedium Hathumodae, 557; ‘Cum viderint iam eius exitus horam imminere, cilicium expandunt, cinerem desuper aspergunt, et infirmum de lecto levatum in cilicium submittunt,’ Consuetudines Cluniacenses, Migne, P. L. cxlix, col. 772; ‘esto memor cineris in quo tandem morieris,’ Hauréau, Notices, ii. 183/9. See other texts in Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. pp. 299-301.

31. eastward. Burial with the feet to the east was formerly the usual practice (Rock, ii. p. 473), but the eastward placing of the dying man is a detail which I cannot illustrate.

32. [col]deþ. Zupitza’s conjecture fits the place, gives a good meaning, and accords with l. 36, but the usual phrase is seen in ‘þei clungin so þe cley,’ Archiv, xcvii, 309/17; ‘As a clot of clay þou were for-clonge,’ Hymns to the Virgin, 13/31; ‘ant clyngeþ so þe clay,’ Böddeker, AE. Dichtungen, 211/17; ‘The clot him clinge,’ M. L. Review, V. p. 105. hit is him ikunde. Comp. 154/85; ‘Nes hit þe nowiht icunde þet þu icore[n] hefdest | Nes hit icunde þe more þen þine cunne biuoren þe,’ Frag. D 19, 20; ‘unfæger, swa him gecynde wæs,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 176/208; ‘Ah nim þu þene kine-halm; he is þe icunde,’ L 18158, 22004, 23196; VV 57/28.

237

34, 35. Comp. ‘Now schaltow haue at al þi siþe | Bot seuen fet, vnneþe þat,’ Desputisoun, 91, 2.

36. Comp. ‘Nu lið þe clei-clot | al so þe ston,’ OEM 172/73, 4.

37. þeo he, those to whom he. With 37-40 comp. 4/15, 16, 37; 32/34; ‘& he þonne se deada byð úneaþe ælcon men on neaweste to hæbbenne,’ BH 59/14; ‘& se man næfre toðon leof ne bið his nehmagum & his worldfreondum, ne heora nan hine to þæs swiþe ne lufað ꝥ he sona syþþan ne sý onscungend, seoþþan se lichoma & se gast gedælde beoþ, & þincð his neawist laþlico & unfæger,’ id. 111/27-30; ‘Alle his frendes he shal beo loþ. | And helud shal ben wiþ a cloþ,’ PRL 253/1, 2. freome dude. Comp. ‘him to fremen and do frame,’ GE 173: and see 176/24, 186/323.

38. riht wen[den], set straight.

41. The copyist has allowed his eye to wander to the very similar line 43 and has transferred the second half of it here, to the exclusion of something like þe woneþ þe feorþsiþ.

43. [þon]ne. The last half of n and e are in the MS. riche is probably a mistake for wrecche, as S. suggests.

44. For love turns miserably into an evil under the stroke of misfortune. To have loved and lost is an evil thing.

45. besihþ . . . to, contemplates; comp. 124/249 note. Zupitza quotes, ‘When þe gost it schuld go, | It biwent ⁊ wiþstode, | Biheld þe bodi þat it com fro,’ Desputisoun, 9-11. Comp. ‘cum educerent eam (i.e. animam) de corpore commonuerunt eam angeli tercio, dicentes: O misera anima, prospice carnem tuam unde existi,’ Visio Pauli, Texts and Studies, ii. 3. 18/7.

C

1. S., H., and B. fill the lacuna with Hwui noldest biþenchen from 4/17, but this does not fit the lower half of the letters left in the MS. where ligge as the end of the preceding line is fairly certain, followed by a word of three letters, the middle one being o and another word of two or two and a half letters, of which the first is w. Perhaps loþ we[re] should be read. A question is not suited to the context. The opening lines evidently correspond to OEH ii. 183/16-19, ‘longe habbe ich on þe wuned. swo wo is me þe hwile, for al þat me was leof; hit was þe loð · þu ware a sele gief ich was wroð. To gode þu ware slau and let · and to euele spac and hwat.’

2. This line is repeated at Frag. D 28.

4. [mo]dinesse. Comp. 77/52, ‘He hadde ben a modi kniȝt,’ Desputisoun, 5; ‘Me nimeð þe licome | ⁊ preoneð in a clut. | ꝥ wes so modi ⁊ so strong | ⁊ so swiþe prud,’ OEM 172/67-70; and for the passage at 238 large, ‘Hwær beoþ þonne his welan & his wista? hwær beoð þonne his wlencea & his anmedlan?’ BH 111/33; ‘Hwar byð þonne heora wela, þe hi ahtan her on life? ⁊ hi dæghwamlice gesam nodon ma ⁊ ma togædere ⁊ nystan nænigne ende, hwænne hi ꝥ forlætan scoldan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 165/35-7; ‘Whar ben þine markes ⁊ þine poundes?’ Desputisoun, 33.

5. þurh [pa]newes igædered, scraped together, or, more probably, wrung from the poor, ‘Quare pecunias et alienas facultates et substantias pauperum tulisti et congregasti in domo tua?’ Batiouchkof’s text, p. 577. Comp. also 34/67, 46/296.

6. itolde. Comp. ‘and þa paneȝes weoren italde,’ L 29460. An early use of bi with unit of measurement.

7. Guldene is corrupt; with the help of ‘Hwer beoþ þine nappes | þat þe glyde to honde,’ OEM 175/107, 8, we may restore, hwar beoþ [nu] þeo Goldfæten . þe glyden to þine honden. Then comen is a gloss on glyden; though it is found in this connexion elsewhere, ‘þe schal com an hors to hande,’ Richard, 5554.

8. fornon, also at 4/44 is not OE. for-nēan (H.), which means nearly, but foran on, in front, ahead, still to come. Comp. ‘foren an his hafde,’ L 23968, with local meaning, in front of his head (Germ. vorn an); ‘⁊ aȝȝ þeȝȝ tokenn efft forrnon | To serrfenn wukemalumm,’ Orm 16/553 (= in continuation of the series); OEM 149/92. L has also ‘aforen on, afornon,’ 10413. Similarly, ‘þe sorȝe is him biforen,’ OEH i. 63/164.

9. Comp. ‘Whare ben al þine worþliche wede,’ Desputisoun, 25.

10. [sibbe] is added to fill out the line. ofer þe, by the sick man’s bedside; ofer, opposite to; more commonly expressed by over against.

11. bote, cure or relief, an ambiguous word.

12. þuþte, for þuhte, like cniþt for cniht, L MS. O 346 a purely graphic variation. On the other hand, hauef for haueþ, Frag. G 26, like of þufte for of þuhte, 46/271, and soþte for softe, KH MS. L 392, represent a difference in pronunciation. See W. Horn, Beiträge zur Geschichte der englischen Gutturallaute, pp. 91-4.

13. Comp. 22/129; ‘Þi fals air schal be ful fain | Þi fair fe to vnderfo,’ Desputisoun, 105, 6; ‘And his freondes striveð | to gripen his i-won,’ OEM 172/75, 6.

14. [heo]. B. reads [heo hit], which is too long for the gap, and translates ‘sie thun es ohne dich.’ But it means, they put you outside; which is varied in 15, 16. Comp. ‘Me wule for þin ahte | make striuinge, | And pute þe wið-uten | of alle þine þinge,’ OEM 176/133-6. See 22/130.

239

16. of weolen . . . bedæled. The OE. construction is seen in ‘mínra bóca bedæled,’ Ælfric, De vet. Test. 1/22, and it is the same generally in L, ‘liues bidæled,’ 17365; ‘windes bidelde,’ 28239; but ‘of folke bidæled,’ 12743.

17. Comp. ‘Wai hwi noldestu er | of þisse beon icnowe,’ OEM 178/167, 8.

18. semdest, didst load; see 84/73. The phrase seems to be without a parallel; perhaps the use of the verb was suggested by ‘forðon gie sémað menn mið seamum ðaðe gebeara ne magon,’ S. Luke xi. 46 (Lindisfarne MS.).

19. This motiv is common to the versions. Comp. ‘heu me, heu me, quare unquam in corpore illud tenebrosum et pessimum ingredi merui,’ Batiouchkoff, p. 577; ‘Heu michi cur olidum · fueram tibi iuncta cadaver. Aweilewei þu fule hold ꝥ ich auere was to þe iteied,’ OEH ii. 183/14, 15; ‘Walawa ⁊ wa is me. ꝥ ic efre com to þe,’ Frag. F 4; Wulfstan, 140/20-23; ‘Ue mihi, habitacio tua mersit me in infernum,’ Revue Celtique, x. 469; ‘for hwon sceolde ic æfre ingangan on þisne fulestan ⁊ wyrrestan lichoman,’ Thorpe, ii. 398/9. ‘Heu me miseram, quod unquam creata fui ac nata, seu in hoc corpus maculatum posita,’ S. August. Opera, Migne, P. L. xl. col. 1357. For buc, comp. 186/330; ‘Awai þu wrecche fole bali,’ OEM 172/83.

20. [lo]kien, preserve, maintain, as 77/46; 78/85; ‘uorte loken riht bitweonen ou,’ AR 286/6; ‘beloken (= to look to) þe sicnesse of þe sowle,’ OEH ii. 77/32; or perhaps, look for, seek after, as in ‘Haueden al þa reuen; . . . iloked tweiene eorles,’ L 5273, 7. The phrase with [ma]kien, the conjecture of H., seems not to be earlier than the sixteenth century. ilærede men, ‘lerdemen,’ OEH ii. 31/9; ‘leredmen,’ 8/83; ‘bokilered,’ 18/2, 19/39. Comp. ‘alle þat weoren ihadded | & þreo biscopes wise; a boke wel ilæred,’ L 21856-8; and for the sense, ‘Noldest þu ær gode men for lufe g[od dæ]lan,’ Frag. D 4, and 89/33-44.

21. fo[re]. See 2/2 note, and comp. fore after its noun in 4/23.

26. þæne. B. takes þære of the MS. as gen. sing. referring to messe; H. as gen. pl. representing ilærede men, but þurh with the genitive is very rare. It might be dative; but Zupitza’s correction is certain; þæne refers to Christ, as is required by his and he in the next line, and were is 2 sing. past indicative as at 4/32. Comp. ‘þam soðfæstan gode | þas lac geoffrian þe us alysde fram deaðe,’ Ælfric, Lives, i. 66/284; ‘Ac us is mycel neodþearf ꝥ we geþencan, hu drihten us mid his þrowunge alysde fram deofles anwealde, þa he a rode ahangen wæs ⁊ his ꝥ deorweorðe blod for us ageat,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 164/7-10; ‘Hwi noldestu gelyfan þinum 240 drihtene, þe wæs ahangen for us and us alysde fram helle wite,’ id. 167/80, 1; ‘alesde us of helle grunde,’ OEH i. 19/8.

29. fenge, betook thyself, þurh—lore. Comp. ‘Þurh þæs deofles lore, þe þe licode wel,’ Frag. G 14, 43.

30. Bi, concerning, comp. ‘bi hwam ure Louerd seið,’ AR 158/9; ‘Nu mon mæi [seg]gen bi þe,’ Frag. C 9; 155/92.

31. Probably not a quotation, but an imperfect reminiscence of ‘Qui enim divitiarum servus est, divitias custodit ut servus,’ Bedae Opera (1612), v, col. 378.

33. for drihtenes willæn, for the Lord’s sake (Germ. um Gottes willen). Comp. ‘for willan þæs ælmihtigan,’ Ælfric, Lives, ii. 112/683, and contrast ‘[Nol]de he nefre þærof don his drihtenes wille,’ Frag. C 11.

35. from must be taken closely with forloren, not as B. translates, ‘bist du verloren, fern von allem, was du liebtest.’ Comp. ‘And fra folke forlese we þa,’ Surtees Psalter, Ps. 82, v. 5, translating ‘disperdamus eos de gente.’ But it is an uncommon combination.

37. Comp. ‘Mid clutes þu ert for [bu]nden and loþ alle freonden,’ Frag. F 17; and see note on 3/37. For unwurþ see 26/258.

38. Comp. 12/11.

39. þær—scalt, where thou must remain. H. quotes ‘Nu me þe bringæð þer ðu beon scealt,’ from the Oxford Frag. (The Grave) 5, and for 40 (which is repeated in Frag. E 8) ‘Dureleas is þet hus,’ id. 13.

41-3. B. explains, There worms dispose of all that was most prized by thee, birds friendly to Death, all that thou didst formerly delight with all kind (reading kunde) of sweetness, which thou didst dearly love. But to call worms birds friendly to Death, is a flight of imagination beyond our writer’s power, and the suggested arrangement of the two halves of 41, 42 is artificial, though not without parallel. A comparison of ‘Heo wulleþ freten þin fule hold,’ Frag. C 41; ‘Ac þu heo (i.e. the earth) afulest mid þine fule holde,’ Frag. E 5; ‘Aweilewei þu fule hold,’ OEH ii. 183/15, suggests here fulest alre holde, foulest of all bodies. The meaning is then easy and straightforward. His body was what the dead man had most prized and pleasured, ‘For þin wombe was þin god,’ Frag. D 36; ‘þine þermes, þeo þe deore weren,’ Frag. C 47.

43. [þære]. The staff of the first letter has survived in the MS.; it goes below the line.

44, 45 are repeated with small variation in Frag. D 40, 41. For fornon see 3/8 note. With the rhyme of 45, comp. ‘Beornen [þer e]fre · ende nis þer nefre,’ Frag. E 49.

241

II. SAINT GODRIC’S HYMNS

1. marie has three syllables with the accent on the second; in OE. it is usually Maria with accent on the first (but ‘þæt is MARÍA · mædena felast,’ Be Domes Dæge, 18/293); in Orm naturalized as Marȝe and in ME. generally Marye. From his Latin models Godric takes his pronunciation and the associated uirgine, apparently its first occurrence in English.

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2. ihesu, the general form for any oblique case, here genitive. nazarene is an invariable adj. like cristene, but Orm has, ‘Forr Nazarenuss tacneþþ sannt,’ 308/8865.

4. heȝilich, with honour; gloriose in the MS. version. MS. Harley 322 has hegliche and translates cito; the Cambridge MS. hehtlic, wrongly rendered eternaliter as though it represented ēcelīce; Zupitza explains it as the adverb of higð, ME. on hihðe, in haste; MS. Harley 153 reads hehliche, rendered alte.

5. xpistes bur: comp. ‘Maria, Dei thalamus,’ Anselm 303/5; ‘Ave, de cuius intimo | Christus processit thalamo, | in sole tabernaculum | fixit, qui regit saeculum,’ Mone, ii. 234/69-72, which shows that this use of the word came from Psalm xviii. 6 ‘In sole posuit tabernaculum suum et ipse tamquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam.’ For xp = Χρ, Chr, see Traube, Nomina Sacra, 156 ff.

6. The translation in some of the MSS. is ‘virginalis puritas, matris flos.’ Godric has in mind, ‘Ave mater per quam via | Immaculata patuit | Quia (Qui à in text) Deo flore | Virginitas effloruit,’ Anselm, 306/93-6; ‘Ave coeleste lilium | Per florem cuius unicum,’ &c., id. 305/153, 4. Christ then is the Virgin’s pure offspring, the mother’s flower to whom the next two lines are addressed, and þe in l. 8 (which Zupitza rejects) presents no difficulty. The abandonment of the vocative for a new subject is artless. The first half of 7 corresponds to, ‘O Christe, proles Virginis | Patris compar altissimi | Per tuae mortis merita | Dele nostra peccamina,’ Anselm, 303/22-5, and the second to ‘Ave mater cuius partus | Deus in coelis habitat | In sanctorum dum mentibus | Dulcedine sua regnat,’ id. 306/111-4.

9. scamel, from L. Lat. scamellum, dim. of scamnum, step, stool; it often means the little stool for the hands of cripples, but it is also synonymous with scabellum, which in the phrase scabellum pedum occurs nine times in the Vulgate, with the meaning footstool. In two of these, Psalms xcviii. 5, cix. 1, the Surtees Psalter translates by schamel, Eadwine’s Canterbury Psalter by scæmol, the Paris Psalter by sceamul, the earliest Eng. Prose Psalter by shamel, the Lambeth Homilies (OEH i. 91/11) by fot-sceomele. Comp. ‘Vor þi alle þe halewen makeden of al þe worlde ase ane stol (scheomel, C; schamel, T) to hore uet, uorto arechen þe heouene,’ Ancren Riwle, 166/15, 6. Psalm cix. 1 ‘Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos, scabellum pedum tuorum,’ is quoted five times in the New Testament, and there may be a reference to it here. Zupitza suggests that l. 10 is based on ‘Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te, ut custodiant te in 245 omnibus viis tuis. In manibus portabunt te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum,’ Psalm xc. 11, 12; but on þis erðe itredie is a weak representation of offendas ad lapidem. Now we are told by Reginald that the angels who bore the spirit of Burgwen halted ‘supra Altaris crepidinem,’ and the Harleian MS. has, more definitely, ‘eam super Altaris crepidinem statuerunt.’ The scamel is simply the footpace of the altar on which she has been set. Reginald’s version points in this direction, ‘Sancta Maria super scamni sedile me deduxit’; as also Geoffrey’s paraphrase, ‘Ne pede calcarem terre contagia nudo (a. l. mundo), | Sic mea me domina deduxit sancta Maria.’ The meaning then is, I have been conducted to this altarstep in such a way that I should not touch this earth with my bare foot. I am divinely protected and lifted above the world. And Godric understood, ‘statim intellexit quod anima sororis suae super coelestibus Angelorum choreis esset associata’ (p. 145).

11. Nicholaes occurs in AS. Chron. E. 1067 as Nicolaes. It corresponds to Nicolaus, which in the Latin hymns is always four syllables, and so, I think, it must be here.

godes druð: comp. ‘dilectus Dei Nicholaus,’ Aberdeen Breviary; ‘amicus Dei,’ York Breviary, ii. col. 106; ‘et amico Dei magno | Nicolao condole,’ Anselm, 307/168, 9; ‘godes drut,’ Be Domes Dæge, 18/290.

12. hus does not rhyme and has no reference to anything in the legend of S. Nicholas. But he was invoked by sailors in peril (York Breviary, ii. 105), and we are told that Godric would often interrupt a conversation by saying ‘Quaeso, fratres, oremus; quia ecce, navis in pelago periclitatur,’ and that, ‘facta oratione, iterum consuevit adjicere, “Nunc navis mea applicuit”’ (Reginald, p. 130). If huð might be restored here, as an un-umlauted form of hȳð, harbour, on the evidence of to huþe = ad portum, quoted in Bosworth-Toller from the Lambeth Psalter, it would correspond to ‘O beate Nicolae, | Nos ad maris portum trahe’; ‘Gloriose Nicolae, | Ad salutis portum trahe’ of the Sequence. tymbre can mean provide, prepare, see Minot, vi. 2.

13. Zupitza connects this line with druð, but its position requires it to be taken with tymbre or bring, at means from, by the merits of (NED i. 529 †11). The singular piety of the infant Nicholas is told in all his legends, ‘quarta et sexta feria tantum semel (= semel tantum) sugebat ubera,’ Aurea Legenda, ed. Graesse, p. 22; ‘Qui in cunis adhuc iacens | Servando ieiunia | a papilla coepit summa | promereri gaudia,’ in the Sequence. And he was helpful in his tomb, ‘Ex ipsius tumba manat | unctionis copia | quae infirmos omnes sanat | per eius suffragia.’

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III. THE PETERBOROUGH CHRONICLE

1. King Henry returned from Normandy to England in July, 1131. Henry of Poitou had been in turn bishop of Soissons, monk and prior of Cluny, prior of Savigny, abbot of S. Jean d’Angely in 1104, and, ‘quia versutus erat et callidus et ingeniosus,’ as Hugo says, he acquired the archbishopric of Besançon, from which he was expelled by the abbot of Cluny after three days’ tenure. Then he got and lost in the same way the bishopric of Saintes, which he held for a week. In 1123 he came to England as legate for the collection of Rome-scot, and returning in 1127 on the same errand he told the king, to whom he was related, that being old and tired of war and dissension in his own land, he desired to abandon S. Jean for Peterborough. But being made abbot of the latter in 1128, he held both till the monks of S. Jean expelled him in 1131, when he went to Cluny and was detained there till he swore to the abbot that, if permitted to return to England, he would procure the subjection of Peterborough as a priory to Cluny. What he charged the monks with is not known.

2. burch: S. Petri Burgum: ‘Medeshamstede monasterium . . quod nunc . . Burch vulgariter nominatur,’ Hugo, 23.

3. ð = þat 6/34, 7/60, 64; but þet 11/186 and þæt demonstrative 11/195, each once only.

4. sende efter: summoned the monks to Brampton in Hampshire: 253 ‘rex . . misit propter monachos apud Bramtune,’ Hugo, 75. With efter comp. 5/9, 6/28.

5. Roger of Salisbury, chancellor 1101; named bishop of Salisbury 1102, but not consecrated till 1107; ‘secundus a rege,’ Henry of Huntingdon, 245; deprived of his castles at Oxford 1139 (6/42); died in the same year. Alexander, nephew of Roger, created bishop of Lincoln 1123; died 1148. b = biscop, see 8/83, 9/140. Seresberi with inorganic s is Sereberi 6/42, OE. Searoburg: Sælesberi in the AS. Chronicle MS. F anno 552 has dissimilated r, while the corresponding Latin is Seleberi: lincol is influenced by the common French form, Nicol: on Lincollan occurs at E 627.

6. In he feorde, he may be the king, who had to deal with guile: comp. ‘Al es bot a fantum þat [we] with ffare,’ ES xxi. 201/1; ‘Tandem non post multum temporis post haec intellexit rex fraudulentias eius,’ Hugo, 75. If he is the abbot, as in the next sentence, the sense is, he employed guile, so ‘Iactantia, ꝥ is idelȝelp on englisc, þenne mon bið lof-ȝeorn ⁊ mid fikenunge fearð,’ OEH i. 103/29. With the next sentence comp. ‘Cum autem quod cogitaverat perficere non posset, voluit nepotem suum Gerardum haeredem & abbatem facere pro se, ut quod ille non potuit, iste perficeret,’ Hugo, 75.

9. Henry returned to S. Jean. Hugo says he made a good end. His successor, Martin de Vecti, native of the Isle of Wight, usually called Martin de Bec, first prior after its second foundation of St. Neots, a cell to Bec, was received by the monks on June 29th, 1132. S’ = seint, sometimes sein; a French fashion. In MS. E, from 1066 to 1122, where a new section begins, sc̄e for sancte is normal and frequent, exceptions being Octabus sc͞i Martini 1114, Octabus sc͞i Johannis 1117, while sc͞e Marie is treated as a genitive depending on words like nativitas. From 1122 to 1131, S’ is regular save for three entries in 1125 and sc͞e Marie twice as genitive. neod = Neotus may be due to the Anglo-Norman tendency to substitute d for final t (Stimming, Boeve de Haumtone, 221). The pronunciation persisted, for in the church of St. Neots in Cornwall, whence the body of the saint was stolen by the people of St. Neots in Huntingdonshire, there is a tablet over his tomb with verses said to have been written in the sixteenth century, in which occurs the line ‘The vulgar call it now St. Need’s’ (Gorham, History of Eynesbury, 340). Sancti Neothi occurs twice in a document, Palaeograph. Society, First Series, pl. 193. The name is now pronounced like mod. Eng. neats.

10. Comp. ‘An preost wes on leoden; Laȝamon wes ihoten,’ L 1: ‘he com to þere dune oliueti his ihaten,’ OEH i. 3/5. This paratactic 254 construction with hatan is confined to names of persons and places; it is colloquial and does not involve ellipsis of a relative.

11. mid micel wurscipe: ‘cum magno honore et gaudio,’ Hugo, 75: comp. 8/93, 11/188, 197, 207, 108/241.

13. gære: 1133 A.D. The eclipse took place on August 2nd ‘ð oþer dei’; it lasted ‘ab hora fere 3 usque ad horam 6,’ Liebermann, Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen, 79. Henry died at Lions-la-Forêt on the night of December 1st, 1135, and was buried January 6th, 1136.

18. sua dide: Comp. ‘sua diden’ 10/152; ‘swa ibeoð’ 14/70: similar are 8/84, 110, 9/115, 10/165, 176, 12/v. 5, 140/30, 146/117, 215/27, 217/97. The subject is often omitted when it would represent the same thing as a noun or pronoun in an oblique case in the preceding clause or phrase, as at 16/122, 45/239, 98/71, 102/133, 118/42, 128/5, 140/25, 207/354, 217/94; see KH 1268 note.

19. Andreas is the Vulgate form.

20. þe mihte: comp. 8/81.

21. sune . . . frend: Robert of Gloucester and Hugh, archbishop of Rouen, were at his death-bed.

22. ‘Corpus eius . . . apud Radingum in monasterio cuius ipse devotus fundator largusque ditator exstiterat, sepultum est,’ William of Newbury, 30. Redinge, L. Radingia.

23. wið: the usual prepositions are against and to, but comp. ‘nalde na mon mis-don wið oðre,’ OEH i. 15/17, 35/2, and see 48/300 note. dær. Their peace was soon broken, ‘Ferae quoque, quae in tota prius regione, tanquam in indagine reclusae, cum summa pace reservabantur, nunc quaquaversum turbari, a quolibet passim dispergi, ab omnibus, abiecto metu, prosterni,’ Gesta, 4.

27. blais: L. Blēsae: ai is an English graph for ei. Tonic e free (L. ē) passed through ei to oi in most French dialects, but in Norman it stopped at the first stage: in the Norman patois of to-day, L. me(n)sem is meis, mes. Similarly L. Pictavum passed through Peitou to Poitou in central French, but remained at the first stage for some time in Anglo-Norman; see 10/179. Stephen was ‘filius comitis Blesensium’; he was himself ‘comes Boloniensis.’

28. Willelm curbuil, Guillelmus Curbuliensis, W. of Corbeil (L. Corboilum), a canon regular of the Augustinian Order, became archbishop of Canterbury in 1123, and died 1136. The subject of halechede is lundenisce folc: according to the Gesta (p. 4) they claimed the right to elect. mide-wintre dæi, Christmas Day; the pre-Christian name for the festival.

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30. ricemen, powerful men, nobles: comp. 8/99, 19/34, 206/324. Balduin de Reduers, Balduinus de Radvariis; in France, Baudouin de Réviers (near Caen). An e for Fr. ie is characteristic of Anglo-Norman. He was created Earl of Devon sometime before June, 1141. The order of events is here confused. The settlement with David of Scotland by which Stephen granted the earldoms of Carlisle, Huntingdon and Doncaster to David’s son, Henry, was made before Easter, 1136; Hugh Bigod seized Norwich castle in May; Stephen laid siege to Bampton in June and took Exeter in September; Milo of Beauchamp held Bedford castle against the king early in 1138. Stephen was much blamed for his clemency to the rebels at Exeter; see Round, 24.

31. Execestre is the spelling of Domesday Book; OE. Exanceaster. Similarly gloucestre 9/133, OE. Glowecester; Wincestre 9/140 (contrast wincæstre 1/13), and Rouecestre 10/149 (contrast rofecæstre 1/14): all show the Anglo-Norman [ts]. In the two last words the English sound has prevailed.

35. forstode: comp. 10/155. Morris translates availed, as in ‘hu micel forstent · and hu mære is · seo soþe hreow,’ Be Domes Dæge, 4/55; but the ME. dictionaries and NED have only hinder, which would answer here.

37. underfangen, &c., accepted as ruler, for they thought he would be exactly like his uncle, and he had still something to give away. Elsewhere 6/27, 11/187, 197, 207 used of ceremonious welcome.

39. sotlice, foolishly, not ‘soothly’ (Norgate). Stephen lavished it in personal expenditure, payments to mercenaries and subsidies to discontented barons. ‘Habebat enim . . . rex immensam vim thesaurorum, quos multis annis rex Henricus avunculus suus aggesserat; aestimabantur denarii . . . fere ad centum milia libras. Hanc copiam gazarum habenti auxiliatores deesse non poterant; praesertim cum esset ipse in dando diffusus et, quod minime principem decet, prodigus,’ Malmesbury, ii. 540; Annales de Wintonia, 50.

40. na god, &c. Comp. 4/20-28.

42. The Oxford Council was held in June, 1139. The Chancellor Roger Pauper was Bishop Roger’s son. The castles surrendered were Devizes, Malmesbury, Newark, Sherborne and Sleaford.

44. milde: ‘lenis et exorabilis hostibus, affabilis omnibus,’ Malmesbury, 539. For a modern estimate see Norgate, i. 280.

45. na iustise ne dide, inflicted no punishment, as in OF. faire justise, justiser; comp. ‘de li iert faite granz justise: | a glaive sera turmentee | u vendue en altre cuntree,’ Marie, Lais, ed. Warnke, 154/60.

256

46. wunder, dreadful deeds, destruction; a development of OE. wundor, portent: comp. 7/67, 66/120; ‘þa scipen wenden to wundre,’ L 7855; ‘of hem ðat haued ðis wunder wrogt,’ GE 3588. The picture of oppression and desolation which follows was probably drawn from the doings of Geoffrey de Mandeville in the Fen country during Dec. 1143-Sept. 1144 (Round, 214-19). Comp. L 4034-53, an original passage based on the tradition of this evil time. hi nan, none of them; extension of the OE. appositional constr. in hi sume. Comp. ‘alle he,’ 7/47.

49. Under the treaty of Wallingford one thousand one hundred and fifteen ‘adulterine’ castles were to be razed. With suencten comp. 44/250; and Round, 416.

52. þe—hefden, lit. whom they thought that they had any property. For this periphrasis comp. 119/58, 9; ‘breðren ꝥ he hefde iherd ꝥ weren of muche speche,’ AR 74/9. The subject of the dependent verb is not expressed.

53. efter, with an eye to, to extort; a use mostly with verbs of pursuit or desire, but comp. 60/12, 118/28. See Round, 214 note for instances of these extortions.

54. pining, notwithstanding the scribe’s punctuation, is a cognate acc. to pined; with the adj. it is practically equal to unutterably; comp. 8/108.

55. Comp. ‘Sumne hi onhengon be þan fotum ⁊ sumne be þan earmum,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 171/36. After henged the object heom is omitted as being the subject of the previous verb.

58. to ð, to the extent that, so far that, so that. OE. to þon þæt.

60. crucethus, torture house: the first element is L. cruciatus. Comp. ‘Heo deden heo in quarterne; in ane quale-huse,’ L 3769; ‘þis meiden wes bicluset | þe hwile in cwarterne | ⁊ i cwalmhuse,’ SK 600.

62. him . . . þe limes, his limbs. Emphatic is ‘þat his ribbes him to brake,’ KH 1077. lof ⁊ grim: the passage is corrupt: grī may be grin or grim; lof can only be for loþ, as Thorpe suggests in his translation, ‘loathly and grim,’ as if two adjectives for the name of the contrivance. Possibly grine has dropped out after grī; the words are associated in ‘Forðon he me alysde of laðum grine’ = ‘Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo,’ Paris Psalter, xc. 3. But more probably the scribe has heard indistinctly an unfamiliar word such as, wæron loþ engins. It is true that engine, device, machine does not appear in English till 1300, but it is found in Anglo-Norman books in the last half of the twelfth century, and it must have come to England with the castle.

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63. rachenteges, chains, fetters; but the gloss collario racentege (Napier, 2062) is noteworthy in the present connexion. ð . . . onne, one of which.

64. This may mean, ‘That was adjusted in this way, namely it is fastened,’ &c., but it is not clear. Perhaps it has been lost before is. The contrivance must have resembled that described in Reade’s It is Never too Late to Mend, ch. xi.

66. bæron: supply sculde out of myhte.

70. æure umwile, at regularly recurring times; it became a regular tax. tenserie, protection money. Round, 215, quotes from a letter of Pope Lucius to Archbishop Theobald, ‘Quidam etiam sub nomine tenseriarum villas et homines suos spoliant.’ LL. tensare means, to protect, and, through extortion of money on pretence of protection, to rob. See Round, 414 and NED s.v. Other references for tenserie, tenser are Wistasse le Moine, 2112; Roman de Rou, 9554.

71. Worcester was burnt in 1139, Nottingham in 1140 and 1153, Winchester in 1141, Oxford in 1142, Cambridge by Geoffrey in 1144.

72. Comp. ‘Ærst aswond þat corn here; ȝeond al þas kineriche. | þer after hit wes swa deore; & al folc gon to deȝen. | swa þat þu mihtes fare; fulle seouen nihte | ꝥ no mihtest þu þurh nene chep; finde neouwer na bred. | an burȝe and on londe,’ L 31793-31801; ‘ꝥ folc ut of londe; flah on ælche ænde. | monie hundred tunen; bi-læued weoren of monnen. | þat lut me uinde mihte; men uaren ȝeond londe,’ L 31845-50.

75. ieden on, ‘went about asking,’ Norgate. This meaning requires the verbal subst.; rather, ‘subsisted on,’ with on of manner.

78. ouer sithon is usually taken as, everywhere subsequently, which is not suitable here. Earle equates it with OE. ofer sīþum, as meaning times past reckoning, but ofer in the sense of surpassing requires an acc., and the phrase is without parallel. Perhaps sithon is a weak acc. sing. of sīþ, which is often weak in ME.; the phrase might then mean, contrary to experience. For ofer in that sense, comp. ‘ofer aþas ⁊ treowe’ = ‘contra fidem iurisiurandi,’ Bede, 148/10. William of Ypres burnt Wherwell, plundered Abingdon, and tried to burn S. Albans. Geoffrey de Mandeville sacked Ramsey in 1143; ‘nec ecclesiis nec coemiteriis parcebant,’ Ann. de Wintonia, 52; Malmesbury, ii. 540. forbaren, abstained from injuring; comp. ‘That the pore is thus i-piled, and the riche forborn,’ Pol. Songs, 337/312.

81. ouer, written for ower, anywhere. OE. āhwær. Gif, &c.: comp. ‘Ubicunque alter alterum in itinere conspicebatur, totus protinus contremiscere, meticulose visum effugere, vel prope in silva vel in divortio 258 aliquo latere, usquequo, resumpto tandem spiritu, viam coeptam tutior carperet, et audacior,’ Gesta, 41.

83. leredmen: see 4/20.

84. oc—þarof, lit. but to them was nothing concerning that; it concerned them not at all. Comp. 46/292; ‘ne beo ham nawt of’ = let them be unconcerned, 70/167; ‘þe dead (d.) nis nout of, þauh he ligge unburied’ = the dead does not mind, AR 352/5; ‘þe deade nis nan more of scheome þen of men[s]ke,’ AR 352/29 (in both places Morton wrongly takes nis as ne wis); ‘Wha summ itt iss þatt mann, þatt niss | Nohht off to wurrþenn fullhtnedd,’ Orm 140/4074. Similarly 180/131; ‘lutel me is of ower luue, leasse of ower laððe,’ SJ 27/14. With of comp. 44/260, 164/256.

86. xpist slep. Said by the wicked, H. of Huntingdon, 277; by the good, W. of Newbury, i. 45. See Norgate, i. 335 note, and comp. ‘Sed . . . unicum mihi consilium superest, Deum hominem . . . exorare: qui velut in navi dormiens, fidelium precibus excitandus est, ut procellam componat naufragantis Ecclesiae,’ John of Salisbury, Metalogicus, 206.

89. suinc: ‘cum maximo labore abbatiam tenuit, sed adiuvabant eum monachi sui, et tamen invenit eis abbas, et hospitibus, quicquid necessarium fuit, et erat caritas magna in domo illa,’ Hugo, 76.

91. carited: d is written for ð: similar forms are ‘kariteþ,’ ‘cariteþ,’ Orm 3000, 3008; ‘kariteð,’ VV 19/34, &c.; ‘Natiuiteð,’ Chron. E 1116; ‘plenteð,’ GE 3709. This ð represents the final t (sometimes d) of the corresponding French words in the older texts, which had a voiced [ð] or a voiceless [þ] sound according to the beginning of the following word. This final t disappeared from Central French in the eleventh century; it lingers on in Anglo-Norman texts of the twelfth: see Behrens, Beiträge, 175, 6. The word may mean alms, but caritas had the technical meaning of commemoration feasts, ‘epulae solennes et extraordinariae’ ‘caritativae comestiones,’ Ducange, at the anniversaries of benefactors, &c., ‘gaudies.’ þoþwethere, nevertheless: ‘et in omnibus tribulationibus hiis operatus est in ecclesia,’ Hugo, 76. sette þarto, assigned for that purpose; ‘ad ecclesiam faciendam, villam Pilesgatam & omnes decimas & omnes offerendas . . . constituit,’ Hugo, 78.

92. Rentes are incomings generally, not rent. goded, endowed, i.e. with the aforesaid lands, tithes, and offerings. Comp. 72/190 for another meaning. læt it refen, had it covered (with lead). Thorpe translates ‘had it provided with vestments.’

94. The fire took place on August 4, 1116. The convent entered the church (Martin built the choir only and the transepts were added by his 259 successor) on June 29th, 1140, according to the text and Hugo, but the Chronicon Petroburgense and John the Abbot say 1143.

95. fram, by. Comp. ‘wearð Romeburg getimbred from twam gebroðrum,’ Orosius, 64/21; ‘Her swealt Herodus from him selfum ofsticod,’ AS. Chron. A 3; ‘I sothlike set am for-þi | King fro him,’ Surtees Psalter, ii. 6 (= ‘constitutus sum rex ab eo’).

96. The termination of priuilegies is due to direct borrowing of the technical term from L. privilegium. The two documents are printed in Hugo, 78, 82, and the former also in Dugdale, Monasticon, i. 390. They are dated A.D. 1146: Eugenius was elected in 1145. The former protects the lands, property, and rights of the monastery in general, and these are given in detail: the latter recounts and confirms that part of the properties which was specially allocated for the expenses of the sacrist (ciricweard) (‘terras, quae ad sacristiam pertinent,. . . vel decimas, vel servitia plurimorum, & domus,’ Hugo, 82). of, for, relating to.

97. lien to, appertain to: a phrase of the charters. B-T. quotes, ‘mid eallon ðá[m] þingon ðe ðǽr fyrmest tólæg,’ Kemble, vi. 190; ‘ǽlc ðára landa ðe . . . læg intó Cristes cyrcean,’ id. iv. 232. gif, &c., if he might have lived longer, he meant to do the same for the office of store-keeper; ‘similiter & redditus cellerarii & camerarii affluenter augere & Romae confirmare, si posset vivere, cogitaverat,’ Hugo, 87. The camerarius had to keep the stores of clothes and bedding for the monastery, the thesaurarius was an officer in charge of the sacred vessels and the plate under the direction of the sacrist. Martin did assign two manors for the provision of clothes, but he did not live long enough to get the protection of a privilegium for the appropriation. Hordere is a word of wide application; in Wright, Vocabularies, 330/18, it glosses cellerarius; here it is the reilþein (vestiarius) of the Chronicle, 1131. For the purpose of these special appropriations see Plummer’s note, ii. 311.

98. He recovered property of the Abbey in the shape of lands which powerful men possessed by force. In Domesday the Abbey has holdings at Cotingeham (Cottingham, Bridges, ii. 208), Ascetone (Easton-Mauduit, id. 163), Erdiburne (Irthlingborough, id. 235), Stanwige (Stanwick, id. 195), and Eldewincle (Aldwincle, id. 208), all in Northamptonshire. They are all in one group in the first privilegium, duly protected under threat of excommunication. Malduit (Maledoctus; Hugo says Maledictus) was constable of the king’s castle of Rockingham and warden of the Forest. Rogingham is Roegingahám in a charter dated 811, Kemble, i. 243. Hugo has Rogingeham 43, Rochingham 88, Rokingham 89. Hugh de Waterville, lord of Adington Parva and Thorp Waterville, was probably 260 kin of the succeeding abbot, 11/202. He paid to Peterborough sixty shillings per annum for Aldwincle (‘LX solidos de Aldewincle reddendos annuatim,’ Hugo, 88). Dele stop after sol in text.

102, 3. ‘Conventum quoque de viginti monachis augmentavit,’ Hugo, 88, 89. winiærd. For vine-growing in England see Plummer, Bedae Opera, ii. 5, and Anglia, Beiblatt, xvii. 208. The weorkes were domestic buildings, ‘cameram abbatis & aulam ad familiam aedificavit.’ wende, ‘Forum mutavit,’ Hugo, 88. He changed the site of the town and afterwards of the market, it is supposed, from the east to the west of the monastery.

106. Stephnes kinges: see 15/87 note.

107. iudeus is pl. of iudeu, Orm’s Judeow, Judew, OF. Judeu. English forms Judeas pl. a., Judea pl. g., occur in the early part of MS. E. bohton. In Thomas of Monmouth’s Life of S. William of Norwich, ed. Jessop and James, the mother of the boy is said to have been persuaded, by a gift of three shillings, into letting him go away with the supposed cook of the Archdeacon of Norwich, to be a helper in his kitchen, p. 17.

108. pining: see 7/54. ð, with which; see 46/292.

109. langfridæi: see 85/101. The date in the Life is Wednesday before Easter, March 22nd, 1144, but the chroniclers differ as to the year (Plummer, ii. 311). A miraculous light in the sky led to the discovery of the body. The charge of ritual murder at large has been investigated by Dr. Strack in Das Blut im Glauben und Aberglauben der Menschheit, München, 1900.

111. The body was first buried in the wood where it was found, then about a month after in the monks’ cemetery, and after six years it was translated to the chapter-house, probably the occasion referred to in the text. It was afterwards moved twice at least.

114. David crossed the Tweed in April, 1138. The battle of the Standard was fought at Cowton Moor on August 22nd.

116. Albamar: ‘Willelmus de Magna Villa, comes de Alba Mara apud Gisortum,’ Ricardus Divisiensis, 389; William of Albemarle (Aumale), recently created Earl of York. þe, to whom; see 46/292.

117. euorwic: OE. Eoforwic; see Zachrisson, 63. Other English captains were Walter Espec, Walter of Ghent, Ilbert de Lacy, and Robert Bruce. The English were greatly inferior in numbers to the invaders.

120. Robert landed with the empress at Arundel in September, 1139. Leaving her at Arundel he rode across the south of England to Bristol with a few followers; ‘ediscensque [Stephanus] a veris exploratoribus comitem cum suis evasum Bristoam sub nocturno silentio tetendisse . . . ipse ad capiendum comitem totus intendit,’ Gesta, 55.

261

122. wart it war: comp. 48/330, 203/204; it = of it, may be regarded as an acc. of reference, comp. 192/518, 200/116.

124. March 20th, 1140.

125. William of Corbeil died in 1136; Theobald was elected Dec. 24th, 1138, and consecrated, Jan. 8th, 1139.

126. the bec: the monastery of Le Bec-Hellouin; the village and commune of to-day have the same name. It is stated that the article appears where bec means a beak or wedge of land at the junction of two streams, but not where it is the Scandinavian loan-word meaning stream. The rule does not hold here, for the monastery was built ‘in vallem ad rivum, qui Beccus dicitur,’ Robert de Torigni, 27.

128. The king gave Ranulf des Gernons all that he asked for, save the earldom of Carlisle, which was held by Henry of Scotland. William de Roumare (de Rollonis mara: o for ou is Anglo-Norman) was his elder half-brother. The king appears to have made him Earl of Lincoln about this time. The brothers got into Lincoln Castle by a trick, and Stephen at the appeal of the men of Lincoln besieged them there. The battle was fought on Feb. 2nd, 1141.

135. Comp. ‘plurimis autem antequam manus consererent, ut comes Mellonensis et Willelmus ille de Ypra, proh pudor! fugitantibus,’ Gesta, 70; ‘Capto itaque rege, tota Anglia concussa obstupuit,’ id. 71.

137. þer efter com. She had been in England more than four months. The news of Stephen’s capture reached her at Gloucester, and her brother joined her there with his royal captive on Feb. 9th. The interview with Bishop Henry (9/140) took place before Winchester on March 2nd. The empress was elected queen, with an interim title of ‘domina,’ on a second visit to Winchester on April 8th at the Great Council summoned by the bishop (Round, 70). At this meeting was pronounced the excommunication of l. 143. The empress reached London some time in June and fled from it on the 24th. She reached Winchester on July 31st, and laid siege to the bishop’s stronghold, but was herself besieged by Stephen’s queen (l. 145), and fled on the 14th of September, when Robert of Gloucester was taken.

139. Angou: the scribe has made a better attempt in Angæu 10/167, 176. His predecessor wrote Angeow at 1111 E and eleven times after (ge = Fr. j).

150. minstre. She was at Ludgershall, Devizes and Gloucester in her flight. The last is, no doubt, meant.

151. The negotiators were Stephen’s wife and Mabel, Countess of Gloucester.

262

152. Early in 1142, when Stephen was on his way to York, he was met at Stamford by Ranulf and William de Roumare. There the king and the earl bound themselves by oath to mutual fidelity (Round, 159). But the barons compelled the king to proceed against him at Northampton in 1146. He was seized and only regained his freedom at the price of surrendering his castles. He gave up Lincoln at any rate. On his release he attacked Lincoln and Coventry. The Gesta (p. 124) calls the ‘wicci ræd’ of the barons ‘sanum consilium.’

154. treuthes fæston, made solemn declaration of fidelity: comp. ‘To the kyng Edward hii fasten huere fay,’ Pol. Songs, 214/9; ‘treowðe staðeluæste,’ L 9819.

155. hamtun, Northampton: p in the modern spelling is parasitic.

157. to ð forewarde, on condition: comp. ‘Al Denemark i wile you yeue, | To þat forward þu late me liue,’ Havelok, 485, 6. This rare use of to has probably developed from the notion of associated with.

159. dide . . . sculde: ‘did worse here than he should,’ Thorpe. For hær sculde, read ær dide: comp. her, 11/190.

163. Oxford Castle was surrendered to Matilda in the summer of 1141, and Stephen’s men entered the city, Sept. 26th, 1142. Matilda escaped a few days before Christmas 1142; she left England early in 1147.

164. sægen, if a noun, OE. sægen, means report; it is a verb at 8/106, and may be here.

165. mid rapes, a detail peculiar to the Chronicle.

167. By 1144 Geoffrey of Anjou was completely master of Normandy. The Angevin house was not popular there. here thankes, with their goodwill, willingly: thankes is an adverbial genitive, here, poss. adj. Comp. 116/155, 153/70: with gen. noun, ‘warschipes vnþonkes,’ 118/42; with gen. of possessive pron. ‘þines þonkes,’ OEH i. 17/35; ‘hares unþances,’ 14/56: absolutely, ‘sume þances sume unþances,’ AS. Chron. MS. C 1066: uninflected, ‘unþonc hise teð,’ HM 47/26, comp. ‘þat him wes mucheles unðonc,’ L 22370; ‘mid his gode þonke,’ 34/69.

170. suster, Constance, sister of Louis VI of France. The betrothal took place in 1140 when Eustace was about ten years old. The attempt to secure Normandy took place in 1151. Just before his death, Aug. 18th, 1153, Eustace ravaged East Anglia and tried to extort money from Bury St. Edmunds.

174. Canteberi: see 1/14.

176. rixan: Stephen sought in vain to have Eustace crowned in 1152. Geoffrey of Anjou died Sept. 7th, 1151; Matilda of Boulogne, May 3rd, 1152. Louis VII was divorced from Eleanor of Aquitaine, March 18th, 263 1152; she married Henry of Anjou at Whitsuntide. She sent for Henry, and he hastened to Poitiers where the marriage took place; ‘ad nuptias ducis quas concupierat convolavit,’ Ann. Monast. iv. 28.

180. Henry landed in England Jan. 6th, 1153. He captured Malmesbury, demolished Stephen’s tower at Wallingford, took Stamford and Nottingham. By Nov. 6th he had come to terms with Stephen at Wallingford.

184. ‘Rex Stephanus ipsum ducem . . . adoptavit in filium,’ Gervase, 1375; ‘Ducem siquidem Normannorum rex in filium arrogavit,’ R. de Diceto, 527. sib ⁊ sæhte: comp. ‘betere weore sæhte; þene swulc vnisibbe,’ L 9844, and see 70/158.

188. lundene, L. Lundonia: Lundone 656 E, but generally with -en.

190. Comp. ‘Annis enim iam plurimis fere nudo regis nomine insignis, tunc recipere visus est huius rem nominis, et quasi tunc primo regnare coepit,’ W. of Newburgh, 91. æuert, ever as yet: comp. 218/135, 221/248, with her (ǣr), ever at any time previously.

194. fauresfeld, Faversham, where Stephen and his queen founded a Clugniac abbey in 1147, is meant: in the charters Febresham, Feferesham, Ferresham. Lambard, Perambulation, 270, says it is called in Saxon Fafresfeld, a statement probably founded on this place. The mistake was probably due to confusion with the place now called Fairfield, a manor once belonging to Christ Church, Canterbury, which Hasted (iii. 486) says was anciently called Feyrsfelde.

196. Comp. 6/22.

198. sunnen dæi, December 19th. Martin died Jan. 2nd.

201. innen dæis: Thorpe translates ‘within a day’; that is the sense required: comp. ‘Eodem vero die, quo [Martinus] obiit, convenit omnis congregatio in unum, ut quempiam ex suis eligerent . . . ne propter moram aliquis extraneus per pecuniam se inmitteret,’ Hugo, 89. But the text does not give that sense, and innen with a gen. is strange: read, ‘in an dæis wile,’ within the space of oneday.

202. William de Waterville was one of Henry’s chaplains at the time of his appointment. He belonged to a family founded by Ascelin (Azzelino) de Waterville, who was a tenant of Peterborough in 1086 at Thorp Waterville in Northamptonshire. Hugo, 8/100, was a descendant of his. William de Waterville was deposed in 1175 for sheltering a relation who had incurred the king’s displeasure (Hoveden, ii. 86).

204. sone: on the day after his election.

206. bletcæd: by Robert of Chesney, bishop of Lincoln. The new abbot made a tour of the surrounding monasteries, which had many 264 interests in common with his own: Ramsey, Benedictine Abbey in Huntingdonshire (Dugdale, ii. 546); Thorney, Benedictine Abbey in Cambridgeshire (D. ii. 593); Spalding, Benedictine Priory in Lincolnshire (D. iii. 206). The gap before Spallding may be filled by Bourn, that after it by Sulby baresworth. Sulby Priory, to the south-west of Peterborough, is said to have been founded about 1155; it was connected with the Waterville family and had extensive possessions in Baresworth; possibly the abbot’s visit was connected with its inauguration. The last gap may have held Croyland. In the last two lines the italics indicate letters in the MS. which are very faint and doubtful. Ramesæie corresponds to L. Rameseia, Fr. Rameseie, in contemporary documents: Torney is mostly Torny in Domesday; sometimes in L. Torneia.

IV. CHARTER OF HENRY THE SECOND

1. gret . . . mine, verb of the third person, pronoun of the first: so CE; it is formal, and not a scribe’s error as Stratmann thinks; H¹, H² have grete. bissceopas, &c.: in Latin, ‘Episcopis · Comitibus · Baronibus · Justiciariis · Vicecomitibus · Ceterisque suis fidelibus.’

3. þe . . . inne, in which; see 1/3 note. E has þær . . . inne.

4. Cantuarabirȝ; see 1/14.

5. ꝥ = þet. ælc, each of them: the archbishop and the monks severally, as well as jointly; so H¹, H²; E omits.

6. kinges: see 15/87 note.

7. saca and the other genitives are, like lande, dependent on wurþa. Each of these words has a threefold aspect: (1) the simple meaning of the word itself; (2) the right to adjudicate in connection with that; (3) the right to profit by fee or fine arising out of such jurisdiction. Sacu and sōcn are glossed, litis, contestatio and quaestio, inquisitio respectively. Sōcn is the leading word and sacu was added to round off the phrase; together they express a single idea, inquisition into a disputed matter (sometimes the area of jurisdiction); then the right to adjudicate privately within one’s own jurisdiction on certain cases which arise within it, and the right in consequence to appropriate the proceeds in fines, &c. Toll, tax on merchandise, sometimes exemption from such, the right to collect it, the profit arising therefrom. Sometimes merely the right to tallage one’s villeins. Tēam, vouching to warranty, right to adjudicate in cases which involved the production of a guarantor (getēama), right to forfeitures, &c., arising out of such processes (see B-T. s.v.). Griðbryce, breach of a special peace, that is, a protection accorded specially to a person, place, or period of time by the king, the right to try such cases and fine. 268 Hāmsōcn, in Domesday hāmfare (OE. hāmfaru), attack on a man’s house, trial for the offence and fine. Fōrsteall, assault on the king’s highway; in Norman law, ‘assultus excogitatus de veteri odio’ (PM. ii. 453). Infangeneþēof, thief caught red-handed in a privileged area, the right to judge and hang him. In = within, adverb: fangene = fangenne, s. acc. of the participle agreeing with þēof: as the phrase was almost always acc. after a verb of granting, these formed a compound regarded as the nom. as well, but a nom. by form is sometimes found as acc., ‘infangenðeóf,’ Kemble, iv. 226. The dat. ‘mid infangenumþeofe’ occurs, id. 227, but usually ‘mid infangeneðéf,’ id. 190; gen. ‘infangeneðeófes,’ id. 193. C, E, H¹, H² all have both words inflected gen. as here: I have not found the double inflection elsewhere. Ūtfangeneþēof was the right to hang one’s own thief wherever caught, if he were found in possession of the stolen property: it appears to have been rarely granted. Flȳmena fyrmð, the harbouring or supporting of a wrongdoer or fugitive from justice. (Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law.)

10. binnan Burgan, &c.: a phrase for everywhere. Comp. ‘on ǽlce styde, be lande and be strande,’ Earle, 344/11; ‘be wætere and be lande,’ id. 344/21; ‘inne tíd and út of tíd, binnen burh and búten burh, on stráte and of stráte,’ id. 340/21.

11. swa ful ⁊ swa ford: ‘in tantum et tam pleniter,’ as fully and extensively as my own officers are in duty bound to exact: comp. ‘swá wel and swá freolíce swá ic hit meseolf betst habbe,’ Earle, 343/16.

12. habben: read habbe as in H¹, H²; C, E have hæbbe. For toleten, granted, E, H¹, H² have to gelæten. The Latin has ‘super tot theines; quot eis concessit Rex Willelmus proauus meus,’ which is probably the correct version.

13. þeron theo: ‘þær on teo,’ C, E; ‘þær on tyo,’ H¹; ‘þer on tyo,’ H². The Latin ‘se intromittat,’ meddle (also in H¹, H²), is not an equivalent, but rather ‘subtrahere,’ ‘exigere,’ ‘ad se trahere’ of similar documents. The meaning is, take any thing from these lands and rights: for þer on, comp. ‘ne teó se hláford ná máre on his ǽhte butan his rihtan heregeate,’ Schmid, Gesetze, 308. Fuller expressions are ‘ænig þæra sócna him to hánda drægen,’ Kemble, iv. 222: ‘fram honde téo,’ id. 212, 196: ‘of handa átéo,’ id. 226. þe, to whom: see 46/292.

14. for þan þingan, for the reason that, because: see the examples of the phrase in B-T., p. 1060. C has for þā; H¹ for þam þingan; E, H², as in the text.

15. to echere alisendnesse, for the eternal salvation of my soul; 269 comp. ‘to ecere alysednysse,’ Ælfric, Lives, 258/320, ii. 154/178. Keller prints eche, treating the curl attached to the final e as a mere flourish, but the scribe’s model, H², had æcere: see 23/161.

16. bi, as concerning, having regard to, i.e. on pain of losing. Comp. ‘unrihtwisan deman þe heora domas awendað æfre be þam sceattum,’ Ælfric, Lives, 430/233; ‘bebead eallum his folce, be heora life, þæt hí sceoldon feallan adune,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 18/23; ‘þat ælc mon bi his liue; comen to him swiðe, | bi heore liue & bi heore leme,’ L 19434.

V. A PARABLE

2. gelest, extended; probably the earliest example of the word in this sense. OE. gelǣstan, to accomplish, follow, last. With wide ⁊ side, spacious, extensive, comp. ‘Ðu leof cyningc leod-scipas ðine wide and side þu hætst,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 496/145; ‘⁊ ta wass Romess kinedom | Full wid ⁊ sid onn eorþe,’ Orm 9173.

3. ærfeðtelle, difficult to number; comp. ‘earueðhealde,’ 48/311; ‘Earfoðfynde,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 492/82; ‘arueðwinne,’ OEH ii. 49/14. OE. earfoðe, ēaðe, unēaðe are usually followed by the dat. of the infinitive, ‘earfoðe is ænegum men to witanne,’ Cura Past. 51/5, to which corresponds, ‘Hit is arfeð to understonden,’ OEH ii. 205/14; but they are also associated with a kind of verbal noun having a dat. termination in e, in imitation of the Latin supine in u, as earfoðlǣre, ēaþlǣre, unēaþlǣce, and the two words come to be treated as a compound adjective. For the acc. inf. comp. ‘Ac þe ben swo fele ꝥ hie ben arfeð tellen,’ OEH ii. 201/30.

4. ꝥ—befell, lit. that it occurred to him in purpose, that he formed a resolution: comp. ‘Ich wilnie a mine þonke; to walden al Rome,’ L 25091; ‘þat him wes on þonke,’ id. 13258.

5. nam him to rede, lit. took to himself for counsel, adopted the plan: comp. 110/298; ‘nam him to ræde,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 64/230; ‘let him to ræde,’ id. 506/319; ‘hwæt him to ræde þuhte,’ id. 244/113; ‘him to ræde fand,’ BH 201/25. See Minot vi, 68 note. For omission of subject after ꝥ, see 6/18 note.

7. berie was meant to supersede curt, but the scribe forgot to put dots under the latter. He uses berie regularly afterwards. With ꝥ comp. ‘& swa he nom enne dai; þat come heore drihtlice folc,’ L 2550.

8. be þe latst, at the latest; so 14/69. to, at: comp. 14/68; ‘to þan dæie heo comen,’ L 13187.

9. mistlice, variant of mislice (Bülbring § 535). It means, diversely, of different sorts, friends and foes. But note fastlice, 16/114.

10. derewrlice, so as to confer honour on him.

11. formemete, first meat, breakfast, the ‘morȝemete’ of 16/125; ‘mixtum cibi,’ Ans. With to lang, comp. 4/38.

12. none, after formemete is probably for nonemete, midday meal, dinner: though to might mean at, as at l. 8. See 206/323.

13. stiarne swepen: ‘strong whips,’ Morris: ‘stiff (strong) whips,’ Specimens: comp. 16/132. But the adj. is rarely applied to a thing: perhaps stearce or smerte would suit better.

14. besie, look to, provide for, handle: comp. underfangeð 16/131; 278 ‘Euele thai gonnen him bisen,’ Seuyn Sages, 507 (said of a whipping); bisen, 202/195 is similar, look after.

15. abide, inf. depends on he sceolde understood from sceolden 12. clone, without exception, entirely: comp. ‘Ne dude hit noht þe king ane; ah duden we alle clæne,’ L 8825; ‘mare ich habbe ane; þane þa oðere al clæne,’ id. 13059, 13264.

17. hwet bute icome, lit. What but they came? i.e. What did they but come? they came of course. Comp. ‘nis þer bute þonken God.’ AR 382/26 with ‘Hwæt magon we secgean buton ꝥ hi scotedon swiðe,’ AS. Chron. E 1083. Similar in effect but exclamatory is ‘Hwæt þá se casere cwæð him tó andsware,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 46/358; OEH i. 229/26.

18. bi ham, with reference to them, in their case: comp. ‘gif þu witan wille hwæt be Criste gedón wæs on Iudea lande,’ BH 177/1.

23. wente he hin, ‘then turned he,’ Morris, as though for hine. But hin is rather for in.

24. lacede: Morris altered to makede, but the text means, of what did you feel the want?

25. ȝewinne, with the rare meaning of contend; usually, to conquer. It takes wið in OE., but comp. ‘wunnen aȝean,’ AR 238/17. ȝebugon, not ‘bow to, be obedient to,’ Morris, but, turned aside from me and to my foes; L. declinare: comp. ‘hi alle to rede gebuȝon,’ OEH i. 219/27. Swa ibruce &c., As surely as I possess my kingdom: brūcan usually takes a genitive; here with dative or accusative.

26. mete ibite: comp. ‘ne moste he nauere biten mete,’ L 15340; KH MS. L 1131 note.

28. þe: conj. = þæt consecutive, with the result that: see 50/334 note. sturfe hungre: contrast 7/75: the construction, like that of the dat. ‘hatrede ⁊ widerwardnesse’ 24, is OE., ‘menn . . . lætað cwelan hungre Cristes ðearfan,’ Cura Past. 326/5. Morris translates nam hit him, betook himself: for the correction in the text comp. 17/157, 213/539 note.

30. sandon, courses: comp. 207/349; ‘þas beorn þa sunde; from kuchene to þan kinge,’ L 24601. For the meaning of vii. comp. ‘Id enim frequens & usitatum est in sacris Litteris, ut septenarius numerus interpretetur dona illa, quae perfecta sunt, & quae desursum sunt,’ Gilbert of Hoyland in S. Bernardi Opera, ii. col. 120.

31-39. A parallel passage is ‘He is ealra cyninga Cyning, and ealra hlaforda Hlaford. He hylt mid his mihte heofonas and eorðan, and ealle gesceafta butan geswince, and he besceawað þa niwelnyssa þe under þyssere eorðan sind. He awecð ealle duna mid anre handa, and ne mæg nan þing his willan wiðstandan,’ Ælf., Hom. Cath. i. 8: comp. OEH i. 219, 279 1-3 for a modernization of the first half to geswince. Our writer was acquainted with the De Initio Creaturae, but he has translated ‘Qui celorum,’ l. 35, independently. The ultimate source is the antiphons, &c., at vespers in October and November. ‘Benedictus dominus qui creavit celum et terram,’ York Breviary i. 597; ‘Domine rex omnipotens in ditione tua cuncta sunt posita: et non est qui possit resistere voluntati tue,’ id. 599; ‘Qui celorum contines thronos et abyssos intueris, domine rex regum, montes ponderas, terram palmo concludis,’ id. 610.

34. wiðstande has double construction (1) with aȝenes, (2) with him: for the former comp. ‘Ic wiðstande ongen eow,’ ‘Ponam faciem meam contra vos,’ Levit. xxvi. 17; for the latter the quotation from Ælfric in the preceding note. him seigd: this use of the dative pronoun, mostly in the third person, with intransitive verbs to reinforce the subject, is seen in ‘warschipe hire easkeð,’ 119/75; ‘Affrican hire feader wundrede him swiðe,’ 141/62; ‘ȝe schulen . . . sinken . . . ow,’ 146/111; ‘He is him ripe,’ 159/167; 197/16; ‘ꝥ word him herde Androgeus,’ L 8525; ‘þer him cumeþ iudas,’ OEM 42/174, 38/31; ‘men sullen . . . hem þar bidden,’ OEH ii. 23/21; KH 137 note: with acc. exceptionally, ‘And gon hyne to abidde,’ OEM 41/156. See also 54/27, 81/90, 215/25.

35. witiȝe: the antiphon is drawn from Isaiah xl. 12, Daniel iii. 55; see 14/57.

36. to: Morris altered to tho without necessity, if it is the art. (see 17/47); but it is probably a preposition, see 124/249 note.

37. · iii · prou.: Morris read in pon. The reference is to the Third Book of the Proverbs (the division into books, as in Bede’s commentary, preceded that into chapters), and probably to ch. xxx. 4.

38. for þan þe is the usual expression: for þat þe may be right.

42. sawle ableow: comp. ‘God þa geworhte ænne mannan of láme, and him on ableow gast,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i, 12/28; ‘him on bleow gast’, OEH i. 221/17; ‘him anbleow sawle,’ id. 223/9; ‘And his licham of erðe he nam, | And blew ðor-in a liues blast,’ GE 200; ‘dû bliese im dînen geist în,’ MSD i. 81/7. fett &c.: comp. ‘he scryt me wel and fett,’ Wright’s Vocabularies, i. 93/27.

43. þas: Morris read [vel as].

44. his as a correction is not inevitable, but it improves the rhetorical effect.

45. werpð, lit. casts, i.e. sends forth: comp. 151/45. leoem ⁊ lif: comp. ‘to lif ⁊ to leomen,’ SK 1046.

48. of wam: from ‘In ipso enim vivimus et movemur et sumus,’ Acts xvii. 28.

280

49. acht, acc. used as adv., in any wise, at all: comp. ‘Ne mihte he neuere finden mon; þe him oht wolde fulsten,’ L 6601. moder: comp. ‘Sed et tu, Jesu, bone Domine, nonne et tu mater? Annon es mater qui tanquam gallina congregat sub alas pullos suos?’ Anselmi Opera, 300.

50. chereð. The MS. reading cheteð is explained, console, cheer, as possibly from OWScand. kǣta, but this is rejected by Björkman, 260. There is no other instance of the word. be = mid, l. 52, with.

52. All this doth your lord.

53. Comp. ‘Est autem noctis umbra mortalibus ad requiem corporis data, ne operis avida continuato labore deficeret ac periret humanitas,’ Bedae Opera, ed. Giles, vi. 158.

55. ȝewold, for omission of subject see 6/18 note.

56. hares unþances, see 10/167 note.

57. word: Morris reads worden, in wonderful words, which may be right: the same scribe writes wordon once, wordum twice elsewhere. Numquid &c. The Vulgate has ‘Numquid oblivisci potest mulier . . . ut non misereatur filio?’ Isaiah xlix. 15.

59. la lief, O beloved: comp. ‘Eala men þa leofoston,’ BH 165/32; ‘La leof ic bidde eow,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 522/580; ‘Eala, leof hlaford’ = O mi domine, Thorpe, Analecta, 19. his: OE. wīmman is masculine.

61. be — is, as regards his being father.

62. In the Vulgate, ‘Si ergo Pater ego sum ubi . . . et si Dominus ego sum’ &c., Malachi i. 6.

63. manscipe, the first occurrence of the word in the sense of homage. In OE. it means humanity, courtesy.

64. G. m., Gode men.

70. fif lagan: the five laws correspond to five ages of the world. The division here is unusual. The English writers mostly follow S. Augustine, who gives six, so Bede, Alcuin, Ælfric, de vetere Testamento; but Wulfstan has seven, Anselm and Herbert de Losinga eight. In another place Ælfric has five, but different from those of our writer; see Hom. Cath. ii. 74.

71. ȝecnowe, revealed.

74. ȝescod, discretion, reason: see 122/176.

77. nas tid &c. Comp. ‘he fram frymðe middaneardes oð his geendunge ne ablinð to asendenne bydelas and láreowas to lǽrenne his folc,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 74/10, which is probably from ‘a mundi huius initio usque in finem ad erudiendam plebem fidelium praedicatores congregare non destitit,’ S. Greg. Hom. i. xix.

79. adiligde, was destroyed: passive use, OE. ādīlegian, to destroy. unwreaste leahtrum: see 118/30 note.

281

81. wrate &c. Comp. ‘God awrát ða ealdan ǽ mid his fingre on ðam stǽnenum weax-bredum,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 204/1. his, the law.

82. ȝelaðieres: comp. ‘sende hire his sondesmen biforen, þet weren þe patriarkes ⁊ þe prophetes of the Olde Testament,’ AR 388/14.

83. fele; see 132/9.

84. wat, until: comp. 217/102: often with al, 215/26; ‘al hwat hie hine fordemden,’ VV 51/12 and frequently: wat is relative conj. substituted for þat, with same meaning; see 72/179, 108/245: so þen exchanges with hwanne, þer with hwær. þe, when, so þa 93.

85. arerdon, set up, established: comp. ‘þæt is þonne ǽrest þæt ic wylle þæt man rihte laga upp arǽre,’ Schmid, Gesetze, 270.

87. hlafordes . . . helendes . . . cristes: this appositional construction is OE.; comp. ‘on drihtnes naman ures hælendes cristes,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 366/46: it is fairly common in early ME.; comp. 8/106, 9/121, 9/137, 12/6, 7.

89. stef creft: OE. stæf cræft, the art of letters, and hence, book learning.

90. Eft bine fece ⁊: with this superfluous and connecting a phrase to the main sentence, comp. ‘Him þa gyt sprecendum ⁊ soþlice þa beorhtwolcn hig oferscean,’ S. Matt. xvii. 5. (= ‘Adhuc eo loquente, ecce nubes lucida obumbravit eos.’) acolede, cooled, lost its vigour: comp. ‘⁊ forþam þe unryhtwisnys rixað manegra lufu acolaþ,’ S. Matt. xxiv. 12 (= ‘refrigescet charitas multorum’). See 159/161.

91. hur ⁊ hur, especially: a doubling for emphasis of OE. hūru, at least: comp. 149/11.

92. awente &c.: ‘Qui commutaverunt veritatem Dei in mendacium: et coluerunt et servierunt creaturae potius quam Creatori,’ Romans i. 25.

95. begripe, seized, in the grip of: comp. ‘seo sawul bið micele atelicor, gif heo mid mislicum leahtrum begripen bið,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 122/23. diefles muðe: comp. 17/150. Mediaeval art gave a very literal rendering of ‘infernus . . . aperuit os suum absque ullo termino: et descendent fortes eius, et populus eius, et sublimes, gloriosique eius ad eum,’ Isaiah v. 14; see Wright, History of Caricature, 69-71.

97. sette, ordained, established: comp. ‘þis synd þa . . . laga þe drihten gesette betwyx him and Israhela folc,’ Levit. xxvi. 46.

99-104. Comp. ‘Triplici morbo laborat genus humanum: principio, medio et fine, id est nativitate, vita et morte. Nativitas immunda, vita perversa, mors periculosa. Venit Christus, et contra triplicem hunc morbum attulit triplex remedium. Natus est enim, vixit, mortuus est: 282 atque eius nativitas purgavit nostram, mors illius destruxit nostram, et vita eius instruxit nostram,’ S. Bernardi Op. ii. 776. The Liber Sententiarum, from which this passage comes, is placed by Mabillon among the doubtful works. There can be little doubt that it is the source of the English passage.

100. ful: comp. 29/33. grislic: inspiring terror and shrinking: see 120/94.

101. þer aȝen, to remedy these blemishes of our nature: L. remedium.

102. efer þurh, ever through, throughout, perpetually. milce, not the active mercy, compassion, but meekness, patience.

103. acennende, the being born, birth: present participle with the same meaning as the new verbal noun acenneng, 100. The OE. noun is ācennednes or ācennes.

104. admoded, submissive: ‘Humiliavit semetipsum factus obediens usque ad mortem,’ Philippians ii. 8. The contrast is between man’s shrinking from death and His voluntary acceptance of it.

105. ȝelice: read grislice as suggested by W. H. Brown, Mod. Lang. Notes, vii. 226.

106. Omit þer, put full stop after iunglenges, and understand from the previous sentence were ærndraces.

110. þa may be dat. sing of the article as at 14/57, but more probably it = þan, then. folce to freme, for benefit to the folk; see 176/24 note. bedeles, heralds: comp. ‘Þa halgan apostolas, þe ðam hælende folgodon, wæron þa getreowan þeowan ⁊ ða fyrmestan bydelas, þe godes lare geond þas land toseowon,’ AS. Hom. ed. Assmann, 56/141; ‘wearð se halga iohannes ætforan him asend swa swa heofonlic bydel,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 342/94; Orm 19/633.

112. They are all one in God’s purpose. For on comp. ‘Alle hie bieð forsakene on godes awene muðe,’ VV 3/2.

114. fastlice, in steady flow, or, corresponding to ‘þicce þringeð,’ 116, crowding. It sometimes means vigorously, as in ‘hi fengon togadre fæstlice mid wæpnum,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 98/489; sometimes firmly, ‘þing ðe godd fastliche ðe forbett,’ VV 37/23. See 12/9.

117. his, them. scyft, separates, is a mere synonym of ‘to ȝesceodeð.’ Perhaps scryft = scrifeþ, fixes their destiny.

119. morȝe mete, the ‘forme mete’ of 12/11.

120. more mete, the ‘fulle mete’ of 16/127; ‘none,’ 12/12; ‘vii sandon,’ 13/29.

121. witetlice of the MS. may represent OE. witodlīce, assuredly.

122. uuantruce, failure; as being compounded of wan, wanting, and 283 the noun of trucian, to fail, it should mean absence of failure. hað: for omission of nom. see 6/18.

123. For the pain of dying as penance, comp. ‘Quidam autem electi in fine suo purgantur a levibus quibusdam peccatis,’ Isidore vi. 361; ‘Nullus tui Ordinis peribit, si Ordinem amaverit; aut in morte purgabitur, aut in brevi post mortem,’ Arnulf of Boheries in S. Bern. Opera, ii. 802.

124. eðelice lette, easy hindrance, i.e. slight delay. merchestowe: Morris suggests ‘merthestowe, a place of mirth,’ or alternatively translates the MS. reading, place marked out, place of separation. The word is not found elsewhere; it is probably a special coinage for the intermediate state, the place of the soul waiting for the body, the place of the ‘morȝemete,’ the limited joy of which the soul is capable in its severed state (‘requies ei, sed in anima sola, interim datur,’ Anselm, in Eadmer, 161 col. 2 B); the banquet of perfect felicity, ‘se fulle mete,’ follows when soul and body meet again at the resurrection, 17/157 (‘in anima simul & corpore laetabuntur,’ Ans.). Comp. March, ‘myddys be-twyn ij cuntreys,’ Prompt. Parv. ed. Mayhew, 282.

128. belimpð hit: a superfluous nominative, as if, what is it that happens?

129. letes in Specimens is resolved into lete + his, the latter being gen. of hit, governed by fandie, and so like ‘ȝif we his abiriȝdon,’ OEH i. 223/22. But support is lacking for enclitic es = his: it seems better to take letes as lete + es, pl. acc., them, or even as s. a. f. used incorrectly as neuter.

131. anu is taken by Morris as for anum, but neither his ‘at once,’ Specimens, nor ‘only,’ OEH, is satisfactory. Probably the original had anūge (= ānunge) gerǣde, entirely, quite ready, very keen.

132. hade, a past among the presents, is probably a mistake for habe subj. pres. of indefinite comparison, Howsoever many vices he has on him, just so many fiends he there encounters: fele has dropped out after swa 133.

135. In Specimens [habbeþ] is inserted after hi, with the translation, ‘and they shall have for their reward the home that long shall last.’ The text given means, they shall be thrust from his sight and into their reward which must last long for them. For hin = in, comp. 13/23, and for abroden into, 13/27. But the original may have had, ⁊ higien him to hire lēan þe lange sceal gelǣstan.

136. a þa mucele deie: comp. ‘on þam miclan dæge,’ Christ 1049, and often; ‘in iudicium magni diei,’ S. Jude, 6. See Deering, W., The Anglo-Saxon Poets on the Judgment Day, 8.

138. niȝen anglene had: ‘Novem esse distinctiones, vel ordines angelorum 284 sacrae scripturae testantur: id est, Angelos, Archangelos, Thronos, Dominationes, Virtutes, Principatus, Potestates, Cherubim et Seraphim,’ Isidore, vi. 137.

141. þer midenarde . . . werpeð abec. The article is s. d. fem., the noun s. d. masc. The phrase might mean, with all those who for his love turn backwards to the world, but not, ‘put aside the world,’ Morris. It seems to be without parallel: such expressions as, ‘projecerunt legem tuam post terga sua,’ ii Esdras ix. 26, suggest the acc. þes midenard here.

142-146. The ultimate source is Ephraem Syrus, ‘Quomodo sustinebimus, Fratres, quum videbimus igneum fluvium . . . comburentem omnem terram et quae in ea sunt opera? Tunc, dilecti, ab illo igne flumina deficient et fontes evanescent, stellae cadent, sol extinguetur, luna abibit, coelum plicabitur ut volumen, sicut scriptum est . . . Quomodo sustinebimus tunc, Christo dilecti, quum videbimus terribilem thronum praeparatum et signum crucis apparens, in quo affixus est Christus voluntarie pro nobis,’ ed. Lamy, ii. 192. Comp. with the present passage BH 91.

144. With aþestreð comp. 123/230.

145. to gað, should ordinarily mean, parts in sunder, but in view of plicabitur in the quotation above (‘et complicabuntur sicut liber caeli,’ Isaiah xxxiv. 4), it may mean here, is rolled up. Comp. ‘& on þæm dæge heofon biþ befealden swa swa boc,’ BH 91/25. si hali rode tacne usually means, the sign of the cross, 130/65; BH 237/21; AR 106/9; here and OEH i. 121/9 it is the cross itself as a sign. Comp. ‘et tunc parebit signum Filii hominis in caelo,’ S. Matt. xxiv. 30, ‘and seo hea ród | Ryht aræred rices to beacne,’ Christ 1063. See also Deering, 42.

147. cwaciað: comp. 34/94; ‘oðe dom of Domesdai, þer þe engles schulen cwakien,’ AR 116/19. senfulle: comp. ‘þer þe crysmechild for sunnes sore schal drede,’ OEM 90/11. The passage bears considerable resemblance to ‘hinc erunt accusantia peccata, inde terrens justitia: subtus patens horridum chaos inferni, desuper iratus judex: intus urens conscientia, foris ardens mundus. Justus vix salvabitur; peccator sic deprehensus in quam partem se premet?’ S. Anselmi Op. 208.

148. bechece is translated in Specimens, ‘gainsay’ and connected with cigan, which is difficult both as to form and sense: probably it is written for beceche, deceive. beswice, get the better of.

151. beswapen, clothed: ‘et induit maledictionem sicut vestimentum,’ Ps. cviii. 18; ‘Qui oderunt te, induentur confusione,’ Job viii. 22.

152. an himselfe, concerning himself: comp. ‘Eft ne mot nan mann . . . secgan on hine sylfne,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 274/177.

285

153. ecenesse is strangely said of man’s earthly existence. Perhaps recelesnesse.

158. esten, dainties: comp. 50/359; metaphorically, it means delight, at 159. Delicie &c.: Prov. viii. 31; sunt is not in the Vulgate.

160. litl her, a little time ago.

161. Ego &c.: S. John vi. 51; in Vulgate, descendi.

162. astah: OE. astīgan is a neutral word the direction of which is indicated by an adverb. When alone, it is generally used of rising; but comp. ‘Ah crist . . . asteh of heuene riche,’ OEH i. 17/25; ‘he (Christ) asteh to þisse liue,’ id. 19/7.

164. alswa se, not, ‘as he also,’ Morris, but, just as, even as, 17/173: so alswa alse, 17/169; alse, 13/42, alswa, 17/170 = as.

165. ⁊ c.: ‘cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet,’ S. John xii. 24. was ȝesawen, at the Annunciation. The fanciful comparison is common in mediaeval writers: comp. ‘Elegit autem sibi quasi granum tritici Deus corpus de Spiritu sancto in utero virginali conceptum . . . in cruce illa [grana] moluit, in resurrectione cribravit,’ Petri Cellensis Sermones (Migne, P. L. ccii), 808.

167. com, sprang up; a common use in mod. dialects. ꝥ cweð us of breade is translated in Specimens, ‘which speaketh to us by bread.’ It means, of course, that is called house of bread: comp. ‘Bethleem is gereht “Hlaf-hús,” and on hire wæs Crist, se soða hlaf, acenned, þe be him sylfum cwæð, “Ic eom se liflica hláf,”’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 34/14; ‘In coelis erat panis angelorum, set in bethleem factus est panis hominum. Merito igitur locus iste domus dicebatur panis, unde angelorum et hominum carnaliter fuerat oriundus panis,’ H. de Losinga, ii. 12; Orm 121/3528-35.

170. melstanent: ‘Pastor farinam moluit in cruce tanquam in molendino,’ P. Cellensis, 807. berient: the tomb as the oven is original. Comp: ‘Iste est ille, qui seipsum coxit in clibano passionis,’ Bede, vii. 369 (Cologne ed.); ‘Et sicut panis igne coquitur, ita Christus in camino passionis assatur,’ Elucidarium Honorii Augustodun., 1129; Adam. Praemonstr. 178 (Migne, P. L. cxcviii); Petrus Blesensis, iv. 33.

173. Ego sum &c.: S. John xv. 1.

VI. THE PROVERBS OF ALFRED

1. Seuorde: siforde T; Sifforde W, RJ, which is identified by Spelman 126 with ‘Shifford, six miles west from Oxford.’ That it is ‘remote from the use of the southern dialect’ does not prevent it from being the place where Alfred discoursed. But Seaford, a seaport in Sussex, is more likely to have been associated in the popular mind and tradition with Alfred.

2. Biscopes, &c.: comp. ‘Forð iwenden eorles; forð iwenden beornes. | forð iwenden biscopes; & þa boc-ilæred men; forð iwenden þæines; forð iwenden sweines | . . . at þan hustinge,’ L 14620. With bokilered comp. 19/39, 4/20 note.

3. egleche, valiant: OE. aglǣca, a fierce warrior. egloche S.

4. Alurich: An Ælfric thesaurarius witnesses a charter of King Alfred, A.D. 892, Birch, Cart. Saxon. ii. 209.

5. of . . . wis: comp. 212/533.

6. hurde: comp. ‘Swa se æþela lareow sægde, þæt se cyning & se biscop sceoldan beón Cristenra folca hyrdas,’ BH 45/24; ‘folces hyrde,’ Beowulf 610.

7. Englene durlyng: so, ‘com Alfred þe king; Englelondes deorling,’ L 6316: he has also ‘Bruttene, Orka[n]es, Denemarkes, Irisce monnen, utlaȝen deorling.’ See KH 488 note.

9. bigon: gon T, gan W,S: set to work to teach.

13. and may be redundant, as often in Layamon, as ‘Ic wlle mine riche to-don; & allen minen dohtren,’ 2945 but Alured, though it is in all the copies, may be an error for Ælder: comp. ‘& þu seolf læuerd king; leoden þu ært ælder,’ L 16835, 17252, in the latter place, leader. T,W,S read a.

296

16. wis . . . war: comp. 129/27, 156/148, 186/324, 190/456; ‘þe wes þe wiseste; þe wes þe warreste,’ L 2107; ‘wisliche þauh ⁊ warliche,’ AR 138/7.

21. wisliche, wise, advisable: OE. wīslīc: Layamon has ‘to iwislichen þinge,’ 21052. T has, of wi[s]liche þinges.

28. lykyen, please: in this sense it governs a dative, which may be understood out of hine. But Mätzner translates, like.

29. one, alone: comp. 19/41, 22/118, 60/2.

30. glednesse: after the manner of l. 29, we expect gleawnesse, but comp. ‘Of alkin gladnes es þar gleu,’ CM 23359. T has ⁊ he is gleu | ouer alle glade þinhes: S omits. Line 31 is probably a gloss upon l. 30.

34. riche, powerful: comp. 6/30, 133/33; ‘hit ne gerist nanum ricum cynincge,’ Ælf. Lives i. 382/260.

35, 6. that there shall not be wanting anything he desires to him who is purposed to honour Him here in this world. For the construction of wone, see 52/368: for the double negative comp. ‘for he ne mihte beon wurðe; na þing of his wille,’ L 18704: in the MS. wc the scribe mistook þ for w. T has apparently þo, not wo: Skeat reads [hwo]: that relative is not found in J.

37. For stanza iii generally comp. ‘Decet regem discere legem. | Audiat rex quod praecipit lex. | Legem servare hoc est regnare. | Notitia litterarum lux est animarum,’ Wipo 1-4. An echo of this stanza is evident in, ‘The ferste seide, “I understonde | Ne may no king wel ben in londe, | Under God Almihte, | But he cunne himself rede, | Hou he shal in londe lede | Everi man wid rihte,”’ Wright, Pol. Songs, 254/7 (date 1311 A.D.).

38. may has possibly its independent force, is strong, has power, comp. 29/12, but the line is evidently corrupt; ryhtwis is a reminiscence of l. 34, as is also riche in T. It is easy to supply beo after king, for TS have ben. But RJ, S are nearest the right reading with, Ne mai no riht cing ben under crist selve (selve SH₁; self SH₂, selfe SL). Read Ne may beon ryht king. vnder criste, a favourite expression in Layamon, as, ‘Ȝe beoð under criste; cnihten alre kennest | and ich æm rihchest alre kinge; vnder gode seolue,’ L 27230, 27976, 28056.

40. It is obvious to substitute for wyttes, wrytes, or better iwriten, as at 20/67, 70, after writes in T, but ‘his writings,’ i.e. manuscripts, seems suspicious, and if correct gives a feeble threefold repetition of the same idea; and further the relation between ll. 41 and 42 requires the explanation of hw as, ‘so as to know how,’ Skeat. A transposition of ll. 40, 41 with welde read for kunne (which seems to be due to the following line), will give a better sequence of ideas, obviate repetition, and restore the 297 alliteration. Comp. ‘ælc bi his witte; wisdom sæiden,’ L 25627; ‘he wes swiðe wis mon; and witful on bocken,’ id. 22097. For cunne RJ, S have icweme.

41. lokie, consult, examine, refer to records for himself: comp. ‘þat yow tels sent Ieremi, | If yee wald lok his propheci,’ CM 9333.

46. leden, guide; usually with personal object.

49. he, resumes the subject clerek and knyht: a frequent construction in this poem, comp. 20/66-68, 21/98-105, 24/204, 5; similarly 24/209, 10 where the pronoun is explained by a noun. It is common in AR ‘þe wreche peoddare more noise he makeð to ȝeien his sope,’ 66/17. Borgström takes he as referring to eorl and eþelyng, l. 44, with clerek and knyht as object of demen, on the ground that clerks and knights did not exercise judicial power. The matter is not so simple. Clerek may include bishops, who sat in pre-Conquest shire-courts by the side of the Alderman, and lawyers generally. And demen is a word of wide meaning, comp. ‘Ne wandige ná se mæsse-preost no for rices mannes ege, ne for féo, ne for nanes mannes lufon, ꝥ he him symle rihte deme, gif he wille sylf Godes domas gedégan,’ BH 43/9; ‘Ne sceall nan godes þegn for sceattum riht deman,’ Ælf. Lives i. 430/244; ‘And he hæhte alle cnihtes; demen rihte domes,’ L 22115. Alfred meant that there should be no discrimination between rich and poor; discrimination between clerk and knight was not likely. demen riht is a phrase in which riht is a noun: comp. ‘Se rihtwisa dema sceall deman æfre riht,’ Ælf. Lives i. 430/239: sometimes, as in the quotation above, it means simply, to administer justice.

52, 3. Comp. ‘Ech man sal eft mowen bi þan þe he nu soweð,’ OEH ii. 159/15; i. 137/31, 131/24; all referring to ‘Qui parce seminat, parce et metet,’ 2 Cor. ix. 6: here the reference is to ‘Quae enim seminaverit homo, haec et metet,’ Galat. vi. 8: l. 54 means that the judgment passed on each man is of his own making: comp. 36/115.

55. on to fone, may mean, to take on himself; its ordinary use is, to begin, 143/85. Skeat translates, undertake, but in the place referred to in support, L 31415, the meaning is, proceed. T, RJ have cnouen, cnowen; S. mowen: the former has been explained, to study, to know how to. I think these readings are substitutes for something the scribes did not understand, such as, keneliche to kepen, or keneliche him kepen.

56. T has, of here ⁊ of heregong, where of is remarkable: the simple dative in OE., wið, 48/321, 141/41, and later from are the usual constructions with werien, of the thing guarded against.

57. gryþ: ‘pax regia per manum data,’ Liebermann, Ueber die Leges 298 Edwardi Confessoris, 28: here it means vaguely, protection, much as frið with which it is constantly associated; comp. ‘þonne nam man grið ⁊ frið wið hi,’ AS. Chron. 1011; ‘a þisse londe he heold grið; a þisse londe he hulde frið,’ L 9912; Orm 116/3380; 116/133.

58. Comp. ‘þe ælc cheorl eæt his sulche; hæfde grið al swa þe king sulf,’ L 4260.

59, 60. Comp. ‘cornes heo seowen; medewen heo meowen. | al heo tileden; ase heo to þohten,’ L 1941.

62. bihoue: comp. 91/108: ‘to his awere bihoue,’ L 4565. T has bilif.

63. lawe, rule of conduct, practice: at 176/15, habit. In spite of the consensus of the MSS., the reading of the original was probably lare.

64. Let the knight see that it thrive, i.e. be well kept.

65-71. Comp. ‘Disce puer, dum tempus habes, euo puerili, | Ne te nil didicisse fleas etate senili,’ Flor. Gott. 98: ‘Qui vacat in iuventute turbatur in senectute,’ Wipo 63; Cato 231/12; ‘He ꝥ in ȝouþe no vertu vsiþ, | In Age Alle honure hym refusiþ,’ ES xli. 262/27. See Kneuer, p. 19.

69. lorþeu: see 1/19.

72. elde . . . vnhelþe: for this combination, see 40/197, where unhelðe rhymes with uniselðe.

75. wroþe, pl. adj. agreeing with wene, to which latter heo and hi, variant forms of the pl. n., refer. When age and ill-health come, then the expectations of the improvident man are in experience found to be utterly perverse: not only are they cheated, but they actually vanish, i.e., he is left without hope at all. There is a play on wene and wenliche, l. 68.

78. Comp. ‘Melior est sapientia, quam secularis potentia | Plus unicus sensus quam multiplex census,’ Wipo 7.

82. furþer. T has wrþere, more worthy, which is, no doubt, original, as it alliterates with weole. noht wurþ, RJ.

83. of frumþe, from the beginning, betimes: comp. 65/59; ‘þah þu liuedest of adames frumðe,’ OEH i. 33/31. RJ reads of fremðe, but T fremede, and Skeat adding [of] translates, out of a stranger. But the point is not the making friends early or out of strangers, but the having wisdom along with your gold. Stanza xiii. is a weak echo of vii. and l. 144 is the key to l. 83. Read hine to freme for him of frumþe, with the meaning, Unless he make Wisdom his friend to his profit. See 15/110; 176/24 note.

87-92. Comp. ‘ȝif þou be visite[d] with pouerte, | take it not to hevyle, | for he ꝥ sende þe Aduersite, | may turne þe Aȝen to wele,’ ES xli. 261/5: Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 133.

299

87. howyen, be anxious, distressed: comp. ‘Ne beo ge na hogiende ymb þa morgenlican neode,’ S. Matt. vi. 34.

89. welde: comp. 4/41.

90. Comp. ‘After vuele cumeð god; wel is him þe hit habbe mot,’ L 3608. A transposition here restores the alliteration in two verses.

92. Comp. 195/634, where the verb is omitted after wel, as is usual in such expressions; ‘Wel him ðe is clene iþrowen,’ VV 95/30; ‘Ah wel hire ꝥ luueð godd,’ HM 27/35. For þat=for whom, see 46/292 note, and for ischapen, destined, comp. ‘after ðan ðe hem iscapen is,’ VV 105/4: hit is, of course, good after evil, weal after woe.

94. Comp. ‘Whoso roweth aȝein the flod, | Off sorwe he shal drinke; | Also hit fareth bi the unsele, | A man shal have litel hele | Ther agein to swinke,’ Pol. Songs, 254/20; ‘werig sceal se wiþ winde roweþ,’ Exeter Book, 345/12. For strong, difficult, tough, comp. 48/312, 76/18, 200/111; ‘hu strong hit is to arisen of vuel wune,’ AR 326/28: ‘þes ilke Mon is strong to sermonen’ (difficult to preach to, a tough subject), OEH i. 81/14.

98. mon is a suspended nom., the construction being changed at l. 105: analogous to 19/48.

102. idelnesse holde, enjoy leisure. T has hednesse, OE. ēadnes, happiness, comfort. ‘Honestior est qui senectutem ad otium rettulit, quam quem in otio invenit,’ Monita 22/75.

106. wel bitowe, well employed, profitably experienced. Comp. ‘alle þe ȝeres weren wel bi-toȝe,’ L 19902; VV 13/2; ON 702; ‘uuele bitohe,’ 74/225.

108. See 26/244 note, and for the form of the expression, comp. ‘Ah her, þu wenest ȝet | ꝥ tu wenen ne þerf,’ SK 1153.

110. lyues: read lyf is . . . luued: ‘Qui enim vult vitam diligere,’ &c. 1 S. Peter iii. 10.

111. lyf his owe: the order is strange, and owe is pointless, quite different from 22/128, 23/149, 27/277, where there is a contrast with one’s possessions, &c. Possibly the original had lifes leowe, life’s warmth, shelter, OE. hlēow: comp. ‘herd leouwe,’ AR 368/12, poor housing. The word was uncommon and likely to puzzle the copyist.

112. wrt: Comp. ‘Herba nec antidotum poterit depellere loetum; | Quod te liberet a fato, non nascitur horto,’ Fecunda Ratis 132/725. Skeat quotes as a proverb, ‘Cur moriatur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto?’ It is from the Regimen Sanit. Salern. l. 177, and the next line is, ‘Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis.’ a wude: comp. 181/181.

113. þas feye furþ, the life of the doomed man.

118. doweþes louerd: prob. the original had duȝeðe, pl. gen.: ‘duguða 300 dryhten,’ Christ, 781 = Dominus exercituum, Dominus virtutum. T has domis louird.

122. Skeat explains the MS. reading, givest away and controllest; an unnatural order: Borgström takes yefst = yhefst < OE. gehæbban, ‘If thou hast and possessest.’ Morris’s conjecture, yetst, may mean, gettest, gainest. The passage is corrupt: T has ‘ȝif þu hauest welþe awold iwis ȝerlde:’ in þis world is mere padding arising from vpen eorþe: the original may have been, Gif þu havest a wold | seoluer and gold: comp. 22/133, 4; ‘Whil ȝe habbeþ wyt at wolde,’ Hendyng 299; 52/387 note.

125. ildre istreon: comp. ‘þæt he of his yldrena gestreone hine sylfne fercian mote,’ Ælf. Lives i. 524/597, 528/669; ‘þæ castles aðele weore; of his eoldrene istreon,’ L 18608.

126. lone: Skeat quotes ‘divitiæ . . . donum Dei,’ Eccles. v. 18.

127. þar of, from them: comp. 22/117: the expression is unusual.

128. ‘Homo vitæ commodatus, non donatus est,’ Syri Sent. 220.

129. vouh, for veoh: OE. feoh. Comp. 3/13: ‘ffrendles ys þe dede,’ Hendyng 288.

130. Mayþenes for maþmes: see 102/134. leten . . . byhinde: Skeat explains as, forget us; but 4/14 suggests a more pointed meaning.

131. Comp. ‘Cum fueris felix, quae sunt adversa caveto,’ Cato 218/18; ‘Tranquillis rebus semper diversa timeto,’ id. 232/26. The first four lines are imitated in, ‘The ferthe seide, that he is wod | That dwelleth to muchel in the flod, | For gold or for auhte; | For gold or silver, or any wele, | Hunger or thurst, hete or chele, | Al shal gon to nohte,’ Pol. Songs 256/1, where the writer has evidently misunderstood l. 132.

132. fele as adverb is not common; Einenkel, Anglia, xxxiii. 531, quotes ‘þonne moton we . . . fela for urum synnum þrowian,’ Wulfstan 151/5, and the present passage: add Beowulf 1385; ‘He bounden him so fele sore,’ Havelok 2442. see, the flowing tide of success: comp. ‘Swo floweð þis woreld þenne men michel tuderið . . . ⁊ beð michel blisse among mannen,’ OEH ii. 177/16.

134. gnyde in the intransitive meaning, ‘be rubbed away’: elsewhere active. T has wurþen. Comp. 27/274-6.

135. to duste . . . dryuen: comp. ‘makede . . . godes deore temple to driuen al to duste,’ SJuliana 41/1; a less frequent intransitive use. Dryhten, &c.: comp. ‘geong ealdian · god us ece biþ,’ Exeter Book, ed. Thorpe, 333/22.

136. godes vrre: comp. 46/276.

137. foryemeþ &c.: comp. 122/167, 8; ‘Forrletenn ⁊ forrȝemmdenn,’ Orm 259/7502.

301

138. by come: comp. 27/275: in T, were.

142. wit and wisdom are often so coupled: ‘Wyt and wysdom is god warysoun,’ Hendyng 21; Kneuer, 20; 130/81: with sing. masc. pronoun hyne, l. 144.

143. ouergoþ, surpasses in worth: comp. ‘Þeo luue . . . ouergeð ham alle uoure ⁊ passeð ham alle,’ AR 394/1; an extension of the meaning of OE. ofergān, conquer, overcome, which is that of 125/270, 207/340: at 29/45 it means, pass away, so ‘deð ꝥ ouergeað,’ SK 1883; ‘ðæt hi geðencen hu hrædlice se eorðlica hlisa ofergǽð,’ Cura Past. 447/29.

144. sitte: comp. 26/270. The recurrence of þe—vere at l. 148 and the divergence of T which gives for the last half of this line, and hwo hem mide senden, preserving the alliteration, shows that something is wrong here. A rearrangement in the order 143, 147, 148, 144, reading syker he may sitte ⁊ þat him mide syndon, 145, 146, 149 gives a good sense.

151, 2. Comp. ‘Tel þou neuer þy fo þat þy fot akeþ,’ Hendyng 93; Kneuer, 29. arewe, apparently found only here, malicious person, enemy: OE. earg, earh.

153. þe, an ethical dative; see 13/34 note.

154. The subject of wile is the clause þet—con, he who is not acquainted with your circumstances. With 155 comp. 21/88.

158. teleþ, derides, makes sport of.

159. swych mon þat, &c., such a man as wishes you very well, said ironically: þat is not conjunction, but relative pronoun, and the construction is parallel to, ‘talem igitur te esse oportet qui primum te ab impiorum civium . . . societate seiungas,’ Cic. Fam. x. 6. 3; just as so . . . þat, 24/184, 5 is matched by, ‘Quis est tam lynceus qui in tantis tenebris nihil offendat?’ id. ix. 2; and similarly ‘nec tamen ego sum ille ferreus, qui fratris maerore non movear,’ Cic. Cat. iv. 3. Where the expression is generic, the dependent verb should be subjunctive, as is the case with segge, and probably here the original had monne—onne. Comp. ‘ic bidde . . . swælc monn seðe to minum ærfe foe,’ Thorpe, Diplom. 471/16; ‘Nes þo non so hardy · þat on me leyde honde,’ OEM 43/209; ‘þat na man ne wurðe swa wod; ne witte bi-dæled, | þat in his hirede breke grið,’ L 10282; ‘þat na mon on worlde; swa wod no iwurðe, | no swa ær witte gume; þat his grið bræke,’ id. 22069, 787. With on comp. ‘ne beo he no swa luðer mon; þat his freond him wel ne on,’ L 22963: Skeat’s insertion of hit spoils the meaning. Swyhc mon = such a one: swillc an appears for the first time in Orm 11595.

166. bywite: þenkeþ T.

302

169. Comp. ‘Uxorem fuge ne ducas sub nomine dotis,’ Cato 228/12: ‘Monimon for londe wyueþ to shonde,’ Hendyng 280; Kneuer, 57.

170. custe, qualities, virtuous or otherwise.

171. vuele iauhteþ, estimates falsely, makes a bad bargain.

172. of fayre, not, out of what is fair, but, in choosing a fair wife: of = in the form of, in the person of. For frakele, comp. ‘he bið wið-uten feire ⁊ frakel wið-innen,’ OEH i. 25/27. ‘Munditiam seruat sinceram rara uenustas,’ Fec. Ratis 114/581.

175. So: Holthausen, Archiv lxxxviii. 370, suggests wo, which gives a common phrase, ‘Wo is hym alyue,’ OEM 183/221; ‘wa is me on liue,’ L 3422.

177. vppen eorþe, a favourite tag: see 28/315; KH 247 O.

179-82. These lines are repeated with small variation in Hendyng, 133-7, but the ‘wyf’ is ‘ȝonge’; Kneuer, 53. Zupitza, Anglia, iii. 370, quotes an inscription in Low German from a room in the Lübeck Rathskeller, which is identical with the English proverb, and Holthausen, Archiv, lxxxviii. 371, contributes two more versions in the same dialect.

184. so wod . . . þat . . . segge, so mad as to say: see 23/159; and comp. ‘Ne wurðe nan cniht swa wod; ne kempe swa wilde,’ L 8593, ‘& þa drihliche gumen; weoren win drunken,’ id. 8125.

185. wille, all that is in thy mind: comp. 27/305, 23/166.

186. þu: T has hue, and Skeat alters here to heo, but the text may very well mean, if you ever found yourself. Perhaps the original had: For if þu hi myd worde · iwreþþed heuede | And heo iseye þe · bi vore þine ivo alle. Comp. ‘confundet te in conspectu inimicorum,’ Ecclus. xxv. 35.

188. lete, omit, refrain from: form and meaning from OE. lǣtan, but with construction, þat- clause with subj., of OE. lettan.

189. Omit scholde, a mere repetition from the preceding line. Comp. ‘gyf þonne þissa þreora þinga ænig hwylcne man lette, þæt hine to ðam fæstene ne ónhágje,’ Wulfstan 285/3 (quoted in B.-T.). forþ, openly, freely: comp. ‘ðane sei ðu forð mid seinte Petre: Tu es Christus,’ VV 25/31. baleusyþes, cast up to you your misfortunes: comp. 2/27. But one expects, after l. 185, something like, will reveal all your secrets.

190. woþ: T has wod and wordwod may mean word-mad; in that case the second half of the line is little more than repetition. But T has often d for þ, and so his reading may be the same in effect as that of J, which does not put þ for d. Now in Layamon the younger MS. writes woþ for wouh, woh in the elder, 3327, 4333, where the sense requires the latter, and word woh, perverse of speech, would fit well here.

303

191. wel wolde, though she desired it ever so much, she cannot control it at all.

194. ouerprute, excessive pride: the noun apparently only here; the adj. ouerprut is commoner. In T, orgul prude. Comp. ‘Bruttes hafden muchel mode; & vnimete prute,’ L 19408.

196. After þat, heo has dropped out.

198. That vice she would readily give up, if she were often in a sweat exhausted with toil. Comp. ‘moni swinc moni swæt; . . þolede ich on folde,’ L 2281, 7; ‘he swonc i þon fehte; þat al he lauede asweote,’ id. 7488.

202. Read, þat beon uulle treowe: lit. though it is ill to bend what are full-grown trees, i.e. though full-grown trees are hard to bend. It is not necessary to alter beo, but n of nule probably belongs to it; it is subjunctive in an object clause expressing a class of things. For uulle comp. 42/219; ‘min fulla freond,’ Thorpe, Diplom. 525/8; ‘heo beoð ure fulle feond,’ L 963; ‘Ech god giue ⁊ fule giue cumeð of heuene dunward,’ OEH ii. 105/17; ‘fulliche cristene mon,’ OEH i. 73/5. ‘Dum curuare potes, vel curuam tendere virgam, | Fac sit ut ad libitum plantula ducta tuum: | Cum vetus in magnum fuerit solidata vigorem | Non leviter flectes imperiale caput,’ Alanus 435. It is difficult to alter a grown-up.

203. after, following the example of: comp. ‘Prendere maternam bene discit cattula predam,’ Prov. Heinrici 169; ‘Muricipis proles cito discit prendere mures,’ id. 109: said of innate tendencies. The hindrances to the training of the young wife are that she is already grown up and has an inherited disposition.

204. þe mon þat . . . he: see 19/49. Comp. ‘Femina quem superat, nunquam uiuit sine pena; | Libertate caret, turpi constrictus habena,’ Flor. Gott. 724.

205. ihurd, listened to, or perhaps, spoken of, as having any independence in what he says. Had the writer in mind, ‘labia nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster Dominus est?’ Ps. xi. 5.

207. steorne is strange in form (it should be sturne in this text), and does not suit the context, and the verbs to-trayen, to-teonen are apparently found nowhere else. Read, turne to treye and to teone, change his life to sorrow and affliction: in that case the two lines should be printed as one alliterative long line. The combination is common; comp. Minot vi. 2 note, and 133/61. T has, ac he sal him rere dreiȝe, but he shall provide trouble for himself.

210. þe mon resumes he of l. 209. qued occurs again as quet T 702, in the metaphorical sense of devil, evil man. Here Skeat translates, 304 aversion; Borgström, following Morris, contempt, scorn, without any support from other examples. The word is a coarse term of contempt for a ‘poor creature,’ based on the primitive sense of OE. cwead: it is easily paralleled in modern dialects.

212. fader is pointless: the reading of T, in hire faire bure, which is for, faire in hire bure, points to the right way. Read, So is mony burde · bryht on hyre bure: ‘bright in bower’ is a common tag in the romances; see Guy of Warwick 2674 with Zupitza’s note.

213. Schene vnder schete: comp. ‘swete in bedde,’ Havelok 2927.

214. Comp. ‘Ne sont pas tuit chevalier, qui a cheval montent,’ Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 201.

215. This line is to be rejected: it spoils the symmetry of the contrast, and is not original.

216. glede, ‘beside the glowing coal,’ Skeat; ‘in mirth,’ Borgström; glede being identified with OWScand. gleði, joy, with an allusion to boasting at the feast. The original word was probably wede, comp. ‘in wlanke wede,’ Eng. Met. Homilies (ed. Small), 42/2 = mollibus vestimentis indutus; ‘Whyle þe wlonkest wedes he warp on hym-seluen,’ Sir Gawayne, 2025; ‘awlencð his lichame,’ OEH ii. 211/36. The contrast would then be between his gay clothes and his unserviceableness. T has werȝe, for which Borgström reads werwe, steed; and Skeat weiȝe, way: for the former might be quoted, ‘Nis so wlonk vnder crist · ridynde on stede,’ OEM 91/19. With 217, comp. 26/265.

221. arede, take as advice. ‘Femina quod iurat, errat qui credere curat,’ Prov. Hein. 64.

222. ‘Coniugis iratae noli tu verba timere; | Nam lacrimis struit insidias, cum femina plorat,’ Cato 229/20.

226. lude ⁊ stille, under all circumstances: comp. 28/317, 188/377; ‘don we hit wullet | lude and stille,’ L 3665: Minot viii. 54 note.

228. ‘Didicere flere feminae in mendacium,’ Syrus 74/130; ‘Muliebris lacrima condimentum est malitiae,’ id. 87/343; Fecunda Ratis 39/163.

231. Not said by Solomon, but by Syrus, ‘Malo in consilio feminae vincunt viros,’ 86/324.

234. loþ, read leoþ; OE. lēoþ, song.

235. Skeat equates scumes with Icel. skūmi, twilight, and translates, ‘like twilight-shadows (they) mislead (us),’ which is fanciful. Scumes may be miswriting for scunnes, which would represent OE. scēones, scȳness, suggestion, temptation, as in ‘deofol þonne þurh þa attor berendan næddran mid hire þære yfelan scéonesse . . . beswác þone ærestan wifmon,’ BH 3/17. The sense would be, as temptation they mislead. But more 305 probably the place is corrupt, and the original may simply have had, as cwen us forteoþ, with an allusion to Eve’s bad counsel.

237. Björkman, 14, thinks that this proverb was originally Scandinavian, and it adds point to understand cold in the meaning, disastrous, of the Icelandic version. Comp. ‘Wommennes counseils been ful ofte colde,’ Chaucer, C. T., B 4446. ‘Mulier cum sola cogitat, male cogitat,’ Syrus 87/335.

240, 241. Skeat’s version, ‘I do not say this because a good woman is not a good thing,’ shows that he takes for þan þat together, which is contrary to the metrical stress on þan and gives no sufficient sense: for þan, is, therefore, i.e. in spite of all the hard things I have said about women: hit is an anticipatory object, which is expanded in the object clause, þat . . . wymmon. The scribe deleted n before ys, Skeat restores it; T also has is, for which Skeat substitutes [n]is, quoting, ‘Hic ne sige nout byþan | þat moni ne ben gentile man,’ T 665. I think that what the scribe wrote should be retained. It is clear that the relation between a negative principal clause and its dependent object clause was often in ME. very loose and illogical. Comp. ‘For sco was traist and duted noght, | þat godds wil ne suld be wroght,’ CM 12321; ‘Ne doð ham no þing swo wo | . . . | swo ꝥ hi niten, ꝥ here þine | ne sal habben ende,’ Poema Morale, MS. D. 140 (see 46/290); ‘ihc nas na wurdra; þenne ich nes weldinde,’ L 3466; also 100/104. ‘Ðat ne forȝeit ðu naure · þat ðu godd ne heriȝe,’ 93/149, means, That forget thou never that thou honour God; what is more natural than to leave out the negative, if the contrary meaning is required? Our text may be paraphrased, Whatever I have said about women in general, I do not say it with reference to the proposition that a good woman is a good thing. For the sentiment comp. ‘Femina raro bona, sed que bona digna corona,’ Prov. Hein. 65; ‘Femina pauca bona est; si forte inveneris ullam, | De celo cecidit, tessella caractere miro,’ Fecunda Ratis 153/919.

242. þe mon þe, for the man who. icouere, &c. win her from his rivals.

244. Repeated from 21/108.

245. Comp. ‘Nulla sevior pestis quam familiaris hostis. Nis non werse fo; þene frakede fere,’ OEH ii. 189/33; ‘Gravior est inimicus, qui latet in pectore,’ Syrus 79/200.

246. vayre . . . frakele: see 23/172 note.

247. Skeat explains þane loþe, the hostile one, and lead, keep on one’s side, so, by fair words. T reads So mon mai welþe lengest helden, which is easier of interpretation, but is just as inept. I think both scribes or their exemplars have altered as best they could a displaced line to fit 306 it into its new context. Its proper place is after the good advice of ll. 248-51 (comp. l. 263), and it may have originally run, So myght þu fayre lif · lenguste leden.

248. ‘Nolito quaedam referenti credere saepe: | Exigua est tribuenda fides, qui multa locuntur,’ Cato 224/20.

249 is a very lame verse; we might read, þat feole speken can.

251. With singen, comp. ‘Noli homines blando nimium sermone probare: | Fistula dulce canit, uolucrem dum decipit auceps,’ Cato 220/27.

252. swikelne, deceitful: comp. ‘Ueond þet þuncheð freond is swike ouer alle swike,’ AR 98/5; ‘Habet suum venenum blanda oratio,’ Syrus 80/214.

254. cuþe, give warning.

256. Alfred would hardly have said that a man learns wisdom from proverbs and prudence from good luck. Read for sawe, sorewe (the scribe has overlooked the contraction for re), and for hiselþe, uniselþe, misfortune. Comp. ‘In þes middeneardes iscole · selðen ⁊ uniselðen,’ OEH i. 243/7: ‘Vitat maiora sapiens post dampna minora,’ Prov. Hein. 240. Borgström reads his elde, where his is surely doubtful and þ interchanging with d without parallel.

258. The editors leave out And, which is not in T, but l. 257 is complete in itself; And vnwurþ, and despicable, is a sort of afterthought: for the combination comp. 4/37; ‘þat he biðe vnworð & lah’ (loþ, MS. O), L 3464, and further for this meaning of vnwurþ, 143/92; ‘þe idele ȝelp us beo eure unwurð,’ OEH i. 107/8.

259. hokede, thievish: in thieves’ slang, a hook is a pickpocket, his fingers are hooks. Comp. ‘Sutoribus custodem addidit et ut eorum curvos ungues observaret . . . rogavit,’ Disciplina Clericalis, ed. Hilka u. Söderhjelm, 28/19; ‘Arpiis similes armantur in ungue ferino,’ Fec. Ratis, de Predonibus, 173/1154. þat he bereþ is rejected by Skeat as a ‘gloss.’ It is certainly feeble; perhaps we should read, þat he herȝeþ, with which he plunders; the relative would be under the régime of the preceding þurh.

261. From—wune, (dis)accustom thyself from lying: a singular phrase.

262. þe may be the reflexive dat. as at 13/34, but it is more probably a mistake, due to þe in the previous line: its omission improves the metre.

263. on þeode, a tag beloved of Layamon: with him it is always local; comp. ‘he þohte to quellen; þe king on his þeoden,’ 20056 (in his londe, MS. O); ‘þa weoren Rom-leoden; bliðen on heore þeoden,’ id. 11144: 307 it corresponds to ‘vpen eorþe,’ 22/123, and differs from in alle leode, among all the people, Layamon’s ‘on folke,’ 2218.

265. Comp. ‘behoueð ðe ðat ðu bie well warr ꝥ tu luuiȝe ðine nexte, ðat is, aurich mann ðe berð ðin anlicnesse,’ VV 39/13: a translation of proximus, S. Luke x. 29. þe: comp. 22/141, 25/217: ‘Au besoing voit on qui amis est’, Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 72.

266. Comp. 188/378; ‘Vrom mulne ⁊ from cheping, from smiðe ⁊ from ancre huse, me tiðinge bringeð,’ AR 88/26; ‘At chireche and at chepyng | hwanne heo to-gadere come,’ OEM 189/57; Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 112/82.

270. sytte: comp. 22/144: rest in contentment; ‘sit soft.’

271. Skeat takes lond le as a mere scribal error for londe which T reads. I think it points to an original londe ⁊ se: comp. 40/194; ‘Mid mede man mai ouer water faren And mid weldede of giue; frend wuerche,’ OEH ii. 41/20 (possibly a reminiscence of this place). For the proverb comp. ‘Mieux vaut amis en voie, ke deniers en corroie. Melius valet amicus in via quam denarius in corrigia,’ Hauréau, Notices et Extraits, ii. 283.

274-6. Comp. 22/133-5. mixe: T has nocht.

280. holde, maintain: ‘vpholde,’ 21/113.

285. Comp. 18/9-11.

288. Comp. generally 32/39-65; 29/20-24. Perhaps the allusion is to ‘In timore Domini esto [tuum cor] tota die: Quia habebis spem in novissimo, et praestolatio tua non auferetur,’ Prov. xxiii. 17, 18.

289. lyen: comp. ‘ꝥ sind þa gecostan cempan þa þam cyninge þeowað | se næfre þa lean alegeð þam þe his lufan adreogeð,’ Exeter Book, ed. Gollancz, 108/91. See 32/64 note.

293. gabbe, talk mockingly or derisively: the meaning of Fr. gaber, to talk boastingly, would suit well here, but it lacks support. schotte is difficult: the obvious sense is, to pay scot, to take part in convivial assemblies, but this does not go well with gabbe. Borgström thinks that it may be schoute, to shout, or possibly to scout, sneer, modified for the sake of the rhyme. If that principle may be admitted, stroute, to swagger (Havelok, 1779), would be preferable.

294. chid, wrangle, engage in a ‘flyting,’ or scolding match: ‘Ne respondeas stulto iuxta stultitiam suam,’ Prov. xxvi. 4. Whether tales be taken with the preceding or the following line, it is equally unsuitable, unless it may mean reproaches, charges, after OE. talian. It goes best with l. 296; ne should be omitted before chid. dwales, not ‘fools’ in the general sense, but erring ones; dwall in mod. dialects means to wander in mind, to talk incoherently. With cunnes comp. 81/80.

308

298. ‘Rumores fuge, neu studeas novus auctor haberi,’ Cato 218/12. With 299 comp. ‘Pauca in convivio loquere’, id. 217/51. ‘Inter convivas fac sis sermone modestus,’ Columbanus 92; ‘Contra verbosos noli contendere verbis: | Sermo datur cunctis, animi sapientia paucis,’ Cato 217/10.

302. biluken, enclose, comprehend: the brief utterances of the wise man are weighty.

303. See Hendyng 85 and Kneuer 28.

305. With wille, comp. 24/185.

307. Comp. Hendyng 144 and Kneuer 55; Förster’s note, ES xxxi. 6; ‘Osse caret lingua, secat os tamen ipsa maligna,’ Prov. Hein. 149; ‘Mo sleað word þene sweord,’ AR 74/1; ‘plaga . . . linguae comminuet ossa,’ Ecclus. xxviii. 21.

310. ‘Exultat gaudio pater iusti,’ Prov. xxiii. 24: ‘Him stondes wel þat god child strenes,’ Havelok 2983.

311. ibidest, dost obtain: OE. gebīdan, to await, experience, attain to.

312. mon þewes: comp. ‘hauest þu nu quene þeouwes inume,’ L 30281. ‘Curva cervicem eius in iuventute, et tunde latera eius dum infans, ne forte . . . erit tibi dolor animae,’ Ecclus. xxx. 12. The ‘child unþewed’ is one of the ‘Ten Abuses,’ OEM 185/9.

314. The better things will ever go in the world. For buuen eorþe, see 23/177.

316. werende: Skeat reads wexende; if any alteration is made, wuniende would give a common OE. and ME. combination: as ‘þæt he her in worulde wunian mote,’ Christ 817; ‘wuniende ⁊ rixlende on worlde,’ OEH 1. 25/17. But weren is equated in Stratmann-Bradley with Mid. Dutch, OHG. weren, to remain, with this place as the only instance.

317. lude and stille: see 25/226.

327. Comp. ‘For betere were child ounboren þen ounbeten,’ Hending, MS. O, Anglia iv. 191/4.

328. ‘Qui parcit virge, sua pignora protinus odit,’ Fec. Ratis 93/438; ‘Quippe diu male cesus lamentabitur infans,’ id. 65/289. spareþ, with dative.

329. areche, get at, control.

VII. MEMENTO MORI

1. A man may look forward to a long life, but the trick often deceives him; an oft-quoted proverb, as at 21/108, 222/274; ‘Mani man weneþ þat he wene ne þarf, longe to liven, and him lieþ þe wrench,’ Hending MS. O, Anglia iv. 200. The second line occurs in another connection in AR, ‘moni mon abit to schriuen him uort þe nede tippe. Auh ofte him lieð þe wrench,’ 338/18. For the case of liues comp. ‘Ðær sceolan þeofas . . . lifes ne wenan,’ Christ 1608; with wrench . . . blench comp. 157/125; ‘wrenceþ he ⁊ blenceþ · worn geþenceþ · hinder-hoca,’ Exeter Book, ed. Thorpe, 315/18.

3. turneþ: went, BA.

4. makeþ: hit makeð, C; the subject is weder, neut.: turneþ he, B; i.e. reyne (OE. regn, m.). Comp. ‘Hope maketh fol man ofte blenkes,’ Havelok 307; ‘þenne þe kyng of þe kyth a counsayl hym takes, | Wyth þe best of his burnes, a blench for to make,’ Cleanness 1201, 2.

6. falwy: falewi, BC: comp. 133/39, ‘faleweþ so doþ medewe gres,’ OEM 93/16.

8. deþes drench: comp. ‘Þær Cristess mennisscnesse | Drannc dæþess drinnch o rodetreo,’ Orm 45/1373.

9. bench implies feasting: comp. ‘Ne schaltu neuer sytten · on bolstre ne on benche | Ne neuer in none halle · þar me wyn schenche,’ OEM 175/89; ‘Ye þat weryeþ þat riche schrud · and sytteþ on eure benche,’ id. 169/3; ‘Ac þu sete on þine benche, underleid mid þine bolstre,’ Worcester Frag. C, 26; L 9693.

10. With aquench, comp. ‘Her-of we owe þenche. | And vre sunnen aquenche. | Mid beden and myd almesse,’ OEM 79/217.

12. B reads, þat may agein deaþes wiþer clench, that has power against death’s hostile grip: wiþer-clench appears to be without parallel. In our text, Morris takes ago for agon, escape, but, as Zupitza points out, it is probably for agon = agein, which is also found as age, aȝe. Stratmann-Bradley translates wiþer-blench, attack, quoting this place only: more probably it means sly, treacherous attack.

14. ryueþ, rakes: Icel. rifja, to rake hay into rows: ‘Ryvyn, or rakyn,’ Prompt. Parvul. ed. Mayhew, col. 386. on o streng: so B, but C in one strench, which would represent OE. strenc, a by-form of streng, recorded in Funiculus, modicum funus, rap uel strenc, Wright, Vocabularies 245/6, just as drench, wrench represent drenc, wrenc. If that be 311 the case here, then C agrees with BJ, save in the preposition in. For Death armed with a rake comp. ‘Hwen he com to arudden | of deaðes rake oðre, | hwi deide he him seoluen?’ SK 1137: Satan is often so represented, ‘Þer is sathanas þe qued · | redi wyþ his rake,’ OEM 181/213; SM 11/11; SK, MS. C 917. Death sweeps in his victims with his rope; ‘Ded has vs wit-sett vr strete, | · | All sal we rin into his rape,’ CM 23727; ‘Ded sal rug us til his rape,’ CM 21920; ‘Deþ shal take vs al in rape,’ id. MS. T. The conception then is that of Death sweeping in all sorts and conditions with the same rope. It is just possible that the reading of C, strench, is meant for strech, i.e. stretch, the word still used in Dorsetshire for ‘the space taken in at one stretch of the rake,’ EDD. v. 813. Streche is not common at this period, but comp. 42/231; ‘on his modes streche,’ OEH i. 111/25, in the sweep, or compass, of his mind.

15. fox, adj.: comp. 187/351; ‘fox of fyl’ (read wil), Horst., S.A.L. 12/251; Orm 230/6646: for wrench, comp. ‘Alse þe fox þe mid his wrenches walt oðer deor; ⁊ haueð his wille þerof,’ OEH ii. 195/7.

16. B has, ne mai him noman to yenes.

17. þreting, menace, or possibly upbraiding: B has weping. The nouns þreting, bene, Mede, &c., are subjects of may, l. 16.

18. Mede, bribery: B reads, ne listes ne leches drench.

21. Possibly a reference to the advice given at 27/288.

23. Do as He who bringeth thee to thy end taught thee and said. Comp. 27/282-286.

25. mysdo, misfare. B leaves out þenne and the whole of the following line, which means, But thou hast good reason to live in fear and trembling. ‘A peyne joie avra un sul jur | Ke de sa fyn bien pensera,’ MS. Lambeth 522, Archiv lxiii. 76/23.

27. such, such and such a man, indefinitely.

29. luteþ, lurkeþ. Comp. ‘Ja n’ert tant prus ne tant vaillanz, | Ne tant de richesces en avra, | Ke tuit nel perde a un launz: | Kar mort tapit enmi sun gaunt, | Kant meyns quide | Chescun,’ Archiv lxiii. 76/33; ‘within the hollow crown | That rounds the mortal temples of a king | Keeps Death his court,’ Shakspere, K. Richard II, iii. ii. 160. The reading of B, ‘deþ him ledes on his sóó,’ apparently means, death on his shoes (OE. scōum) directs his footsteps.

33. fule fulþe: comp. 134/94. ‘Cum faex, cum limus, cum res vilissima simus, | Unde superbimus? Ad terram terra redimus,’ Hauréau, Notices, vi. 124.

37. Comp. ‘Quor deades strenge warp him dun,’ GE 21/714.

38. Comp. 21/110; ‘Quen þu best wenis to haf all, | Fra al þan 312 sal þou titest fall,’ CM 21939; ‘þenne þu wenest ꝥ þu scalt libben alre best · þenne gest þu forð,’ OEH i. 7/23; ‘quant mielz quidet vivre | e estre a delivre, | la mort li cort sore,’ Reimpredigt 32/16.

41. Comp. ‘Wela · weolla · wella; hu þu biswikest monine mon. | þenne he þe treoweðe alre best on; þenne biswikes tu heom,’ L 3411.

45, 6. Evidently a popular saying, so ‘Mon let þi fol lust ouergo · and eft hit þe likeþ,’ Poema Morale MS. J. 15 an interpolated line; ‘auh let lust ouergon ⁊ hit te wule liken,’ AR 118/26; ‘Let lust ouergon ⁊ hit þe wule liken,’ id. 238/27; Hendyng 53. For likeþ comp. 30/11, and for ouergo, pass by, 22/143.

VIII. POEMA MORALE

1. nu: in LT only. awintre ⁊ a lare: a winter and ek on lore J; of wintre ⁊ of lore M. ⁊ = ent; see 38/159.

2. welde mare: not in the usual meaning, possess more wealth, as at 21/89, 22/122, 130, 32/55, but either, am more respected, honoured, as at 18/22; ‘for worulde weorðscypes wealdan,’ Thorpe, Laws, ii. 324. 4, or more probably, possess more knowledge; if so, ‘knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.’ Comp. ‘of wisdom wilde,’ OEM 96/94. For welde D reads ealdi, M eldi, age, grow old.

3. child: comp. ‘Adhuc enim non pueritia in nobis sed, quod est gravius, puerilitas remanet: et hoc quidem peius est quod auctoritatem habemus senum, vitia puerorum,’ Seneca, Ep. iv; ‘To longe ich habbe sot ibeo | Wel sore ich me adrede,’ OEM 160/31. a worde, &c.: comp. 30/27: on worde ⁊ on dede D; of wordes & of dede M.

4. a: on D; of JM. on: at E; á e; of M.

5-8. Comp. ‘Ki se fie en cest secle por fol tenc mult celui | Par mei 330 meimes le sai ne mie par altrui | Folement le menai itant cum ieo i fui | Kar unkes ne fis riens de quanke faire dui | Trop i dui demurer trop tart men apercui,’ Guischart 32-36; ‘vnnut lif to longe ich lede | hwanne ich me biþenche; wel sore ich me adrede,’ OEM 192/3, 4.

6. wel ful: wel, wel D; ful J; the other MSS. wel, but T alters the first half of the line. wel qualifies biþenche.

7. ꝥ = þet; see 32/55. bi fealt &c. is not original, but an avoidance of the rare word chilce, which is in E e J T; D has chilðe, M chilse. chilce, childishness, appears to be formed from child, on the analogy of milce from mild; it occurs here only. L alters l. 8 for the sake of the rhyme; the other MSS. are with T.

8. bute, unless; comp. ll. 24, 210, 271.

9. iqueðen: ispeken T; ispeke J. Comp. ‘Ifurn ich habbe isuneȝet mid wurken ⁊ midd muðe | ⁊ mid alle mine lime siððe ich sunehi cuðe | ⁊ wel feole sunne ido þe me ofþincheð nuðe,’ OEM 193/29-31.

10. þe: so T e, but þat EJM; þet D. OE. ofþyncan is impersonal, it takes dative of the person and genitive or, rarely, nominative of the cause; ‘him ðæs slæpes ofþuhte,’ Ælf., Hom. Cath. i. 86/19 is normal. The indeclinable relative þe here and in similar places, as ‘Ne do þu non oðer man þing þe þe wolde ofþunche gief me hit dude þe,’ OEH ii. 179/20, may be doing duty for the genitive (see 46/292 note). But in ME. generally hit is expressed as subject, 52/370, or the cause is nominative, 38/164, 42/203 (notwithstanding the verb in the singular), 145/104, or the subject is actually personal, 46/271; ‘his freonden hit ofþuhten,’ L 197. Þat in the other texts is nominative.

11. Comp. ‘Or me semblet puillent co ke ieo mult amai | Quant del plait me souent enz en mun queor mes mai,’ Guischart 1205, 6. Mest: Best J. The scribe should have put the stop after er.

12. Comp. ‘Mult est fous ke fait trop de sa volontez,’ Archiv lxiii. 84/301. After this line J interpolates, Mon let þi fol lust ouer-go · and eft hit þe likeþ; see 29/45.

13. þe is possibly miswriting of þen. M has also þe selþe, but e T D þo; E þer; J eny selhþe. The meanings given in the dictionaries for iselþe, luck, good fortune, happiness, do not give a good sense here; if it could mean experience, the sentiment would be like ‘si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait.’ Morris in OEH i. 160/13 translates discretion.

14. elde &c.: comp. 20/72; 40/197; 48/323.

15. wiste: awuste E; á wyste e; iwiste TD; er þan ich hit wiste JM.

16. smike: smeke E; smeche e D; smoke J; smiche M.

331

17. al to þriste, all too bold, ready; comp. 157/127.

18. stondeð: B-T quotes under standan (of direction) ‘Swa micel ege stod deoflum fram eow,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 64/25, with meaning, came over; similar is ‘Norð-Denum stod atelic egesa,’ Beowulf, 783. In ME. stonden has developed the meaning, exists (comp. Fr. être < stare). For the construction comp. ‘non eige ne stand of louerde,’ OEH ii. 39/20, 139/28; ‘of iwel and dead hem stondeð greim,’ GE 392: men here is dative like hom. Variations are, ‘þer hem stod eie; þer hem ne sholde,’ OEH ii. 73/30; ‘him ne stod æie to naþing,’ L 11694; ‘alle heom stod him æie to,’ id. 27100; ‘wið dead him stood hinke and age,’ GE 432; 62/37; ‘uor elles vuele us stode,’ AR 312/9. For do, subjunctive after þanne with comparative, comp. 31/28; ‘he brycð swiðor on ðone suðdæl þonne he do on þone norðdæl; ⁊ sio hæte hæfð genumen þæs suðdæles mare þonne se cyle þæs norðdæles hæbbe,’ Orosius 24/26.

19. See 32/35. hwile þe: comp. 32/33, 55: elsewhere L has the more usual hwile ꝥ (always unmetrically), or hwile.

20. ȝe: hy E e; hi DM: but J has, Hwenne alle men repen schule · þat heo ear seowe. For ꝥ E has þer þe; e, þer; M, her þat.

21. to gode, for good; comp. 32/61. he (muȝe): hi D; ȝe E e M; ye J: similarly in the case of the following he.

22. lipnie, depend on, trust to: hopie E e; leue D; truste M.

24. bute—milde: a formula of frequent occurrence; see KH 80 note.

25. D alters, Sende sum god biuoren him | man, ꝥ wile to heuene; the scribe of E copied the end of l. 21, reading, þe wyle ȝe ben aliue, and in the second half of the next line, þanne ben after vyue.

27, 28 are misplaced, the other MSS. have them as in T. With 27 comp. ‘Ifurn ich habbe isunehed mid worke ⁊ mid worde,’ OEM 193/21; and with 28, ‘muchel ich habbe ispened; to lite ich habbe an horde. | Hord þat ich telle · is almesse dede,’ id. 193/24, 25; ‘Ne des altres uertuz nule ne reseruai | . . . | Or ai si despendu ke ieo nule nen ai,’ Guischart 1184, 6.

29, 30 are wanting in D. þe solf: þi self EJ. With mei . . . maȝe, comp. ‘Ne naueþ he mey ne mowe. | þat durre one þrowe. | Bi hym sitte ne stonde,’ OEM 79/208-10, 179/161, 2. With l. 30 comp. ‘Qui mieux aime autri que sei au molin fu mort de sei.’ ‘Videtur enim quod quis alium plus quam se amat qui alios admonitionibus et correctionibus pascit et seipsum non emendat,’ Hauréau, Notices, ii. 281, an application which robs the proverb of its apparent crude selfishness.

31. lipnie: lipne J; hopie E e T D; truste M.

32. ech: vych J; the others are with T.

33. to him: the others have him. þe mot: he is to be understood 332 from him in the preceding clause, see 6/18 note. E has þe he mot, D, ꝥ he, M, þat he, the other MSS. he.

34. fremede . . . sibbe: a formula, see KH 64 note. A variant is, ‘to freomede ⁊ to kunne,’ OEH ii. 259/30. wule is singular; comp. T.

35. Comp. 30/19, 44/238. The proverb is common, as, ‘he ne mei hwon he wule, þe nolde hwule þet he muhte,’ AR 338/19; ‘hit is riht Godes dom, þet hwo ne deð hwon he mei, he ne schal nout hwon he wolde,’ id. 296/22; Hendyng C., stanza 46.

36. The fruits of many a man’s hard toil often pass into the possession of his enemies. Comp. 22/129, 30. From ‘Scrutetur foenerator omnem substantiam eius: et diripiant alieni labores eius,’ Psalm cviii. 11, in the OE. version, ‘Ealle his æhta unholde fynd, rice reðe mann, rycene gedæle; and his feoh onfon fremde handa,’ Thorpe, Psalter, 317/11. sare iswinc is plural.

37. don afirst, put off: OE. fyrst, respite: comp. ‘Vre deð he do in firste ȝet,’ OEH i. 71/294. slawen: so e; but sclakien E; slakien J; sleuhþen D; sclakie M. ‘Nolite deficere benefacientes,’ 2 Thess. iii. 13.

40. he his: he it E; he hit JD; he e M. mid iwisse, of a certainty: OE. mid gewisse: ‘mid iwissen,’ 38/139 is mid gewissum: ‘iwis,’ 187/349 represents s. neut. of gewiss: ‘fuliwis,’ 79/17, ‘fullȝewiss,’ 89/20 is the same strengthened by ful: ‘to fuliwis’ 190/445 shows the same treated as though it were a noun: similarly ‘to fuligewis,’ 192/508, a compound of fulli + gewiss; Orm has contracted ‘fuliȝwiss.’ From to wisse, mid wisse come ‘to nafre none wisse,’ 45/240, ‘mid neure nane wisse,’ 44/236. See KH 1209 note.

42-65. Comp. generally 27/274-291.

43 T. After For, þar ne has been omitted by the scribe.

44. þerf he, copied by mistake from the preceding line. The MSS. agree substantially with T: e has, þer ne mei hí be nime. laðe . . . loue: formal; comp. ‘mid lufe ge mid laþe,’ BH 45/8; ‘litel me is of ower luue, leasse of ower laððe,’ SJ 27/14.

45. of ȝeve ne of ȝelde, of bribes to officials and of taxes; things which subtract from his gains on earth. Comp. ‘hem þat desireth | Ȝiftes or ȝeresȝyues · bi cause of here offices,’ Piers Plowman, B. iii. 98, 99; Böddeker, Alteng. Dicht. 104/53; 44/256: Mede was very busy in those days. This is undoubtedly the original reading; J D concur, but E has of wiue ne of childe, similarly e; M of ȝunge ne of ȝelde: here in T is hire, usury.

46. For solf bereð E has the singular variant, suuel and bred, savoury meat and bread.

47, 48. Not in D. draȝen ⁊ don, convey our wealth and deposit it: 333 comp. ‘La devriüm traire | trestot nostre afaire, | nostre estage prendre, | le nostre doner | por nos delivrer, | partir e despendre,’ Reimpredigt 56/110, which is possibly the source of the English; see also 51 note. Otherwise draȝen with þider would naturally mean, proceed to that place, as in ‘Traez uers cel pais chascon a grant espleit,’ Guischart 1259, but that leaves don without meaning. It has the sense of the fuller phrase in l. 42: see NED, do I 3. Morris indeed connects don wel which is against the metrical pause as indicated by the point after don in E e J: E e moreover read wel oft ⁊ wel ȝelome, and J has hit in l. 48 for naut. For wel ofte see 49/329, for wel ilome, 134/97. M reads þider we scolde bere ⁊ draȝe, ofte ⁊ wel ylome, with hit in the next line, as in J. ofte ⁊ ilome: OE. oft and gelōme; comp. 48/325, 119/78, 127/360; ‘Hi hedden teone and seorewe · ofte and ilome,’ OEM 89/14, 169/22; ON 1545; L 16500.

48. wrangwise dome: comp. 44/256. E reads mid wronge ne mid woȝe.

50. ne reue: ne se ireue e, the others with T. The ‘reue’ is the sheriff. Comp. ‘Ia nuls hom ki cel (i.e. luer) ad ne se deit esmaer | Kar li nel pot tolir ne prouost ne ueier,’ Guischart 614, 15; ‘Il nen i ad prouost ne nad plaiz ne contez | Sun aueir ni ert pris ne a marche menez,’ id. 375, 6.

51. hefden: hedde e; the others have the present. Comp. ‘Tut le mielz ke auum a deu nus deurum traire,’ Guischart 329.

53. er, for her, which the other MSS. have.

55. halden wel, possess to good purpose, make good use of. M reads wel wile wite.

56. hies: his E e; hit J; hi D; he M. hes: heo hit E; he his e; he hit J; he hi D; hi M.

58. doð: yeueþ J, with T.

62. Eiðer, both. Both of them shall hereafter seem both too little and too much; a curious way of saying, He shall think his good deeds too little and his bad deeds too much. The MSS. are in accord. Comp. ‘De tut le plus kat fait est dolens e pensanz | Del bien li semble poi · li mals li semble granz,’ Guischart 30, 31.

63. weien: comp. ‘Dunc serrat a chascon tuz ses biens demustrez | Sulum nostre labur dunc serrum mesurez | E les biens e les mals tuz nus serrunt pesez,’ Guischart 442-4.

64. swinkes lan: comp. ‘⁊ ta shall ure Laferrd Crist | Att ure lifess ende | Uss ȝifenn ure swinnkess læn | Wiþþ enngless eche blisse,’ Orm 111/3256-9; ‘lure ow is to leosen | ower swinkes lan,’ SK 804; ‘La receura chacon luer de sun labor,’ Guischart 311. lan: lyen E; lien e M; lean JTD: see 27/289.

334

66. þe (mare): þe þe E e M; se ꝥ D. J rewrites, þe riche and þe poure boþe · ah nouht alle ilyche. muȝen: mai E; mei e; the others omit as T.

67. Al se, just the same: e Eal se, omitting the nominative, like L, but He alse E; þe poure J; Al suo on D; Ase wel þon M. alse oðer: se þe oþer E e; alse þe oþer M; swo oþer D; þe riche J.

68. cheþ: ware e J D T M; ȝare E, a case of letter substitution.

69. mid—þonke: equivalent to ‘of gode wille,’ l. 73: see 10/167 note.

70. se þe þe: se þe E e; swo se D; so he M; J omits 69, 70. manke: the mancus was ‘not current coin but merely money of account,’ Grueber, Handbook of Coins, introd. p. ix: ‘fif penegas gemacjað ǽnne scylling and þrittig penega ǽnne mancus,’ Ælf. Gram. ed. Zupitza 296/15, 16. The word was in OE. mancus, g. -es. m. its pl. n. mancussas, pl. g. mancussa; s. mancs, pl. mancsas also occur (ES xxxix. 349). The Latin forms were mancusa, mancus, manca, from the last of which may have been derived an OE. *manc with pl. a. *mancas = mancys, Kemble, Codex Dipl. ii. 380, and pl. g. *manca, the original of manke here. e reads marke. golde may mean, in gold; OE. on golde, but more probably it is a mistake for goldes as in the other MSS. For fele with genitive see 132/9 note.

71. kon mare þonc, acknowledges, feels more thankful; like Fr. savoir gré. þen þe, to him who: ðan þe E e D; ye þat J; him þat M.

73, 74 T: see 203, 204 T.

74. ec lete appears to be a mistake for eðlete, of small account as in the other MSS.; ȝeþlete M: comp. Et lete 38/148, 153. of þan, of whom, of him whose; ðenne E e; þer J; þanne D; of him þat M. J rewrites ⁊ lutel he let on muchel wowe · þer þe heorte is ille; wherein ‘wowe’ is explained by Kock (Anglia xxv. 318) as = vowe, votive offering.

76. houen fur, probably daylight; possibly lightning or the stars: heuene · ⁊ fur J; dai ⁊ fur E; dei ⁊ fur e; ⁊ alle sterren D; sterre ⁊ fur M. þestre: see 123/230. T omits this line and substitutes a new line at 80, not in the other MSS.

79. þenkeð . . . doþ: doþ . . . queþeþ M.

80. swich se, such as: swilc se E e; comp. ‘þa com þær heofonlic leoht . . . swilc swa hi ær ne gesawon,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 184/262; 76/29. swilch in T, with which the other MSS. agree, = such as; comp. 36/120; ‘Ðonne ic wæs mid Iudeum ic wæs suelc hie,’ Cura Past. 101/5. The fuller expression is seen in, ‘we ne magon . . . nan þing geseon swylc swilc hyt is,’ Blooms, ES xviii. 354/26.

80 T is probably the scribe’s own attempt to remedy the omission of 335 l. 76: Boðe appears to refer to ‘crist’ and ‘drihte.’ þe his bien, such as be his, his own.

81. biloken: comp. 13/37.

82. wettre . . . londe: a common formula: comp. 26/271 note; 40/194; ‘Vor hi bynomen him saulen · in water ⁊ in londe,’ OEM 56/682, 162/13; ‘a londe ⁊ a watere,’ L 550, 562, 17990. See KH 245 note.

83. fuȝeles &c.: comp. 143/79.

84. wit ⁊ waldeð: wit ⁊ walt E. Comp. 139/17.

85. buten: abuten, in both places E e; al buten D: a buten ende represents OE. ā būtan ende, ever without end; by union of the first two words a false form abuten, without, grew up, as at 52/369, 371, 373, alongside abuten, OE. abūtan, onbūtan, around, about. J rewrites, He wes erest of alle þing · and euer byþ buten ende.

86. wende &c., go where you will; so ‘Ga quar þou ga,’ CM 14072; ‘for wende woder þou wende; þine daȝes beoþ at þe ende,’ L 16110. Expressions of the same form are ‘comen þer heo comen,’ L 20667, 23021; ‘fare wha swa auere fare,’ id. 20849, 23223; 104/176; ‘likien swa me liken,’ L 22511, 30544; ‘wreaðe se þu wreaðe,’ 141/54; 143/84; 145/115.

88. þe—wille: the MSS. have the order in T. uwer, anywhere: aihwar D (= OE. ǣhwǣr, everywhere); ichwer J; oueral M; but E e have eiðer, OE. ǣgðer, both; perhaps for eaðe, or eaðere, easily, more easily.

90. Wi, alas; not in E e; wy J; wai D. Comp. 36/105; ‘wei þet he eure hit wule iþenche,’ OEH i. 21/28; ‘Awi leof ware þu me, Heu dilecta mihi,’ OEH ii. 183/7: Heu is translated by Aweilewei, id. 183/15. hwat—rede, what shall be to us for advisable? a common tag; see KH 825 note.

91. gulteð, &c.: comp. 117/18.

92. et—dome: comp. ‘at þan muchele dome,’ L 23056; 16/136 note. D has at to heaȝe dome; M, atte heȝe dome.

93-96 are omitted in D. J has them in the order 93, 96, 94, then a new line, Crist for his muchele myhte · hus helpe þenne and rede, 95, 97.

94. engles: comp. 17/146; ‘Dunc tremblerunt li angle qui tant sunt beaus e clers | E nus que ferum dunc chaitif maleurez | Ki en peche uiuom,’ Guischart 446-8.

95. beren biforen us: e, omitting us, has the right reading. The phrase is Fr. mettre avant, put forward, allege as a plea; comp. ‘Mes tu iés si engresse e fole, | qu’avant vuels metre ta parole,’ Marie de France, Fables, ed. Warnke, 305/15, 16. Gabrielson, Archiv cxxviii. 327, notes the similarity of the expression to ‘Mais eiez charite ke uus metez de uant,’ 336 Guischart 1896, but the metaphor there is that of interposing a shield against the darts of the devil. hom: wan E; hwan e J T; wham M: all the readings mean, what.

96. þo, a mistake for we, which the other MSS. read. deme is object of iquemen.

99. The variant iseien is peculiar to T: it is evidently due to l. 98.

101. Comp. 119/70, 72.

103. Comp. ‘Quant ileoc tremblerunt martir e confessur | Dites mei que ferunt pariurie e traitur,’ Guischart 319, 20. þes wichen in T may be a false division of words, or it may be a deliberate variation, meaning, these witches (wicca, wicce).

104. hwi: the other MSS. have the exclamation like T; a wei D; Awi M. The corruption in L has brought about the insertion of ⁊, which is also in D. ‘Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci vero electi,’ S. Matt. xxii. 14.

105. wi hwi: comp. ‘Wei hwi beo we uule on þisse wrecche world,’ OEH i. 33/36; ‘Wi qui þan mak we us sa kene,’ CM 23845. to hwon: to hwi D; hwi J.

107. bi clepie, accuse. D has biclepien, bitelle ⁊ deme.

108. All MSS. except L have temen or teme. For he J has hit, which is probably object of temen, the subject of schal being that of the preceding line.

110. ȝere, fully; OE. geare: the other MSS. have wel. For him J has, his þonk.

112. bi seiþ, declares; with mest, has most to say about it. Comp. ‘Seó wearð gebróht and besǽd þám cyninge,’ B-T. suppl. s.v. besecgan; ‘elch sinne þare him seluen biseið,’ OEH ii. 173/6. he seið e J; the others seiþ only; seit E. With stille, silent, comp. 135/105; ‘sedebit solitarius et tacebit, Me schal sitten him one ⁊ beon stille,’ AR 156/18.

114. hal: vnhol J. M has Þe man þat saiþ þat he is lame, himself he wot þe smerte.

115. ‘Igitur ex nostro iudicio iudicat nos Deus,’ Alcuin ii. 131.

116. J agrees with L, but E e have oðer with T, and D aider: all meaning, either death or life.

117. com to monne, was born; comp. 113/30.

118. The original is preserved in swilc hit si abóc jwriten e, as if it were written in a book; similarly E; J has Al so he hit iseye; D swich hit were on boc iwrite, | isien he sel hit þanne. iþenchen, remember: OE. geþencan.

119-121. Compare generally, ‘forðan ðe god ne besceawað na, hwilce we ær wæron, ac he besceawað, hwilce we beon, þonne we dælan sceolon 337 sawle ⁊ lichaman. Þæt is to witanne, þæt god ne secð na þæs godan weorces angin, ac he secð þæne ænde, forðan ðe ælc man sceal beon demed be ðam geearnungum, þe he hæfð, þonne he of ðisum life hwyrfan sceal,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 149/138-43; Orm 111/3248-55. S. Bernard quotes as from Isidore, ‘Non iudicat Deus hominem de praeterita vita, sed de suo fine,’ Opera ii. 840: for further parallels see Alcuin ii. 141; Fecunda Ratis 4/8.

119. efter: in accordance with: comp. 119/80.

120. suilch, such as; comp. 34/80: swulc se E; swich se e; DM have iteald, iteld, estimated; J rewrites, Ah dom schal þolyen vych mon · after his endinge.

121. ȝefe is probably due to ȝeue in the next line; ȝif E e; ȝef M; yef J; ef D. The inversion in T is peculiar to it. e reads for the last half of the line ⁊ gód ȝíf gód ís þenne.

122. wite—lende: in T lende is probably pr. s. subj. of lenden, OE. lendan, to arrive, in the very rare causal use, bring to land (lǣnde, pt. of lǣnan, would, by rule, be lande in this text): the sense then may be, grant that he convey us to heaven, a forced meaning for lende; similarly J with, God yef vs vre ende gód · hwider þat he vs lende. On the other hand the scribe of D, regardless of the rhyme, can have meant only lǣnde in writing, wite whet he us lende, meaning, preserve what he has entrusted to us, i.e. our souls; the expression of a familiar idea as at 121/144; 127/339, 368, and similarly lenne in e r. w. þenne, must be taken to represent lǣne, pr. s. subj. of lǣnan. The meaning of L, with which E and M agree, is probably the same, but if lende means convey, then wite must have the rare sense of, see to it, provide, as in, ‘Wite ȝe þet ȝe ȝemen þenne halie sunnendei,’ OEH i. 11/28. It would seem that all the texts derive from a corrupt source; the author may have written ⁊ wite us þen we wende; comp. ‘For-þi er we wende. | Makie we us clene and skere. | Þat we englene ivere. | Mawe beon o buten ende,’ OEM 73/27-30; 21/116-17.

123. uuel: mistake for nule, due to the persistence of uuel from 121.

124. J reads, þat deþ cume to his dure. him is in L only: comp. 30/6.

125. Comp. ‘Mult avient sovent, | quant li mals le prent, | qu’il ne puet parler, | penitence prendre | ne le suen despendre, | partir ne doner,’ Reimpredigt 32/64. itit: bilimpeð D.

126. for þi: þi E e, with same meaning; D omits. biet is difficult; possibly it is a mistake for beiet, kneels; see 132/3; 143/84. For bit ⁊ bet, prays for pardon and amends, comp. 86/120. The variations in the MSS. here look like attempts to mend a faulty source. E, like T, has bit ⁊ beȝit ⁊ bet, prays for pardon, obtains it and amends: e has beot ⁊ beat 338 ⁊ bit, the first verb probably from beoden, the second possibly for beȝat: þat bit ore J; þat ore bit M gives a good sense, but is plainly from the previous line. Finally the reading of D, ꝥ bit ⁊ bete ⁊ bet, suggests that the author wrote, þat beot bote ⁊ bet, that offers satisfaction and reforms; comp. 136/132, and for bet, 38/164.

127 T. þe deað: the article is often so prefixed in ME.; see NED. iii. 73 for examples.

128. latheð: leted E; leteþ e J M; uorlet D: probably the scribe of L meant to write lateð as in T, he does not elsewhere use th.

129, 130 T. These lines, not in L, were added on the margin of e and then partially erased. They are not, in my opinion, original. J has, Bilef sunne hwil þu myht · and do bi godes lore. | And do to gode hwat þu myht · if þu wilt habben ore. nah: for naht; Sin leaves you and not you it, when you cannot commit it any longer. him shows confusion of genders, synn is fem. For him þan þu, e has hi þanne þus, E hire þanne þus (= þu es). With the sentiment comp. ‘Nulla igitur laus est non facere quod facere non possis,’ Lactantius 579; ‘Si enim tunc vis poenitentiam agere, quando peccare non potes; peccata te dimiserunt, non tu illa,’ Alcuin ii. 135; ‘Or l’estuet laissier, | ne puet mais pechier, | n’at mais a durer,’ Reimpredigt 36/71 (l’ = son pechié).

130 T. abit, puts off, delays.

129, 130. Comp. ‘Ceo dit escriture: | Tant cum li huem dure | en sa poesté, | se dunc se repent: | a deu veirement | s’est ja acordé,’ Reimpredigt, 38/73. The reference is possibly to Isa. lv. 7. ꝥ: E e agree with T; For we hit ileueþ wel J; Swa ileuen we hit muȝen D.

132. þer: probably a miswriting of er, previously, hitherto: her T; hier D, in this world. haueð to: scal E; sceal e.

134. Ne—bet, ought I not rather to pray? In 136 T, bie ich means, may I be. For alesed . . . of bende, see 52/394. D reads, ne recche ic bote bi ic alesd; and M similarly.

135. scaweð, shows, is pointless: with T the other MSS. have icnaweð e; iknoweþ J D; knoweþ M; but icwoweð E, an error of anticipation.

137-140. Comp. generally, ‘El mund n’ad nul home, tant eit de leaute, | S’il aveit par mort le siecle trespasse, | E en enfern un oret este | E sentu la puur e veu le oscurte, | S’il reveneit en vie e en prosperite, | Ke james feit mal, tant serreit effree,’ Archiv lxiii. 81/152-7. In 138 T hit is a scribe’s mistake for hete.

137. twa bare tide, merely two hours; comp. 221/227. After 138, J has Swiþe grimlych stench þer is · ⁊ wurþ wyþ vten ende | ⁊ hwo þe enes cumeþ þer · vt may he neuer þenne wende, which are not in any other MS., 339 followed by two lines corresponding to 42/221-2, which fit in better here.

139. þa hit: þit E T = þe hit; ꝥ e; ꝥ hit D; heo hit J; & wite hit M. The allusion is to such legends as those of Owain and Tundale. For mid iwissen, see 32/40.

140. wa wurð: so T M; but, uuel is E e; þer wurh D; þer þurh J. for, in exchange for.

141. In is a scribe’s mistake for Ent: wa wurð, or in E e uuel is, must be supplied from the preceding line. The second þe is a superfluous repetition of the last word on the preceding recto. J avoiding for reads ⁊ for þe blysse þat ende haueþ; endeles is þe pyne.

142. water drunch, water-drink; comp. ‘Alls iff þu drunnke waterr-drinnch,’ Orm ii. 149/14482. The other MSS. avoid the compound; water to drinke E; weter í drunke e; wateres drung J; betere were drinke wori weter D; wateres drinch M. atter: comp. ‘God for ure secnesse dronc attri drunch o rode,’ AR 364/17.

143. brede, roast meat; OE. brǣde: comp. ‘he nom his aȝe þeh | . . . þer of he makede brede. | he bredde heo an hiȝinge,’ L 30581, 3, 4.

144. All too dear he buyeth it, who giveth his neck for it.

145. ‘Plenus venter facile de ieiuniis disputat,’ S. Jerome, Epist. 158, 2.

146 is intelligible if of pine is understood after cnauð. E has þe naht not · hu hi scullen ilesten; similarly e.

147. stunde: hwile E.

148. Et lete: see 34/74 note. J reads ⁊ lete for crist beo wif.

149, 150 are wanting in e M. For oðerluker, see 125/270.

151. wawe . . . wene: the combination is formal: comp. 142/77: but E has wa . . . pine, e, wa . . . wawe; D, wo . . . wope; J, Eure he wolde in bonen beon · ⁊ in godnesse wunye | Wiþ þat he myhte helle fur · euer fleon ⁊ schonye, and similarly M.

152. Wið ꝥ þe, provided that, if only; wid þan þe E, wið þan ðe e M, = wīþ þǣm þe; Wiþ þat J; wið þet D. T J D M add he, unnecessarily, as it is in the principal clause.

153. J reads, ⁊ lete sker al þes worldes weole, where ‘sker’, utterly, is OWScand. skǽrr, clean.

154. L appears to mean, Because to attain to that great bliss is joy of a certainty. But cume in T E e, come in D are subjunctives dependent on for, in order that he may come, the subject not being expressed because of him in the principal clause; see 6/18: for . . . cumen in L could have the same meaning, comp. ‘for lesen’ 40/180, 182, but a subject is needed for is. For with the subjunctive is not common, but see NED. iv. 412, 340 col. 3; in this use it descends from for þǣm þæt. J has Wiþ þat he myhte to heouene cumen. In Te þis = þe is; D has þet is, E þat is heuenriche. For mid iwisse, see 32/40.

155. ꝥ . . . of: see 1/3.

157. eþe: so E e D; J M omit; sore T is isolated, but J reads ⁊ sore vs of-drede.

158. he: in L only: the others agree with T: al is in L T only.

159, 160. þer men, wherein men. stelen . . . helen change places in T M only. wruȝen . . . ⁊ helen: the combination is formal; comp. ‘ase þe uikelares wreoð ⁊ helieð,’ AR 88/18; a reminiscence of ‘quoadusque veniat Dominus, qui et illuminabit abscondita tenebrarum et manifestabit consilia cordium’, 1 Cor. iv. 5.

162. riche: so J only; heiȝe E; heȝe e D M.

164 T. to þe: a mistake which has probably arisen out of an original þo: efning is constructed with wið.

163-166. Not in J. After scal E has þei, e þeh, D þeð, T þeih, nevertheless.

164. ofþincþ: see 30/10 note. The subject of bet is he, as implied by him preceding.

165. scameþ . . . gromeð: comp. ‘Teonen þolien ⁊ gromen ⁊ schomen umbe stunde,’ HM 7/8, and for the corresponding nouns in the next line, ‘Þu vs hauest iwroht þes schome. | And alle þene eche grome,’ OEM 83/334, 5; ‘Me to sorge, scaðe and same,’ GE 302; OEH ii. 173/13, 14, 23.

166. þo þre: so D þoðre, but þe oþre E e M. oft: e D M agree with T; but E has, þat sculle beon forlorene.

167, 168. Comp. ‘Ia ne porrat nuls dire ke il seit enganez | En tant com li oil clot serrat li plaiz finez,’ Guischart 444, 5.

168. mene, with him reflexive, complain; comp. ‘þat he ne mahte nanes weis | meanen him of wohe,’ SK 1235, 6. D has bimene; comp. ‘Men hem bimenin of litel trewthe,’ Rel. Ant. ii. 121/11. At 196/663, 205/280 it has the more usual sense, with reflexive, of bemoan. strengþe . . . wronge: comp. 19/48-51, 32/48-50, 44/256: the perversion of justice by bribed or overawed judges is a common theme in the literature of the time; see Wright, Political Songs, pp. 224-30. strengþe, violence, has usually a determining adjective in this sense, as ‘nawt wið luðer strencðe,’ SK 1234; ‘liste ne luðer strengðe,’ id. 1516, but see 60/18.

170. uuele holden, handled, treated, hardly; comp. ‘and heom heold swa harde; ⁊ mid hærme heom igrette,’ L 29937, 8. redde: a mistake 341 for rerde, as in E; the others have arerde, set up, instituted; comp. 15/80, 85.

171. ec: Ac E; End e; ech D; Euerich M. 171, 172 are not in J.

176, 178. forð mid: see 1/19.

177. habbeð doules were: nabbeð god idon E e: comp. 44/254.

178. grunde: comp. 46/295; ‘alesde us of helle grunde,’ OEH i. 19/8; ‘al forloren into helle grunde,’ id. 21/35; see also 119/82. For faren forð mid, E e have, falle swiþe raþe.

179. are: ore E J D. The text means, ever without mercy and without end, but Lewin confusing ore with orde as in ‘Wiþþutenn ord ⁊ ende,’ Orm 234/6775, translates ‘ohne Anfang und Ende.’ e reads á ⁊ buten ende.

180. gate: dure E e J D; M omits. for lesen: for lese e; the others have to. The infinitive of purpose with for is uncommon, comp. 173/409.

181. sullic, wonder. wa . . . uneade, OE. unēaðe, are historically adverbs, lit. though to them it be wofully and grievously; bet, wwrs, &c., are used in the same construction; see 46/289: comp. with uneade, ‘þer fore hire wes uneðe,’ L 4503; ‘an heorte him wes unneðe,’ id. 26730. J has, he mawe wunye eþe, they may easily remain there.

182. for lesen: variants as in l. 180, but E for lesen. Comp. ‘Ki deu ne uolt conustre tut serrat cureicus | Il ne morrat ia meis ne por mei ne por uus,’ Guischart 223, 4.

183. helle brec, harrowed hell. ‘The Gospel [of Nicodemus] probably reached the climax of its popularity in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,’ The ME. Harrowing of Hell, ed. Hulme, p. lxviii.

184: Comp. ‘Tant cher nus achatað de sun sanc precius,’ Guischart 220; OEM 49/434, 187/20. hom: hi D; the others, us.

185. mei . . . mei: comp. 30/29, where L has the usual pair, representing OE. mǣge, kinswoman, mǣg, kinsman: mouwe . . . mey E; maȝhe . . . mei e; moȝe . . . meie D; moȝe . . . mei M: but J Nolde hit nomon do for me.

188. bendes: comp. 81/67.

192 T. þar þat, of those who: comp. 1 Cor. vi. 2.

192. ꝥ, because. uuele: harde J D M, meaning hardship; comp. ON. 459, 527. habbeð . . . on honde, have to do with, have to suffer: similar expressions are ‘sorhen heom com on honde,’ L 30428; ‘for al hit trukeð us an hond; ꝥ we to temden,’ id. 16799; ‘and eoden him luðere an hond,’ id. 31265: ‘him for ðissere worulde wel on hand eode,’ Ælf. Lives i. 488/13. For the matter, comp. 183/241, 193/551-2.

193. honde: comp. 56/50: ande e.

342

194. sake: in L only. It means here, guilt, as in ‘Þa lakess mihhtenn clennsenn hemm | Off sakess ⁊ off senness,’ Orm 36/1126, 7. Other similar combinations are ‘sorge, scaðe and same,’ GE 302; ‘sorge and sare,’ Ælf. Lives i. 266/90; ‘swinc and sorwe and deades strif,’ GE 268. With T comp. 42/204, 136/136; ‘on sorhge leofodon and on geswincum,’ Ælf. de Vet. Test. 3/10; ‘labor et dolor,’ Psalm lxxxix. 10. For a watere, &c., see 34/82; on se ⁊ on londe D.

195, 196. Comp. ‘Adam le (i.e. nostre pais) nus tolit e sa fole moiller | E nus ki deaus uenimes lauum conpare chier | En grant cheitiuison mult nus pot en nuier,’ Guischart 695-7. forme: formes E e; uormes D.

197. Comp. 48/323; ‘þurst and hunger · chele and hete · þis beoð stronge pyne,’ OEM 37/9; ‘muchel hunger ⁊ hæte; at æuer ælche monnes ȝete,’ L 20441, 2. helde ⁊ unhelðe: comp. 20/72, 30/14, 48/323, 52/373. But, eche ⁊ al unelþe E; eche · ⁊ eal un helðe e; ache and vnhelþe J; ecðe (= eche) ⁊ al unhelðe D; eche ⁊ unhelþe M, show the original reading: OE. ece, æce, ache.

198. uniselðe: comp. 52/374; 26/256 note. J has vnyselyhþe.

199. unsele: vnhele J; vnvele D.

200. a hele: on hele E e D; myd blysse and myd wele J.

203, 204 T are copied by mistake from ll. 73, 74. As in both cases the lines are at the top of a folio, it may be inferred that the scribe of T was copying a MS. exactly page by page, and that l. 202 completed a gathering in his original with an added catchword Litel; that he, after beginning f 5^a with the catchword, laid aside his work, and on resuming it began at the wrong place. On discovering his mistake he started afresh.

201. lutel—mon: so T J D, it seems a small matter to many a man; but E e omit hit, read iþenchð, iðencð, and hu for ac, many a man little thinks how great, &c.

202. hwam: hwan e; whan M; whon J = for hwǣm, for hwon, why; vor hwy D = for hwȳ; E has for þan. hore must mean Adam and Eve; M reads adammes: but e reads þe, D þo, yet they begin the next line with Heore e, Here D, and J with heore in this line has Vre sunne and vre sor · vs may sore of þunche.

203. ofþinche: see 30/10.

204. sorȝe: see 40/194.

206. eðe: sore E J M.

208. an helle pine &c.: e M go with L; E with T; in pyne ⁊ on vnwunne J.

209. ledden: the other MSS. have the present tense. mid unriht: comp. ‘Ne wurþ þer vnryht ne wrong,’ OEM 143/85.

343

210. buten—do, unless God’s mercy intervene. longe: comp. 48/327, 169/342.

212. bi þan ilke iwichte, by the same measure, i.e. as great as his might; comp. 53/384: ah al by one wyhte J; nis him no þing litlinde, | ac bi emliche wihte D (litlinde, decreasing, see 126/327; emliche, equal). In T 216 mihte is a mistake for milce.

213. ‘Nuls ne pot tant pecher com deus pot parduner,’ Guischart 948.

214. hit bigunne, made a beginning, took the first step, i.e. repentance, hit being indefinite; comp. ‘Li sires est tut prest certes de nus aider | Se il en fust alkun kil uosist comencer,’ Guischart 703, 4. Less probable is, began to show mercy, Einenkel, Anglia iv., Anz. 92. Morris takes bigunne as subjunctive of bigan, to seek for. E reads, it bidde gunne.

218. wallinde: the other MSS. add pich, and have bed instead of bað: see 44/245, 120/104.

219. Comp. ‘Ke plus fait sun servise, plus fait ke maleurous,’ Archiv lxiii. 81/171; ‘Ki plus fait sun plaisir a celui fait il pis,’ Guischart 59; ‘Ki kunques mielz le sert cil ad peines plus granz,’ id. 102; ‘Hec est natura Diaboli, qui semper malefacit amicis suis et non aliis; pessime remunerat illos qui ei seruiunt,’ Eudes de Cheriton 232/7. fulle, utter, deadly: comp. ‘þat is my fulle i-vo,’ OEM 42/174; ‘nawt ane to hare freond, ah to hare fulle fon,’ HM 31/3; 24/202. For frond, E e M have wines; D wine. J omits ll. 219-22. Wurst is adverbial.

220. wih: wihd E; wið e D; fram M.

221. hi = ih, I.

222. þer—feche, might there procure for myself: but E e D M have for þer me, þerinne, þarinne, and D wende for mahte.

223. ꝥ his is a misreading of an original þeh ic, and on is for ou. wise men: comp. ‘De ceo ke io dirrai asez en ai garanz | Les mielz de seinte glise e tuz les plus uaillanz,’ Guischart 9, 10.

224. aboken: comp. ‘Hit is write in þe bok · þer me hit may rede,’ OEM 41/131.

226. unfrome, detriment: unfreme e; unureme M; hearme E; harme J; unwines D.

227. edi men ⁊ arme: comp. ‘Arme ⁊ edie ledin,’ Prov. of Alfred, ed. Skeat 7/39; ‘ne ermne ne eadine,’ OEH i. 115/19. For arme M reads strangely areȝe. ‘Entendez ca uers mei les petiz e les granz,’ Guischart 1.

229. twa uuele: uuele twa e, and similarly the other MSS. iferen in T is certainly the noun, companions, so iueren D and probably iuere in L: in the others ifere, in company.

344

230. maket niþinges, made worthless men, a reading due to the misunderstanding of the compound, as in T and the other MSS., stingy in giving away food: comp. ‘mete custi,’ L 19266. M has, þat were niþinges here.

231. For waning, D has sorinesse; for wow, all MSS. wop; comp. ‘þær nan stefne styreð butan stearc-heard | wop and waning, na wiht elles,’ Be Domes Dæge, 14/200; 2/10. efter eche streche, at every stride, on every hand; comp. 29/14; ‘bið swa mihtles on his modes streche,’ OEH i. 111/25, for the verb, ‘bot inwyth not a fote, | To strech in the strete þou hatȝ no vygour,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 29/969. The other MSS. agree with T: after ache strate, along each road: for after comp. ‘Ðonne licggeað ða giemmas toworpne æfter strætum’ (= dispersi per plateas), Cura Past. 135/4; ‘Al þat verden æfter wæi,’ L 13776. M reads in eueriche strete.

With 232-4 comp. 120/100-2. from hete to hete may mean from one degree of heat to another, but the MSS. agree with T. The last half of the line which is peculiar to L does not mean, ‘and nearly freeze the wretches,’ as Morris translates, but, and each (change) for comfort to the wretches. The construction is probably the same as at 86/125; see 176/24 note: if to frure is a dat. inf., it is the only one in L without final n.

233. blisse: J has here and l. 235, lisse, rest, respite; a word often associated with blisse, as ‘Blisse ⁊ lisse ic sende uppon monnen’, OEH i. 15/2.

234. of—misse, they feel the privation of heat. The verb is also constructed with of, ‘Hwo þat for lyue þisse | þer-of schal mysse,’ OEM 73/34, 5, 87/7, 8; Minot ix. 13 note.

235. hi, heat and cold; the MSS. agree with T. The omission of the subject to nabbeð T 239 is grammatically correct, but the metre requires hie. lisse: T, so E e J M.

236. D reads Niteð hi hwer hi wonieð mest, they know not where they lament most. For mid—wisse, see 32/40.

237. walkeð: not ‘rolls’ as at 2/12; the place in the writer’s mind is ‘Cum immundus spiritus exierit de homine, ambulat per loca inaquosa, quaerens requiem; et non inveniens dicit,’ &c., S. Luke xi. 24.

238. See 32/35.

239. for þi: so J; for hi D; ⁊ hi M, but E has ac þi; e þi, therefore; comp. ‘Ich rede þi þat man bo ȝare,’ ON 860, 1548: ‘þi bileafden heo heore timbrunge,’ OEH i. 93/23.

240, 241. Suggested by ‘Qui enim haesitat similis est fluctui maris, qui 345 a vento movetur et circumfertur,’ S. James i. 6; ‘Vir duplex animo inconstans est in omnibus viis suis,’ id. i. 8. walkeð here seems to mean, rolls, tosses; see 2/12. weri: comp. ‘wery so water in wore,’ Bödd., AE. Dicht. 148/32, said however of stagnant water. For weri J substitutes þar boþe.

241. a þanke: comp. ‘stif he wes on þonke,’ L 2110. For boð, D has seden, for senden. For the last three words J substitutes Mid hwom me heold feste; Morris, thinking it corrupt, conjectures, hwom me ne heold feste, or, me heold vnfeste, whom men considered unsteadfast. But the scribe of J has deliberately substituted for the men of infirm purpose those who fare sumptuously. These are they who in this world were those with whom men feasted.

242. ⁊ þa þe: e reads ⁊ to, which gives the best sense. heste, not often in the sense of promise: auht E; aht e. In T 246, naht has dropped out before ilaste.

243. ful enden: fulendi D; OE. fullendian, finish.

244. witen, went; OE. gewītan: the other MSS. have weren E e D; were J M.

245. e reads, þere is pich ðe æure wealð · þer sculle baðie inne, and so the others, but for þer—inne J has, ꝥ heo schulle habbe þere, and M, þat sculle þe beo inne. See 42/218 and comp. ‘In a bytter baþ | ich schal baþe naked. | Of pych and of brunston | wallynde is i-maked,’ OEM 181/209-12.

246. here: vuel E; uuel e. in werre ⁊ in winne, in war and in strife: the combination is at least rare. M has, mid werre ⁊ mid ywinne. unwinne in T 250, meaning distress, is also a rare word; comp. ‘Sinne me hauiþ in care ibroȝt | broȝt in mochil vnwinne,’ E. E. Poems, 21/5, 6: e has, in feoht end in iginne, where iginne is miswritten for iwinne; E in feoh (= feoht) end in iginne (= iwinne), in fighting and strife; comp. ‘ne bilæfde he næuer nænne; þat heold feht and iwin,’ L 9042, 4, 11522. D reads, in wele ⁊ in senne; J vnwreste · and eke false were.

247. E has ll. 249, 250 before 247, 248. In 251 T þis = þe is.

248. uersc, fresh water; OE. adj. fersc used exclusively of fresh as opposed to salt water. The other MSS. agree with T: nauene strien ne sture E; nauene striem ne sture e; ne auene strém · ne sture J; Hauene stream ne Sture D. There are two places where rivers called Avon and Stour meet, in Warwickshire near Stratford-on-Avon, and in Hampshire near Christchurch.

249. nawiht: nomon J; no þing D.

250. þa þe—lof, those to whom it was too pleasing, those who took too 346 much delight in: ll. 250, 251 may be a reminiscence of the Anarchy; see 7/49, 6/44.

252. Those who had the power to do evil, (and) those (without the power) to whom it was sweet to contemplate it. But the other MSS., except T D, and M which omits the line, agree with E, þo þe ne mihte euel don · ⁊ lef was it to þenche. In T 256 þe does double duty as nom. to mihten, and as dat. to lief; comp. 118/28.

254. ⁊ á · on ðes deofles weorc · bliðeliche swunche e; comp. 40/177; ‘qui laetantur cum malefecerint, et exultant in rebus pessimis,’ Prov. ii. 14.

255. ‘Or ne set lum ki creire tant est fel e muanz,’ Guischart 13. Comp. 7/47.

256. Medierne, greedy of bribes. Comp. 32/48.

257. ꝥ: so þe E e, meaning, he to whom; comp. 161/187: Þe þat J; þo ꝥ D: wes has fallen out after wif.

258. ete: méte J; comp. ‘Inne mete ⁊ inne drinke ic habbe ibeo ouerdede,’ OEM 193/41. A variant is, ‘on hete and on wete,’ OEH i. 101/24; ‘on æte oððe on wæte,’ Ælf. Lives i. 354/270. druken in T 262 is miswritten for drunke (drynce) through confusion with druken 257 (druncen).

259. Who took from the poor man his property, and added it to his store. See 7/51, and comp. ‘leggeþ ine hord,’ OEM 47/364; ‘Vych mon hit scholde legge on hord,’ ON 1224.

260. lutel let of, held in small esteem; comp. 113/45; 143/99; ‘Ac se kyngc let lihtlice of oð ꝥ he com to Englalande,’ AS. Chron. D 211/16; ‘ne lete he nout wel of þet he is Godes ȝerde,’ AR 184/21; ‘þat prophet | þat drightin of sa mikel let,’ CM 9149; ‘þat of his wordus lette pure liht,’ AE Legenden, ed. Horstman, 44/206; ‘he let lutel to þe,’ HM 33/14. For similar expressions see 8/84, 124/264, 129/32, 173/417. borde: comp. 48/307: bode E J D; bibode e; hest M.

261. ⁊—aȝen: End te his aȝen e, and to his own relatives, and similarly in L T D, though the preposition be wanting. J has þeo þat almes, adding as next line, Ne his poure kunesmen · at him ne myhte nouht spede. E has And of his owen nolde ȝiuen.

262. sonde: so E J; sande e: but D agrees with T. In the second half of the line L stands alone, with an easy phrase, when he heard it announced. But E e have preserved the original, þer he sette his beode, nor would listen to God’s messenger, when He spread His table; the reference being to the parable of the marriage feast, S. Matt. xxii. 4, as expounded at 85/84-7. The OE. word bēod, bīed occurs in ‘Þu gearwodest beforan me swiðe bradne beod’ = ‘Parasti in conspectu meo mensam,’ Psalm xxii. 5. The readings of T, of D, þer he set (= sat) at his biede, and 347 of J, þar he sat at his borde, are all corruptions of that original with identical meaning, as in ‘Noldest þu nefre helpen þam orlease wrec[che]n; | Ac þu sete on þine benche, underleid mid þine bolstre,’ Worcest. Frag. C. 25, 26.

263. ꝥ does double duty as dat., to whom, to loure, and as nom., who, to weren in the next line; similarly T: see 44/252. hit: him M; leuere þan beon schulde J.

265. þon þe: þam þe e, both meaning, to those to whom. E has ȝam, miswritten for þam, to whom. J rewrites, ⁊ luueden vntrewnesse · þat heo schulden beon holde; Morris translates þat, in which; it is a mistake for þar, which M reads. Comp. ‘treowe and holde,’ OEM 38/48: the offence is in OE. hlāford-swīcung, Morsbach’s Studien, l. 167. D omits ll. 263-6: J adds after 265, Heo schulleþ wunyen in helle · þe ueondes onwolde.

267. weren . . . abuten, were bent on; see 74/229 note. The other MSS. agree generally with T: ȝysceres E; ȝetseres D; ȝeseres M; gaderares J; witteres e = knowing, wise.

268. hechte to ⁊ tachte, bid and taught (them) to do: hem tihte ⁊ ec tauhte E; heom tihte ⁊ to tehte e; heom tycede and tahte J; ham tichede to ⁊ taðte D; tiȝte do ⁊ tehte M. The original was probably tuhte to ⁊ tehte, instigated and taught. Comp. 127/365; ‘Þe deofel heom tuhte to þan werke,’ OEH i. 121/33.

269. þen: so E e; it = þe en (40/196), in; ꝥ anie wise D; þat in alle wise M; And alle þeo þe myd dusye wise J, in foolish fashion.

270. fordon &c.: comp. ‘fordon ⁊ fordemed,’ SK 427; ‘fordude ant fordemde,’ SM 2/32. Here the Lambeth MS. ends.

271. of ðufte: see 30/10.

273. Comp. generally 76/27-32; 120/95-7. frute, toads: frude E; fruden J D: akin to OWScand. frauðr (Björkman, 76). Frod is a child’s name for a frog in Yorkshire, EDD. ii. 504. NED. iv. 570 quotes from Dives and Pauper, ‘Some man hadde leuer for to mete with a froude or a frogge in the waye than to mete with a knyght or a squyre.’

274. speke: speken E; spekeð J D. niðfulle: ondfulle D.

276. hate: so M; but hete E J D; OE. hete, enmity. eorre: ȝeorre E; herre D; erre M.

277. uuel: muchel J M.

278. swierte leie: comp. 76/17; 119/86-8: þiester leie D.

280. ꝥ beoð þa: comp. 1/10.

281. ateliche . . . eisliche: comp. ‘swo eiseliche and swo ateliche,’ OEH ii. 171/24: J reads ateliche ueondes ⁊ grysliche wyhtes.

348

282. ifon, seize: the other MSS. agree with T: ison E. ðurh sihte: bi sihtes J; mid isiȝte M. NED. explains bi sihtes, by looks or glances. The context rather requires, with open eyes, knowingly, wilfully, but I know no parallel. Comp. Heb. x. 26.

283. Comp. 134/93; ‘sathanas þe cwed,’ OEM 180/213. ealde: ‘serpentem antiquum, qui est diabolus et Satanas,’ Apocal. xx. 2: comp. ‘Se ealde deofol þe is mid andan afylled,’ Ælf. Lives ii. 180/183; ‘For to beon yuonded · of sathanas þen olde,’ OEM 38/28, 76/130; OEH i. 75/30; SK 1184; HM 15/14. belzebud: belsebuc E; belzebuc M: ‘est finalis litera b,’ Catholicon.

285. A common formula; comp. 119/85, 133/48; OEM 173/57-60; AR 144/21.

287. Wið, as regards: it has apparently the same meaning in ‘god heom aredde wið heore ifan,’ OEH i. 87/18, for aredden usually takes of or ut of. E T have of, about: comp. 187/350; J For al.

288. gamen ⁊ gleo, a favourite combination: comp. ‘Iluued ich habbe gomen and gleo,’ OEM 160/33; Minot iv. 57 note.

292 T. of þat, as concerns what; so far as what one may suffer here is concerned.

289, 90. ‘Tut est desespere iceo les par confund | Ke il seuent tres bien ia merci nen aurunt,’ Guischart, 125, 6; CM 23261-4. deð—wa, affects them so wofully, causes them such sorrow: see 40/181: such uses of don are very extensive in ME.; comp. 34/69; ‘don us mare wa on,’ SJ 43/8. naht: noþing J.

290. ꝥ, as that: bute þat E; Ase ꝥ J; swo ꝥ D.

292. þe, to whom. The use of þe as oblique relative is not common in OE.; comp. ‘he sealde his dohtor . . . þæm cyninge . . . þe he ær Æpira rice geseald hæfde,’ Orosius 118/27, where þe is preceded by another dative. It occurs more frequently in EME.: for þe = to whom, see 9/116, 12/13, 139/15; = in which, 113/36; with which, 88/4. Similarly þat is used in various relationships, with which 8/108, possibly 26/259; to whom, Orm 118/3439, HM 5/24; for whom, 21/92, 195/634; against which, 201/144, 218/147. E reads þe heom, to whom; the personal pronoun is given a relative force by the addition of the relative þe; comp. ‘þe holie man iob þe non ne was his efning on eorðe,’ OEH ii. 69/32, whose equal was not on earth: þet . . . hire 117/10 is analogous. J reads þet = to whom; comp. 143/84; D þer naht of godes bode, a hopeless corruption. þe nes naht of, who heeded not: see 8/84 note.

293-6. ‘Quant fustes baptizez de funz regenerez | Ke dunkes premisistes gardez ne li mentez | Ki or nirrad a lui il ert deseritez | Come fel 349 e traitre pus en ert apelez | En destreit serrat mis e a tel ert liurez | Ki nel rendrat pas pus por mil mars dor pesez,’ Guischart 554-9.

294. cristen dom, baptismal vow. heolde, kept; see 48/310.

295. on—grunde: comp. 40/178. J reads anyþe helle grunde: a nyþe is found only here. It may be a preposition formed from an + neoþan (comp. anunder), like beneoþan and with the same meaning; but probably it is for a niþer as in T and D in niþerhelle grunde.

296. ut: so D: but E J vp. ‘Ne porrat morir | n’a merci venir, | senz fin i serat,’ Reimpredigt 34/67. marke: see 34/67, and comp. ‘myd markes and myd punde,’ OEM 89/18.

297. ibede: bene D.

298. D, vor naht hi solden bidde þer | ore ne ȝeuenesse, in agreement with T, in which hi must be supplied from hem in 301: see 6/18. ‘Almones ne ben faiz ne lur profiterunt | Messes ne ureisuns ia certes nes garrunt,’ Guischart 127, 8.

299. of: so E; but T J D M have wiþ, which is normal, as at 304, and for schilden 50/346, 82/121; biwerien 50/334; werien 50/335; biwiten 117/5, 149/168; witen 82/118, 149/170, 178. Less usual are ‘misdon wið’ 6/23 note; ‘loki wit’ 153/56. of, in respect of, as regards; a rare use for, against; comp. ‘uor to warnie wummen of hore fol eien,’ AR 54/26: and note wið interchanging with of, 46/287.

300. þer wið, against it, i.e. hell pine: see 1/3. habbe: wille D; wulle M. With ido T 304 comp. 122/185 note.

302. sceal, must. leche: comp. ‘Of vre louerd ihesu crist · þat is soule leche,’ OEM 51/508. From this place it has been inferred that the writer was a priest with some knowledge of medicine. Perhaps he is only asserting the claim of Christianity to benefit the body as well as the soul, as in 1 Thess. v. 23, and often in Missal and Breviary, ‘mente et corpore pariter expediti,’ &c.

304. we ꝥ: wel, swo D.

306. emcristen: euen cristen J; nexte M; see 26/265. After eal, se has probably dropped out: alse E; as J; swo D; al suo M.

307. Every thing we hear in the services of the Church: comp. ‘Al þet me ret and singeð . . . in halie chirche,’ OEH i. 125/27; ‘al þet holi chirche redeð ant singeð,’ AR 268/9; OEM 91/43. bifore godes borde, at the altar.

308. hanget ⁊ bihalt bi, derive their authority from and depend on. S. Matt. xxii. 40.

311. earueðhealde, difficult to keep; see 12/3. J rewrites, Ah soþ ich hit eu segge · ofte we agulteþ alle.

350

312. strang: see 21/94. lange: veste D. liht, easy: comp. 72/178; ‘All þiss to shæwenn niss nohht lihht | Shorrtliȝ wiþþ fæwe wordess,’ Orm 99/13032, 3: so lihtliche, 50/343, readily.

314. unne: lete J; leue M. bote: see 80/58 note.

315. wele: ayhte J.

316. eal: mest leggeþ vre swynk J; leggeð almest D; muchel M. Comp. 32/57.

318. of: for oft: ofte J D M; E omits. bicherd, misled. bi kehte, ensnared, deceived. But J reads for the latter, vuele by þouhte, saddened by remembrance of our sins: comp. ‘þe man kið him seluen mildhertnesse þe biðencheð on his sinnen,’ OEH ii. 189/5.

319. erminges, miserable mortals: mostly an adj. in ME. as at 76/22, 31. Morris suggested erninges, gains.

320. en: of E J. her ⁊: oþer E J D M.

321-3. Comp. 40/197, 8.

324. of þere, of that: J has þer of.

325. ofte &c.: see 32/47.

327. lange: comp. 42/210; 168/342.

328. J substitutes ⁊ after gode wel wurche · þenne ne þuruue noht kare, and be vigorous in pursuit of good: comp. 30/21, 32/61.

330. Unless we are on our guard, this world will make us drunk: the meaning of fordrenche is fixed by drinche l. 331. adrenche D M, drown. With wurðe . . . iwer, comp. 9/122; with us, 13/34.

331. scenche, draught; OE. scencan, to pour out; comp. KH 369 note. deofles: M reads, of one duole scenche, of a stupefying draught.

332. A man must know how to protect himself well, if it (i.e. the drink) is not to trip him up. See B-T. s.v. screncan. J is defective here; D omits ll. 331, 2.

333. Mid: Vor D. For almihtin, 337 T, see 79/17.

334. ꝥ: þe J; see 13/28. he: he ne E; heo . . . ne J; hi ne D.

335. werie . . . wið: see 48/299.

336. bi ȝiten: in e only; ȝiuen alle mancunne E; and similarly in the other MSS. The text may mean, acquired for mankind.

337. bene, pleasant, agreeable: ‘spatiosa via . . . quae ducit ad perditionem,’ S. Matt. vii. 13. J reads grene, rejecting, as often, the unusual word: comp. ‘the broad way and the green’ of Milton’s sonnet.

338. niȝeðe del, nine-tenths, the great majority: niȝende del D.

339. wei grene: the path to heaven is compared to what is still in some parts called a ‘green road’ or a ‘green way,’ ‘a road over turf 351 between hedges,’ EDD., the ‘unmetalled road’ of the Ordnance maps, because, unlike the highway, it is used by few. J has, þene wey so schene, and in the next line, and þat is wel eþ-sene; M, ⁊ þat is þe worlde on-sene. The last half of T 344 appears to be corrupt.

341. us lað: comp. ‘lað þah him were,’ L 244; 145/106.

342. eal, wholly; but M al hare wil.

343. mid—hulde, along the lower (downward) slope: nuðer E; niðer helde D M. J omits ll. 343-4. mid, in the same direction as, like the modern ‘with the stream.’

344. godliese: gutlease D: the earliest quotation for godless, impious, in NED. is under 1528; words before that time are ranged under goodless, comfortless, worthless. But Mätzner puts examples from SK and HM under the former. Are the cheerless wood and the bare field Virgilian? Aeneas passes by the ‘descensus Averni’ ‘per tacitum nemus’ to the ‘lugentes campi’. bare: brode D.

345. hese: hes E; heste J M; hesne D. ðer: þat J, cognate acc.; comp. ‘I am a man farand þe way,’ CM 3295.

346. ꝥ beoð ða: see 1/10. sculdeð . . . wið: see 48/299: silten D (for silden, shielded); schedeþ wel J, possibly, separate themselves completely, but scheden requires from, 159/153, and in the presence of wið the reading may be regarded as a mistake for schildeþ.

347. ȝeanes: to ȝeanes E; ayeyn J; aȝenes M; D omits ll. 347, 8. Not, ‘along the cliffs,’ but, breasting the steep slope, up the high hill; comp. Milton’s ‘labour up the hill with heavenly truth.’

348. J reads, þeos leteþ awei al heore wil; comp. 157/133. fulle, perform; OE. fyllan: M has felle.

352. ne ðincð &c.: comp. 12/11 (piece v). J substitutes, Wel edy wurþ þilke mon · þat þer byþ vnderuonge.

353. þe lest haueþ murehþe J; Se ꝥ lest haueð blisce D.

354. for ðas, for the bliss of this world.

355. uuel: pyne J; hunger M.

358. In accordance with their deeds here, in proportion to the severity of their effort.

359. este: comp. 17/159.

360. Comp. ‘giueð hem to medes eche lif · ⁊ blisse · ⁊ heuene mid him seluen,’ OEH ii. 67/25; 74/233.

361. fah ne græi: fou ne grei E; fou ne grey J; foȝ ne grei M; D omits ll. 361-2. For the association of the words comp. ‘Ne hedde he none robe · of fowe · ne of gray,’ OEM 39/66; ‘gold · ne seoluer · vouh · ne gray,’ id. 94/28; ‘Monye of þisse riche. | þat werede fouh and grey,’ 352 id. 165/27, 8. In French they are vair (L. varius) and gris, as in ‘jamais ne vestirai vair ne gris ne hermine | n’afulerai mantiel ourle de sabeline, | ne coucerai en lit covert de marterine,’ Le Chevalier au Cygne, in Bartsch & Horning, 349/14-16. OE. fāȝ, fāh, variegated, coloured, is also in ME. an adj., as at 81/82; ‘fah clað,’ L 24653. As a noun it means a variegated or shaded fur, as distinct from one of uniform colour, like græi, which is badger. kuning, rabbit fur, but cuniculus is glossed marderis, i.e. marten, in Fecunda Ratis 450, where it is associated with migale, ermine, which would go better with the general idea of sumptuosity. But marten is in the next line. konyng J; cunig EM.

362. aquierne, squirrel: OE. ācwern, in oldest form ācweorna, Sweet, Oldest E. Texts, 590: ocquerne E; Okerne M; Ne oter ne acquerne J. martres cheole, marten’s throat, explained by Mätzner as throat-piece, collar or boa of marten; but the expression, found here only, is a bad attempt at translating F. gole martrine, fur dyed red, as in ‘ses mantels fu riches et chiers | et fu toz faiz a eschaquiers; | l’uns tavels ert de blanc hermine | et l’altre ert de gole martrine,’ Eneas, 4029-32; a chess-board pattern in white and red. The pelisson of the period was a tunic of fur enclosed between cloths which permitted the red-dyed fur to be seen only at the front edges of the garment. These borders were called goules; comp. ‘Lermes li moillent le menton | E les goles del peliçon,’ Roman de Troie, ed. Constans, 15543-4; ‘Goules de martre, ne vos vuel plus porter,’ Raoul de Cambrai, 6227: the resemblance to the French word for throat has led to the translation here, as to the erroneous explanation of goules, gole, by ‘collet’ in Florence de Rome, 1959; Roman de Thebes, 6375-6. M has simply martrin, OF. martrine, marten’s fur. metheschele in T is for merðes chele, the first element being OE. mearð, marten; it is equivalent to the reading of E e. beuer, &c.: Beuveyr ne sablyne J.

363. sciet: sced E; scete D descend from OE. scīete, scēte, cloth, but scat T; schat M from OE. sceatt, property, money; as in ‘srud and sat,’ GE 795, 881, ‘srud or sat,’ id. 3169. J has, Ne þer ne wurþ ful iwis · worldes wele none. scrud, dress; not ‘shroud.’

365. See 125/291.

367, 368. D omits. na wið uten: noþing ȝit vten E; nowiht wiþ vte J: the latter and T appear to mean, there is nothing wanting to him: e is probably a corruption of na wiht uten, and ȝit in E is miswritten for wit = wið, as ȝihte 380 for wihte.

368. wane: T has the usual construction, as ‘deest mihi pecunia, mê ys fêos wana,’ Ælf. Gram. 202/11; ‘He nis naht fulliche cristene þat (= to 353 whom) is ani wane of þese þrie,’ OEH ii. 15/22; 19/35; in E e wane is an adj. as in ‘ic eom wana of ðâm getele,’ Ælf. Gram. 202/11; 129/23. J has Nis heom nones godes wone.

369. gane, miswritten for wane, misery, the reading of D T; J has wone; E grame.

370. of ðinche: see 30/10. e ends with this line; what follows is from E.

371. treȝe: so D: J has the often-associated teone; comp. 133/61; 24/208 note. ‘La est uie senz mort ki tut tens li durreit,’ Guischart 1255.

373. ulde . . . vnhelðe: see 40/197.

374. sorewe . . . sor: comp. 147/137; ‘mid seorwen and mid seore,’ L 6885; ‘to forswelten isar ⁊ isorhe eauer,’ SJ 79/7; ‘iseien sor ⁊ seoruwe,’ AR 190/15; SK 1164: so too, ‘sorwȝe and sariness,’ VV 19/2; ‘seoruhful ⁊ sori,’ AR 88/12.

375. Seoþþe me dryhten iseo. So J, which cannot mean, ‘Afterwards one shall see the Lord’: probably in Seoþþe lurk Swo þer, and schal has fallen out, as it has in T. swa, even as, more fully in T, swo se; comp. 34/80: D reads, swo ase he is. For omission of the subject in T comp. 6/18 note. mid iwisse: see 32/40. Comp. ‘Kar deus sicum il est tuz tens senz fin uerunt,’ Guischart 117; ‘En l’un qui serat | dampne deu verrat | toztens en present,’ Reimpredigt 54/107.

377-80 are wanting in J. And ðeh, and yet.

378. ði, because. The reading of T, which is supported by D M, gives a better sense.

380. ȝihte, miswritten for wihte; comp. 52/367 note: wiȝte M; rihte D. See 42/212.

381. seon: wite M.

382. icnawen ⁊ iwiten, understand and get to know: iseon and iwyten J; iknowen ⁊ isien D; biknowe ⁊ yseo M. For mihte, J has Milce; M milse.

383. to: þer to D; may luste J. The usual preposition is after, as ‘þa lisste himm affterr fode,’ Orm ii. 39/11333; ‘Aȝȝ lisste himm affterr mare,’ id. i. 356/10220: but comp. 158/168; ‘Hi sete adoun ⁊ ete faste: for hem luste wel þerto,’ Legendary, 223/127. hleste in 387 T is explained in Specimens as a noun, desire: it can only be OE. hlystan, listen, suggested by ‘isien’ in the next line.

384. hali boc: in liue boc D; on lyues bec (MS. bee) iseon J.

385. alle &c.: to alle derlinges J.

386. he: so J D: for oþere J has wordliche.

387. wealded: haueð on wealde D, has in his power, under his rule: see 22/122, 198/40 for the synonymous ‘owen a wold.’

354

388. of him to sene, of seeing him; comp. 124/239 note. sed: so D. OE. sæd, sated, appears to be used here as a noun, for satiety. The adj. is common enough, ‘Ich nam noht giet sad of mine sinnes,’ OEH ii. 75/8; ‘for selden y am sad þet semly forte se,’ Bödd., AE. Dicht. 149/5. ‘Mult porreit estre liez quant deu senz fin uerreit,’ Guischart 1256. J has, Him to seonne murie hit is. In the second half of the line J D agree with T.

389. mere: OE. mǣre, glorious: swete J.

391. oþer: oþre D, both meaning, to another; Ne may nomon hit segge · ne witen myd iwysse J.

392. godes: heuene J. Here D adds, Vten eftin þiderward | mid aldre ȝernuolnesse | ⁊ vorsien þisne midelard | mid his wouernesse. || Ef we vorsieð þis loþe lif | vor heuenriche blisce, | þanne selð us Crist ꝥ eche lif | to medes on ecnesse. Zupitza notes that eftin is for efstin (that is, hasten, OE. efestan), and wouernesse is OE. wǣfernes, pomp, show.

393. rixlet: rixeð D; ricscleþ M; lesteþ J. abuten: buten J D; ay bute M: see 34/85.

394. of: comp. 38/134; 112/11; 132/15: but ‘alesede hem eche deaðe,’ OEH ii. 5/26. Lines 393-4 are echoed in ‘And yef þat eche lif · þat neuere ne haueþ ende. | Hwanne vre soule vnbynd · of lykamlyche bende,’ OEM 53/551, 2. licames: J D M agree with T.

395. ȝyue: lete J; leue M. swilc: swichne D; suicchne M.

396. After this J adds, Bidde we nu leoue freond · yonge and ek olde. | þat he þat þis wryt wrot · his saule beo þer atholde. Amen.; which I take to be a prayer for the scribe himself, not for the composer of the Moral Ode.

IX. ANCRENE WISSE

1. wildernesse: of the world; he has already said, ‘Iþisse wildernesse wende ure Louerdes folc, ase Exode telleð, touward tet eadie lond of Jerusalem . . . ⁊ ȝe, mine leoue sustren, wended bi þen ilke weie toward te heie Jerusalem,’ AR 196/28-30. Comp. ‘alse longe se we iðese westen of þesser woruld wandrið,’ OEH i. 243/3; ‘Claustrales in huius mundi deserto exulantes,’ Alanus de Insulis, 65. þer . . . in, in which; see 1/3: ‘ou vous aleȝ enȝ,’ F.

3. beastes . . . wurmes: The Lion of Pride, the Serpent of Envy, the Unicorn of Wrath, the Bear of Sloth, the Fox of Covetousness, the Swine of Greediness, the Scorpion of Lechery, each with its whelps. The conception comes from S. Jerome, ‘quasi inter scorpiones et colubros incedendum ut . . . iter per insidias saeculi huius et inter venena faciamus possimusque . . . terram repromissionis intrare,’ iv. 796. Comp. also, ‘Per superbiam enim quasi a leonibus lacerantur, per invidiam tanquam viperarum morsu percutiuntur,’ Cesarii Sermo lx, in S. August. v. App. 301 B. It is not in the manner of the Bestiaries, where the lion and the unicorn 378 are types of Christ, though the influence of the Bestiaries is often shown in the AR.

4. ilead . . . to, traced to, classified under; ‘reduci ad,’ M; ‘menee od,’ F.: a rare use; comp. 54/20. seouene: in the older English literature the number is eight; Superbia being followed by Vana Gloria. See Max Förster, Über die Quellen von Ælfric’s Homiliae Catholicae, Berlin, 1892, pp. 47-9 for a good summary of the changes in the lists. seoluen B: so T seluen.

5. streones: ‘hweolpes,’ AR 198/7; ‘engendrures,’ F. vnsteaðeluest: ‘Destable,’ F. literally, unstabled. nis hit &c., is it not the species of Pride called Disobedience? CTN agree with B; the meaning is the same: T reads, nis hit of prude. Jnobedience. Her to falleð sigaldres: M has ‘Jnconstans fides. contra sacram doctrinam. nunc ex superbia inobediencie est: ad hoc pertinent sortilegia.’ The division in Morton is therefore wrong: P has Inobedience ne falleþ it to sigaldrie. ‘Þe vifte hweolp [of þe Liun of Prude] hette Inobedience,’ AR 198/17.

6. Herto falleð, come under this head; comp. ‘alle þe þing ꝥ lust falleþ to,’ AR 52/24, 58/9; ‘⁊ falleð to biȝete,’ SK 24/471. false teolunges, wrongful practices, especially in treatment of the sick by means of herbs gathered with incantations and of other pagan devices; comp. ‘Se cristena mann ðe on ænigre þissere gelicnysse bið gebrocod, and he ðonne his hælðe secan wyle æt unalyfedum tilungum, oððe æt wyrigedum galdrum, oþþe æt ænigum wiccecræfte, ðonne bið he ðam hæðenum mannum gelic,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 474/19-22. These ‘unallowed practices’ are, at the same place, contrasted with ‘true leechcraft,’ the skill of a doctor: comp. ‘uncundelich lechecreft,’ 62/36, and see the Homilia de sacrilegiis, ed. Caspari, ch. iv and notes, for abundant illustrations of these superstitions. Comp. also, for a wider use of teolung, ‘to æghwylcre neode man hæfð on cyricbocum mæssan gesette and tilige man (= let one set to work) georne mid þam . . . þæt is hwene betere, þonne man to wiccan, and to wigleran tilunge (= treatment) sêce æt ænigre neode,’ Wulfstan, 171/7-12 (B-T). Morton translates ‘false reckoning,’ which hardly comes under the head of unsteadfast belief; ‘fals takynges’ P.

7. lefunge o swefne · o nore: this order is peculiar to A. For the Dream Books of mediaeval England see Förster in Archiv cxxi. 33, cxxv. 39, cxxvii. 31. o nore: so BCT; N has on ore ⁊ of swefnes; PV have nothing corresponding; M is vague, ‘ad hoc pertinent sortilegia · ⁊ quecunque infidelitas · credere sompniis · ⁊ huius modi’: in F the place is at the damaged top of the folio; it has, apparently, ‘credence en estrenies en songes ⁊ toutes manieres de sorceries.’ ore cannot represent OE. ār, 379 which has no meaning like luck, nor can it be connected with L. augurium, the contemporary French form of which is eür. I think it is F. oré, favourable weather, favourable occasion, as in ‘Nos n’avrons ja tens ne oré | Desci que li vienge a plaisir,’ Roman de Troye 5952, 3: the particular form of ‘unsteadfast belief’ meant being the trusting to the system of favourable and unfavourable days for different kinds of work &c., embodied in such books as the Calendar printed in M. L. Review, ii. 212-22, where it is stated that the first day of the month is good for beginning a piece of work, the second for marrying, the third is a bad day for taking up one’s abode in a town, and so on (for the literature see Archiv cx. 352). The collection in Caspari’s note on § 12 of the Homilia already cited shows that the superstition was often attacked in sermons as pagan; he quotes ‘Nullus Christianus observet, qua die de domo exeat, vel qua die revertatur, quia omnes dies Deus fecit; nullus ad inchoandum opus diem . . . attendat,’ Pseudoaug. Sermo cclxxviii. Comp. ‘time,’ OEH ii. 11/13 and VV 27/22-29.

8. heaued sunne: Orm’s ‘hæfedd sunne,’ 98/2728; peccatum capitale: ‘cum mortali peccato,’ M. Comp. ‘Nu syndon eahta heafod leahtras,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 354/267.

9. ‘þe ueorðe [hweolp of þe Liun of Prude] is Presumptio,’ AR 198/14.

10. ȝemeles: so BPV, negligent, adj. for noun, negligence, carelessness: N has the noun ȝemeleste; C scheomeles. under, classified under the head of: ‘þe seoueðe [hweolp of þe Bore of heui Slouhðe] is Gemeleaschipe,’ AR 202/13.

11. For uuel C has lure: NT have incorrectly lure for biȝete; so in M, ‘Qui non premunit alium de dampno uel incommodo.’ Not to warn a man against something hurtful is slothful negligence; not to apprise him of something to his advantage is venomous envy. The sins are different and come under different heads. The first half of the sentence is in effect hypothetical, and equivalent to, if a man does not warn &c.; so 54/21; 66/120, and F, ‘Ki ne garnist altre de son mal ou de son gaig[ne]; nest ceo perescouse negligence ou venimouse envie.’

12. For slaw ȝemeles C has slauðe scheomelese. teoheði mis: Contrast ‘rihtliche teðien,’ OEH ii. 215/32; ‘giuen rihte tiðinge,’ id. 129/32; ‘theoþe ryht vnder his honde,’ OEM 77/149. teouðen C; tiheðe T; Mis iteoðeged N, the being mistithed; a remarkable use of the participle; ‘male decimare,’ M; ‘mes doner,’ F, a vague expression, which looks like a translator’s failure. How S. Gilbert once dealt with a ‘mistither’ may be read in his life, printed in Dugdale, vi., pt. ii., p. *vii. mis is aphetic for amiss, wrongly; comp. 56/48.

380

13. edhalden: edhalde C; OE. oþhealden, withhold; so at 64/73: comp. ‘Lante ⁊ thyng me was taght | I held ouer-lang as i noght aght,’ CM 28398. oðer—mis fearen, or treat badly, is peculiar to A.

14. ȝisceunge: ‘Þe Vox of ȝiscunge haueð þeos hweolpes: Tricherie ⁊ Gile, Þeofðe, Reflac,’ AR 202/18. ⁊ anes cunnes is peculiar to A.

15. strong reaflac: ‘rapina,’ M. hwa—mei, if one is able to pay it: peculiar to A. þe—ȝisceunge: ‘species cupiditatis,’ M; ‘qi est desouȝ couoitise,’ F.

16. It is sinful ‘biseon ȝemeleasliche eni þing þe me mide uareð, oðer ouhte to ȝemen,’ AR 344/6.

17. þen—hit, than the owner of it thinks right: M has here prius for peius. ȝemeles of slawðe, negligence, a subdivision of Sloth. The author has already classified under Gemeleaschipe, ‘miswiten ei þing þet heo haueð to witene,’ AR 202/14. C reads scheomeles of slauðe.

18. alswa is dusi: alswa · idusi C: apparently OE. gedysig. longe—unbischpet: ‘diu esse sine confirmacione,’ M.

19. falsliche, insincerely. abiden, put it off: N connects it with what follows by reading uorte for ne.

21. moder: so he writes of the ‘seoue moder sunnen,’ AR 216/21.

23. istreonede, pp. as noun: ꝥ te istreonede T; ꝥ þe streonede C. strong monslaht: ‘fort homicide,’ F; ‘homicidium,’ M.

24. galnesse: comp. ‘þe Scorpiun of Lecherie; þet is, of golnesse,’ AR 204/15. awakenet, originated; comp. 64/61, 66/91, 143/70; AR 44/9, 220/9; HM 27/8, 31/5; ‘woden . . . whence first awoke the West-Saxon bloud royall,’ L’isle, Divers Ancient Monuments, sig. f 3 v. of galnesse awakenet are not represented in M, though necessary to the argument.

25. nomeliche, particular, proper; exceptionally an adj. here; in l. 27, as usually, an adv. corresponding to OE. namcūþlīce; comp. ‘ne ne muhte, ase ich wene, mide none muðe nomeliche nemen ham,’ AR 226/6. ‘touȝ peccheȝ seueralment par lour propre nouns; ne porreit nul hom contier,’ F.

26. beoð bilokene: ‘includuntur,’ M: comp. ‘Auh ine þeo þet beoð her etforen iseid alle þeo oðre beoð bilokene,’ AR 226/7. ilokene CT.

27. understonden him, perceive; see 13/34 note and comp. ‘þenne aȝe we to understonden us | from alle uuele he scal blecen us,’ OEH i. 57/63, 64; ‘Peter · anon þer after · hyne vnderstod · | Hwat his louerd hedde iseyd,’ OEM 45/297, 8. of: the genitive of the thing perceived is found in OE., ‘ðe hiora ðeninga cuðen understondan,’ Cura Past. 3/4.

28. imeane, ‘general heads,’ Morton, evidently taking it for the adj. 381 used as a noun: it seems better to regard it as the adv. generaliter, referring each species of sin to its genus. T omits; B alters by inserting þat, which I indicate. ‘Nec est aliquis ut puto qui [non] possit intelligere suum peccatum sub aliquo predictorum contineri,’ M.

29. anlich: comp. ‘he (S. John Baptist) . . . wende into onliche stude iðe wildernesse,’ AR 160/7. þe—for donne: nothing corresponding in M. for fearinde: forð farinde CT; uorðfarinde N; ‘passanȝ,’ F.

31. hehe . . . iheortet: comp. ‘ase of prude; of great heorte; oðer of heih heorte,’ AR 342/24. hehe, adverb; LWS. hēage, comp. 68/142. ouerhohe: ouerhoȝe C; ouer hehe T; ouer heie N. Apparently they all mean, too loftily; the forms with o may be due to the influence of ouerhowien (comp. 28/323): ouerhowe, contempt, occurs as a noun, ‘ouerhowe of eorðliche þinges,’ AR 276/3, HM 43/4 (comp. OE. oferhoga, a contemner): for hehe in B is corrupt. M has ‘elatos corde.’

32. iþonket: iþonked C; iðoncked N, is explained as a new formation from iþanc, OE. geþanc, thought, thus meaning thoughted, but the versions connected it with þankien, OE. þancian, ‘Serpens uenenosus inuidos ⁊ ingratos,’ M; ‘La venimouse serpente lenuious ⁊ ceauȝ qe sunt de male voluntee vers lour bienfetours,’ F. T has ‘þe ondfule ⁊ te luðere iþohtet: ꝥ beon malicius ⁊ luðere aȝain oðere’; luþere J·hertet V. The unicorn stands for Pride, not Anger, in the patristic literature; comp. Cohn, Zur literarischen Geschichte des Einhorns, ii. 8.

33. o rawe, in their order, in succession. to—isleine: ‘Interfecti quo ad deum,’ M; ‘qant a dieu; il sunt tueȝ,’ F. Comp. ‘mest al þe world, þet is gostliche isleien mid deadliche sunnen,’ AR 156/9.

34. hond, control: the MSS., except V which has warde, agree with B: ‘in eius excercitu,’ M; ‘de sa meignee,’ F. of: comp. 56/48; a locative use = in.

35. falleð, is proper to, is in accordance with his nature; comp. 54/6: ‘quilibet de officio ad se pertinente,’ M, ‘qe a lui apent,’ F.

36. draheð wind: the germ of this comparison is possibly, ‘Qui inflantur superbia, vento pascuntur,’ Isidore vi. 241/4. Comp. also, ‘Dominus cuidam heremite ostendit in spiritu tres homines quorum unus in monte excelso trahebat ventum ore aperto . . . Hii sunt vani et superbi homines qui vane glorie ventum attrahunt et multa opera faciunt ut ab hominibus laudentur,’ Jacques de Vitry, ed. Crane, 68/2.

37. hereword: comp. 84/69; ‘don hware þuruh me buð þene kinedom of heouene, ⁊ sulleð hit for a windes puf of wor[l]des hereword; of monnes heriunge,’ AR 148/2; OEH ii. 83/20; ‘vent de veyn glorie,’ Bozon 89/25. idel ȝelp: comp. ‘Se seofoða leahter is iactantia gecweden | þæt is ydel 382 gylp on ængliscre spræce,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 356/300; OEH i. 103/29; VV 5/20; Orm 10/391; SK 470.

38. orhel, pride: so T; oreȝel C; horel N; gle P; craft V; ‘pompose melodie,’ F, confusing it with orgel, organ.

39. o—world, in four quarters of the world: comp. ‘æt þissum feower endum middangeardes,’ BH i. 95/13; ‘þenne sculen engles mid bemen blauwen on fower halue þe world,’ OEH i. 143/18. As to the form of the expression, N reads, a uour halue þe worlde; P, on foure half þe werlde; all the other MSS. have uninflected half and world (word B), and omit of. For the ellipsis compare the similar construction of side: half apparently follows the analogy of pound and similar words of measure.

40. grurefule . . . grisliche: see 120/95. Ariseð: see 58/77.

42. iborhen: iboreȝen C; iboruwen N; iburhen T; ‘saluabitur,’ M.

43. inohreaðe: a favourite word with our author, comp. 62/41; 143/74, and not found outside AR and the group associated with it. It means literally, quite quickly, quite readily, but in AR it is mostly a sentence adverb meaning, quite possibly, probably; comp. ‘ant so ofte inouhreðe ne dest tu hit nout i rihte time,’ AR 270/6. inochraðe C; inohraðe T: ‘parauenture,’ F. dimluker: of this comparative, descending from an OE. *dimlīce, there does not appear to be any other example: for the termination see 125/270. Elsewhere in ME. dim is used of the voice. ‘minus sonarent,’ M; ‘plus coiement sonereient lour busme,’ F.

44. Jeremie: sein Jerem’ T; sein Jerome C. solitarius: ‘assuetus in solitudine,’ Jer. ii. 24. M has ‘Onager in desiderio . . . sui ·i· vane glorie.’ T omits sui.

45, 46. N, apparently puzzled by seið ABCT, remodels, Of þeo ðet draweð wind inward uor luue of hereword · seið ieremie; ase ich er seide. The other MSS. agree with A, but T has prud for wind, and C omits in. seið, means; ‘And seið syon ase muchel on englische leodene ase heh sihðe,’ HM 5/6. P omits seið—seide.

47. iuglurs: joculatores, called ‘menestraus,’ AR 84/11; ‘nebulones,’ W. of Malmesbury, ii. 438, were usually a combination of minstrel, storyteller, tumbler and buffoon, but those in the text are limited in their means of making mirth.

48. makien—ehnen, pull faces, twist their mouths awry, look obliquely with their eyes: ‘mutare uultum. curuare os. obliquare oculos,’ M; ‘faire cheres besturner la bouche ⁊ trestourner les eoilȝ delesclent,’ F. schulen, schuleð, l. 53, are found only in this passage: OE. (be) scȳlan; dialectic sheyle, shyle. T has schuldi (? through confusion with scyldan), but sculeð at l. 53: P, sculleh (for scullen, scowl); V, staren.

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49. seruið: comp. with this and the following paragraphs a passage from an anonymous sermon of the fourteenth century, ‘Nota quam bonos (servos) habet diabolus qui ad nutum sibi obediunt, imo qui nutum eius praeveniunt. Habet suos ioculatores, scilicet lascivos; suos traiectores qui trahunt de sacco plus quam sit in sacco, omnes male iudicantes et maledicos; suos thesaurarios, omnes avaros; suos gladiatores, omnes contentiosos; suos advocatos, omnes detractores; suos insidiatores, omnes invidos; suos latrinarios, omnes gulosos; et sic de aliis. Certe periculosum est servire tali domino,’ Hauréau, Notices, iv. 101. bringen o lahtre, induce to laugh; a curious expression, which seems to be without parallel: ‘ut ad risum prouocet,’ M, ‘pur mettre en risee,’ F.

50 B. liki is a scribe’s mistake for loki. Comp. ‘Riht so hit farþ bi þan ungode | Þat nouht ne isyhþ to none gode,’ ON 245, 6.

51. þider: þiderwart C; þiderward N. riht—heorte: comp. ‘þa eagan minre heortan,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 28/425, 38/559; ‘mid þe eȝene of his horte,’ OEH i. 157/28, 203/11; ‘Ablinde þe heorte, heo is eð ouercumen,’ AR 62/10, 90/22, 178/16; ‘opene to vnderstonde þe ehne of þin heorte,’ HM 3/15; ‘espiritel sacrement | Ke nus od le oil de cuer ueum,’ Adgar, 175/283. See also 115/119, and comp. ‘lay to the eere of thy herte,’ Rule of St. Benet, 1/3. For ehe C has echȝe. winkið: the writer had perhaps in mind, ‘Annuens oculo fabricat iniqua . . . novissime autem pervertet os suum, et in verbis tuis dabit scandalum,’ Ecclus. xxvii. 25, 26.

52. o ꝥ half: on C; oþere half N. He closes the eye which looks in the direction of the good deed: ‘Sed ex parte illa conniuent oclis,’ M. The readings of the passage which follows are, ⁊ bi halt o luft · ȝef þer is eawet to edwiten oðer · ladliche þiderwart schuleð wið eiðer · C; ⁊ biholdeð oluft ⁊ asquint · ⁊ ȝif þer is out to eadwiten · oðer lodlich; þiderward heo schuleð mid eiðer eien · N; ⁊ bihaldeð oluf ȝif þer is eyt to edwiten · oðer loken laðliche þiderward · sculeð mid eiðer hwen &c. T. A means, turn away their unclosed eye to the left and suspiciously try to pick holes in the good, or else they scowl wickedly at it with both eyes. BCV seem to have lost an infinitive after oþer. In N lodlich agrees with out. M has ‘⁊ quasi a sinistris vident · si quid sit ibi quod reprehendant · uel displicenter se habent’: F ‘regardent del senestre sil i ad rien qe reprouer ou laid cele part regardent en esclench · dautre part qant il oient le bien,’ &c. o luft, on the left side, askance, an expression of suspicion, Milton’s ‘squint suspicion,’ Comus 413, or of incredulity as to the genuineness of the good deed. But ‘ibi’ in M suggests another explanation; he looks in another direction to see if he can there find something else to find fault with.

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53. skleatteð—adun, slaps down the flaps of his ears: scletteð C; sleateð N; sclattes T; ‘deprimunt aures,’ M.

54. lust, hearing; ‘auditus’ M: OE. hlyst. C has luft, and F accordingly ‘Mes la senestre enqore al mal est touȝ iours ouerte.’ T has luf and P loue. In 53 B ea may be miswritten for aa, ever.

55. After muð, CNV add mis.

56. lastunge: so CN; ‘ampliori detractacione,’ M; leasinge T; sustenynge V, due to confusion with lasten, endure: ‘par plus entoccher,’ F.

58. eateliche: atterluche T; no adj. in P. ageasten: glopnen T; rapelich glutten P, the former word due to reading ȝet as ȝer. There is an OWScand. glúpna, to be surprised, but Björkman (241) thinks a Scand. origin of the English word doubtful. Comp. the modern dialectic gloppen in the North and North Midland; glottened, startled, is also recorded for Shropshire.

59. niuelin: niuelen CNT; nyuelen V; P omits: probably means to snuffle: M has ‘gement’; F, no equivalent: is possibly a form of snivel, and is recorded in EDD. for Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, to turn up the nose in disdain. makien sur semblant, wear a rueful countenance: comp. 117/19; ‘ȝif þu makest ei semblaunt,’ AR 90/18: loþly semblaunt P; ‘frunt vn egre semblant,’ F.

61. hond: ham T.

62. makien grim chere: comp. ‘niuelen ⁊ makien sure ⁊ grimme chere,’ AR 240/4; ‘makeð hire ueire cheres,’ id. 218/11. M has ‘quia prius discunt officium suum · ut facia[n]t horribilem’ [uultum].

63. skirmeð: Master Walter Leskirmissour, who performed before Edward the First at Whitsuntide 1306, was, no doubt, an artist of this sort. A picture of one who is keeping three knives and three balls going in the air may be seen reproduced in Strutt, Horda Angelcynnan, i. plate 19. ⁊: BC omit.

64. warpere: so C; worpere N; castere T. M has ‘Iracundus coram diabolo pungnat ut pugil · cum cultellus est protector cultellorum’; his original had probably cultellis, and projector; possibly protector represents a mistake, warde, or wardere.

65. eiðer beoð: eiðer baðe ha beoð C, with same meaning.

66. he . . . him . . . he: ho . . . hire . . . ho T, and so hire for him in the next three lines. warpeð: so C; warpes T; worpeð N. from: frommard N; see 77/63 note. skirmeð, directs, aims: ‘impungnat,’ M. P has kerueþ.

67. eawles, hooks; comp. 120/126: used of the torturer’s hook, SK 2178; SM 6/28; the ‘īsen hoc’ of BH 43/25. In Ælf. Gloss. 316/6 385 āwul glosses L. fascinula (= fuscinula), the Vulgate word at 1 Sam. ii. 14, which is a diminutive of fuscina, ‘quoddam instrumentum ferreum . . . quo vtuntur . . . piscatores ad pisces capiendos, coci ad carnes extrahendas de caldario,’ Catholicon. F has ‘crochouns’; M ‘cum creagris’: creagra (= κρεάγρα), fleshhook, occurs in the Vulgate at 2 Paralip. iv. 11, 16. Similarly, ‘And when þai hadde on hym ylayd | Her scharpe hokes al þo | It was in a sori playd | Ytoiled boþe to ⁊ fro,’ Desputisoun, ed. Linow, 56/477.

67-69. skirmi—ut: M has dimicabunt for pleien; but otherwise nothing corresponding to this passage: F ‘ietterunt, lun vers laltre; sicome pesce de policon ⁊ despeies denfer le percerunt parmi.’

68. dusten, fling; a word characteristic of the group SK, SJ, SM; comp. 120/127: dunchen P, push, strike. pilche clut, rag of a pilch, whether that means a garment of fur or skin, or the nether garment of an infant: but the latter meaning is not evidenced till the seventeenth century.

69. asneasen: snesen C; sneasin T; alsnesien N; stingen V; pierce: OE. āsnǣsan. For ꝥ see 1/10 note.

72. tutel, mouth: the word, which occurs only in AR, descends from a Teutonic root, meaning something projecting, comp. Franck, s.v. Tuit; in its English use it has acquired a derivative meaning like its O. French congener tuel, tuelet, pipe, passage: comp. ‘þe veond of helle . . . went þurh þe tutel ꝥ is euer open into þe heorte,’ AR 74/7, ‘ȝeoniinde tuteles,’ (= aures prurientes) 80/15. For the verb tuteleð, whispers, comp. 64/88; ‘þinne tutelinde muð,’ AR 106/28; ‘garulat ei quicquit uult,’ M. For eare C has arm.

73. hwam se: se C. idel of god, not occupied in good; comp. 64/87; ‘uol of zennes, and ydel of alle guode,’ Ayenbite, 131/12; ‘ydel of guode workes,’ id. 218/20: the construction with of is rare; Wiclif has from: ‘huclif (read hucsif) de bien faire,’ F; ‘ociosis,’ M.

74. underueð: underfeð C; underuoð N; vndertakes T; vnderfongeþ P; vnderuongeþ V: underweng B is no doubt for underuengþ. ȝemeles: C has scheomeles corrected into ȝemeles. is þes: is tis T; is wel C.

75. bearnes: so C; barnes V: but bermes N; barm T; barme P: ‘le dormir al filz del diable ⁊ a la fille,’ F; ‘Ocium ⁊ negligencia ⁊ somnus sunt pueri diaboli,’ M, surely a translator’s mistake. For abreiden T has abreien.

76. wontreaðe: comp. 121/129, 143/96: wṛontrede C; wondrede N; wandreðe T: OWScand. vandrǽði (Björkman, 92, 290). V substitutes serwen: P for this and the next word, wonderlich.

77. echeliche: so T; ateliche CN; ferfulliche V. M has nothing corresponding to ⁊—wakien: F ‘en la meseise denfer pardurablement 386 veillera,’ but no Latin quotation. Surgite &c.: all the MSS. agree with B in this quotation. Part of it is in S. Jerome, ‘Semper tuba illa terribilis vestris perstrepet auribus, Surgite mortui, venite ad iudicium,’ ed. Martianay, 1706, v. 438; also in Alanus, ‘Vos qui iacetis in sepulchris surgite et occurrite ad iudicium salvatoris,’ 63 b.

79. Þe—esken: the readings are, Þe giscere is his eskebach fareð abuten esken C; Þe ȝiscere is his askebaðe · fares abuten askes T; Þe ȝiscare is þes feondes askebaðie ⁊ lið euer iþen asken · ⁊ fareð abuten asken N; Þe couetous mon · is þe fendes askebaþi · ffareþ abouten asken V; Þe coueitouse man haþ swich a bay þat he liþ euere in þe askes ⁊ askes al abouten hym P. askebaðe is a Scandinavian word, meaning one who bathes or sits in ashes, similar are Danish askefis, blower in ashes, askepot, wallower in ashes (Björkman, 135, 6), and the English dialectal ashypet. feareð abuten esken, is busy with ashes: the usual prep. is with; comp. 5/6. The form of the expression agrees with 56/36, 58/92, and contrasts with the vague ‘Cupidi est officium cineres congregare · cumulare ⁊ cumulos multiplicare’ M: F has ‘Li couoitous en son despit enfant qest touȝ iours entour la ceindre ⁊ ententiuement sentremette damonceiller la ceindre ensemble a granȝ ⁊ plusours monceals,’ where despit is probably a mistake for esperit and qest for gist; the passage looks like a translation of an original wrongly read as, þe ȝiscere in his estre babe lið euer abuten asken.

80. ruken, heaps: probably a Scandinavian word (Björkman, 252): used in this sense still in North and North-Midland dialects.

81. peaðereð, pokes, stirs up: paðereð CN; puðeres T; poþereþ P; Piþeriþ V. A word of obscure origin: potter, pother, of same meaning, represent it in modern Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialects: ‘palpat ⁊ planat,’ M; ‘Trestourne la cendre de fusiaus,’ F. augrim: ‘algorismi,’ M; arithmetic.

82. canges, fool’s: for the word, which is characteristic of the AR, SK, HM group, see Björkman, 290, note 4. T substitutes askebaðes. P reads conions; F has ‘cangon.’

84. After wis mon T adds ⁊ wummon, and for eorðlich T has worldlich.

85. ahte appears to have been repeated by mistake from the foregoing. ablendeð, probably from ‘Quid aliud detrahentes faciunt, nisi in pulverem sufflant, atque in oculos suos terram excitant,’ S. Gregorii Opera, ii. 193.

86. bolheð, inflates: boleȝeð C; boluweð N; bolhes T; bolneþ P; bloweþ V. M strangely, ‘excecant (i.e. cineres) insufflantem ⁊ inflant’: F ‘Cest qi se enfle par eus en orgoil de queor.’

387

87. mare—neodeð belongs to ethalt: T has mare þen hire nedes.

88. wurðen him, become for him; ‘vertetur,’ M. T has hire, and similarly twice in the next line. tadden: frouden P; see 46/273. ba: boðe N; Baðe T.

89. hwitel: whittel P; OE. hwītel is usually a mantle, cloak; the sense here accords better with Icel. hvítill; it means a blanket spread over the bed straw to lie on. So the poor man in Piers Plowman has a too short ‘substratum,’ ‘when he streyneþ hym to strecche · þe straw is hus whitel,’ C 284/76; Walter of Henley quotes as an English proverb, ‘wo þat strechet forþerre þan his wytel wyle reche, in þe straue his fet he mot streche,’ Husbandry 4/6. ‘de vermibus erit tam coopertorium quam substratorium,’ M; ‘son couertour ⁊ sa coilte,’ F; coilte meaning mattress. The reading of N, his kurtel ⁊ his kuuertur, spoils the meaning.

90. Subter &c.: Isa. xiv. 11; the Vulgate has erunt vermes.

92. For manciple M has mancipium, which may = manceps, purveyor. ah: Uor N: TP omit.

94. neppes, drinking cups, but Morton translates ‘table cloth.’ nepp C; neppe N; nappes TP; cuppe V; ‘ciphis,’ M; ‘hanaps,’ F. crohhe: so T; crochȝe C; OE. crōh: crocke NPV; OE. crocca: ‘urceolo,’ M; ‘poot,’ F.

95. bismuddet: so BT, a form found here only; comp. ‘smod,’ stain, E. E. Allit. Poems, 59/711: bismotted V, from be + smot; both words mean besmutted, smudged. C has bismuðeled, which, with ð for d, appears to be a derivative of *besmud. bismitted N; OE. smittian, to stain; discoloured. bismoked P, grimed with smoke, is a substitution for a less familiar word. bismulret: bismurlet T; bismorlet V point to a *smyrlian from smyrels, ointment: bismeored C; bismeoruwed N; bismured B; bismered P, besmeared, are variant spellings of the same word; OE. besmierwan. ‘perfusus et fedatus,’ M, a colourless expression beside the vigorous English; ‘esmite ⁊ enbroe,’ F. scale: OWScand. skál, bowl (Björkman, 92, 93): schale CP; scoale N; skale T; bolle V.

96. mis wordes, words mispronounced; comp. 62/43 note for another meaning: ‘iargoune paroles corrumpnement,’ F. P omits all from Meaðeleð to fallen. haueð imunt, has an inclination; OE. gemyntan, intend, purpose: the use here is peculiar: þat is in poynt to fallen V; ‘en pensee de cheir,’ F.

98. ‘Ecce servi mei’ &c., Isa. lxv. 13.

99. hungrin: impersonal; comp. 188/390.

100. feorle: apparently for feorli = OE. fǣrlic, sudden; used in ME. for wonder: it may have been suggested by vos confundemini in the 388 next verse: comp. ‘Tamquam prodigium factus sum multis,’ Ps. lxx. 7. But all the MSS. are with B, and F has ‘vous serieȝ la pouture del enemy.’ Quantum &c.: Apocal. xviii. 7. The following Contra &c. is adapted from ‘in poculo, quo miscuit, miscete illi duplum.’ M has the Latin of the text. CN read luctum ⁊ tormentum.

103. kealche: kelche BT; keache C. V has ȝif þou þe kelche þe cuppe. Wallynde bras to drinken, and P ȝiue þe gloton þe coppe · he þat wil euere drynk · Coppe in glotonye ȝiue hym wellande bras to drinken, from which it is evident that they regarded kelche as an independent word, perhaps as = OE. celic, cup, used for drinker. But the construction points to a compound, kelche-cuppe, of which the first element must be a verb, perhaps the word which has survived in the Northern dialects as kelch, to throw up, keiltch, an upward lift or push; giving a meaning for the combination of tosspot. M has ‘miscete ei duo. pro cyphatu potus: date ei es candens’; where cyphatus means the man provided with a cup (scyphus). N has gulchecuppe, compound from gulchen, to swallow greedily; comp. ‘ne beo hit neuer so bitter, ne iueleð he hit neuer; auh gulcheð in ȝiuerliche,’ AR 240/2 (gluccheð A; glucches T). wallinde bres: comp. 146/118.

104. swelte inwið, burn within: form from sweltan, to swoon, die, with meaning from swelan, to burn: aswelte wiðinnen N: ‘qil arde tout de denȝ,’ F; M has nothing corresponding to ȝeot—inwið. aȝein &c.: comp. ‘Aȝaines an likinge; habben twa ofþunchunges,’ HM 7/35.