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Title: Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes

Editor: Joseph Hall

Release date: August 25, 2013 [eBook #43555]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTIONS FROM EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH, 1130-1250. PART 2: NOTES ***

This text is the “Notes” volume accompanying Selections from Early Middle English, Project Gutenberg e-text 26413.

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ἅπ. λεγ. (Greek)

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Preface

     I. Worcester Fragments (A)

     I. Worcester Fragments (B, C)

    II. Saint Godric’s Hymns

   III. The Peterborough Chronicle

  IV. Charter of Henry the Second

   V. A Parable

  VI. The Proverbs of Alfred

 VII. Memento Mori

VIII. Poema Morale

  IX. Ancrene Wisse
A. The Seven Deadly Sins
B. The Outer Rule

   X. In Diebus Dominicis

  XI. Hic Dicendum est de Propheta

    XII. Sermons for Palm Sunday and Easter Day

   XIII. Vices and Virtues

  XIV. Laȝamon

   XV. Orm

  XVI. Sawles Warde

 XVII. Saint Katherine

XVIII. The Orison of our Lady

  XIX. Saint Juliana

   XX. The Owl and the Nightingale

  XXI. The Bestiary

 XXII. Genesis and Exodus

XXIII. Kentish Sermons

Thematic Index (added by transcriber)

SELECTIONS FROM
EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
1130-1250

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES
BY
JOSEPH HALL
M.A., Hon. D.Litt., Durham University

PART II: NOTES

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M CM XX

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON   EDINBURGH   GLASGOW   NEW YORK
TORONTO   MELBOURNE   CAPE TOWN   BOMBAY
HUMPHREY MILFORD
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

The order of the vowels in the phonological sections follows Bülbring’s Altenglisches Elementarbuch, that of the consonants, Sievers’ Old English Grammar, translated by Cook. The basis of comparison is Early West Saxon. The object of these sections has been to provide collections for the interpretation of the teacher. In accidence Sievers has been followed generally, but Zupitza’s classification of the strong verbs has been adopted for convenience of use with Bülbring’s Geschichte der Ablaute. In the literature sections books marked with an asterisk are those which the student will find more immediately useful.

This book has been a long time in preparation; it will perhaps help to excuse some lack of uniformity if it be known that a great part of the notes was in type by the end of 1915.

J. H.

Woodstock,

January, 1920.

CORRIGENDA.

225/39. Omit stop after Orm here and elsewhere.

231/1. unseihte represents unsæht

249/8. After &c., add wart 122

250/31. Add wart

253/27. Omit comma after sc͞i

254/20. Dr. Bradley’s restoration in M. L. Review, xii. 73, þa þestreden sona þas landes, appears to me certain.

263/31. wile

266/26. ālīesednesse (but once ālȳsendnesse)

266/27. ā + w

271/13. sǣdon

312/36. After Bodleian add (D)

318/37. gēar

356/1. C 6

396/6. Add with before which

428/14. Add ia in giarked 84

428/38. tōgēanes

457/8. Add hn to n before nap

567/13. nyht, 160/185

Omit stop after Orm
superfluous . (“Orm.”) occurs 21 times in the text. Corrections are not individually noted

254/20. Dr. Bradley’s restoration ...
the reference is to the note for l. 20, i.e. line 16 of the printed page

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.

SM St. Marherete, ed. Cockayne
text unchanged: apparent error for “Margerete”

I. WORCESTER FRAGMENTS

A

Manuscript: Worcester Cathedral Library, 174. It consists of sixty-six leaves of vellum, ‘which had been cut and pasted together to form covers for a book in the Cathedral archives’ (Catalogue of the Chapter Library, ed. Floyer and Hamilton, Oxford, 1906). Its contents are (1) an incomplete copy of Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary, used by Zupitza for his edition of the text (Berlin, 1880); (2) the scrap here marked A; (3) the pieces B and C with five more fragments of the same poem. A completes the page on which the glossary ends, and B is on the verso of the leaf. The leaves have been slightly shorn at one side and reduced at top and bottom, but probably to no great extent: the conjectural complement, which is here printed within square brackets, is for the most part fairly obvious, the more so as portions of the lost letters often remain. The whole MS. is in the same large square hand, but the pieces in verse, which are written continuously, like prose, are less carefully executed. The handwriting is of the second half of the twelfth century, perhaps about 1180 A.D. The Latin headings are not in the MS.

Editions: Phillipps, Sir T., Fragment of Ælfric’s Grammar, &c., London, 1838; Wright, T., Biographia Britannica Literaria, AS. Period, p. 59, 60, London, 1842 (omits the last four lines); Varnhagen, H., Anglia, iii. pp. 423-25.

Phonology: The scribe is mainly faithful to the orthography of his original, which was in Anglo-Saxon script (as is shown by Sipum for Ripum) and older language. He still uses the rune for w. His spelling wavers between old and new, ǣ survives in ilærde, lærden, læreþ, beside e in ilerde, weren; ea persists in wireceastre, but wincæstre, rofecæstre; the inflection is not levelled in leodan, but leoden, hoteþ, losiæþ (æ = e). Drihten represents an OE. form in i; ie is e in derne; ā is o in hoteþ, eo (= o) in leore. OE. æ + g is æi in fæire, fæier, sæiþ; e + g is ei in lorþeines; ēo + h is i in liht; ēa + h, eih in unwreih. Bocare goes back to late OE. bōcre; c is written ch in wisliche; sć [š] is still sc in sceolen.

Accidence: The def. article is s. n. neut. þet 17, 19; s. a. f. þa 5; pl. n. þeo 3, 17; pl. d. þen 19; pl. a. þeo 4. Noteworthy nouns are the mutation pl. bec 7; diȝelnesse, s. a. 5; leoden, pl. n. 3, 18, leodan, pl. a. 15 (weak forms); leore, pl. n. 17. The relatives are þe, þeo 18 (as in L 257, 2999), þet 3: the demonstrative þis, pl. n. neut. 22, þeos, pl. n. m. 15, pl. a. m. 9 (properly a sing. form): possessives, ure 9, 15, 18; heore 16. Glod 16 is a weak preterite beside strong glēow, but the cognate forms in other languages are weak, and this may be a borrowing from the Norse (NED s.v.).

French are questiuns, probably its first appearance, and feþ 23, with its peculiar monophthong (OF. feid in which d was the spirant [ð]); comp. 8/91 note.

Dialect: Middle or Western South.

Metre: Alliterative long line, of somewhat rude construction, without transitional rhymes or assonances. The alliteration extends mostly to two consonants, sometimes to three, as 5, 17; l. 16 is pure syllabic verse. The scribe sometimes misplaced the pause stop, as at 9, and sometimes omitted it.

Introduction: In this scrap, some English patriot laments the wholesale substitution of foreign prelates for English under William the Conqueror. At the end of 1070 A.D. there were only two native bishops, Wulfstan at Worcester and Siward at Rochester. This may point roughly to the time, as the preponderance of names connected with Winchester to the place, of the composition. The absence of the names of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (1002-1016 A.D.) and Archbishop of York (1002-1023), the author of the Homilies; of Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester (872-915), translator of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues; of the later Wulfstan (1062-1095), under whose rule there was great activity in the collection and transcription of Homilies and other literature in English (Keller, W., Die litterarischen Bestrebungen von Worcester in AS. Zeit, p. 64); together with the writer’s ignorance of the North, shows that it was not composed at Worcester. And the mistakes in Sipum 1/11 and heoueshame 1/12 would hardly be made by a Worcester transcriber.

The heading is from Numbers xxvii. 17.

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. 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 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.

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.

Editions: ... London, 1842 (omits the last four lines);
text has : for ;

6. For Aelfric the Abbot see Skeat in E. E. T. S., O. S. 114
E.E.T.S., O.S. without spaces

11. ... Ælfric as revised by Wulfstan
Wulstan: spelling “Wulfstan” used everywhere else

20. ... Contes Moralisés, p. 60
Moralises

B, C

Manuscript: As for A, p. 223.

Editions: Phillipps, as above; Singer, S. W., The Departing Soul’s Address to the Body, London, 1845; Haufe, E., Die Fragmente der Rede der Seele an den Leichnam, Gryphiswaldiae, 1880; Buchholz, R., Die Fragmente der Reden der Seele an den Leichnam, Erlangen, 1889; afterwards enlarged in *Erlanger Beiträge, ii. 6. 1890.

Literature: (1) of the Worcester Fragment. Haufe, E., Anglia, iv. 237 (emendations); Holthausen, F., Anglia, xiv. 321 (emendations); Kaluza, M., Litteraturblatt, ii. 92; *Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxv. 78 (review of Buchholz). (2) of the Desputisoun. Heesch, G., Language and Metre, Kiel, 1884; Holthausen, F., Anglia, Beiblatt, iii. 302; Kaluza, M., Litteraturblatt, xii. 12; *Kunze, O., Critical Text, Berlin, 1892; Linow, W., Erlangen, 1889, edition enlarged in Erlanger Beiträge, i. 1. 1889; Mätzner, E., AE. Sprachproben, i. 90-103; Varnhagen, H., Anglia, ii. 225-52; Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxv. 84. (3) of the Legend in general. *Batiouchkof, Th., Romania, xx. 236; Bruce, J. D., Modern Language Notes, v. col. 385-401; Dudley, Louise, The Egyptian Elements in the Legend of the Body and Soul, Bryn Mawr, 1911; id. An Early Homily on the ‘Body and Soul’ Theme, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, April, 1909; Gaidoz, H., Revue Celtique, x. 463-70; Kleinert, G., Halle, 1880; Paris, Gaston, Romania, ix. 311-14; Varnhagen, H., Anglia, ii. 225, iii. 569; *Zupitza, J., Archiv, xci. 369.

Phonology: For an account dealing with all the seven fragments see Buchholz: what follows is based on the two here printed, with references, where necessary, to his text of the other five.

Oral a is a, so ac, farene, habban: a before nasals usually o, as from, mon, but a in licame (wavering characteristic of the Middle South): a before lengthening groups is o, as honden, imong, longe, psalm-songe. æ is a after w, as was, watere D 12, but nes D 19; otherwise e, as crefte, þene (OE. þænne), þet, but the traditional spelling survives in æt, æfter D 42, goldfæten, igædered, gæderedest (OE. gæderian), þæs, wræcche (OE. wræcca), wrænches G 48 (OE. *wrænc). Messe is a French loan-word. e is regularly e, as bedde, heui, met, þenchen, wel, &c., but i in siggen F 7, siggeþ G 34 (characteristic of South-East and Kent). i is regularly i, as him, nimen, willæn; it is u after w in nulleþ, wulleþ C 35; but i in wihte D 3, nowiht D 19. o is regularly o, as bodeþ, iboren, sorhliche; before nasal, onȝean C 6; after w, woldest D 50, noldest, iwurþen F 46; but a in aȝan C 18. eo is written for o in feorþsiþ. œ (o + i) is eo in seoruhfule, seorhful, seoruhliche, &c., neose. u is regularly u, as biwunden, cumeþ, ful, tunge, &c., but o in iworþen F 45 after w. y is u, as ifulled, ikunde, lutiȝ, sunne, ufel, wunne, wurmes, but y is preserved in synne F 33: iflut 2/30 is Scandinavian, OWScand. flytja; drihtenes 4/33, kinges E 39 descend from OE. forms in i.

ā is normally o, as bon, loc, more, sor, woniende; but a is often preserved as þa 2/18, lac 4/25, mare E 39, wa F 4. eo is written for o in þeo 2/2, greoning, greoneþ; and oa in woaning 2/15, woaneþ 2/25, is an attempt to express graphically the [ao] sound. Þe [ȝet] E 3, 36 occurs twice beside þa, þo. OE. wāwa gives weowe 2/7. ǣ₁ (WG. ai + i) is mostly æ, idæled, tæcheþ, ilærede, and before two consonants, ilæsteþ, æffre; but e in bideled C 32, ilered G 29, ilesteþ, efre D 41, þen (= OE. þǣm) 3/36. It is exceptionally a in þam C 25, facen (OE. fǣcne) G 10, atterne G 17. In bileafen D 6, ea is written for æ. ǣ₂ (WG. ā) is still æ in þær, þærof, wæde, grædie, wære E 28, but commonly e, þerinne, seten, beden, were, misdeden, gredi. a is exceptional in hwar 3/4, 5, 7, 9, 10 (= OE. hwār). ē is usually e, swetnesse, þe, 2/2, me, ne, also before nasals, fenge, icwemdest. ī is normally i, bi, lif, iwiteþ, liþ, hwile, &c., but after w it is u in hwule, swuþe: hwui 4/17 beside hwi D 22 is an attempt to express more fully the sound of w. ō is normally o, to, moder, flore, &c. œ̄ is eo in weopinde 2/10. (OE. wœ̄pan). ū is regularly u, hus, wiþuten, ut, &c. ȳ is u, ifuled, luþerliche, &c.

ea, breaking of a before r + consonant is ea, earfeþsiþ, eart, scearp, æ in ært 4/16, e in ert D 15, scerpe F 29, imerked G 39; no examples of a. It is ea before lengthening cons. groups, earde, bearn. The i-umlaut of ea (WS. ie) is e in all cases, scerpeþ, erming D 18, yerde bidernan F 6. ea, breaking of a before l + cons. is a, alle, also, scalt, wale G 2 (wealh): before lengthening groups normally o, colde, coldeþ, itolde, holden G 32, 45, iwold C 8, isold D 38, monifolde, but e, heldan C 35. The i-umlaut is seen in wældeþ, 4/41. eo, breaking of e before r + consonant, is eo, heorte D 49 and o herborwen C 23: after w also eo, andweorke F 42, OE. handgeweorc, and e, werke D 30: the group weor, in LWS wur, has u, iwurþe F 45, wurþe G 25, unwerþ 4/37, o, beworpen D 12; before lengthening groups eo, yeorne, eorþe C 5. The i-umlaut of eo, which after w had already become y in OE. is here u, wurþest, deorwurþe, wurst D 30, wurþliche G 36. eo before l + consonant gives u in sulfen C 27, suluen F 28 (already sylf in LWS). eo, u-umlaut of e, is eo in heouene; å-umlaut of e is eo in freome, feole, weolen (Bülbring, § 234); u- and å-umlaut of i is eo, seouene, seoþþen. libbe 2/13 is OE. libban. ea, palatal diphthong, is ea, eæ in isceaft F 35, isceæftan; a in schal, scal. ie after g is e, ȝerde, biȝete C 13 (Bülbring, § 151 n.), i in ȝiuen 4/21. eo < WG. o after sc is o in scorteþ, scoldest C 28, but eo in sceoldest G 42. eo < u is u, onscunedest, sculen C 38. OE. heom is heom and ham C 18; eom, eam, am F 14.

ēa is normally ea, deaþ, heafod, bereaued, seaþe E 8, &c., but æ in dædan 3/42, beræfed C 7, sæþe, and e, birefedest G 12. The i-umlaut of ēa is e, alesed, iheren E 26, semdest 4/18, &c. (Bülbring, § 183 n.); and u, huned D 47 (WS. ȳ). ēo is normally eo, beoþ, teoreþ, leoflic, freonden, &c. Its i-umlaut does not occur; deore C 47, neowe C 29, neode F 5, retain eo (Bülbring, § 189, anm. 1). īe is e in isene, E 40; yet C 2.

a + g is usually aw, as in dawes 2/14, gnawen C 42, mawe C 49, but the older deaȝes survives 3/40. æ + g is normally ei, iseid, but isæid G 19, and once dai E 13. e + g is ei, ileide: weile 4/19 may represent OE. weg lā (see Björkman, Scandinavian Loan-Words, 51). OE. ongegn is onȝean C 6, aȝan C 18. o + g is ow, bowe C 4, forhoweþ: o + h, douhter G 31, wrouhte E 16, but wrohten D 25: u + ȝ, fuweles 4/42: y + h, tuhte E 22. ā + g is ow in owen C 45, sidwowes C 30: ā + h is seen in ohtest C 8, ahte E 2, 29 (a survival). ǣ + g is eiȝ, iseiȝe D 8, leiȝe D 11, keiȝe F 16; ei in clei: ǣ + h, aeihte 3/13, bitæiht G 52. ē + g, sweiȝe E 24. ō + g, h, inouh, unifouh D 39, souhte, ibrouht. ū + h is seen in þuþte 3/12 (= þuhte). ea + ht, becomes ei, istreiht, unseihte D 45. eo + h (LWS i) has i in riht; the i-umlaut is represented by besihþ 3/45. ēa + g, eiȝen, heiȝe E 39, but eȝen 3/42 and heie G 40: ēa + h is eih in neih, heih G 42, but þauh G 27. ēo + g, dreiȝen G 6, but driæn 4/36, written for drien, is due to the scribe and may be Mercian; ifreoed 4/28 is noteworthy. ā + w is usually ow, sowle C 2, blowen E 32, nowiht D 19, but soule, nouht. ō + w, touward F 29, but reoweþ C 45. ēa + w, strau D 14. ēo + w, usually eow, cneow C 27, icneowe C 27, þeow, þeowdome, but reouliche F 19, heou G 22.

In the vowels of final syllables, levelling has generally taken place, but a few older forms, isceæftan, heafod, dædan, cumaþ, biddan, offrian, weolan, remain from the original MS. In lufedæst, willæn, driæn, &c., æ is written for e. The prefix ge is represented by i.

The consonants present little of note. OE. nā māra becomes one word with doubled m and shortened a in nammore 3/34 (comp. wumme 2/13 note). farene 4/28, with n for nn, is exceptional. OE. ǣfre is æffre 2/14, so næffre C 6, but æfre 3/3. For f between two vowels u is generally written, bereaued 2/22, but beræfedest E 20. In mænet 2/7 t is French writing for þ: schal 2/9 is isolated, sc [š] is the rule, as in onscunedest 3/3: k is written mostly before e and ie, while ȝ is used initially for the palatal (y in yield) and between vowels, once finally in lutiȝ 3/2 where the original probably had lutiȝe; g in other cases and mostly in combination with consonants. For cw, French qu is used once in quale 4/42.

Accidence: The ā and jā stems add e in the nom., blisse 3/8, bote 3/11, seoruwe 3/8, sowle 2/28, soule 3/45, modinesse 3/4, accusatives are hwule 3/1, lore 4/29, soule 2/9, sunne 4/22, Godnesse 3/3. The g. of strong nouns ends in -es, the d. in -e, the pl. n. a. of Masculines in -es; of Feminines in -e; Neuters as ban 2/21 are uninflected, pl. g. has -e, d., -en, as honden 3/38. Markes 3/6, pundes 3/5 have adopted masc. endings; honden 3/39, isceæftan 2/2, goldfæten 3/7 have joined the weak declension. Of the latter dædan 3/42, weolan 4/32 are g., heouene 4/28 (nom. s. heouene F 38 (OE. heofone), molde 3/34, d., and exceptionally willæn 4/33, an archaic form preserved by its phrasal character; a. is deade 3/40; æren, eiȝen 2/17, lippen 2/18, are pl. n., weolen 4/16, d., eȝen 3/42 a.

The predicative adjective often shows strong declension, as grædie 3/13, fuse 4/15, ikunde 3/32; but heui 2/15, leas, lutiȝ 3/2, loþ 4/37, &c., and the adjs. in ig are not inflected. Inflected attributives are deope 4/40, s. d. m., muchele 2/23, s. d. f.; durelease 4/40, s. d. neut.; seoruhfulne 4/19, s. a. m.; alle 4/37, pl. d. m., &c. The termination of the weak declension is -e in all cases, as seoruhfule 2/8, s. a. m.; reade 4/27, s. d. neut.; dimme 3/42, pl. a. neut.

The pronoun of the third person has pl. d. ham, heom. The def. art. is s. n. þe- þeo- þat, d. m. þen, a. þene- þeo- þat, pl. n. þeo- þa -þa, þeo, þe. The relative is s. þet, s. and pl. þe, þeo, pl. only þa.

The terminations of the verb are inf. -en (but driæn, offrian); ind. pr., e -est (contr. list 4/38), -eþ (but cumaþ 3/44, mænet 2/6); contr. sæiþ 2/13, biþ 2/22, met 3/33, liþ 3/36; pl. -eþ. Come 3/11 is 2 pr. s. subj. Ind. pt. of weak verbs, s. -de, -dest (but lufedæst 3/4), -de; part. pt. -ed, d, t in ibrouht 4/39, part. pr. -inde, ende. Strong pasts are ȝeat 4/27, beden 3/11, 4/21, seten 3/10; part. pt.; iboren 2/6, &c.

Dialect: The Dialect is Southern, outside the Kentish area, and probably Middle South, with forms deriving from a Saxon patois. The poem may have been written, as the preceding piece probably was, in or near Winchester. The orthography belongs to two distinct stages of development, the later showing the copyist’s practice towards the end of the twelfth century, the more primitive being that of the original, which may have been fifty or sixty years earlier. The phonetic position of the scribe is in some respects more advanced than that of the Layamon MS. A.

Metre: Alliterative long line of loose construction mixed with rhymed syllabic verse. Occasionally four consonants alliterate, 2/6, 4/41, but usually three 2/5, 8, or two 2/4, 23. Crossed alliteration of consonants occurs at 2/16, 22, 27; 4/32, of consonant and vowels at 2/17; vowel alliteration at 4/37. At 2/4, read ⁊ lif ⁊ soule · him on ileide; at 3/11, bote come. The rhymes are sometimes perfect, as at 2/15, 25; 3/6, 8; 4/15, 27, 44, but assonances like lif : siþ 2/29; wif : siþ 3/43; dome : lore 4/29, and partial correspondences of sound like crefte : idihte 2/3; bedde : libbe 2/13; honden : wenden 3/38; modinesse : lufedæst 3/4; wæde : lufedest 3/9 are valid for this transitional verse. Sometimes alliteration and rhyme are combined, as at 2/3, 10 (read weopinde cumeþ), 3/4. Lines without either alliteration or rhyme must be regarded as corrupt. We may perhaps read semeþ for þuncheþ 3/39; riht ⁊ godnesse 3/3; beden þe fore 4/21: icwemen woldest for icwemdest ær 4/42. Compare the section on metre in the introduction to No. vi.

Introduction: This poem, in which, after an introduction on the miseries of birth and death, a lost soul reproaches the body it has just left, represents the original type of one of the most popular subjects of the Middle Ages. The idea is ancient, for Kunze, p. 3, quotes a passage from a treatise ascribed to Plutarch, and Linow, p. 2, another from the Talmud, which contain it in the germ. But as it is used in Christian literature, it originated in Alexandria under the influence of Egyptian conceptions of death and the unseen world. In England before the Conquest it had inspired (1) the poem printed in Grein-Wülker, ii. 92-105 from the Exeter and Vercelli MSS., in which a lost soul speaks; (2) the fragment from the latter MS., in which a blessed soul consoles the waiting body, id. 105-7; (3) the homily printed in Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ed. Thorpe, ii. 396-400 (8vo ed.); (4) the homily in Wulfstan, ed. Napier, 140, 1. Versions 3 and 4 are based on a Latin original represented by an eleventh-century text, which is printed by Batiouchkof in Romania, xx. 576-8, comp. Zupitza in Archiv, xci. 369. This Latin prose text professes to be the relation of a vision by a monk to Macarius of Alexandria (d. 393 A.D.), and it, according to Batiouchkof, is based on earlier Greek legends wherein Macarius is himself the dreamer. The homily (5) printed in Angelsächsische Homilien, ed. Assmann, Kassel, 1889, p. 167, and (6) that published by Zupitza, Archiv, xci. 379, are independent of the Latin original just mentioned, and they have been influenced by the Judgment Day literature. The former contains addresses of a lost and a saved soul to their respective bodies on the Judgment Day, the homily (6) has only the latter.

After the Conquest, contemporary with (7) the Worcester Fragment, there is (8) the Oxford Fragment printed by Buchholz, p. 11. The theme is again treated in (9) the twelfth-century homily, De Sancto Andrea, OEH ii. 181, 3, which preserves as a quotation one line of its Latin original, see 4/19 note. Closely related to the last three versions is (10) the passage in the thirteenth-century poem printed in OEM p. 173, ll. 65-216. In (11) the Desputisoun bitwen þe Bodi and þe Soule, ed. Linow, based on the Latin Visio Philiberti, the matter is thrown into debat form for the first time in English. The Vision of Fulbert is again adapted in (12) the fifteenth-century poem printed by Halliwell, Early English Miscellanies (Warton Club), p. 12. Shorter passages in ME. literature, as OEM 83/331-6, Böddeker, Altengl. Dicht., 235-43 are fairly numerous.

The position of the Worcester Fragment among this literature is not easy to define. It appears to form a group with 8 and 10, to which 9, though too scanty to permit of an assured judgment, may be admitted. They probably descend from a lost Latin original. Our author may indeed have been acquainted with the oldest English version (1) and have drawn thence the leading ideas for his poem. If so, he treated them with much originality, for there is a wide difference between the austere simplicity and concentrated energy of the older composition and his diffuse and picturesque style, which reflects the influence of the new literature imported from the Continent.

The lacunae in the text were mostly filled up by Singer. It seemed unnecessary to assign to each editor his contributions to this complement, much of which is obvious. For [fei]ge 2/30 and foot-note, read [fei]ȝe.

The heading is from the Book of Job, xxv. 6.

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 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.

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.

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

The heading is added from the Book of Job, vii. 11.

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 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.

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 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.

Literature: ... (3) ... *Batiouchkof, Th., Romania, xx. 236;
Th. Romania
the passage cited as xx. 236 is actually xx. 1 and 513

Bruce, J. D., Modern Language Notes
Languages Notes

ā is normally ... œ̄ is eo in weoþinde 2/10.
weoþinde,

ea ... å-umlaut of e is eo in freome, feole, weolen (Bülbring, § 234); u- and å-umlaut of i is eo
first “å-umlaut” misprinted as bold instead of italic; second misprinted as “a-umlaut”

... The prefix ge is represented by i.
ge misprinted as italic instead of bold

The consonants ... k is written mostly before e and ie
“k” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

Accidence. ... Neuters as ban 2/21 are uninflected, pl. g. has -e, d., -en
-e, d, -en

... The def. art. is s. n. þe- þeo- þat, d. m. þen, a. þene- þeo- þat, pl. n. þeo- þa -þa, þeo, þe.
all hyphens printed as shown

The terminations of the verb ... part. pt. -ed, d, t
“-ed, d, t” misprinted as italic

30. ... ‘Postremo redimens elemosinis
form “elemosinis” for expected “eleemosinis” is in the source text

... Hauréau, Notices, ii. 183/9.
Haureau

32. ... M. L. Review, V. p. 105
M.L.

26. þæne. B. takes þære of the MS. as gen. sing.
pære

33. ... and contrast ‘[Nol]de he nefre þærof
“[Nol] de” with space

35. ... as B. translates, ‘bist du verloren
bist with anomalous bold b

37. ... For unwurþ see 26/258.
unwurp

II. SAINT GODRIC’S HYMNS

Manuscript: Royal 5 F vii, British Museum; described in Casley’s Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King’s Library, pp. 88, 89. The pieces, with musical notation, in the order B, A, C, occur in a Latin life of Godric by Geoffrey, a monk of Durham, on f. 85, apparently an inserted leaf. This leaf is in a different hand from that of the life, and belongs to the beginning of the thirteenth century; a hand of the fourteenth century has added a Latin version beneath the lines of the first stanza of A, and onfong above onfo in l. 3. The Royal MS. alone contains C, but the first stanza of A, together with B, are found in two MSS. of the life of Godric, written by his contemporary Reginald of Durham, Laud Misc. 413, Bodleian Library, and Harley 153, B.M., and the first stanza of A, also in another MS. of the same life, Harley 322 B.M., and in Mm. iv. 28, Cambridge University Library. Two MSS. of Roger of Wendover, Douce 207, Bodleian, and Otho B v, B.M., and three of Matthew Paris, C. C. C. Cambridge 26, Nero D v, and Harley 1620 B.M., have the whole of A. Most of these give Latin versions of the English words. The filiation of the English copies has been determined by Zupitza in the exhaustive article mentioned below: he gives a critical text based on the Royal MS.

Facsimile: Saintsbury, G., History of English Prosody, frontispiece to vol. i. London, 1906.

Editions: Ritson, J., Bibliographia Poetica, 1-4; Hazlitt’s Warton, iii. 154 (reprint of A only); *Zupitza, J., Englische Studien, xi. 401-32.

Literature: Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxvi. 408 (note on the pronunciation of druð).

Phonology: Godric’s Northern dialect has been well preserved, but he would have written scild 3, ric 4, and probably birth 13. a is a in scamel (sćeamol) 9; æ is a in þat, bare 10, at 13. e is e in help 3., itredie 10. i is i in schild 3, dilie 7, and y (written for i before m) in tymbre 12. o is o in godes 4. y is i in sinne 7, winne 8. ā is a in swa 9, clenhad 6. ǣ₁ (WG. ai + i) is e in clenhad 6, iledde 9; ǣ₂ (WG. ā) is a in bare 13, þare 14. ō is o in moder 2, onfo 3, mod 7, fote 10. ū is u in bur 5, hus 12. eo before r + consonant is e in erðe 10. æ + g is ai in faire 12; ēa + h, eȝ in heȝilich 4 (hēa(h)līce). Scone 12 is Norse, the OE. is scīene (Björkman, Scandinavian Loan-Words, p. 77), and burth 13 is probably so (id., p. 162). Sainte, uirgine, flur, druð, are French. The scribe uses þ initially, ð in other positions, and once th. So he has ƿ generally, but once w in wel. In selfd 8, d is due to anticipation of the following word: in wid 10 d is scribal error for ð.

Grammar: moderes is a new genitive (OE. mōdor, mēder); e of the dative is lost in mod, scamel, burth. fote 10 is pl. d., sinne acc. pl. Of the possessives mine 10 is pl. d., the others are uninflected; min sinne 7 is noteworthy, because the pl. forms at this period are usually inflected. Iledde is a solitary ind. pt. pl., silde subj. pt. sing.; the other verbs are imperatives: rix = rixe. A new present stem appears in onfang; it may be as old in the North as Godric’s time; elsewhere it appears about 1200 A.D.

Dialect: Specifically Northern are the representation of ā, the form silde and the early simplification of the inflection. The development of æ, ǣ, and y exclude the South.

Metre: Godric’s rhythms are all to be found in the Latin hymns which probably inspired his verses. These are S. Anselm’s Psalterium S. Virginis (Opera, ed. Gerberon, p. 303) and the Sequence for the Feast of S. Nicholas, to be found under Dec. 6 in the York Missal and elsewhere. The normal line in Anselm’s hymn contains four measures with trochaic movement, as Nón est | nóbis | récens | Déus, but there are others of five and six, with admixture of iambic rhythm. Godric uses all these and applies to them the licences of native prosody, elision, slurring, omission, and doubling of light syllables. So his 1 and 5, Saínte | marí|e uír|giné |, and Saínte | marí|e chríst|es búr |, are exactly Áve | Regí|na vír|ginúm, and 6, maíden|es clén|had mód|eres flúr only differs by the slurring of e before r. Line 2, móder | ihésu | crístes | náza|réne |, has one trochee more than the normal line, one less than Cúius | laúdes | sónus | fíunt | épul|ántis, and l. 7 with mine restored before sinne is of the same pattern, dílie | míne | sínne | ríxẹ in | mín mod |. Line 8, bríng me to | wínne | wið þé | selfd Gód |, has the same mixture of trochees and iambs as Ómnis | remítt|itúr | iní|quitás |, or Áve | cúius | virgín|eó |, but with doubled light syllable in the first measure; similar is the rhythm of 4, ónfang | bríng he | ȝílich | wið þé | in gód|es ríc |. Line 3, ónfo | schíld | hélp þin | gódric, has the same movement as óbdor|míens | páti|éndo, but with omission of light syllable after stressed long syllable in the second measure.

The long lines 9, 10 are based on a combination of two Latin ones, Críst and | saínte | Marí|e swá || on scá|mel mé | ilédd|è, like Áve | cúius | in fíl|iúm || Proclám|at fíd|es már|tyrúm | but with omission of light syllable in the last foot; and þat íc | on þis ér|ðe né | sílde || wíd mine | báre | fótẹ i|trédie | imitates indú|ti stó|la gé|mína || Dúplex | dícunt | Álle|lúia, but with doubling of light syllables twice and elision.

In the last verse, Saínte | Nícho|láes | gódes | drúð | is Glóri|óse | Níco|láe | with added foot of one stressed syllable; týmbrẹ us | faíre | scóne | hús | is vóca|lí con|córdi|à; Àt þi búrth | àt þi bár|è resembles ùbi páx | et glóri|à, and Saínte | Nícho|láes | bríng vs wel | þáre is the normal Ád sal|útis | pórtum | tráhe | with added foot.

In Godric’s verse the strict syllabic principle, with its consequent abandonment of alliteration, save for ornament, and its consistent attempt at end-rhyme, has obtained already a complete mastery, whilst in most of the contemporary poetry it is still struggling with the traditional alliterative metric. His methods rank him with the writers of popular topical verse, while the more conscious artists still linger in the old ways.

Introduction: S. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, near Durham, died 1170 A.D. In his earlier days he had travelled much as merchant and pilgrim, and learnt to venerate S. Nicholas as the patron of those in peril of the sea. Reginald tells us that the Virgin Mary, accompanied by S. Mary Magdalene, appeared to S. Godric, in the chapel which he had dedicated to her at Finchale, and taught him both words and melody of the first piece (Vita, ed. Stevenson, Surtees Society, no. 20, pp. 117-19). The occasion of the second piece was as follows. His sister Burgwen having died, S. Godric earnestly desired to know what judgement had been passed upon her, and he was privileged to see the Virgin Mary followed by two angels, clothed in albs, bearing the soul of his sister, who, from the centre of the altar in the Oratory, sang the hymn which filled the saint with joy (Reginald, 143, 4). The third piece was unknown to Reginald, but Godric told him that on one occasion S. Nicholas appeared to him, with a company of angels, and bade him join them in their hymns (id. 202).

The literary value of Godric’s verses is small, but they are the first compositions we have in Northern English after the Conquest, and metrically interesting. There are, however, three earlier documents which have been printed by Liebermann in Archiv, cxi. 275-84; the first of these, Gospatric’s letter, is also in the Scottish Historical Review, i. 62, 105, 344, 353; ii. 340: it is possibly pre-Conquest.

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.

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 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.’

Manuscript: ... Harley 322 B.M.,
B.M,

Phonology: ... e is e in help 3, itredie 10.
3.

4. ... ēcelīce
ecēlīce

III. THE PETERBOROUGH CHRONICLE

Manuscript: Laud Misc. 636, Bodleian Library (MS. E). Described in Plummer, ii. xxxiv, v. A new hand begins with 1132 and continues to the end in 1155 A.D.

Facsimile: Keller, Wolfgang, Angelsächsische Palaeographie, Berlin, 1906: plate xii gives ll. 1-25.

Editions: For the earlier editions see Plummer, ii. cxxvii-cxxxv. Thorpe, B., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 2 vols., London, 1861; Earle, J., Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, Oxford, 1865; *Plummer, C., Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, 2 vols., Oxford, 1892, 1899; Emerson, O. F., A Middle English Reader, New York, 1905.

Literature: Behm, O. P., The Language of the Later Part of the Peterborough Chronicle, Gothenburgh, 1884: Würzner, A., Review of Behm, Anglia, viii, Anzeiger, 18-24: Meyer, H., Zur Sprache der jüngeren Teile der Chronik von Peterborough, Jena, 1889: Horst, K., Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Altenglischen Annalen, ES xxv. 195-218: Robertson, W. A., Tempus und Modus in der altenglischen Chronik, Marburg, 1906. For History: Hugo Albus, ed. Sparke in Hist. Angl. Scriptores, Londini, 1723 (comp. Liebermann, F., Ueber ostenglische Geschichtsquellen, Hannover, 1892): Gesta Stephani in Chronicles of the Reign of Stephen, Rolls Series; William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella, Rolls Series; Bridges, J., History of Northamptonshire, 2 vols., Oxford, 1791: Norgate, K., England under the Angevin Kings, 2 vols., London, 1887: Round, J. H., Geoffrey de Mandeville, London, 1892.

Phonology: a is regularly a, whether oral, faren 9, makede 23, ac 39, pades 59 (*pad); or before nasals, Godman 22, nam 42; or before lengthening groups, land 1, enmang 26. It is e in henged 55, 56 influenced by Scand. hengja; æ, which in this text lies near e, in the Scand. loan-word tæcen 120, 139; o in oc 7, but, through influence of Scand. oc, also. æ is mostly a, was (34 times), þat (9), at (5), -masse (3), but no instance of after; the pasts, bar 85, spac 141, stal 165; but e, wes (7 times, all between ll. 20 and 76), þet (once), -messe (once), efter (15), analogy of eft; and æ, wæs (9), þæt (once), æt (6), -mæsse (once), æfter (once), stæl 132. e is generally e, nefe 7, wel 72; before lengthening groups, sende 4, 9, þrengde 61 (*þrengan), ferde 166; but æ in bæron 63, 66, wæl 95, 203, þæ 100, æten 124. i is regularly i, milce 4, scip 14, but y is sometimes written for it, uurythen 58, suyken 135, wyd 141. o is regularly o, ouer 13, smoke 56, o 74 (= on); before length. groups, uuolde 3, gold 24. It is a in an 14, a 20; u in durste 22. u is regularly u, sunne 15, cumen 18, sturuen 75; before length. groups, wurþen 17, hungær 67, wurthen 147. It is omitted in of uundred 17 (a French spelling). y is i, dide 9, 18, bebiriend 22, sinnes 88, mint 98; written y in byrthen 24, yfel 29, 51, 88, fyrst 30, fylden 49, 51, styred 136.

ā is normally a, þa 1, sua 3, an 10, athes 46, mare 76, 87, mar 136; before two consonants, halechede 28 (hālgode), halechen 87 (hālgan), axen 128. It is o in nan more 71, nan mor 6, to 111, 117 through loss of stress. ǣ₁ is e, todeld 39, neure 73, flec 74, hethen 77, here, her 190, or æ, æuricman 20, sæ 13, ælc 102, æuez 117 (ǣfæst), todælde 178; exceptionally a in ani 52, lastede 68; o in onne 63 (ǣnne). ǣ₂ is normally e, slep 14, uueron 84, ormete 114, eten 123, or æ, wæron 6, 54, þær 61, 145, ræd 156, but a occurs before r some fifteen times, uuare 16, 183, uuaren 50, 75, war 85, 172, thar 40, 84, 136, thare 96, 149, bare 24, forbaren 78, nadres 59, stali 147. ē is mainly e, fet 55, slep 86, refen 92, cuen 145; before consonant groups, underfeng 27, uuenden 38, spedde 171, but æ in læt 92, 164, and rounded into eo before rd in feorde 6, 125, feorden 34, 150. ī is regularly i, suithe 8, lic 21, for which y is sometimes written, suyðe 49, 92, gysles 157. ō is o, com 1, oþre 5, moste 97. ū is u, ut 9, abuten 16. ȳ is i, litel 35.

ea before r + cons. is a in quarterne 59, nareu 60; æ in scærpe 61, 64, iærd 78, 102; a generally before lengthening groups, uuard 15, 18, 122, 189, 201, forewarde 157, 185, nowiderwardes 65, but æ in wærd 176, 177, 193. The i-umlaut is represented by æ, e, eo, færd 115, 180, ferd 133, feord 164. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, als 15, alre 30, alle 45, hals 65; but ælle 43; before ld, ald 16, halden 143, 186, 189; but manifældlice 113. Palatal ea is a, iaf 10, 128, 129, 158, 205; æ in begæt 96, 98. Palatal ie is generally i, y after g, gyuen 9, 71, ííuen 144, 158, but gæildes 70, bigæton 170; after č, cęste 60. eo before r + cons. is eo, weorces 50, weorkes 103 (influence of w); e in sterres 16; before length. groups e, erthe 85, eo, eorl 116, æo, æorl 132. To the wur group belong wurscipe 11, wurtscipe 93. w + ie, umlaut of eo before r + cons. is represented in uuerse 69, wærse, 156, 159. eo before l + cons. is e in helde 184, æ in sælf 202. eo, umlaut of i, is e in clepeden 70, here 44; i, y in sithen 153, siððan 32, sythen 79, sylure 24, syluer 40, 53. eo after g is seen in iunge 178; after sc in sculde 18, 38, scort 60; after w in suster 170; beionde 196, heom 34, represent eo of obscure origin.

ēa is mostly e, ded 19, 176, 177, 193, hefed 56, estren 108, forles 140, reuede 173; or æ, ræuede 20, ræflac 29, ræueden 71, ræueres 83, hæued 58, but eo in eom 38, beom 64. Its i-umlaut is seen in flemden 118, herde 163, cæse 74. Palatal ēa after g is æ in gære 13, 18, undergæton 44; ea in gear 1, a in iafen 44 (gēafon).

ēo is mostly e, underþeden 3, ben 7, frend 21, helden 32, undep 61, ieden 75, but æ in dær 23, gæde 58, scæ 140 (*sēo Anglia, Beiblatt, vii. 331), iæde 165, wæx 127, and eo in heolden 47, 49, deoules 51, preostes 80, freond 151. Its i-umlaut is seen in þestrede 15, 122, dære 74, sæclede 201 and atywede 111 (ætīewan). gīet is gæt 76, get 38.

æ + g is æi in dæi 15, 16, 19, 52; ei in dei 11, 14; ai in lai 14, mai 67; æ in sæde 143, sæden 17, 86. e + g is æi in æie 22, sæin 87, læide 173, læiden 70; ei in eie 196, sei 24. ongegn is represented by agænes 48, 130, agenes 30, 180, so togænes 116. i + g is i in ani 52. o + h is oh in wrohte 91, bohton 107. u + g is ug, flugen 76, 135, 147; u + h, uh in fuhten 117. ǣ₁ + h is seen in bepaht 4. ē + g is ei in uureide 2, beien 176. ī + g is i in fridæi 109. ō + g, h is oh in onoh 63, brohten 21, brohte 92. ea + h gives uh in muhten 147. ēa + g is eg in rachenteges 63; ēa + h, eh, neh 4, fleh 140, 149, 165, hehlice 204; but heglice 112.

ā + w gives au in saule 40; ō + w is represented in nouther 78, 154 (nōhwæðer), noht 8 (nōwiht); ēa + w in fæumen 117; ēo + w in neuuæ 93, treuthe 47, 154, treothes 47.

In syllables of minor or no stress, swā is reduced to se, alse 38, 55, ware se 172; o to e, altegædere 79, enmang 26. æ is written for e, flugæn 82, forcursæd 84, War sæ 85, neuuæ 93, bletcæd 198. In sona 30, a is traditional spelling, instead of e. The suffix in wreccehed 76 represents *hæd. Inflectional vowels are mostly levelled to e, but a persists in the infinitives winnan 115, rixan 176, and is found in the pt. plurals, tocan 32, coman 82; o in wæron (11 times), undergæton 44, bræcon 62, brendon 72, heoldon 143, fæston 154; in macod 41, begunnon 210 and the inf. bæron 63, bigaeton 170. In wicci 155 i is miswritten for e.

For w, the scribe adds to the OE. symbol ƿ the French uu, which occurs for the most part initially, as uureide 2, but medially in þohuuethere 33, Noruuic 107; and for sw, cw, su, cu, as sua 3, cuen 145. Once for cw he has French qu in quarterne 59. In cusen 201, cosan 204, s has been substituted for r, by influence of cēosan, cēas, &c. An inorganic n appears in conjunction with d in bebiriend[en] 22, þolenden 87. In umwile 70, the prefix is O. Scand. um; þumbes 56 (þūma) has inorganic b: in hauen, 131, bb has passed through f, by analogy of hafað, to u; similarly liuen 98. f between vowels is generally represented by u, as æuez 117, ræueres 83; but hefed 56, yfel 29: it is also u in æure 69, deoules 51, sturuen 75: it is assimilated in wimmen 53, lammasse 13. t is lost in efsones 156, and misplaced in sa`t´hleden 153: OE. milts is milce 4. d has fallen off in þusen 66, and interchanged with þ in wurþen 17, wurthen 147. The contraction ⁊ = and 47, 198, but the d as well as that of mid 142, 160 was evidently pronounced t when followed by te for þe. þ, ð, th all occur indiscriminately; the last is French. þ of the article þe is assimilated to a preceding t, as ðat te 3, þatte 8, æt te 13, ⁊ te 5, and often, ⁊ to 111, 117, mid te 142, 160, but not after d in fand þe 90, nor in mid þemperice 160, wyd þemperice 162, where the article coalesces with the noun. In wurtscipe 93, &c., wart 122 t has displaced þ; while in wurscipe 11 þ has been lost: þ often interchanged with d, as uuard 15, 176, 201, nowiderwardes 65, fordfeorde 125, wyd 141, widuten 147. In bletcæd 198 (bletsod) c is written for s, as in emperice 141. Sc is [š], sh in ship; so sculde 7, scip 14, lundenisce 27, scort 60, scærpe 61, scæ 140, -scipe 11, &c. Voiced s is once written z, æuezmen 117.

The scribe uses ch, as often in Anglo-Norman, with the value of [k] to represent c, g, as rachenteges 63 (racente, always with k elsewhere in ME.), halechede 28 (hālgode), halechen 87 (hālgan), folecheden 148 (folgodon), Burch 2, burch 163 (burg); being all the instances of ch which occur. But he also has c with the same value as folc, com, tocon, macod, &c., and c for č (ch in chin), which may be assumed for ricemen 30, cæse 74, circe 78, ceste 60, cild 107, cusen 201, cosan 204, -cestre 133, -rice 9, and for final ic.

Palatal g is mostly i, iaf 128, 129, 158, 205, iafen 44, aiauen 168 (āgiefan), ííuen 144, 158, iunge 178, iærd 78, 102, beionde 196, iæde 165, ieden 75 (ge-ēodon), but g in gear 1, begæt 98, get 38, gæt 76, gæde 58, bryniges 57. In sloghen 118 (slōgon) the guttural sound is expressed.

Initial h in words of less stress has largely disappeared, so, it 8, &c., but hit 189: it is added in hær 159, here, her 190. hw is reduced to w, War 85, wile 69, umwile 70, and is wu in Wua 24. h is lost in þur 112 through confusion with the following word, but its guttural character is sufficiently indicated by added c in þurhc 155, 156. þ is written for h in þoþ 35, þoþwethere 91, 181; but þohuuethere 33.

Accidence: In the strong declension sunu m. is levelled to sune s. n. 21; f. sæhte s. n. 184 has added e. Gen. s. -es, as kinges 29; no examples of fem. or neut. nouns. The dative is mostly without distinctive inflection, as land 1, king 2; eie 196, sune 184, rice 177, genge 119 do not differ in termination from the nom., but exceptionally kinge 28, tune 73; lande 10, 76, gære 13, quarterne 59, wiue 179 have e. The dat. fem. forms saule 40, ceste 60, strengthe 99, 145, rode 109, forewarde 157, and the accusatives milce 4, treuthe 47, blisse 175 probably correspond in this text to ME. nominatives with added e, as is the case with the acc. fare 72, helpe 169, sahte 182. Men 23 is probably dat. sing.: the gen. is mannes 65. Sylure 24 is probably for syluer, as at 53. The plural n. d. a. inflection is -es; sandes 34, tunes 70, 72; once s in martyrs 54. Neuters in es are gæildes 70, landes 92, weorkes 103, but wunder 46, 67 pl. a. retains the OE. plural. Fote 165 is prob. pl. d. (= fōtum); wintre 69, 89 is a pl. a. corresponding to OE. pl.winter; similarly threniht, pl. a. 16. Pining 54, 108 (pīnung f.) appears to be treated as a neut. pl., comp. pines 68: freond 151 is OE. pl. a. frēond. No example of pl. gen. occurs.

The weak declension of all genders has e in all cases of the singular; n. mone 16; d. messe 11, lammasse 13, smoke 56, pape 95, time 106, luue 109; a. throte 65, cyrce 79. But sunnen (dæi) 198 preserves an old genitive; cyricen 203, circewican 97, horderwycan 98 are datives. The plurals are mostly in -es. n. nadres 59, d. þumbes 56, a. neues 43; but halechen pl. n. 87, estren pl. d. 108 descend from OE. forms.

Most of the adjective inflections are lost, and there is little trace of the distinction between strong and weak. There is no instance of undoubted inflection of a strong adj. in the singular, but ful 56, an 60, scort 60, al 66, 88 are uninflected: micel is invariable. Strong pl. in e are sæhte 35, alle 45, 62, 67, 68, 72, 96, 129, yuele 51, scærpe 61, suilce 86, manie 102, gode 104, wunderlice, manifældlice 112: not inflected are al 15, cnotted 57, hethen 77, mani 103. I take untellendlice 54, alle, ilce 108 as pl. a. The weak declension is exemplified in the singular, lundenisce 27, 139, yfele 88, ilce 200; but ilc 18, &c. Wise 182 is plural; not inflected, æuez 117, &c. onne 63, s. a. f. corresponds to ǣnne, rather than āne.

The personal pronouns are i 67; he, him; hi pl. n. 37, her pl. g. (hiera) 154, heom, and once hi pl. a. 51; scæ 140 (first appearance), hire; it: relatives þe, ðat, used also in oblique cases, pl. g. 63, s. d. 116: article s. pl. þe, but pl. to 111, 117 (for þo).

Strong verbs have inf. in -en, but bæron 63, bigæton 170. The dat. inf. with to, but uninflected, occurs 63, 71, 124, 170, 186, 189; part. pr. are sittende 73, ridend 82; pr. pl. lien 97; pt. s. I a. iaf, lai, besæt, begæt, spac: I b. com, nam, bar, stæl, stal: I c. warth, uuard, ward, wærd, wart, fand, wan, belamp: III. fleh, forles: IV. for, toc, suor, forstod: V. underfeng, held, slep, læt, wæx, hatte; pt. pl. usually ends in -en, but on, an, æn also occur; I a. iafen, undergæton 44, drapen, eten: I b. comen, coman 82, namen, bæron, forbaren, stali (error for stalen) 147, bræcon 62: I c. wurþen, fuhten, fuhtten 181, sturuen: II. risen, uurythen, suyken: III. flugen, flugæn 82, 135, cusen: IV. tocan 32, sloghen: V. helden, heolden, hengen: iafen 44, bræcon 62 are possibly subjunctives; bare 24, helde 184 are pt. s. subj.: pp. I b. forholen: I c. begunnon: III. cosan, forloren: IV. suoren, forsworen: V. underfangen.

Weak verbs have inf. in en, but rixan 176, uuerrien 33, sæin 87, sei 24; dat. inf. with to, but uninflected, at 33, 98, 131; pr. s. maket 112, pt. s. in -de, -ede; but besætte 131, wrohte 91: beteht 117, goded 92, henged 55, 56, læd 135, macod 41, mint 98, scatered, to-deld 39 have lost final e; gæde 58 is pt. s. subj.; þole(n)den 1 pt. pl. 87; pt. pl. in -en, as sæden 17, &c.; once in on, brendon 72. bebiriend 22, bebyried 111 are for bebyrieden; comp. byrieden 110, the loss of en is due to the following word; part. pt. in -ed, but forcursæd 84, bepaht 4.

Noteworthy among the Anomala are myhtes 2 pt. s.; muhten pt. pl.; cunnen 1 pr. pl.; durste pt. s.; wæron, uuaren pt. pl.; uuare 16, ware 183, pt. s. subj.; hatte 113, gehaten 11, 202.

Dialect: This is, no doubt, substantially the North-East Midland of Peterborough, but with traces of Northern influence, such as the form saule 40, and the extensive representation by a of ǣ₂ before r; of ā; and of a before lengthening groups. The last two perhaps need no such explanation in this early text; they are indeed usual in Orm fifty years later, but the inclination to o is marked in other East Midland texts. There is a considerable survival of traditional spelling, especially noticeable in the use of æ and in inflections of the verbs.

Vocabulary: French are acordede, canceler (pre-Conquest), castles, carited, cuntesse (first appearance), curt (f. a.), emperice (f. a.), justise, iudeus (f. a., OF. judeu, Reimpredigt 14/27), messe, miracles (f. a.), pais (f. a.), prisun, processiun, rentes (f. a.), sot(lice), Standard, tenserie, treson (f. a.), tresor (f. a.), tur, uuerre, uuerrien 33: Latin are crucet (hus) 60, priuilegies 96; anno 94 is an early use. Scandinavian are bathe 52, brendon 72 (OWScand. brenna), bryniges, carlmen (already in OE.), drapen, hærnes, sæht, sæhtlian, tæcen 139, þoh, til (in OE.), um (while).

Introduction: The Peterborough Chronicle continues the history for seventy-five years beyond any of the other redactions of the AS. Chronicle. The last section of it here printed differs in form and language from the rest. It is not in annal form; only six dates are given as headings and events are not recorded in their chronological order. Places like 6/29, 7/68, 8/88, 104 show that, at least from the first-mentioned passage, the whole was written down at the same time, and that not long after 1155 (comp. 11/210). Though there is considerable variation in spellings, there is no evidence of progressive change, or of the influence of earlier documents. These variations are distributed quite impartially over the whole piece, and witness to nothing but the strong effort of the scribe to express as accurately as possible the sounds he heard. For I think it was taken down at the dictation of an old monk, who had lived through the Anarchy, by a younger man acquainted with French scribal methods. His mistakes, such as false grouping of syllables 6/20, failure to grasp what was said 7/62, dropping and altering of end syllables under the influence of the following word, 6/22, 8/111, 8/112, 9/147, the omissions shown by the interlineations, are mistakes of dictation. And the brevity and absence of subordination in the sentences, the confusions in construction, as at 7/64-7, the frequent changing of the number of the verbs 7/48, 9; 7/56, 7; 7/60, 61, are hardly consistent with deliberate written composition.

Throughout this time there was an historian at Peterborough. Hugo Albus was a monk there from 1114, and sub-prior from 1134 to 1154. In advanced age he wrote the History of the Monastery in Latin, in which, at any rate, he utilized the English Chronicle. Some have thought him the author of the latter also, but that view is rejected very decidedly by Liebermann (Ueber osteng. Geschichtsquellen, 5). His strongest argument is the difference of style, the comparative smoothness, elaboration, and coldness of the Latin. Some of that may be due to lapse of time, for there is probably fifteen years between the two compositions. Something too should be allowed for the difference in language and in purpose.

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: ‘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 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.

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.

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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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, 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 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.

Phonology: ... þat (9), at (5), -masse (3)
(5) -masse

æ, wæs (9), þæt (once)
æ misprinted as bold instead of italic

æ in bæron 63, 66
œ

... eo, umlaut of i
i misprinted as italic instead of bold

ā + w gives au
“au” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

For w ... þumbes 56 (þūma) has inorganic b
inorganic m

In wurtscipe 93 &c., wart 122, t has displaced þ
“wart 122” added by author

Most of the adjective inflections ... onne 63
“onne” misprinted as bold

Strong verbs .. I c. warth, uuard, ward, wærd, wart
“wart” added by author

pt. pl. usually ends in -en
“-en” misprinted as italic

V. helden, heolden, hengen: iafen 44, bræcon 62
braecon

Weak verbs ... gæde 58 is pt. s. subj.
final . invisible

Noteworthy among the Anomala are myhtes 2 pt. s.; muhten pt. pl.; cunnen 1 pr. pl.; durste pt. s.
final . missing in first “pt. s.”, invisible in second

Dialect: ... representation by a of ǣ₂ before r
æ₂

9. ... exceptions being Octabus sc͞i
superfluous comma after “sc͞i” deleted by author

20. þe mihte: comp. 8/81.
Author’s Corrigenda: Dr. Bradley’s restoration in M. L. Review, xii. 73, þa þestreden sona þas landes, appears to me certain.

95. fram, by.
“by” printed in bold

97. ... B-T. quotes, ‘mid eallon ðá[m] þingon ðe ðǽr fyrmest tólæg,’
ðær

201. ... ‘in an dæis wile,’ within the space of one day.
corrected by author from “hwile”

IV. CHARTER OF HENRY THE SECOND

Manuscript: Harleian Charter 111 B. 49, British Museum. The upper half contains a version in Latin, excepting the passage ‘sacha . . . frimþa,’ which is in English; the names of six witnesses are appended. On the lower half is the present text; on the back, ‘carta reḡ. H. ii de sacha & socne.’ The document is in a French record hand, and the writer was evidently little versed in the insular script. He uses both þ and th, ƿ and w.

Facsimile: Keller, plate xiii.

Editions: Hickes, G., Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus, i. p. xvi; Dugdale, W., Monasticon, i. 111; Birch, W. de Gray, Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, New Series, xi. 312; Stratmann, F. H., Anglia, vii. 220; Earle, J., A Handbook to the Land Charters, 346 (with the Latin); Kluge, F., Mittelenglisches Lesebuch, 5.

Phonology: The language is not contemporary, for the drafter, who was not the scribe, used as a model a charter (H²) in the same terms, granted to William of Corbeil (see 6/28) and the monks of Christ Church by Henry the First in 1123 A.D., a copy of which exists in Campbell Charter, xxi. 6, B.M., reproduced in Facsimiles of Royal and other Charters in the British Museum, i. no. 6, and printed in Lye’s Dictionary, ii. appendix. H² differs from our text in its dialect, which is mainly Southern, with some Kentish forms, in greater regularity of grammar, in details of names and relationships, but in little else. It was derived from a charter (H¹) granted to S. Anselm and Christ Church by Henry the First, c. 1107 A.D., extant in Campbell Charter, xxix. 5, and Cotton Charter, vii. 1, printed in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, xxix. 242, also imperfectly in Hickes and in Dugdale, i. 109, 111. It also shows traces of its Kentish origin. But it was ultimately based on the Charter (E) granted by Edward the Confessor to Archbishop Stigand, c. 1052 A.D., Campbell Charter, xxi. 5, reproduced in Facsimiles of Ancient Charters in the British Museum, part iv, no. 38, and printed in Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, i., New Series; and the chain extended back to the first extant example of the formula, the charter (C) of Cnut to Æthelnoth, A.D. 1020, preserved by a copy in a Canterbury book, the MacDurnan Gospels (now at Lambeth), and printed in Earle, 232.

There is another copy of the present document, but fragmentary and decayed, in the muniment room of Canterbury Cathedral.

H¹, H², and the Harley Charter (H³) here printed, have been accepted by Dölle in his book, Zur Sprache Londons vor Chaucer (Morsbach’s Studien, xxxii), as specimens of the English of the London Chancellery. As the editors of the Facsimiles of Royal and other Charters point out, H¹, H² are in a book hand, not that of an official court scribe; they are without witnesses or place of execution. Their seals do not prove them to be the original grant, for both H¹ and its duplicate Cotton Charter, vii. 1, have seals, and a note on the back of the latter appears to indicate that it is one of four copies. The duplicate of H³ also has its seal, attached, like the others, in an unusual way to the left side of the document, as if to show that both documents and seals are replicas of the original. They are, in fact, copies, and the natural assumption is that they were made at Canterbury to provide against risk of loss or damage to the actual grant.

H³ is on a different footing: it is properly attested, its place of origin is given, and its seal is attached in the usual way at the foot. But it is not in a charter hand, and its language shows that it was prepared by a Canterbury scribe to be placed before the king for his acceptance.

It should be noted that the English words from saca to frimtha also appear in the Latin version with the following variants: Sacha, Wude, felde, tolnes, grithbreches, thiofes, flemene.

The charter is then a patchwork of old and new; its phonological position may be defined by an attempt at a version in Late West-Saxon. Ic Henric · þurh Godes gife Englalandes cyng · grēte ealle mīne bisceopas ⁊ ealle mīne scīrgerēfan ⁊ ealle mīne þegnas frencisce ⁊ englisce · on þām scīrum þe Þeobald ærcebisceop ⁊ se hīrēd æt xpīstes cyrican on Cantwarabyrig habbað land inne frēondlice · ⁊ ic cȳðe ēow þæt ic hæbbe heom geunnen ꝥ hi bēon ǣlc þāra landa wurðe þe hi hæfdon in Ēadweardes cynges dæge · ⁊ on Willhelmes cynges mīnes furðor ealdefæder · ⁊ on Henrices cynges mīnes ealdefæder · ⁊ sace ⁊ sōcne · on strande ⁊ on streame · on wudum ⁊ on feldum · tolles ⁊ tēames · griðbryces · ⁊ hāmsōcne · ⁊ fōrstealles · ⁊ infangeneþēofes · ⁊ flȳmena fyrmðe · ofer heora āgene menn · binnan burgum ⁊ butan · swā ful ⁊ swā forð swā mīne āgene wīcneras hit sēcan sceoldon · ⁊ ofer swā fela þegnas swā ic heom tolǣten hæbbe · And ic nelle ꝥ ǣnig mann ǣnig þing þǣrof tēo · butan hī ⁊ heora wīcneras þām þe hi hit betǣcan willað · ne frencisce ne englisce · for þām þingum þe ic hæbbe Crīste þās gerihta forgifen minre sāwle to ēcere ālȳsednesse · ⁊ ic nelle geþafian ꝥ ǣnig mann þis ābrece be mīnum fullan frēondscipe. God ēow gehealde.

It will be seen that the OE. phonetic position is largely maintained; noteworthy divergences are: æ as e in hebbe, ercebisceop; as a in habbe (occasionally in OE.), ealdefader; as ea (= e) in eafdon, æ + g in deȝe. ænglelandes (also in H¹, H²) shows a survival of primitive æ, characteristic of the south-east. en 12/6 for on is due to loss of stress; Layamon 8059 has æn; e + g is ei in þeinas. y is e in grithbreces of the Latin text and H¹, H² (but grithbrices is OE. griðbrice); i in Cantuarabirȝ. ǣ is e in bitechan, enig, eni, echere, toleten, þer; ȳ, e in keþe. ea before l + cons. is a in forstalles; frimtha is descended from fiermð with metathesis of r: the others have fermþe and H¹ also feormþe, forms without umlaut: giefu appears as ȝefu, but giefan, forgifan. heora is heara (early Kentish hiara) beside heore; scolden answers to a non-diphthonged OE. form. flīema gives flemene in the Latin text (so E, H¹, H², the latter also flæmene) and fleamene: alisendnesse is OE. ālīesednesse (but once ālȝsendnesse), the others have alysednesse. ēo is e in frenscipan: io in thiofes of the Lat. text, ia in thiafes; ā + w is au in saule; ēo + w appears as geau (ȝeu, Poema Morale, Digby MS.) with ȝ borrowed from the nom., helped, no doubt, by the general tendency exemplified in gearfoþe, ungeaþe of the MK. gospels.

w is written u in Cantuarabirȝ; an inorganic n is inserted in alisendnesse; f is u in geþauian, scirereuan. The dentals are confused: þ for t, t for þ, t for d, d for þ appear in theames, theo, teobalt, hiret, habbad, ford; d is omitted in frenscipan, as in stan, halen, &c., of the MK. gospels; č is written ch in chyrchen, bitechan, echere, ich, grithbriches; the scribe apparently uses ch for [k] in Sacha of the Latin text; h is omitted in eafdon; cht for ht in gerichtan is an attempt to indicate the guttural sound.

The inflections of OE. are largely preserved, but levelling of a to e is shown in fele, fleamene, fullen, heore, lande (pl. g.), þare, Wicneres, while a is written for older e in frimtha, saca, wurþa, and o for e in geunnon. OE. um is an in burgan, feldan, minan, sciran, þingan, wudan; þām appears as þan. Weak forms are gerichtan, frenscipan; ȝefu is nom. form for accusative.

Dialect: The levelling of y, ȳ, æ, ǣ to e; ea as a, the old Kentish io, ia in thiofes, thiafes, heara point to Kent. The absence of v, z for f, s initial, the retention of a in lande, strande, and of n final either mark an early stage in the dialect, or show the conservative influence of the older documents.

Introduction: King Henry the Second grants, or rather confirms, to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the monks of Christ Church their lands and privileges of jurisdiction. The date is February, 1155 (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II. 5) and the place York. For alisendnessee 12/15, read alisendnesse.

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. 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; 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.

The charter is then a patchwork ... land inne frēondlice
printed as shown: expected form “frēondlīce”

binnan burgum ⁊ butan ... butan hī ⁊ heora
printed as shown: expected form “būtan”

... alisendnesse is OE. ālīesednesse (but once ālȝsendnesse)
initial ā in both words corrected by author from “a”

ā + w is au in saule
ā corrected by author from a

7. ... Ūtfangeneþēof was the right to hang one’s own thief wherever caught
Utfangeneþēof

V. A PARABLE

Manuscript: Cotton Vespasian A 22, British Museum. It is composite; a second MS., 224 × 153 mm. in two columns, begins at f. 54 with the pieces printed in OEH i. 217-45. It is written in a small and crabbed hand unlike that of a professed scribe. The use of the contraction marks is unsystematic and the readings are sometimes uncertain. The other articles bound up with this MS. before and after are historical and largely connected with Rochester Monastery.

Editions: Morris, R., Old English Homilies, i, pp. 231-41 (with translation), and Specimens of Early English.

Literature: Vollhardt, W., Einfluss der lateinischen geistlichen Litteratur auf einige kleinere Schöpfungen der englischen Übergangsperiode, Leipzig, 1888; Lauchert, F., Englische Studien, xiii. 83; Heuser, W., Anglia, xvii. 82.

Phonology: a is a, fram 38, maniȝe 54, lange 83, sandon 30, but o in longe 155, sonden 161. æ wavers between e (28 times), feder 42, hwet 17, stef creft 89, þes 72, &c., wes 1, 94, 96, and a (16), fader 40, hwat 49, þas 43, was 19, 27, water 46. e is regularly e, engel 41, menn 31, but æ in ængles 166 (ængel), mæn 22, 78, næmmie 112, and a in anglene 139, angles 146, man, pl. 23, 76. i is i, for which y is written in cyldren 42, cyrce 108, scyft 117: it is e in ȝeðe (= iþe) 165, þeser 74, þeses 113, repen 169 (= ripon), swepen 13; u in swupen 132. o is o, but a, an 4, &c. (= on), þann 120, þáleð 123 (comp. the dialectic taal, Dan. taale, EDD). u is u, but o in come 7, icome 115, sonne 46, all associated with m or n. y is regularly e, berie 7, ded 73, drench 46, euel 41, ferst 167, gelty 153, senne 91, 95, 151, but i in þrimsettles 36, (dier)chin 45; y in cyme 87 (? cime); o in formest 50, 72. mycel is represented by mucele 129, 137, moche 90: king 1, drihte 52 have i, as often.

ā is mostly a, fa 25, na 55, þa 106; but o in anon 12, cofe 27, cofer 17, gefo 22, go 22, more 97, 120, non 38, soriȝe 104, to 147, þo 140. clone 15, an isolated form, represents clāne. ǣ₁ is mostly e, arerde 80, clene 103, elc 112 (3), er 117, geð 157, helendes 87 (4), þer 139 (4); the traditional æ appears in ælc 91, 152, ær 18, 99, æer 21, ærst 69, ærndraches 16, 69; but it is a in halende 93, lat 124, stanene 81, þar 19 (7), unwraste 23; ea in unwreaste 79, 100, 104, 130, and eo once in leorde 109 (lǣrde) between l and r. ǣ₂ is uniformly e, adredeð 147, letes 129. ē is regularly e, but dieð 51 (= deð). ī is i; written y in tyme 77: gescung 54 is apparently gītsung. ō is o without exception. ū is u; but uncoðe 22. ȳ is normally e, ceðen 16, 70, 113, fer 46, 143, 155, scred 42; but litl 160, leoðre 169.

ea before r + cons. is a in arme 51, barn 60, middenard 39 (5), widerwardnesse 24; ea in bearn 50, 159, ȝearceon 6, ȝearnede 27; æa, gæarced 156; æ in ærfeð 3, and e in merchestowe 124. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, alle 4 (21), manifald 79; but manifeald 46, 90. The i-umlaut of ea is represented by weregede 131 (wiergod). eo before r + cons. is eo in eorðe 36 (4), heorte 72, leorninchnihtes 106; e in sterren 47; æ in ærlen 20. In the wur group, wur is written in wurð 143, otherwise wr = wur, derewrlice 10, wrð 77, 123, wrðeð 108, wrhmint 65, 93. The i-umlaut is represented by birne 154, abernð 143, sterfeð 163, werpð 45 (wierpð), werpeð 142, ?stiarne 13 (stierne). eo before l + cons. is seen in self 61 (7), sielfe 48. eo, u-umlaut of e is e in heuene 107, 163, hefenen 36, but heofene 171; å-umlaut is seen in fele 83; eo, umlaut of i, is e in clepeien 49, ȝeclepien 6, lefede 102, 155, lefie 155, seþe 51, 76, 170; eo in neowelnesse 36; i in silure 92 (silofr); u after w in cwuce 162, wude 47. Here also belong tolie 44, teolian and hare 85, 172, hares 56 from heora through heara, both with shifted accent. ea after palatals is a in gat 13, 117; e in scel 135; eo in sceol 147, ea in ȝesceafte 93, ia in ȝiaf 97; scandlice 151 is sceandlice, before nasal, ȝescepe 56 is gesceapen. ie after g is i in gife 86, ȝife 88, 109; ie in gief 98, ȝief 119, ȝiefe 11, forȝiet 60, underȝeite 4; e in forȝeten 59, 61, bigeten 55; scieppend gives sceappend 65, 93, sceppend 40, 41. The conj. gif is gief 12 (EWS. gief), ȝief 60, gif 63, ȝef 9. eo after g is seen in iunglenges 107 (geongling); eo after sc in sceolde 7, 25, 87, sceolden 12, 160; heom is ham 18, 55, heom 5; eom is am 162, ham 63.

ēa is ea in bread 162 (4), lean 135, deade 115, deaþe 123 (4), abreað 83; a in admoded 104, brad 29 (4), ȝecas 81, grate 6, hafed 51, hafedmen 108; e in eðelice 124; æ in ære 166. niatt 45 represents nēat, ȝie 49, gēa. The i-umlaut of ēa is represented by unhersamnesse 84. ēo medial is eo in beoð 108, &c., ibeoð 70, beon 69, bitweone 9, underþeod 6, 66, underþeoden 3, 17, leoem 45 written for leome (lēoma); e in betwenen 169, befel 3, 4, ȝede 95, fend 5 (8), frend 5 (9), frenden 28, 157, lefe 96, prestes 111; ie in bieð 54, 65, bienn 135, to bienne 43, diefles 95, dierchin 45, frienden 21, lief 59, underþiede 137; io in þiode 91. Final ēo is i, hi 50 (4), ibi 135, isi 55 (4), si 50 (6), þri 99, 101, and ie, besie 14 (besēon). The i-umlaut of ēo is seen in dierewurð 20, istriened 96, þiestre 53, þiesternesse 14; but derewrþe 138, derewrlice 10, fendes 133, aþestreð 144, þesternesse 27. īe gives ie in giet 53, ȝeiet 56, ȝie 24, 26. ēo from ō after sc is eo, ȝesceod 8, toȝesceodeð 117, ȝesceop 33, 39; but ȝescod 74, ȝescop 54.

a + g, h, is ag, lage 71, &c.; muȝe 49 has u by imitation of other pret. presents. æ + g is ei, deie 126, 137, meide 139, meiden 141, meidenes 166, neiles 146, seið 158, seieð 153; eȝ in deȝe 108, isegd 27, seȝð 163; eiȝ in seigd 34; e in sede 117, 119, seden 69, 160 (= sǣdon), ȝesed 114, mede 94 (= mæden); ai in mai 152, maie 148. The peculiar spellings dȝeie 68, dȝeies 52, dȝei 134 show the development of a y sound, but deȝie 7, 8, 116, maȝie 59, maȝi 34 appear to be for deiȝe, maiȝe, maiȝ. e + g is ei, þeinen 21, rien 47, written for rein: þenið 142, þeninge 46 go back to þēnian, þēnung: ongegn is represented by aȝen 101, aȝenes 24. A y sound has developed in ȝeie 43, 142 (ege); aȝeie 64 seems to have been influenced by OWScand. agi. ig is preserved in niȝen 138; ih in dihte 39, 41: exceptional is forðteh 42 (forðtihþ). o + g is seen in abroden 134, 156, abruden 27; heretoche 80; u + g in ȝebugon 25; y + h in drihte 52. ā + g, h give oge 59, ogen 60, oȝeð 64, aȝen 88, ah 43, fa 5. ǣ₁ + h, echte 55, tehten 110: ō + h, brochte 101, ibrocht 146, innoh 152: ū + h, þuhte 11.

ea + h, ht is ea in leahtrum 79, a in wax 81; miht, niht have uniformly i. eo + ht is i in cnihten 20: the i-umlaut is represented in isecgð 148, iseȝð 150 (= siehð), ȝesecðe 134, 156 (gesiehð). ēa + g, h is ag, ah, hagefaderen 140, hahes 171, þah 112, þahhweðer 60. ēo + h is e in wex 168; ih in rihtwisnesse 40, richtwise 147, 148, brictnesse 145, with ct for ht: lichte 50, 53; loht 45 is lēoht with shifted accent: īe + h gives nixtan 73. ā + w, daw 47, ȝesawen 165, sawe 44, sawle 42 &c., but feawe 96, scewie 22: ahte 122, nahte 33, ahct 49 come from āht, nāht. ǣ₁ + w occurs in ȝecnowe 71: ēa + w in unþeawes 132: ēo + w in ableow 42, bleowu 168, treowe 92, fierðe 105 (fēowerða), ȝeu 24, 113, ȝehw 119, ȝiu 117, ȝiure 52.

The vowels of the inflections are generally levelled to e, but a few remain from the scribe’s original; inf. wunian 159; pr. s. blissið 50, pr. pl. þenið 142; cwaciað 147; pt. pl. arerdon 85; pl. dunan 37, lagan 70, sandon 30; s. d. nixtan 73; pl. d. leahtrum 79; buton 38, 72, 95, bufon 149. Among vowels of minor stress are noteworthy ie in laðienge 6 (laðung), ȝelaðieres 82 (*laðere); a for e, þina 37; æ for e, anæ 6, ȝæarced 156; e for æ, rigtleceden 86, 103; e for i, iunglenges 107; e for o, hefenen 36, 107, sicernesse 128; i for e, adiligde 79, 84; eo for ie, ȝearceon 6; ei for i, clepeien 49. ableow 42 possibly represents onblēow. e is lost in ærndraches 16 (4), witȝin 89, and added in seneȝeden 153: seneȝden 154 is for senȝeden. The prefix ge, once written ge, gelest 2, is largely retained, but it is reduced to i in pp. ibroht, icome 115, idon, imaced, isent, istriened; inf. ibite, isi; ibruce 25, ibeoð 70, isecgð 148, iseȝð 150, innoh 152, uniredlice 131, iwiss 37; noteworthy is unitald 47.

w is lost in sa 54, se 86, alse 115; it represents wu in the wur group, wrð 77, wrhmint 65, derewrlice 10 &c., and similarly wlcne 145: u is written for it in uin 160, wu in bleowu 168, hwu 99. l is lost in swice 75, wic 142: final ll often becomes l, befel 3, bispel 31, ful 102. mm is simplified in wiman 59. The loss of final n in inflections is characteristic: it occurs also in bine 90 (binnan), bitweone 9, bute 17, morȝe 119, to fore 138, to for 22, upe 132: n is assimilated to m in næmmie 112, it is added in hesne 98, doubled in bienn 135, sennenn 132, þann 120 &c. on is weakened to a 126 (an 153). bb is simplified to b in habe 161; it is u in sweueð 53, perhaps influenced by Scand. svefja. For f the scribe writes þ in sielþe 48, selþ 61, 149, which perhaps represents an individual pronunciation. The voiced sound between vowels is represented by f, not u. The added t in mistlice is found in OE., that after n in berient, melstanent 170 is local, as sarment, suddent, varmint in the SE. modern dialects: t is doubled in fett 14; ts is s in milsi 59, c in milce 102. In an 130 d is lost (and 145), as in hlafor 21: it is written for þ in dierewurd 20, had 152, hafd 56, sede 170. For þ, f is written in of 11, 15, 108, ft in oft 134, 136; t in to 36 (?), 147 after ⁊ = ant: æt þǣre is eter 13, 117: it is lost after h in forðteh 42, and intrudes before h in awiðhst 37. sc is [š] in biscopes 111, sceolde 7, scandlice 151; ss is written for it in wasse 10, 123. c is palatalized in cheðen 70 (ceðen 16), dierchin 45 (fiscynn 46), ærndraches 16, machede 41 (macede 91). c is doubled in accenned 94. g is lost in witien 140 and final in almihti 32, ȝegen 156, leornin (ch[n]ihtes) 106: it is ch in heretoche 80, c in strencþe 97. The scribe generally uses ȝ for ġ: exceptions are gelest 2, gife 86, gief 98, gif 63, bigeten 55, iunglenges 107. The development of a y sound is seen in ȝeðe (= iþe), ȝeie 43; ȝ in ȝeu 24, ȝiu 117, ȝehw 119 has been adopted from the nom. ȝe. Initial h before a vowel is often omitted, abben 160, afeð 150, alste 36, is 28 &c., us 167; before consonants, laford 12, 61, wa 4, wat 24 (hwet 17), wic 142, wile 82: it is added in her 160, his 128 &c., hofne 170, hur 65, hure 44, hus 43, and hwe 69, which helps to the understanding of ȝehw 119. For ht, cht is written in echte 55, ibrocht 146, lichte 50, richtwise 147: ahct 49 is for acht (= āht); ct in brictnesse 145.

Accidence: Strong decl. of m. and neut. nouns. Sing. n. halende 93, helende 109, 163, sceppende 41 with participial terminations (sceppend 40), endedeie 118, gate 117 have added e: tacne 145 is tacen; drihte 52 has lost n. Gen. -es. Dat. -e: exceptions, anginn 115, bearn 50, barn 60, fer 155, gat 13 (gate 117), ȝegen 156, innoð 60, godspel 161 (godspelle 165), hlaford 65, licht 53 (lichte 50), mancyn 99, sceappend 65 (sceappende 93), þing 53. Acc. as nom.: accennende 103, a participle used as noun, fultume 47 with added e. Plur. n. m. -es: deade 115 has adj. term., wude 47 (wuda); neut. wlcne 145. Dat. -en, as apostlen 139, bearnen 159, bredene 81, cnihten 20, aldren 20, esten 158, kingen 32, martiren 140, melstanent 170, þeinen 21: exceptions, had 139 (= hādum), leahtrum 79, meiden 141, neiles 146, write 85, and ME. repples 13. The accent on hlafordé 32 may be a contraction mark. Acc. m. -es: neut. folc 68, niatt 45, þing 33, 101, 109; þrimsettles 36 has masc. form. Weak are anglene 139, pl. g., esten 159 pl. n., hefenen 36 s. g. comp. hefene 163. Strong decl. of fem. nouns: blisse 125, eorðe 45, lare 90, mihte 38, þiode 91, underþiede 137 (treated as compound of þēod), witnisse 149 have added e in the nom. sing.: ȝefered 138 has lost en; its dat. is ȝeferede 20. The other cases sing. and pl. which occur end in e, as merche (stowe) 124, rode 145, s. g.; echte 55 (possibly pl.), gife 86, 88, 109, s. d.; hesne 98, laðienge 6, lage 80, s. a.; senne 80, 91, 151, pl. d.; ahte 122, pl. a. Exceptions are wrldes 77, a masc. form, berient 170 (= byrgenne), ȝescung 54, gief 98 (possibly for gife), hand 37, nicht 53, s. d.; wrhmint 65 (wrhminte 93), s. a.; ceðen 16, 70, 113, underþeoden 17, pl. d.; hand 14, pl. a. underþeod, 6 is adj. used as noun. Weak forms are dunan 37, pl. a., lagan 70, pl. n., sennenn 132, pl. a., underþeoden, pl. n. 3.

Weak declension: Sing. nom. halege 126, mone 47, sonne 46, tyme 77, witiȝe 35: d. ære 166, heorte 72, heretoche 80, time 84, witie 57, uuantruce 122, acc. deme 148, lichame 41, 126: leoem 45 is probably for leome. Plur. nom. ȝeferen 15, sterren 47, 144; dat. swepen 13, swupen 132, witȝin 89, witien 140; acc. witiȝe 85, ȝefo 22. ærndraces 69, pl. n., 16, pl. a. have adopted a strong inflection: nixtan 73, s. d. is adj. used as noun.

Minor declensions: burh 166, berie 7, s. d.; fader 40, 44, feder 42, s. n., feder 48, s. d., hagefaderen 140, pl. d.; fett 14, pl. a.; frienden 21, 28, 157, pl. d.; mannes 72, 118, s. g.; man 76, s. d., 41, s. a.; menn 31, hafedmen 108, man 23, 76, pl. n.; mannen 153, pl. d., 159, pl. g.; mæn 22, mænn 78, pl. a.

Adjectives: Remnants of the strong decl. linger in ecer 128, s. d. f., soðe 65, grate 6, s. a. f.; and perhaps hage(faderen) 140 (= hēagum); of the weak decl. in fulle 127, gode 121, s. n. m., lefe 96, s. n. f., mucele 137, s. d. m., 129, s. d. f., richtwise 148, soriȝe 104, s. a. m., unwreaste 104, s. a. neut. hahes 171 is a strong form for weak; haliȝe 102 a strong fem. qualifying lif, neut. The pl. inflection in all cases is -e, so ȝeredie 131, stanene 81. Longer words are often uninflected, as manifald 79, 90, dierewurd 20 (derewrþe 138), wrldlic 55; also ful 54, gelty 153, hali 122, 140. Adjectives used as nouns are senfulle 147, s. n.; fa 25, fo 156, latst 8, 69, nixtan 73, s. d.; innoh 152, s. a.; richtwise 147, pl. n.

Pronouns: Noteworthy are hwe 69, ȝie 24, 26 (ȝe 116); ȝeu 24, 113, ȝiu 117, 160, ȝehw 119. The pronoun of the third person is, Sing. n. he, m. hi 50, 51, 59, 60, f.; hit, neut.; d. him, m.; a. hine 10 &c., him 14, m. hit, n. Plur. n. hi, i in combinations icome 17, ibeoð 70, mihti 55; d. heom 5, ham 18, 55, 147; a. m. hi 117. From *seo f. are his 81 s. a. f. (= is) and his 117, pl. a. m. (= is), es in letes 129, pl. a. n., for which forms see Anglia, Beiblatt vii. 331, xi. 302. The dat. s. pl. with self uninflected occurs as definitive adj. 61, 81, 149; s. and pl. with selfe as reflexive, 55, 91, 151, 152; us sielfe 48. Possessives are mine 64, mi 63, s. n. m., mine 25, 156, s. d. m., mire 24 (with rice neut.) 26, 154, mine in other cases; þina 37, s. d. f.; ure, hure, ur, hur 65, with ures 87, 106, s. g. m.; is, his, hire; ȝiure 52, ȝeur 153; hare 85, 172, hares 56, s. g. m. his 21, 29, pl. d. is used as noun, his men. The def. article is, Sing. n. m. se, once seo 66; f. si, with neut. tacne 145, but rode is fem., gate 117; neut. þat 143: g. m. þes, with wrldes 77, ses 87, by analogy from se; neut. þes: d. m. þa, þe, (to) ðe 22; f. þare 93, with neut. gate 129, þar 19, þer 139, (i)þer 123, with m. 141, with neut. 13, 117; neut. þam, þan 118, 158, þe 50, 145, (i)þe 161, ȝeðe 165, þa 110, probably for þan: a. m. þann 120; f. þa 54 &c., neut. þat 168. Pl. n. m. þa, þe, (⁊) to 147; d. m. þa, þo: a. m. þe 85. Used pronominally si 83, s. n. f.; þat 97, s. n. neut.; þa 26, pl. n. m.; þan 141, pl. d. m. The compound demonstrative is, Sing. n. m. þes; f. þes; neut. þis: d. m. þese 48; f. þisser, þesser, þeser; neut. þese 118, 163: a. f. þas 80; neut. þis. Pl. n. þes, þas: g. þeses: d. þesen: a. þes. Exceptional is þas 43, s. n. neut. (OE. occasional þæs). The relative is þe 26, 32, 97; wam 48, 96, s. d.; introducing dep. questions, wa 4, 66, hwa 67: interrogatives, hwat, hwet, wat 24, wic 142: indefinites are n. m. an 1; d. m. ane 68, neut. ane 164, ene 7, an 53; a. m. ænne 7, f. anæ 6, neut. a 57; n. m. f. ælc, elc; g. m. elces 118; a. m. elce 116; swice, pl. n. m.; nahte 33, s. d. n. Sum 17, s. n. has oblique cases in e 56, 82, but sum 92, pl.: fele 83, maniȝe 54, 109 are plurals: oðre (once oðere) is constant: eall is sing. n. all, al; d. f. alle 66, neut. 4, 24 (rice is regarded as fem.); a. f. alle 96, neut. all, al 47. The plural is alle; but all 15, al 141.

The infinitive of verbs ends mostly in e, fandie 130: noteworthy are besie 14, isi 55: ȝief 119 has lost e before him. wunian 159 is a survival; others in n are ȝearceon 6, ȝeclepien 6, clepeien 49, don 88, finden 173, forȝeten 59, abben 160. Dat. inf. with inflection, bienne 43, donne 152; without inflection abiden 11, bigeten 55, don 51, fulforðie 98, ȝelaðie 17, 78, isi 137, sawe 44, tolie 44. Pres. s. 1. forȝete 61, lefie 155, nell(ic) 60; 2. awiðhst 37, belocest 37, halst 36; 3. blisseð 52 and 8 others, but contracted forms predominate, abernð 143, belimpð 128, cumþ 114, 121, 129, ett 163, fett 42, fet 171, ȝemet 133, ȝestrenð 112 (gestrengeþ), isecgð 148, iseȝð 150 (siehð), lat 124 (lǣdeþ), sit 138 and 9 others. Exceptional are blissið 50, had 152 (hæfð), scred 42 (scrȳt), scyft 117, forðteh 42 (tyhð). Subjunctive pr. s. forȝiet[e] 60, habbe 74, letes 129 (lete + es), milsi 59, underfo 126. Pres. pl. 1. habbeþ 48, siggeð 114, wene (we) 49; 3. adredeð 147, aþestreð 144 &c.; but cwaciað 147, þenið 142 (Archiv lxxxix, 160-6). Subj. pr. pl. næmmie 112, scewie 22. Imp. pl. understandeð 31, 99, witeð 155, wite (ȝe) 125. Past of Strong Verbs: Sing. I a. cweð 21, et 28, ȝiaf 97; I b. com 19, nam 5; I c. dranc 28, ȝelamp 1; II. astah 162, wratẹ 81 (wrāt); III. abreað 83, ȝecas 81; IV. ȝesceop 33; V. ableow 42, bleowu 168, befel 3, wex 168. Pl. I a. cweðe 18, 1. pl.; I b. come 9; I c. sturfe 28; II. repen 169; III. ȝebugon 25. Subjunctives are I b. come 12, 20; V. ȝewold[e] 55. Pp. I b. icome 115; I c. abruden 27, abroden 134, 156; II. begripe 95; III. belocen 16; IV. ȝescepe 56, understande 116; V. beswapen 151, ȝesawen 165, ȝewasse, uniwasse 123. Past of Weak Verbs ends in -de, -ede, arerde 80, clensede 103 &c.: diht 41, gelest 2, send 78, sett 72 have dropped final e. Pl. -den; once arerdon 85: sede 117, 119, lefede 155, acolede 90, ȝearnede 27 have lost n. The pp. ends in -ed, -d, -t; once acende 101, beside accenned 94: unwemmede 94, weregede 131 are inflected. Minor groups: wat 54, pr. s.; ah 43, pr. s., oȝeð 64 (āgon), 1 pr. pl.; scel 135, sceol 147, pr. s., scule 26 &c., pr. pl., once sculen 161, sceolde 87, pt. s., sceolde 7, sceolden 12, 160, pt. pl.; mai 152, pr. s., but maȝi 34, maie 148, maȝie 59, pr. s. are subjunctive in form; muȝe (we) 49, 1 pr. pl., mihtí (mihte hi) 55, mihten 86, pt. pl.; am 162, ham 63, 1 pr. s., his 33 &c., is 36, pr. s., beoð 70, 108, 146, bieð 54, 65, pr. pl., beon 69, bienn 135, pr. pl. subj., was 19, wes 1 &c., pt. s., were 99 &c., wer 69, 75, pt. pl., were 5, 10 &c., pt. s. subj., 8, 15, 16 &c., pt. pl. subj., ibi 135 (*gebion), pp.; don 72, 73, pr. s. subj. but plural in form, ded[ė] 73, pt. s.; to gað 145, pr. pl., go 22, 1 pr. pl. subj.

Accents are used extensively, but on no consistent principle, so láge 79, lage 80; arerde 80, arérdon 85; áȝenes 34, aȝénes 24. They are mostly placed over long vowels, but they are used to indicate separate pronunciation of the vowels in méé 158, bethléem 167, besíé 14. Similarly they show that a vowel is not to be slurred in belocést 37, clénséde 103, macéde 91, ?Æér 21; that i is to have its full vowel value (not y) in ȝeclepíen 6, ȝelaðíe 17, halíe 85, 107, halíȝe 140, maníȝe 54, 109, witíe 57, 62, witíge 85; and that final e is to be pronounced in forté 137, mihté 38. Sometimes the accent has been exchanged with a contraction mark, as hlafordé 32, acénde 101. It is only a diacritic, answering to the printed dot, in íunglenges 107, ímaced 164, þenínge 46 &c., and over y written for i in scýft 117, cýme 87, týme 77. In diphthongs it marks the stressed element, séo 66, unterþéod 6, líef 59, níatt 45; in leóem 45 it shows shifted accent (as in loht 45), so feáwe 96, ?bleówu 168, ?leórde 109: sónne 46, féce 7 are hard to understand. In unwēmmed 139, the contraction mark has been kept, although m has been added; hīne 133 is curious.

Dialect: There is a considerable survival of older spellings from the West-Saxon original. The scribe’s language is South-Eastern strongly affected by Kentish, a mixed dialect such as might be current on the south-eastern border of Kent, or used by a southern man, not of Kentish extraction, but resident in the county, possibly at Rochester.

Introduction: This piece, like its predecessor in the MS., which is a transcription of Ælfric’s De Initio Creaturae, is, at least in part, an adaptation of an older, probably pre-Conquest homily, as is shown by the occurrence of archaic inflections and constructions (comp. to 8, hungre 28, hatrede 24, &c.; the extensive use of the subj. mood), and by its OE. vocabulary (þrimsettles 36, hagefaderen 140 &c.) almost free from any foreign element. Vollhardt suggested as its source the 46th chapter of the Liber de S. Anselmi Similitudinibus, a collection of parables and sayings of S. Anselm recorded by his biographer Eadmer, probably after the death of his master in 1109 A.D. This is printed in Anselmi Opera, ed. Gerberon, App. 161; Migne, P. L. clix., 625 and Vollhardt, 25. That the two versions are related cannot be doubted, but a consideration of dates compels the conclusion that they have a common source, or that the Latin is not S. Anselm’s.

The parable and its application is in the Latin brief and direct, in marked contrast to the vivacity, fullness of detail, and diffuseness (comp. 3. 19, 136) of the English. The latter has also expanded the application of the parable by much extraneous matter: i. The Creation Theme, 31-66; ii. The Five Ages of the World; iii. The Doomsday Theme, 136-156; iv. The Living Bread, 160-173, all of which is wanting in the Latin.

For filii 58 read filio, and for descendit 162, descendi.

There is no title in the MS.: Rex Suos Judicans is from Anselm’s title.

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; ‘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, 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.

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.

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: 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 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 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.

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.

Phonology: ... y in cyme 87 (? cime)
cyme,

.... ǣ₂ is uniformly e
æ₂

ē is regularly e, but dieð 51 (= deð)
text unchanged: error for “dēð”?

... Final ēo is i, hi 50 (4), ibi 135, isi 55 (4), si 50 (6)
(4) si 50

... æ + g ... eiȝ in seigd 34
seigð

e in sede 117, 119, seden 69, 160 (= sǣdon)
corrected by author from sædon

ǣ₁ + h
æ₁

Minor declensions: ... feder 48, s. d.
d. s.

... man 76, s. d., 41, s. a.
41.

The infinitive of verbs ... Pres. s. 1. forȝete 61
1:

ȝestrenð 112 (gestrengeþ)
ȝestrend

V. ableow 42, bleowu 168
V ableow

oȝeð 64 (āgon), 1 pr. pl.
1. pr. pl.

muȝe (we) 49, 1 pr. pl.
1. pr. pl.

26. ... KH MS. L 1131 note.
Ms.

28. ... see 50/334 note.
final . missing

37. · iii · prou.
anomalous spacing unchanged

VI. THE PROVERBS OF ALFRED

Manuscript: Jesus College, Oxford, E 29, formerly Arch. i. 29 (J). It consists of two distinct MSS. bound in one; the second begins at f. 217 r. (new foliation) and was written not long after 1276 (Anglia xxx, 222). Its contents are best described in the Owl and the Nightingale, ed. J. E. Wells, Boston, 1907, at pp. ix-xiii. Our piece is written continuously as prose, each stanza forming a paragraph, but iv and v are in one without l. 54, which is here supplied, while l. 43 is written at the end of the preceding paragraph and similarly the lines beginning viii-xvii, xix-xxiii. The scribe was evidently struggling with an original which he could not always read; see footnote to l. 105.

Another MS. is B. 14. 39, Trinity College, Cambridge (T): see The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, by M. R. James, vol. i. p. 438. It gives a much longer text very badly copied by a scribe little skilled in English.

A third copy in MS. Cotton Galba A. xix was destroyed in the fire at Dean’s Yard in 1731. But Wanley had printed a specimen (W), corresponding to ll. 1-21 of this edition, in his Catalogue (published in 1705), p. 231; and Richard James (1592-1638) had copied, from a transcript furnished to Thomas Allen (1542-1633), Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631), in what is now MS. James 6, Bodleian Library (RJ), p. 68, pieces corresponding to ll. 1-23; 27-49; 52, 53; 55-64; 78-85; 168, 9; 173, 4; 211-13; 204-206; 236, 7; 307, 8, and two fragments which correspond to the text in MS. T, ll. 516-32; 652, 3, but are not in MS. J. Allen’s MSS. passed into the possession of Sir Kenelm Digby, who presented them to the Bodleian in 1638. But the transcript was not among them. It is a curious mistake to think that it ever formed part of MS. Digby 4, which has been caused by Langbaine’s calling the copy of the Poema Morale in that MS., Alfredi Regis Parabolae. This is clear from MS. Rawlinson D 325, which consists of Hearne’s notes to Spelman’s Life of Alfred; it contains the note printed on p. 131 of the Life, which is immediately followed by a cancelled extract from the Poema Morale in the Digby version. Allen’s transcript has disappeared.

The Cotton MS. was again used by Sir John Spelman (1594-1643) for his Life of Alfred. He says that ‘by the Courtesy of Sr Thomas [Cotton, 1594-1662] I am provided of a Copy of them.’ Apparently he was himself the copyist, for he speaks of the MS. as ‘faulty and ill writ, in a mungrel Hand (as well as Language).’ He gives what corresponds to ll. 1-64, and a paraphrase of six stanzas more. It is hard to say what Spelman actually wrote, for his own MS., which was probably University Coll. MS. 136. 8, has disappeared, and the three versions of it differ considerably. They are (1) Hearne’s transcript (SH¹) of Spelman prepared for the printer, now MS. Rawlinson D 324 (p. 225); (2) the Life of Alfred in English (SH²), published in 1709; (3) the Latin translation (SL) published in 1678. A fragment of the latter was copied in MS. Stowe 163, B. M. ff. 101-135; of the English poem it has ll. 1-19. The evidence which is to be got from the Spelman sources as to the text of MS. Galba is suspect. S signifies their agreement.

Editions: Wright, T., in Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 170 (J,T): Kemble, J. M., Salomon and Saturn. (T only). This book, without title-page, is dated in pencil in my copy, 1845, 6. It seems a first attempt for the following: Kemble, J. M., The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus. Ælfric Society, London, 1848, p. 225. Morris, R., An Old English Miscellany, 1872 (J; and T from Wright and Kemble), p. 53: *Skeat, W. W., The Proverbs of Alfred, Oxford, 1907 (J,T); *Borgström, E., The Proverbs of Alfred, Lund, 1908 (J,T).

Literature: Wülker, R., Ueber die neuangelsächsischen Sprüche des Königs Ælfred. Paul-Braune, Beiträge, i. 240: Gropp, E., On the Language of the Proverbs of Alfred, Halle, 1879: Zupitza, J., Anglia, iii. 570; Holthausen, F., Archiv, lxxxviii. 370-2 (emendations). Ekwall, E., Anglia, Beiblatt, xxi. 76-8. Skeat, W. W., Transactions of the Philological Society, 1895-8, p. 399. For Proverbs: Förster, M., in ES xxxi. 1-20: Kellner, L., Alteng. Spruchweisheit, Wien, 1897: Kneuer, K., Die Sprichwörter Hendyngs. Leipz. Dissert. 1901: Skeat, W. W., Early English Proverbs, Oxford, 1910; Tobler, A., Li Proverbe au Vilain, Leipzig, 1895: Catonis Disticha, in Baehrens, Poetae Latini Minores, iii. 205-42: Senecae Monita, ed. Woelfflin: Publilii Syri Sententiae, ed. Woelfflin, Lipsiae, 1869: Alanus de Insulis, ed. C. de Visch, Antwerpiae, 1654: Arnulf, Deliciae Cleri, Romanische Forschungen, ii. 211: Columbani Monostichon, Poetae Lat. Aevi Carolini, i. 275: Fecunda Ratis, ed. Voigt, Halle, 1889: Florilegium Gottingense, Rom. Forsch. iii. 281, 461: Florilegium S. Omer, id. vi. 557: Florilegium Vindobonense, Müllenhoff u. Scherer, Denkmäler, xxvii: Otloh, Beda, i. 1080: Proverbia Heinrici, MSD: Proverbia Rustici, Rom. Forsch. iii. 633: Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, ed. Croke, Oxford, 1830: Wipo, ed. Pertz., Hannoverae, 1853.

Phonology: Oral a is a; a before nasals and lengthening groups, o, but can 231, manyes, 295, fremannes, 299: me, indef. pron. < man is due to loss of stress: þanne, þane, þan, hwanne are usual, but þenne 72, 91, hwenne 254. æ is mostly a, as always in after, at, fader, hwat, war 16, but e in eþelyng 44, gedelyng 214, gled 209, glednesse 30, gres 81, heuedest 187, queþ 19, &c., þet 154 (once), þes 63 (once), wes 4 and always; Ealured 6 occurs beside Alured 12, &c. e and e before lengthening groups is e, but ny 124 < ne: imulten 276 represents myltan. i is i, often written y, mostly in conjunction with n, but wule 91, 254, 286 (beside wile 154, wille 142), nule 69, after w, nele 254, OE. nele. o is o, but on is weakened to a 112, 200; ðone is þane 247, 248, þene 114, 116, 198 (LWS. ðane, ðæne). œ is represented in seorewe 151, 233, serewe 156. u is u, but bycome 138, where o is associated with m. y is u: munye 25 is OE. mynian; vordrye 227, OE. fyrþrian, is a French spelling; king, kyng, dryhten with y for i are exceptions as usual; steorne 207 is corrupt.

ā is o; a remains in bihat 245, mayþenes 130, madmes 133, 276. ǣ₁ is e: exceptions are vyches 276, euer uyches 54, which descend from ylc, agoþ 146, ouergoþ 143, without umlaut: nenne 296 is nænne. ǣ₂ is also e, but þar 4 &c., always. ē is e, but doþ 81. ī is i, often written y, but me 140 (mīn) is due to loss of stress. ō is o, but reowe 96 (rōwan), a French spelling. ū is u: for it w is written in hw 11, 22, 42. ȳ is u in byhud 163, cuþe 254, cuþeþ 170, lutel 215, 277, 312, luþre 257, but litel 281; þȳ has i in forþi 304, e in þe 82.

ea before r + cons. is e in erewe 156, a in arewe 152, þarf 108, 244; before length. groups, e in bern 311; its i-umlaut is seen in churreþ 53 (cierran), and, before length. group, yeorde 328 (gierd): ea before l + cons. is a, as al 105, &c.; before length. groups, e in weldan 130 &c., awelde 320, o in cold 237, holde 42, 102, 280, 304, &c., vpholde 113; its i-umlaut is seen in ealde 319, 330, elde 68, 71, 72 (ieldo), ildre 125 (ieldran). eo before r + cons. is eo in heorte 163, 166, smeorte 164, but e in werk 15, werke 16; before length. groups, eo in cheorl 58, eorl 4, eorþe 81, &c., yeorne 66, 69, leorne 170 &c., but furþ 113; its i-umlaut is shown in durlyng 7, hurde 6, vrre 136. The wur group has invariably u. eo before l + cons. is eo in seolf 308 &c., but sulue 284 (sylfe). ea, u-umlaut of a, is wanting in balewe 282, baleusyþes 189. eo, å-umlaut of e, is shown in feole 2, 249, and weole 78 (5), but fele 2, 132, 302 is without change; vale 300 is feala with shifted accent. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is seen in heonne 115, heore 11, seoluer 121, 134, but is wanting in huntseuenti 79; leofian appears only as libben 135. ea after palatals is a in schal 35 (8), gesc(e)apen is ischapen 92; ie after g is e in foryeteþ 137, yeue 90: eo after g is o in yong 195, yonge 328, yongmon 87; youþe 105, youhþe 66, 69, 98 (geogoð) show combination with the following g: eo after sc is o in scolde 87 &c., scholden 11: heom is heom 9.

ēa is normally a, but reade 80, lyen (= lēan) 289; its i-umlaut is e, foryemeþ 137, ilef 132, 248, nexte 265, iherest 251, but u in ihure 10, ihurd 205. ēo is normally eo, but e in forleseþ 137, fremannes 299, o in wolde 278, loþ 234, the latter miswritten for leoþ, r. w. forteoþ; the rhyme istreon 125 : lone (lān) is noteworthy: neode 141, 217, 265 is LWS. nēod arising beside nied by confusion with nēod, desire. īe in scīene, gesīene gives schene 213, isene 75.

a + g is aw, but seye 152, seyþ 234, 246, sayþ, 305: æ + g is ay, but seyde 24, iseyd 236, ised 230: e + g is always ey: ayeyn 95 = ongegn: o + g always ow: u + g gives mvwe 113 (LWS. muge), doweþes 118 (duguða).

ā + g is always ow: ā + h is ah in ahte 79: ǣ₁ + g occurs in feye 113; ǣ₁ + h in ayhte 125, 171, 274, but eyhte 145: ī + h in lyeþ 109 (lihþ): ō + g in inowe 133, plouh 61, brouhte 181: ū + g in buwe 201.

ea + h occurs in wexynde 112, 113, iauhteþ 171 (geeahtian), probably a miswriting of iachteþ in the scribe’s exemplar (T has hachte for æht, nocht, &c.): eo + h in bryht 211, rihtwis 34, mixe 276 (meox), vouh 129 is feoh; in case it corresponds to fēo, dative; Skeat and Borgström read veoh. ēa + h gives þeih 88 (9), þey 79. ā + w is ow in mowe 53, 60, sowen 59, isowen 80, au in saule 23, ou in nouht 35 &c. and ey in iseye 186 (gesāwe): ēa + w is ew in fewe 301, þewes 195, 312, vnþewes 262, eu in glev 256, vnþev 198, eaw in gleaw 30: ēo + w is eow in greowe 81, reowe 330, treowe 202, ew in rewe 71: the pron. ēow is ou 21, eu 142, ēower ower 141, eure 20, 23.

The acute accent is used twenty-one times over long vowels, in ten cases over e representing ǣ: séé 95, 132 is furnished with two, as often in MS. O of Layamon, comp. 95/2. In v́uel 217 it serves to distinguish the vowel.

The consonants show little divergence from OE. use. For w, u is written in uexynde 112, for u, w in hw 22, 42: wur is wr in wrþsipes 22, wrþie 36, 286, wrþe 124: iwrche 83 is OE. gewyrcan, wrt 112 is wyrt. OE. swa is regularly so, but once swo 99, influenced by the initial sw of the following word. l is lost in vyches 276, eueruyches 54 and other pronominal words of similar formation: n is dropped in euelyche 49, owe 111, wyndrunke 184; uppe prep. 132 occurs beside vpen 123. f between vowels is commonly v, u, but hafst 133, oferhoweþ 323, wife 185 where it is probably voiced; initially it is largely maintained, but it is v, u in urouer 37, velde 112, vouh 129, forvare 147, 260, vere 148, vordrye 227, vayre 245, 6, avynde 291, vale 300, in all these cases before a vowel. d is t in huntseuenti 79; schaltu 168 has t for þ after a dental: þ is represented by d in vordrye 227; madmes 138 answers to LWS. mādm: t is omitted in lest 316. c + s is represented by x in arixlye 329. hw is generally preserved, but wile 149: in initial combinations with other consonants h is lost: swyhc 159 is written for swych, iscohte 303 for ischote. The prefix ge is regularly i: k is often used for c; cw is qu; č is ch, as chireche 57, cheorl 58, &c. sc is generally sch, but scolde 87, wrþsipes 22: ġ is regularly y.

In syllables of minor stress the vowels have mostly been levelled to e, as in egleche, sadelbowe, sikerliche, vppen, &c. An e, generally slurred in scansion, is inserted in clerek, euere, seorewe, arewe, erewe, foleweþ, pouere.

Accidence: Nouns of the strong declension m., neut. have s. g. -es, cristes 283, cunnes 276; d. -e, bure 212, balewe 282, &c., but the termination is sometimes not written before a vowel, god 104, word 16, or omitted by the scribe, lyf 28, lond 12, mod 224, þing 188, or an accusative form is used, cotlyf 174, fryþ 58, loþ 234, through confusion of the prepositional constructions. The plural of masculines ends in -es, n. þeynes 1, d. wrenches 257, a. acres 79: neuter nouns with masc. terminations are n. wordes 24, a. sedes 59, þinges 21, wyttes 40, but the normal þing, pl. a. 143; treowe 202, pl. n. represents trēowu; þinge 250 is an isolated pl. a.; worde 300 is probably pl. g., an OE. construction after vale; worde 301 is pl. d.: englene pl. g. 6, &c. (Engla), iwriten pl. a. 67 are weak forms. Of the strong feminines, ayhte 125, blisse 31, 282, 310, lone 126 (read lon), neode 141, vnhelþe 73, youþe 105 have added e in the s. n., and worlde 278, wunne 279 in the s. a.: worldes 22, s. g. shows confusion of declensions: the s. d. ends regularly in -e, except world 122 (see note): s. a. in e. The general termination of the pl. is e, n. eyhte 145, ayhte 274, leode 20 &c., wene 74; g. quene 237 (cwēna), or s. g. (cwēne); d. leode 264, honde 259; a. custe 170, saule 23, but d. blissen 31, deden 47, spechen 249: tales 295, pl. d. medes 60, pl. a. (mǣdwa) show confusion of declensions: doweþes 118 appears to be meant for s. g., but it answers to OE. duguþa; perhaps doweþe is to be read. Loss of final n has greatly simplified the weak declension, so s. d. heorte 163, sadelbowe 153, weole 82, 103, ivere 144, vere 148, wille 35; s. a. tunge 190, tyme 114, weole 91, 100, wille 185 &c., but wyllen 283: dwales 296 is a strong pl. a. The minor declensions are represented by mon s. n. 17, monnes s. g. 54, fremannes 299, mon s. d. 159, wymmon s. a. 204, monne pl. g. 32, pl. d. 253, 269; boke s. d. 39; fader s. n. 33, s. g. 212, moder s. d. 203; freond s. a. 83, 245, pl. v. 25, pl. a. 267.

Remnants of the strong declension of adjectives are longes s. g. neut. 109, reade s. d. n. 80 (rēadum), yonge 328 (geongum), godne s. a. m. 45, vuelne 231, swikelne 252; wenliche s. n. m. 68, godlyche 204 have e, contrary to OE. usage, but vnlede s. n. m. 238, is OE. unlǣde. Weak forms are wise s. n. m. 287, betere s. n. neut. 325, 327, wysuste s. n. m. 17; for mildest s. n. m. 32 mildeste should be read. OE. āna is one 29, 41, 118, ān is o 79, 278. The participial āgen gives s. n. neut. owe 149, d. f. owere 54, a. m. owene 318, a. neut. owe 128. With exception of the above, the adjective is not inflected in the singular. The plural in all cases ends in e. Adjectives used as nouns are arewe s. d. 152, erewe s. n. 156, fayre s. d. 172, feye s. g. 113, frakele s. a. 172, god[e] s. d. 225, god s. a. 90, ifon pl. n. 129, ivo pl. d. 186, ildre pl. g. 125, loþe s. a. 247, more s. a. 162, pouere s. d., riche s. d. 268, s. a. 50, vuele s. d. 90.

The personal pronouns are ich, we, us, þu, þe, ye, ou 21, eu 142: s. n. he m. 9, heo f. 169 &c.; d. him m. 35, 71, 88, 330, n. 312, 316; a. hine m. 36 &c., hyne 144 &c., hi f. 187, 192, 242, hit n. 118, it 96; pl. n. hi, heo 76; d. heom 9; a. hi 80, 170. Reflexives are him seolue 260, hymseolue 137; definitives, heo seolf 308, himseolf 41, seoluen 38: possessives, mi, me 140, myne pl. 25, 26; þi s. n. m. 272, þin s. n. f. 166, þire s. d. f. 163, þin s. a. neut. 323, þi 168, in all other cases þine, þyne; hire, hyre, once heore 11; vre; eure, ower 141. The definite article is s. n. þe m. 4 &c., f. 141; þes g. m. 63, þas 113; þan d. m. 55, 152, þare f. 5, 217, þe 216 (read þare); þane a. m. 247, 248, þene 114, 116, 198, þe f. 95 &c., þe n. 220, 234, þat 46, 56; pl. þe in all cases; for þan adv. 240. The compound demonstrative is þis s. n. f. 63; d. 122: the relatives, þe, þat, once þet 154, hwat 181: interrogative, hwat 84: indefinites, oþre pl. d. 242; non n. 38, no 112, nones g. 299, none d. 169, a. f. 280, non a. neut. 308, nenne pl. a. 296; eny s. d. neut. 225: nouht n. 35, nouhte d. 275: me 245, 247: fewe pl. d. 301: fele, feole 2, 249, vale 300: vyches s. g. neut. 276, echere s. d. f. 161, eueruyches s. g. m. 54: hwych s. a. neut. 52: swuch 53, swyhc 159: al s. n. neut. 105, alle d. f. 29, 30, a. m. 185, al a. f. 278, 279, a. neut. 89 &c., alre pl. g. 62, 110, in other cases of the pl. alle; mid alle 128.

Two-thirds of the infinitives end in e, ie, ye, y, lokie 41, wrþie, 36, 286, wyssye 21, arixlye 329, leorny 69, weny 244; n is retained mostly before vowels and at the end of lines and half-lines, but leten and forleten occur six times against lete once. A dative infinitive with inflection is to fone 55, others without inflection are leden 46, mowen 60, reowe 93, sowen 59, swynke 96, for to do 229, for to werie 56, for to vordrye 227. Presents are s. 1. holde 304, munye 25; 2. hauest 151, hafst 133, lest 316 (lǣtest); 3. leorneþ 66, seyþ 234 &c., foþ 289, wurþ 209, iwinþ 100 (read iwinneþ), let 204, 329, bihat 245: pl. 1. wurcheþ 283; 3. ibureþ 45, forteoþ 235: subjunctive s. 3. fare 64, lykie 88, lyke 155, loke 64; pl. 1. biþenche 284; 2. adrede 27, luuyen, lykyen 28: imperative s. 2. seye 152, leorne 170, ilef 132, 248, ryd 153, let 165, wurþ 184, but wrþe 124; pl. 2. lusteþ 140. Past of Strong Verbs: s. 3. Ia. cweþ 19 &c.; Ic. bigon 9, pl. Ia. sete 1; subj. s. 2. Ia. iseye 186; 3. Ib. bycome 138; V. greowe 81, wolde 278. Participles present: I c. singinde 153; V. uexynde 112, 313; past: I b. iboren 138, 328, vnbore 327; I c. forswunke 200, aswunde 76; II. biswike 76, idryue 61; III. idrowe 105, iscohte 303; IV. ischapen 92; V. isowen 80; VI. bitowe 106. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 2. heuedest 187; 3. brouhte 181, hadde 80, luuede 15, seyde 24, wiste 181. Participles present: lyuyinde 188, werende 316; past: ihurd 205, ilered 2, 39, iseyd 236, ised 230, iwreþþed 187, 222. Minor Groups: wot pr. s. 118, 156, not 114; ahte pt. s. subj. 79; on pr. s. 160, 162; con pr. s. 154, 302, kunne pr. s. subj. 40, cunne 41; schal pr. s. 35 &c., schulle 1 pr. pl. 127, schulen 276, schulle pr. pl. 49 &c., schule pr. s. subj. 42, 1 pr. pl. subj. 119, scolde pt. s. 87 &c., scholden pt. pl. 11; myht 2 pr. s. 159, 263, may pr. s. 38 &c., mawe 1 pr. pl. 286, 2 pr. pl. 10, mvwe pr. s. subj. 113, myhte pt. s. 199 &c., 2 pt. pl. 22; mote pr. s. subj. 149; beon inf. 68, nys pr. s. 112, 125, biþ pr. s. 322, beoþ pr. pl. 74, 76, beo pr. s. subj. 35 &c., pr. pl. subj. 202, wes pt. s. 4, were pt. pl. 24, pt. s. subj. 200, 325, nere 82; wille 1 pr. s. 142, wile pr. s. 154, wule 91 &c., nele 254, nule 69, wolde pt. s. 21, 2 pt. pl. 20, pt. s. subj. 191; do inf. 197, for to do dat. inf. 229, deþ pr. s. 288, 321, doþ 81 (read deþ); agoþ pr. s. 146, ouergoþ 143, ago pr. s. subj. 145.

Noteworthy adverbs are frakele 246, ifurn 236 (gefyrn), lihte 198, muchele 162, vuele 171, 176, vayre 245, 246: oft is always ofte.

Dialect: Southern, free from South-Eastern influence. The wavering in the representation of a before nasals points to the Middle South, but ihure 10, ihurd 205 are South-Western. But this representation of īe, as well as lyen (= lēan), is found in MS. e of the Poema Morale, which is generally taken as of the Middle South. The forms vyches, eueruyches occur elsewhere in MS. J, and are probably due to the scribe.

Metre: The system is that of Layamon and the Bestiary; the Worcester Fragment B shows an earlier stage of its development. It is a mixture of the national alliterative verse loosely constructed and rhyming couplets. The latter are bound together by perfect, imperfect, even inflectional rhymes, and assonances. The halves of the couplets as they appear in MS. J are of varying lengths, two measures as 73, 216, more frequently two and a half 7, 44 &c., three 51 &c., three and a half 8 &c. Three-syllable measures are common, as, ‘hé wes þe | wýsuste | mòn,’ 17, ‘his sé | des to sów | èn,’ 59, ‘his mé | des to mów | èn’ 60. The alliterative combinations present every possible variety, 2 + 2, as 16; the normal 2 + 1, as 67; 1 + 2, as 142; 1 + 1, as 23 and often. The couplet has sometimes the added ornament of alliteration, as 46, 47. Where a line has neither alliteration nor rhyme, it may be assumed that the formless text is corrupt, as at 26, 68 &c.

There is then little to be gained by a metrical analysis of the poem in its present condition. It had originally a quite definite and regular structure, but this has been spoiled by copyists with little feeling for the structure of the verse and possessed by a strong desire to renovate the antique. It is highly probable that the last of them, the writer of MS. J, had a large hand in this alteration, for the copy of the Poema Morale in the same MS. has undergone a drastic revision which sets it apart among the versions of that poem, and the version of the Owl and Nightingale has suffered, though not to the same extent. On the other hand MS. T was copied by a man who was incapable of remodelling it; though a ruin, it often preserves in details the original.

The dilapidations wrought by the copyists may be classed as follow: i. Archaic and uncommon words are rejected: for þeynes 1, read sweynes; comp. L 28359, O 3297, 14953 for this word as meaning the immediate dependants of the king; the line then divides after ‘sete’: l. 13, see note: l. 24 for seyde þe, read wordede; comp. ‘þe king wordede þus,’ L 13052: l. 26 with the help of T may be restored, arme ⁊ edie leode · of lifis wisdom: l. 38, see note: l. 56, adopting ‘here’ from T, read þat land for to werie | wiþ hunger and wiþ here (the Danish marauding host was forgotten): l. 62, for bihoue read biliue (bilif T, W): l. 68, for beon read wurþen: l. 71, 330 for rewe read suwe, smart; comp. 72/199: l. 82, see note and comp. L 30903: l. 87, for howyen, read ȝeomeren, be depressed: l. 88, 155, for lykie read wurþe: comp. ‘Ne scyle nán wís monn gnornian to hwæm his wise weorþe,’ Boeth. 40, 3 (B-T): l. 111, see note: l. 115, for turne read rume (rime T): l. 122, see note: l. 133, for inowe read muche (moch T): l. 136, for Monymen read moni gume: l. 137, for him seolue read his saule, with T: l. 138, for bycome read were, with T, restoring a couplet: l. 143 for þing, read weole (welþe T): half a line is lost after lere: read, And ich eu lere wille · [leoue freond myne] | wit and wisdom · þat alle weole ouergoþ.: ll. 202, 207, see notes: l. 278 for mon read wiht: l. 280 for holde read lenge, as in T. ii. Older forms and constructions are modernised: ll. 159, 160, see note: l. 169 read þat heo þe bringe, making a couplet: l. 187 read heuede: l. 216 read þare for þe: l. 305, read alle for al, comp. 185: other instances are noted in Accidence. iii. Words are rearranged mostly in a prose order, spoiling rhyme and rhythm: read l. 25, leoue freond myne: l. 41 himseólf one lokie: l. 55 bihoueþ þan knyhte, for the alliterating word in the first half of the line comes almost invariably last, the rare exceptions being mostly verbs: for l. 56 see above: read l. 80 and he isowen hadde: l. 118 hit one wot dryhten: l. 130, vre maþmes welden | and vs byhinde leten: l. 142, lere wille: l. 156, if þu hauest serewe | and hit wot þe erewe: l. 203, þe kat museþ: l. 211, wiþute is bryht: ll. 232, 233, þe hire rede folẹweþ | to seorewe heo bringeþ: l. 245, þat he habbe freond: ll. 321, 322, þanne hit sone deþ | þat þe unyqueme biþ. iv. Lines and parts of lines are transposed, most of these as affecting the interpretation have been dealt with in the notes, see 40, 90, 144, 186, 247; read ll. 72, 73, þenne cumeþ vnhelþe | and ek uniselþe: though the combination in the text is found elsewhere as 40/197, elde seems to be due to the preceding line; at l. 190 we should perhaps read wymmon is tungwod · ⁊ haueþ wordes to wroþ. v. Padding is freely used: l. 4 omit þe: l. 7 read On Engelonde king: l. 9 read gon for bigon: omit l. 24, þe before king; l. 35, ne; l. 49, he; l. 66, his; l. 69, þat; l. 98, þe mon, and read þe on youhþe swo swinkeþ | and worldes weole her iwinneþ: l. 105, read on ȝouþe þat he haueþ idrowe: omit l. 132, þu; l. 149, owe; l. 152, þu; l. 188, hit; l. 189, scholde, forþ; l. 192, nowiht, and read ll. 191, 192 as an alliterative line: omit l. 205, ne, he; l. 209, blyþe and; l. 210, þe mon: l. 219-23, with the help of T we may restore, Ne ared þu nouht to swiþe | þe word of þine wyue. | If heo be i wreþþed · myd worde oþer dede; l. 231, for þat wymmon read heo; comp. T: l. 242 omit þe mon: l. 249, see note: l. 254, omit þe before wule: l. 262 omit þe, see note: l. 275, for schulle bicumen read bicumeþ: l. 280, for none read no: ll. 294, 296, omit þu: l. 324 omit þe. vi. The rhymes may, in some cases, have been spoiled by the substitution of alien dialectic forms; it is tempting to read ihere 10, iherd 205, but the u forms do not appear to belong to the dialect of the scribe of J: at l. 102 helde, a patois form (Bülbring § 175 note), might be read: at l. 240 þon. The combinations brouhte : myhte, 181, 182; ayhte : nouhte, 274, 275 are remarkable.

Many intractable lines remain, such as 284, where perhaps bet has been lost at the end.

Elision and slurring are frequent; pronounce þeorl 4, lawẹlyche 47, euẹlyche 49, euẹruyches, owẹre 54, &c.

Introduction: The ascription of the Proverbs to Alfred rests on no firmer ground than an affectionate remembrance of the great king as a sage and teacher of his people. The only part of the poem which could with even artistic fitness be attributed to him is ll. 19-64, the rest is mostly the cautious wisdom of the common people, varied by reflections in a higher strain on the favourite mediaeval theme of the shortness and uncertainty of life. Up to l. 64 the poem is connected; afterwards it is without apparent plan, though there is occasionally a slender thread of union between the stanzas. The editors indeed see a new exordium and the beginning of a second section in stanza xiii, which appears to me to be a weak imitation of stanza vii. Perhaps a structural difference may be detected between the more general observations of the first part and the advice to an individual which begins with stanza xiv. Stanza xxi appears to have strayed from its natural place beside stanza vii.

The version of MS. J is not necessarily the more primitive because it is shorter than that of T. A poem of such loose structure readily lends itself to selection on the part of the copyist; and the scribe of MS. J was evidently a critic.

If the suggestions offered in the section on metre have any weight, a considerable time and several copies must have intervened between the original and the present form of the poem. The composition of that original should, I think, be placed somewhere about 1180 A.D.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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, 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 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 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: 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.

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.

Manuscript:
Manuscript.

The Cotton MS. ... MS. Stowe 163, B.M. ff.
Stowe, 163 B. M.

... īe in scīene, gesīene gives schene 213, isene 75.
scīene gesīene

ea + h occurs in wexynde 112, 113, iauhteþ 171
113 iauhteþ

The personal pronouns ... a. f. 280, non
non,

s. g. neut. 276, echere
echere,

... Past of Weak Verbs: s. 2. heuedest 187;
187:

1. Seuorde: siforde T; Sifforde W, RJ, which is
RJ.,

38. ... ryhtwis
rightwis

87-92. ... sende þe Aduersite
Aduersite

129. vouh, for veoh
“veoh” misprinted as bold

144. ... the divergence of T
of B

258. ... which is not in T,
T.,

271. Skeat takes lond le as a mere scribal error
“lond le” misprinted as plain (non-bold)

VII. MEMENTO MORI

Manuscript: As for no. vi. There are other copies in (C) MS. Cotton Caligula A ix., B.M., of the first quarter of the thirteenth century, and (B) MS. Laud 471, Bodleian, of the end of the same century. In (A) MS. Arundel 57, B.M. there is a fourteenth-century version of nine lines. CJ form a group, B belongs to another branch.

Editions: Of CJ; Morris, R., OEM, pp. 156-9 under the inappropriate title, Long Life: of B; Zupitza, J., Anglia i. p. 410: of B, corrected by CJ; Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, p. 56; of C; Wright, T., Percy Society, vol. xi. p. 63. Of A; Morris, R., Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 129.

Literature: Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 410; Varnhagen, H., Anglia ii. 71; ii. 67.

Phonology: The position is the same as that of piece vi: words not in it are blench 4 (blencan vb.); falwy 6 (fealwian); luteþ 29 (lūtian); sterk 11 (stearc); steo 38 (stīgan, imitating in the inf. flēon, wrēon, Bülbring, Ablaut 88), sunne 10 (synn). MS. C does not differ materially from it: it has however drinche 8, deaþes 8, sterch 11, strench 14, tahte 23, fole 33, wormes 34, nowt 50. MS. B is South-Eastern bordering on Kent; it has rene 3 (rēn), senne 10, starc 11, sene 13, to yenes 16, Man let lust and senne stench 19, sede 23, stie 38 and st for ht in brigst 13. The text is often faulty as if written down from memory, and l. 26 is missing, but the rhymes are correct: the original was doubtless in the South-Eastern dialect.

Accidence: longe s. g. neut. 1 (comp. longes 21/109); heyust adv. 38; endi inf. 39 (endian), last 2 pr. s. (lǣdest) 36 are the only forms which require notice.

Metre: The ten-line stanza of this poem is unique in ME. literature. It is an expansion of the common eight-line stanza: its rhyme formula is abab | baab | bb, two quatrains with contrasted rhymes and a two-line close in which the sentiment of the stanza culminates. In the last stanza the effect is spoiled by the absence of a break at the end of the eighth line.

As a rule the line contains four measures, but four out of five times the ninth line of the stanza has only three, so, Món | er þu fál | lẹ of þi bénch | 9; Ac déþ | lúteþ | in his schó | 29; In déþ | schal þi lýf | endí | 39; wúrcheþ him | pýnẹ eu|er mó | 49. Further, in the original form of the verse, as preserved by MS. B, the tenth line has only two measures, þi sénnẹ | aquénch | 10; wel dó | wel þénch | 20; hím to | fordó | 30 (Zupitza’s correction of the MS. do him for do); on wóp | þi glé | 40; ne dó | þu só | 50. The rhythm is mostly trochaic, as Món may | lónge | lýues | wéne | 1, but sometimes iambic, as Nis nón | so stróng | ne stárk | ne ké|nè 11; her naú|ẹstu blís|se dáy|es þré | 35. Lines with three-syllable measures like 9 are 22, 26: with monosyllabic first foot are 19, 22, 31, 32.

Introduction: The comparative smoothness and finish of the verse points to a date considerably later than that of the Proverbs: perhaps about 1210 A.D. The piece seems to have been inspired by stanzas x and xxi of the earlier poem.

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 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 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.

Manuscript: ... (B) MS. Laud 471
printed as shown: error for “Laud Misc.”?

Editions: Of CJ; Morris, R., OEM
R. OEM

As a rule ... Món may | lónge | lýues | wéne
lyúes

4. makeþ: hit makeð, C; the subject is weder, neut.
neut

VIII. POEMA MORALE

Manuscripts: i. Lambeth 487 (L), a small quarto, 177 × 135 mm., of 67 leaves, written towards the end of the twelfth century. Its contents are described in Wanley, p. 266, and printed in OEH i. pp. 2-189: nos. x, xi. of this book are also taken from it. The words printed in clarendon in these three pieces are written in red, not inserted afterwards by a rubricator but done at the same time as the rest of the text. The PM ends with fordemet, l. 270, in the middle of a page; the final t has a flourish for its cross stroke; the copyist had apparently no knowledge of any more.

ii. iii. Egerton 613, B.M., described in the List of Additions, 1843. Its contents are mostly in Norman French, but it has two copies of the PM: the second (e) furnishes here a complement to the Lambeth MS. as far as l. 370, with which it ends; the first (E) is used to complete the text. e was written in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, E is somewhat later; the former has accents, the latter none. In e every other line has a red initial, but the rubricator went wrong at ll. 308, 312. These copies are in different hands.

iv. Trinity College, Cambridge, B. 14. 52 (T), on vellum, 135 × 105 mm.; written early in the thirteenth century. Its contents are described in James, M. R., The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1900, i. 459. A leaf is lost after f. 8, and a new hand begins with f 9; the PM appears to be a distinct MS. (Anglia, iv. 408). The initials of each line are capitals and written apart from their words. A later hand has glossed aihte 42, goodes; ore 53, favour, grace; lean 64, deserving; manke 70, Manca, Mancus.

Other MSS. are v. Digby A 4, Bodleian D, of the beginning of the thirteenth century; described in Macray, W. D., Catalogue of the Digby MSS., Oxford, 1883. The PM is written in half lines and stanzas; it is in a hand found nowhere else in the MS., which was probably copied at Christ Church, Canterbury (James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover, Cambridge, 1903; Förster, M., Archiv cxv. 167). Its dialect is Kentish. vi. Jesus College, Oxford, E 29 (J): see p. 285. vii. McClean MS. 123 (M), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 122 leaves on vellum, 262 × 167 mm.: about 1300: the Nuneaton Book, described by Miss Anna C. Paues, who discovered this copy of the poem, in Anglia xxx. 217-26, and in A Descriptive Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Manuscripts by M. R. James, Cambridge, 1912. Like Egerton 613 it has the Bestiary of William the Norman and the Gospel of Nicodemus in French. The dialect of PM is South-Eastern, bordering on Kent. It begins with two lines from Sinners Beware (OEM p. 72), and has four other lines not found in any other copy: on the other hand, it wants seventy lines found in T; it diverges from the other MSS. in the order of the lines, and in other respects gives the impression of having been written down from memory.

Facsimile: Of vi. Skeat, W. W., Twelve Facsimiles, Oxford, 1892; plate vi gives ll. 1-34.

Editions: Of L: OEH i. 159-75 with modern version. Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, 57-61. Of E: Furnivall, F. J., Early English Poems. Philological Society, 1862, 22-34, with readings of e and OEH i. 288-95, 175-83. Of e: Zupitza-Schipper, Alt- und Mittelenglisches Übungsbuch, Wien, 1907, 80-91, completed from E. Of T: OEH ii. 220-32 and Specimens 195-221. Of J: OEM 58-71 and Specimens 194-220. Of D: Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 6-32, part in Hickes i. 222. Of M: Paues, A. C., Anglia xxx. 227-37 (I read l. 29, hire; 63 þon; 65 nammore; 71 ouersicþ; 84 þurȝsicþ; 105 diaþe; 147 þar pine; 152 ysicþ; 191 ofspreng; 223 hi neure; 236 Mot; 268 wulle; 314 hī = him; 333 ḅyseo = yseo).

A critical edition based on all the MSS. then known was issued by H. Lewin, Halle, 1881. He adopted Zupitza’s filiation of the MSS. as expressed in the following table:

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | L
|  |  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  |  | E
|  |  | Y |  |  |  |  |  | W |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | e
U |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | J
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | T
|  |  | Z |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | D

Miss Paues thinks that M is descended from V co-equal with U, thus displacing the latter from its position of original: to me it seems to belong to the Z group, and to be most nearly related to D.

The MSS. thus fall into two groups, which are here adequately represented by the printed texts, for D is inferior and J much altered, indeed often rewritten. U, the original, was probably written about 1180 A.D.

Literature: Einenkel, E., Anglia iv. Anz. 88-93; Jordan, R., ES xlii. 38-42 (dialect of L); Krüger, A., Sprache und Dialekt der ME. Homilien in der Handschrift B. 14. 52. Trinity College, Cambridge, Erlangen, 1885; Paues, A. C., Anglia xxx. 217-37; Zupitza, J., Anglia i. 5-38; iii. 32, 33; iv. 406-10.

Analogues: Reimpredigt, ed. H. Suchier, Halle, 1879; Le Sermon de Guischart de Beauliu, ed. A. Gabrielson, Upsala, 1909; Guischart de Beauliu’s debt to religious learning and literature in England, by A. Gabrielson, Archiv cxxviii. 309-28.

Phonology: (1) of the Lambeth MS. Oral a is a, baþien 245, faren 176; a before nasals is normally o, mon 22, þonc 71, but a in manke 70, þanke 241, and þenne, þene, þen, wenne are the usual spellings, with occasional þanne 18, 160; a before lengthening groups is o, honde 81, ifonded 147; ent 159 is Anglian end. æ is mostly e, brec 183, et 92, feder 148, efþ 171 (hæfð), hwet 92 &c., weter 248, but a in bað 218, fader 186, 195, habbe 3, 5, hwat 90, water 142, 194, 240. e is e, beren 95, ende 179, strengþe 168, but sullic 181 (syllic; comp. seollic L 18035), ni 77, meind 142 (mengde). i is i, biden 125, binden 216, child 148; after w it is u in wule 34, 39, 155, wulleð 97, 226, uuel 123 (= nule), nute 236, nusten 102, 225. It is e in þerdde 138, u in ofsprung 207; boð 120 is miswritten for bið. o is o, bifore 16, borde 260, but after w, a, walde 49, nalde 185, 261; cumen 202 is c(w)omon. The prep. on is mostly a, sometimes an; u is u, cumeð 234, funde 68, but come 124, 221, iwoned 57 in contact with m, n, w. y is mostly u, abuȝeð 195, cunne 202, duden 265, sunne 201, swuch 80, þunchen 62; before lengthening groups, sungede 258, but i in afirst 37, hwice 136, lifte 83, ofþinchþ 130 (5), swich 80 (3), and e in dede 2, vnnet 5: king 50, drihten 80, drihte 110 are the only forms of these words.

ā is normally a, an 26, are 179, hwam 202, þa 190; before consonant groups, are 207, hattre 247, but it is o in hom 95, hwon 105, þo 53, wori 142, e through loss of stress in se 80 &c., þe 169. ǣ₁ is e, eni 53, er 11, þen 71, ech 32, efre 68, ledden 209, but a in anige 269, þan 74: uches 90 descends from ylc. ǣ₂ is always e, adrede 6, brede 143, lende 122, uniselðe 198. ē is always e; ī, i; ō, o, but e in te 108: na 134 is Anglian nā. ū is always u. ȳ is normally u, cudde 191, fur 76, hud 77, lutel 46, but litel 28, hwi 104.

ea before r + cons. is regularly e, erȝe 17, þerf 43; before lengthening groups, erninge 64, herde 157, 169, wernin 228, but arme 227, warni 226: the i-umlaut is represented by derne 78, smirte 114. ea before l + cons. is once ea, bifealt 7; normally a (Anglian absence of breaking), al 7 &c., salt 248, ald 4, -fald 54, 247, waldeð 84, but welde 2, welden 55 (by confusion with gewieldan): the i-umlaut is seen in elde 14, 15, eldre 192, helde 197, but alder 1. eo before r + cons. is mostly e, herte 74, werke 27 (9), but horte 113; before length. groups it is o in ȝorne 49, horþe 75, orðe 81, orðliche 153. The wur group is represented by wurð 140; the i-umlaut by wurs 236, wurst 217, 219: bernd 249, berninde 218, bernunde 245 come from bærnan. eo before l + cons. is written o [ö], solf 12 (13), but u in sulf 214 (LWS. sylf). ea, u-umlaut of a is represented by kare 45. eo, u-umlaut of e is o, houene 25 (7), world 153, 222, but e in heuenriche 42, 63, and by influence of w, u in suster 148, 185: eo, å-umlaut of e is written o [ö], brokeð 91, fole 9 (4), unfrome 226, but is e in fele 70, 166, wele 222. eo, umlaut of i is written o [ö], binoþen 87, hore 101, solure 264, souene 26, soððen 9, 117, but is e in biclepie 107, iclepede 104, seue 140; u in suððen 205, hure 141. The palatal diphthong ea is a in scal 24, 35, schal 19, -gate 180; e in scefte 84, ȝere 110; sceamian is skamie 163, 165, sceomu, scome 166. ie after g is regularly e (Anglian), ȝeuen 64, 261, ȝefð 144, ȝeue 45, 74, ȝelde 45, forȝeten 34, 98, but i in giue 56; after č, e, chele 197, 233 (without umlaut); after sc, i, scilde 220. eo after g is u in ȝung 4, 10; after sc, u, sculen 20 (8), sculde 118, 263, sculden 60, 265, but o once in solde 51. eom is em 1, 4, heom, hom 18 &c.

ēa is ea in deaþe 182, uneade 181, otherwise e, brede 189, chep 68, deðe 115, uneðe 189: lan 64 is Scandinavian. The i-umlaut is e, alesed 134, iheren 262, ileuen 255. ēo is eo in beoð 17, beo 29, freonde 220, seon 16, otherwise regularly o, bon 2 (5), bo 134 (10), boð 26 &c., dore 143, doule 97 (5), frond 30 (4), son 158, þoue 43, but e in lef 252, sec 199, tening 253: bið 233 is due to confusion with the singular. The i-umlaut is represented by dore 144, 184, fond 219, frond 220, node 261, þostre 78, but once þestre 76. gīet is ȝet 5; gēar, ȝer 140. ō after sc is seen in scop 84.

a + g is aȝ, draȝen 47, 49, laȝe 170: ah 14, 119, ach 58 is Anglian ah. æ + g is ei, dei 134, mei 14, seið 114, 133. e + g is eȝ in weȝes 72, ei in eie 18, weien 63: ongegn is aȝein 76; e + h is seen in hechte 268; i + h in iwichte 212; o + g in unwron 160 (unwrogen); o + h in bohte 184, unbocht 59; u + g in fuȝeles 83, luȝen 159, muȝe 21, wruȝen 160; y + g in abuh 144 (abygþ). ā + g produces aȝ, aȝen 30 (5), maȝe 29, but ahen 161: ā + h is seen in ahte 2, achten 129. ǣ₁ + g is ei in eiðer 62, seiden 223; ǣ₁ + h, eh in ehte 259, echte 42 (3), but ach in tachte 268. ǣ₂ + g gives eȝ in iseȝen 98, 102, but ei in mei 29, 185. ē + g is seen in forwreien 97; ō + g in inoch 235; ō + h in biþocht 8, brochte 183: uwer 88 is ōwer < ōhwǣr, comp. ouhwar AR 60/25. ea + h gives mihte 13, michte 16, 52, mahte 222, isech 261; the i-umlaut is represented in nihte 78: eo + h, brichte 75, rihte 109; its i-umlaut is represented in ouersich 75, þurþsicheþ 90. ēa + g is eȝ in eȝen 75; ēa + h gives þah 4, þach 102, 222, þech 181; ēo + h, lihte 76, lihtliche 145. ā + w is au in cnauð 146, knauð 110, saule 136, 245, naut 48, 212; aw in nawiht 150, 249 (but noht 190, nocht 132 are from nōwiht); auw in iknauwen 161; otherwise aw, blaweð 136, mawen 20. ēa + w is aw in scaweð 135. ēo + w is ou in ou 50; ow in ow 228, rowen 19, sowen 20, eow in eow 25: its i-umlaut is represented in untrownesse 265.

In syllables without stress a is levelled to e, abuten 267, bihinden, binoþen 87, biforen 25, sone 38, but biforan 63; o to e, atter 142, siker 41, swikele 251. e is added in areles 216 (ārlēas), ofte 57. The prefix ge is i, ilome 47, iswinc 36, itit 125.

For sw, su is written once in suilch 120; qu is the regular equivalent of cw, iquemen 95, quike 79. An l is lost in ful 6, 145, fulenden 243: gg is written for ng in biginnigge 119. Initial f is once u in uersc 248: f between vowels or vowel and voiced consonant is generally u, buuen 87, eure 86, iuere 229, solure 264, uuel 251, but f in ufel 59, 93, ufele 17, ifere 102; frure 232 is probably frōfre. In heste 242 t is added, but hese 91: ts is c in milce 72. d is lost in leden 93 and added in ordlinghes 103: t is written for d in ent 159, fordemet 270, idemet 106, 171, maket 230, undret 208, 247. þ is lost in abuh 144, ouersich 75; written for d in hefð 147; for it th is written in with 216, t in etlete 148, 153, 257, hauet 65, ofþinchet 10, seit 133, þunchet 233, d in cud 159 (but kuðe 9), uneade 181, h in þench 33, wih 220, c in eclete 74: it is assimilated in attere 127, at ta 156. sc [š] is sc in scal 24, scameþ 165, scilde 220, sch in schal 19, s in bisunien 152, ss in fisses 83 and notably sk in skamie 163. č is generally ch, chele 197, child 3, ich 1, but drunke 258, smike 16; c [k] is palatalized in hech 232, werch 108, 116, werche 254, but werc 177; it is g in þingþ 5; ah 14, 119, 120, ach 58, 166, hi 221 (= ih) have Anglian h: čč is ch, feche 222, reche 221, rechð 133, streche 231, stuche 189, wreche 232: cg is gg, seggen 94, buggen 65, but abuȝeð 195. Palatal g is very regularly represented by ȝ, forȝeten 34, ȝeue 74, ȝere 110, but i in medierne 256 (georne), h in ahen 161 and g in anige 269: gate 180 is plural: ng is ngh in ordlinghes 103, ngg in eueningges 162: g is lost in murþe 154. The prefix ge is lost in bon 137, hud 77, meind 142, write 101. h has been added initially in hech 232, helche 89, his 72, 121, 229, honde 193, dropped in is 217, raþer 131, undret 208, 247: þ displaces h in þurþ 90. For hw, w appears in wa 114, wet 79, 94, h in hom 95. ch for h is frequent, achten 129, brochte 183, brichte 75, hechte 268, isech 261, ouersich 75, þurþsicheþ 90, &c. In soht 30, ht is written for tt.

(2) of the Trinity College MS. Oral a is a, fare 180, habben 39; a before nasals regularly a, man 20, þanc 245, þanne, þane, þan are the usual forms, but þene 343; a before lengthening groups is o, fonded 149, longe 3, but hangeð 312. æ is regularly a, after 28, almesse 28, brac 185, fader 150, water 244, but sæd 392, hweðer 240. e is e, bed 222, beren 95; before lengthening groups, bende 398, felde 348, imengd 144, strengðe 317, but ængles 94, angles 284, 355, 380. i is i, þridde 140, child 3, finde 54, but e after w in nele 336, nelle 291, nesten 229, 388, also in ofspreng 211, þese 312, þesse 328, 383, þesses 338 (ðyssum, ðysses), u after w in swunche 208, 373, as also in ofsprung 198. o is o, bode 264, borde 311, but on prep. is most frequently a, an. sorg is soreȝe 142 (4), but sareȝe 378. u is invariably u, bigunne 218, grunde 180. y is e in deden 269, 270, euel 26 (11), hlesten 230, 387, kenne 206 (4), senne 129 (7), senden 290 (syndun), steche 191, vnnet 5, unwenne 212; u in abugeð 197, abuið 146, bugge 65, dude 2, duden 96, fulle 352, furst 37, gulteð 315 (4), gult 197 (4), hulle 351, misduden 101, 194, muchel 76 (8), murie 156, murihðe 396, þunche 62, ofþunche 207 (3), sunegeden 262; i in tihte 272, þincheð 5, 10, 166, swilch 79, 399, hwilch 138, unwinne 250: king, drihten, drihte are the only forms of these words.

ā is mostly o; the exceptions are aquerne 366, bihat 368, hat 308, hatere 251, hwan 206, lac 203 (loc in corresponding line 73). ǣ₁ is mostly a, ani 53, are 124, has 91, 349, hate 236, sa 83, sade 131 (LWS. sǣde), tache 305, þare 346; before two consonants, ache 235 (4), afre 86, mast 7, unhalðe 16 (4); but e in hete 199, mene 170, ðer 216, and before two consonants arerde 172, ech 23 (8); æ in ænes 185; ea in hease 296. In forgoð 358 a plural form is used for the singular. ǣ₂ is mostly a, adrade 6, dade 3 (4), lache 306, misdade 132, 166, 275, rade 4, strate 235 (4), before two consonants naddren 277, ofdrad 43, 94, 288, unisalðe 200, 378, wapne 340, but e in mere 393, misdede 209 r. w. ofdrade, unsele 201, iselðe 15; æ in læte 345, and ia in þiar 165. ē is e, beten 242, demde 274, iquemd 174, but a in ache 364 (ǣce): doð 35 (8) is plural form for singular. ī is i, abiden 140, þriste 19, but syrreue 50, ȝietceres 271 (Bülbring, § 306, anm. 1). ō is o except in cam 117 (4), te 316. ū is invariably u. ȳ is e in forbet 307, here 45, kedde 193; u in cuðen 99, fure 43, 152, hudden 162, i in litel 46, 264, 331.

ea before r + cons. is, as a rule, a, arme 231, narewe 343, swarte 282, before lengthening groups mostly a, hardde 171, warnie 304, but e in erninge 64, metheschele 366; ea, æ in middeneard 140, 200, middenærd 195: the i-umlaut is represented by erminges 323, derne 77, smierte 114. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, alle 22, biualle 198, before lengthening groups mostly ea, bihealde 288, eald 4, but bihelden 392, holde 55: the i-umlaut is seen in elde 16 (5), elder 1, 326, elderne 194. eo before r + cons. is mostly e, herte 74 (3), werc 108 (10), but storre 279, hierte 113; before lengthening groups it is ie in ȝierles 324, ȝierne 49, e in erðe 75, erðeliche 155. In the wur group u is the rule, wurðe 142, wurðen 334. The i-umlaut after w gives werse 299, werest 221 (LWS. wyrsa, wyrrest): barneð 253, barnende 222, descend from bærnan; oerre 280 represents eorre. eo before l + cons. is always e, self 131 &c. eo, u-umlaut of e is e, heuene 27, wereldes 271, but o in woreldes 226, 338; the å-umlaut is represented by fele 9 (3), wele 155 (4): eo, umlaut of i is e, icleped 104, henne 400, seðen 9, seuene 28, bineþen 87, but binime 44, ȝieue 74, niþer 347, quike 78, 192, siluer 268, and after w, suster 150, 187, wude 348. ea after palatals is a in sal 21, 26, safte 84, same 168, samie 165, sameð 167, scat 367. ie after g is ie in biȝiete 105, 126, ȝielde 45, forȝiete 34 (4), ȝieuen 64 (12), forȝieue 217; after sc, c, it is i, silde 224 (5), e in chele 199, 236, bicherd 322. The conj. gif is ȝief 121, 166. eo after g gives ȝeunge 10, ȝeunger 326, jung 4, ȝieuð 377 (geogoð): eo after sc, solde 37, 267, solden 60, sulle 22, sullen 103. heom is hem; eom, am.

ēa is mostly ea, breade 191, deaðe 106 (7), eaðe 210, 288, 376, uneaðe 183, 191, but ec 46, 107, eðlate 74, 150, 261, rauing 257. The i-umlaut of ēa has regularly e, alesed 136, hereð 89, ileuen 49, temen 108, but ȝiemeð 80. ēo is mostly e, ben 39 (12), biflen 154, deflen 97, lef 73, frend 30, rewen 358, but ie in bien 389, bie 4 (4), biede 266, bieð 291, 315, diere 145, fiendes 223, friende 224, lief 203, 261, hielden 172, 298, isien 18 (5), swiere 146, þieue 43; i in sic 201. The i-umlaut is represented in diere 146, 186, fiend pl. n. 283, friend pl. a. 224, niede 265, þiesternesse 281, but derlinges 389, frend 185, 304, þuster 77. gesīene is isene 344; gīet, ȝiet 5, 293; gēar, ȝier 142: ō after sc is seen in sop 84.

a + g is aw in drawen 47, aȝ in laȝe 172, 295. æ + g is ai, dai 370, fair 392, mai 16, 44, but maiȝ 88, 124, 217. e + g is ei, wei 353, eiseliche 285, eie 20, seið 112, 135, but treiȝe 375, weiȝ 341, weiȝen 63: ongegn is aȝien 351. i + g is ie, nieðe 342, unwrien 162; final ig is i, peni 300, weri 244: i + h is ih, sihte 369, wihte 78. o + h is oh, bohte 186. u + g is uȝ, luȝen 161, muȝe 23, 55, muȝen 159, but fueles 83. y + h, drihte 79, 110 with i as usual, abuið 146, abugeð 197. ā + g, h is oȝ, moȝe 187, oȝen 163; ow, mowe 29, owen 30; oh, foh 365. ǣ₁ + g is ei in eiðer 62, 239, but aiðer 306, aihware 88: ǣ₁ + h is ai, aihte 42 (5), taihte 272, but eihte 321. ǣ₂ + g is æi in mæi 29; ai in mai 187, grai 365; ei in iseie 118, iseien 98, 99, 102. ē + g occurs in forwreien 97, leie 282: ō + g, h in inoh 391, inoȝh 389, biþoht 8, brohte 185. ea + g, h is ei, iseih 265; the i-umlaut is seen in mihte 15, 52, 202, 226, mihte 76, nihte 77, 370. eo + h is ih in brihte 75, rihte 109, rihtwisnesse 72, unriht 93; the i-umlaut is represented in ouersihð 75, þurhsihð 90. ēa + g is seen in eien 75, 381, raketeie 283; ēa + h in heie 16, 284, þeih 4, 102, 131: ēo + g in drie 292, lie 291; ēo + h in liht 316, 382, lihtliche 147. ā + w is ow, bloweð 138, cnoweð 110, icnowen 163, nowiht 152, sowle 138, but naht 48, &c., naðer 367. ī + w is seen in glie 292; ēa + w in feawe 349; ēo + w in newe 313, rewen 21, sewen 22, untrewnesse 269: ēow is eow 157.

In unstressed syllables levelling to e takes place as in L: e is inserted after r between consonants in arefeð 315, harem 198, iboreȝe 167, narewe 343: quica 192, þa 349 have a for e; comp. alla 81/76, blaca 82/99.

r is lost medially in metheschele 366; rr is simplified in werest 221. n is lost medially in ore 383, raketeie 283, druken 257, seuenihte 142; nn is simplified in done 37, isiene 392. bb is simplified in haben 53, 100, habeð 179, 194, libeð 208. f between vowels is u, buuen 87, eueten 277, deueles 179, but deflen 97, defles 258. t is dropped in a te 92, foremes 197, nah 129; ts is represented by c in milce 8, by ch in milche 219. d is lost in godcunnesse 393, exchanged with ð in idemð 173, and doubled in hardde 171. For þ, d is written in habbed 141, 177, bed 104, 381; th in lothe 61, metheschele 366, sathanas 287: þþ is simplified in seðen 9, 117, 209. sc [š] is sc in scat 367; s in bisunien 154, safte 84, sal 21, same 168, sameð 167, samie 165, senche 335, silde 224 (5), sineð 279, solde 37, sop 84, srud 367, sulle 22, syrreue 50; ss in fisses 83. gītsere is ȝietceres 271. č is expressed by ch, muchel 12 (23), ich 1 (25), but mukel 209, ic 12, 229: čč is also ch, feche 226, reche 135, 225, steche 191, ?wichen, 103: cg is gg, seggen 92, g, abugeð 197 (but abuið 146), ligeð 283: cw is always qu, aquerne 366, quike 78. ġ is regularly ȝ, forȝieuenesse 302, forȝiete 34, but j in jung 4. A y sound has developed initially in ȝierles 324; comp. ȝeie 13/43. g before ð is c in strencðe 170, h in murihðe 396. For almihtin 337 see 79/17 note. hw initial is preserved, but hr is r, raðer 133, rewen 358.

Accidence: (1) of L. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. were 31 has added e; sune 186 represents sunu. Gen. -es, swinkes 64; golde 70 is probably miswritten for goldes: d. -e, gode 73, middenerde 193, fure 43, werke 27; exceptions are festen 145, god 49, hunger 145 (hungre), king 63 (r. w. erninge), middenerd 198, unriht 209, mostly before vowels, fur 150, werch 116, at mid pause of the verse: misse 234, acc. has added e. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, engles 94, weȝes 72, bendes 188, but wintre 208 (wintru): neuters are -ȝer 140, iswinc 36, lif 246, þing 84, word 9, 158, doule 97 (dēoflu), gate 180 (gatu), werkes 63, 72, 111 with masc. termination; g. manke 70; d. doulen 269, wrenchen 251, bende 134, wintre 1, 4, write 101. Of the fem. nouns, blisse 233, endinge 120, mihte 211, milce 72, murþe 154, rihtwisnesse 72, sorȝe 140, 194, sunne 201, tilþe 57, unhelðe 197, witnesse 113, 116, wombe 145 have added e in the s. nom., echte 42, 55, ehte 259, node 261 in the acc. The other cases sing. and pl. end in e, helle 216, s. g., are 179, s. d., 53, s. a., but tening 253; pl. n. are blisse 153, glede 218, mihte 77, saule 136, uniselðe 198, wihte 79; g. misdede 130, souenihte 140, a. dede 10, hese 91, saule 245, scefte 84, sorȝe 166, stunde 147, sunne 238, tide 137: worldes 222 s. g. is a masc. form, deden 89 pl. a. a weak form. In the weak declension the termination of all cases in the singular is e; n. mone 76; g. houene 65; d. deme 96, wawe 151; a. grome 166, swore 144: plural n. are reuen 256, swicen 103, eȝen 75, ifere 102, iuere 229. The minor declensions are represented by mon s. n. 22 &c., monnes s. g. 30, monne s. d. 117, but mon 201, 259, men pl. n. 41, monne pl. g. 161, pl. d. 18, but men 18; boke s. d. 118, (a) boken pl. d. 224 (on bōcum); feder s. n. 148, fader s. g. 195, s. a. 186; broðer s. n. 148, s. a. 185; suster s. n. 148, 185; frond s. n. 30, freonde pl. d. 220, frond pl. a. 183, 219, 220, fond 219.

With the exception of the weak forms laþe 268, betere 26, 142, hattre 247, loure 29, 263, mare 2, 18, wunderlukeste 68, the adjective in the s. n. is uninflected: alder 1 is ieldra. The s. d. regularly terminates in e, except uuel 24. The s. a. is mostly uninflected, as wurst 217, but endelese 141, herdne 169, lesse 60, muchele 191, 205. The participial āgen is unvaried, aȝen 30, 108, 113, 116, 261, once ahen 161. The pl. n. ends in e, arme 227, erȝe 17, herde 169, orðliche 153, but words in -ig, gredi 264, edi 227, weri 240 and idel 9, lut 104 (lȳt indeclinable), ofdred 94 are uninflected: pl. d. are fulle, gode 219, uuel 251; pl. a. with e, bare 137, ȝunge 10, sare 36, uuele 170, wreche 170, 250. OE. āna is ane 86, 110, 213: ān is an s. n. f. 26, are d. f. 205, 207, enne a. m. 137; nān is na n. 22, 80, 181, nan 59, nane d. neut. 236, nenne a. m. 119, nane a. f. 235; naþing a. neut. 98. Adjectives are used extensively as nouns, s. n. sullic 181, ufel 59, uersc 248; s. a. beste 51, litel 28, lutel 46, lesse 71, lest 112, mare 2, 54, mest 7 (4), muchel 28. In the s. d. and throughout the pl. the termination is regularly e, s. d. gode 21, 61, laðe 61, ufele 17; pl. n. eldre 192, fremede 34, laðe, loue 44, sibbe 34, unholde 36, pl. a. dede, quike 190, uuele 192.

The personal pronouns are ich, hi 221 (= ih), i in ilede 5, me, we, us, þu, þe, ȝe, eow 25, ou 50, ow 155, 228. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 21, hit neut. 11, d. him m. 24, 44, a. hine m. 12, 34, 116, him 110, ha f. 215 (Mercian), es (see p. 274) 55, 239, is 144, his 40, 259; hes, hies 56 (= he + es), hit neut. 15, 38, pl. n. hi 66 (4), ho 19 (11), d. him 165, 184, hom 18, 62, 181, hi a. 180, hom 182, 184. Reflexives are him s. 124, him solue 23 (5), him solf 115; definitives, solf s. 46, 129, sulf 214, þe solf 29, him solf 40, 114, 184, hom solf pl. 225; possessives, mi 2, þin 29, his 30, 31, 42, is 217, hire 31, vre 57, 247, hore 101, hure 141. The definite article is s. n. þe m. 39, 68, þe f. 74, þa 116, 201, g. þes neut. 193, d. þe m. 63, 92, 96, þa 156, (at) ta 156, þere f. 233, (at) tere 127, þe 83, þan neut. 212, a. þe m. 232, þe f. 13, 261, þat neut. 51, pl. n. þe 94, þa 103, 136, (ent) ta 103, a. þa 190. The article is also frequently used as pronoun antecedent to relatives, þe ðe 69 (5), þa þe 215, þo þe 53, 261, þe þet 55, he who; þa þe 93 (8), þa þi 173, þo þe 61, 96, they who; þa þe 250, þe þe 252, þe ꝥ 263, they to whom; with þa þe 216, with those whom; þen þe 71, to him who; þan þe 225, to those who; ꝥ þe 58, what. Other pronominal uses are of þan 74, of him of whom, þe 169, þa 270, they; þer fore 144, for it. The compound demonstrative is represented by þisse s. g. f. 267, þes pl. n. 41, þas pl. a. 230. The relatives are þe 33 &c., þa 12, 139, 169, þi 173, often meaning he who, they who 12, 19, 23, 253, þet 21 &c., often meaning that which, what: þe 10 is genitive, of which, ꝥ 65, 257 dat.: þen 269 is þe + en. Interrogatives are hwa s. n. 133, hwam d. 202, hom 95; hwat 244, hwet, wet 79, 103, to hwon 105; hweþer 236, hwilke s. d. m. 130, hwice s. n. f. 136, correlative suilch s. n. 120, swich, swuch 80, swilche pl. d. 220: ilca is ilke s. d. 212. Indefinites are wa se 114; me 48 &c.; sum s. 25, summe pl. 147; fole 9 (4), fele 70, 166; eiðer 62; oðers s. g. m. 30, 263, oðer 257, s. d. m. 186, s. a. neut. 147, oþre pl. n. 166; ech s. n. 32 &c., hech 232, ec 171, uches s. g. m. 90, elches s. g. f. 222, eche s. d. 231, ilche s. d. m. 86, helche s. a. f. 89; eni s. n. m. 68, anige s. d. f. 269, eni s. a. neut. 53; moni s. n. 38, monies s. g. 36; al s. n. a. 81, 54, alle pl. n. a. 79, 173, 174, 195, 84, alre pl. g. 161, 187.

Five-sixths of the infinitives end in en, showing Anglian influence, the remainder mostly in e, as bode 262 r. w. node, ileste 242 r. w. unstedefeste, ofþinche 203 r. w. swinke; exceptional are wernin 228, warni 226, seon 16, son 158. Dative infinitives are to baþien 245, beten 132, habben 39, swenchen 250, swinden 57, þenchen 252, for . . . cumen 154, for habben 53, for lesen 180, 182; possibly to frure 232, see note. Presents are s. 1. adrede, biþenche 6; 3. biswikeð, fulieð 12, þunchet 233, ofþinchet 10, hauet 65, þurþsicheþ 90, and the contracted forms (as numerous as the uncontracted), abuh 144, bernd 249, bet 126, 164, bit 126, iherð 89, itit 125, lest 167, sent 42, 46, ouersich 75, þench 33, wit 84: pl. 1. abuȝeð 195, brokeð 91, þenke we 190; 3. fareð 232, þolieð 202, wuneð 136: subjunctive s. 1. bidde 134; 2. wende 86; 3. ȝeue 122, giue 56, helpe 156, lipnie 22, 31, rede 8, 156, scilde 220, wite 122, wurð[e] 140: pl. 3. ?come 124: imperative s. 2. wende 86: pl. 2. sendeð 25, vnderstondeð 227. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. isech 261; pl. 1. iseȝen 102; 3. 98: I b. s. 1. com 221; 3. binom 259, brec 183, com 117, nom 205; pl. 3. comen 139, 202, helen 160, stelen 159: I c. s. 3. unbond 188; pl. 3. bigunnen 243, swunken 254; subj. s. 3. bigunne 214, funde 68: II. pl. 3. witen 244, writen 224, wruȝen 160: III. pl. 3. luȝen 159: IV. s. 3. scop 84: V. s. 3. let 260, hechte 268 (weak form); pl. 3. biheten 242, holden 170, sowen 20, leten 266. Participles present: I c. berninde 218, bernunde 245: V. wallinde 218; past: I a. biȝeten 105, forȝeten 98, iqueðen 9: I b. bistolen 15, forholen 77, iborene 105: I c. iborȝen 165, r. w. sorȝe, ifunde 177, sprunge 173, unforȝolden 59: II. iwriten 118: II, III. unwron 160: III. biloken 81, icorene 104, forlorene 106: IV. forsworene 103. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hefde 13, sede 155; 3. biþohte 150, cudde 191, herde 262, likede 11, seide 129, r. w. misdede: pl. 1. hefden 51, leden 93; 3. ledden 209, luueden 93, iquemde 269: subj. s. 3. hefde 137, hefð 147 (miswritten for hefde). Participles past: alesed 134, ibet 132, idemet 106, 171, fordemet 270, igult 27, hud 77, ihud 28, ofdred 43, offerd 157, meind 142, iclepede 104. Minor Groups: wat pr. s. 79, 89, 111, nute hi pr. pl. 236, wiste 1 pt. s. 15, wisten pt. pl. 139, nusten 1 pt. pl. 102, pt. pl. 225; ahte pt. s. 2, achten 1 pt. pl. 129; kon pr. s. 71, cunne pr. s. subj. 213, kuðe 1 pt. s. 9; þerf pr. s. 43, 44, 45, 163; scal pr. s. 24, 35, schal 19, sculen 1 pr. pl. 47, 95, 161, scule we 92, 95, sculen 2 pr. pl. 20, 49, pr. pl. 94, sculde pt. s. 263, sculden 1 pt. pl. 60, solde 51, sculden pt. pl. 265, sculde pt. s. subj. 118 (the past forms in u are Anglian); mei 1 pr. s. 14, mai pr. s. 35, 40, 69, mei 65, 88, 124, 145, muȝen 1 pr. pl. 157, 206, pr. pl. 66, 237 (in form subjunctive), muȝe pr. s. subj. 21, 55, 125, muȝen 2 pr. pl. subj. 25, pr. pl. subj. 19, mahte 1 pt. s. (Anglian mæhte) 222, mihte 13, michte 16, 1 pt. pl. 52, mihten pt. pl. 200; mot pr. s. 33; bon inf. 2 &c., bo 134, em 1 pr. s. 1, 4, is pr. s. 26, his 72, 121, 229, nis 77, 80, boð pr. s. 120 (in form plural), beoð 1 pr. pl. 17, boð pr. pl. 26, 75 &c., bið 233 (in form singular), bo 1 pr. s. subj. 4, pr. s. subj. 21 (7), beo 29, bo pr. pl. subj. 177, bon 94, wes 1 pt. s. 1, pt. s. 187, 208, weren pt. pl. 102, 230, 251, were pt. s. subj. 153, nere 199, ibon pp. 3; wule 1 pr. s. 155, pr. s. 34, 39, wile 55, uuel (miswritten for nule) 123, wulleð pr. pl. 97, 226, walde 1 pt. s. 14 (Anglian), pt. s. 35, r. w. unholde 149, wolde 147, nalde 185, 261, nolde 138, walde ȝe 2 pt. pl. 49, wolden pt. pl. 244, 266, nolden 238; don inf. 37, 69, 92, do 185, 186, to done inf. dat. 17, 37, deð pr. s. 35 &c., doð 53 (plural form), doð 1 pr. pl. 58, 60, misdoð 206, doð pr. pl. 19, 79, do pr. s. subj. 18, 21, 69, 210, dede pt. s. 2, misduden 1 pt. pl. 99, duden pt. pl. 265, misduden 192, dude 96, idon pp. 7 &c., fordon 270.

(2) of T. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. aquerne 366, were 31 have added e: sune 188 represents sunu. Gen. -es, godes 313, goldes 70, werkes 64: d. -e, ate 262, biede 266, daie 80, 158; exceptions are deað 200, deuel 273, druken 262 (for drunke), fasten 147, 339, god 284, hunger 147 (hungre), peni 300, siluer 268 (seolfre), þanc 245, þing 320, mostly before a vowel, and fur 152, middenærd 195, peni 67, werc 116 at mid pause of the verse: misse 238 s. a. has added e. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, ængles 94, ȝietceres 271, bendes 190, but wintre 212, 356: neuters are folc 217, ȝier 142, iswinc 36, þing 84, word 9, 160, ibede 301 (gebedu), werkes 63 (4) (with masc. termination), deflen 97, a weak form: g. angles 355, 380, manke 70: d. dichen 41, ibeden 339, wallen 41, wrenchen 255, bende 136, 293, 398, wapne 340, winter 4, worde 312, write 101, angles 284, derlinges 389, erminges 323, gultes 318, werkes 258, wines 223. Of the strong feminines blisse 237, 380, este 363, idelnesse 7, mihte 76, 215, milce 72, reste 364, 373, rihtwisnesse 72, senne 129, 196, 205, sihte 369, soreȝe 142, 196, 378, strate 345, tilðe 57, þiesternesse 281, unhalðe 327, unisalðe 378, witnesse 113, 116, wombe 147, have added e in the s. n., aihte 42, 55, 263, niede 265 in the s. a. The other cases sing. and pl. end in e, s. g. blisse 357, helle 220, sowle 306; d. bote 318, dade 3, dure 124; a. milche 219, murihðe 396; pl. n. glede 222, unhalðe 199, wihte 78; g. blisse 355, misdade 132, 275, seuenihte 142; d. aihte 271, 321; a. dade 10, 89, 160, laȝe 172, soreȝe 168. Exceptions are woreldes 226 (4) s.g., sa 83 s. d., has 91 s. a., rauing 257; wihten 285 pl. n., honden 81 pl. d., luues 314 pl. a., tiden 139. Nouns of the weak declension have e in all cases of the singular; n. moȝe 187, almesse 28; g. lichame 306; d. deme 96, herte 309; a. grame 168, swiere 146: pl. n. are eien 75, 381, eueten 277, iferen 102, 233, 297; a. swiken 278. The minor declensions are represented by man s. n. 165, noman 24, mannes s. g. 30, 90, 113, manne s. d. 117, man 20, maniman 205, men pl. n. 162, 260, manne pl. g. 163, 380, pl. d. 342, men 263, 354; boc s. d. 118, 228; broðer s. n. 150, s. a. 187; fader s. n. 150, faderes s. g. 197, fader s. a. 188; suster s. n. 150, 187; frend s. n. 30, friende pl. d. 224, frend pl. a. 185, 304, friend 224; fiend pl. n. 283, fiendes pl. d. 223, r. w. friende.

Remnants of the strong declension of adjectives are wreches s. g. m. 338 (with woreldes f.), ealde[s] 195, euele s. d. m. 335, godelease 348, wrongwise 48, bare s. d. f. 211, stronge 283, gode s. d. neut. 73, unstedefaste 320, wilde 145, hardne s. a. m. 171, endelease 143, possibly dat., muchele s. a. f. 396. Weak are ealde s. n. m. 287, loðe 272, 287, narewe 349, swarte 282, brode s. n. f. 345, murie 156, bare s. d. m. 348, heuenliche 96, muchele 92, muchele s. d. f. 156, narewe s. a. m. 343, brode s. a. neut. 341, the comparatives and superlatives as betre 28, wunderlukeste 68, except elder 1 (ieldra), niðer 299, 347, werest 221. All other adjectives are uninflected in the singular: the termination in all cases of the pl. is e; arȝe n. 19, lichamliche d. 398, wreche a. 172, but arefeðheald 315, eadi 231, euel 172, 233, gradi 268, idel 9, iwar 334, weri 244 are not inflected. āgen is owen 30, oȝen 113, 116, 163, 265 without variation: āna gives one n. s. m. 86 (7): ān is on n. s. m. 67, f. 28, one s. d. m. 348, on 335, ore s. d. f. 383, one 209, 211, one s. d. neut. 384, on s. a. f. 139, nān, none n. s. m. 367, non 110, no 37, 50, non s. n. f. 289, nones s. g. neut. 372, none s. d. neut. 240, s. a. f. 239: ilca, ilke s. d. neut. 216. Of the numerals twam 312 is dat. Adjectives are freely used as nouns, s. n. foh, grai 365, sellich 183; s. g. godes 371, 372; s. d. gode 23, lothe 61, juel (yfle) 19; s. a. emcristen 310, beste 51, lasse 71, mast 112: the pl. has e, n. fremde 34, elderne 194, heie 164, unholde 36; a. deade 192; exceptions are elder 326 (ieldran), ȝeunger 326 (geongran), quica 192.

The personal pronouns are ich, i in ibie 4, ibiðenche 6, idude 2, ilade 5, ime 6, ine 16, 225, me, we, us, þu, þe, ȝie, eow. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 21, hie 114, ?hi 38, hit neut. 13; d. him m. 20, 21, 44; a. hine m. 110, 116, 385, him 34, him f. 129 (masc. form), hes 219, 241, his 263, hies 243, hes 40 (= he + es), 55, 56, hit neut. 17; pl. n. hie 22 &c., hi 382, he 248 (5), d. hem 62, 167, 180, 239 &c., a. hem 184, 305, hes 102, 186, 288, 314, mes 259 (= me + es). Reflexives are us self 310, him 21, 124, him selfen s. 14, 107, 115, him selfe 25, him self 111; definitives, þe self 29, him self 40, 114, 186, self 131, 218, 379, pl. hemself 229; possessives, mi 2, mine pron. 304, þi 29, his 30 &c., hire 31, ure 57, pron. 251, here 101. The definite article is sing. n. se m. 287, þe 39 &c., þa 349, þe f. 116, 205, þet 68 (neut. form), d. þan m. 63, 96, þe 83, 158, te in ate 92, þare f. 346, 347, 397, þe 83, 237, (a)te 127, ðer neut. 216 (fem. form), a. þane m. 341, 343, 353, þene 343, þe f. 265, þat neut. 51; pl. n. þe 103, d. þo 291, 340, 354, a. þo 278, þe 192, 278. The article is also frequently used as pronoun antecedent to relatives, as þe þe, he who 25, 66, se þe 53, 55, se þit 112 (= se þe hit), þan þe, to him who 71, þo þe, those who 213, 234, þar þat, of those who 192, þo þe, to those who 229, those to whom 267, 275, those who and those to whom 256, wið þo þe, with those whom 220. Other pronominal uses are of þare, of that other 328 (representing neut. noun), þar fore, for it 146, after þan(e) þe, conj., according as 362, þo, those 171. The compound demonstrative is þis s. g. f. 271, þesses 338 (masc. form), þesse s. d. neut. 328, 383, þos pl. n. 351, 352, ?þes 103, þese pl. d. 312, þos pl. a. 234, 303, 314; relatives þe 33, 73, in combinations þis 156, 251 (= þe is), þit 112, 141 (= þe hit): þe often means he who 14, 21, 30, se 221; þe, they who 257, þat, that which 22 &c., þe, to whom 296, of which 10. Interrogatives are hwo 135, hwat 78, 103, 137, hwan d. after prep. 95, 206, 330, to hwan, why 105, hweðer 240, hwilch 138 with correlative swilch 79, 399; ilca is ilke 216: indefinites, hwo se 114; me 48, 63, 342; sume pl. 149, 361; fele 9, 70, 212; feawe 349, 354; eiðer 62, 239, aiðer 306; oðer s. g. 30, 261, 267, 363, s. d. 116, 188, 360, s. a. 149, þoðre pl. 168 (= þe oðre), oðer 390; elch s. n. m. 107, 173, eche 344, ech 23, elch s. n. f. 360, aches s. g. f. 226, neut. 371, eche s. d. m. 86, achen 350, ache s. d. f. 235, elche s. a. m. 132, f. 89; ani s. n. m. 68, d. f. 273, a. neut. 53; mani n. s. m. 38, s. g. m. 36; afric s. n. m. 32, africh 65, afri 117; al s. n. m. 198, neut. 7, alle s. d. neut. 307, 340, pl. n. m. 22 &c., f. 78, alre g. 163, 189, 355, alle d. 318, 389, a. m. 224, a. f. 84, 89, a. neut. 84.

The infinitives are equally divided between -en, including isien 18, 379, 385, and -e: exceptions are fulendin 247, warnin 230, 232. Those of the second weak conjugation have -ien, -ie, wunien 153, 181, 249, samie 165, wunie 214, 376. A dat. inf. with inflection is to isiene 392, uninflected are to bete 134, to bihelden 392, to falle 316, to habben 39, te læte 345, te stonde 316, to swenche 254, to swinde 57, to þenchen 256, for to haben 53, for . . . to fulle 352, for lesen 182, 184. Presents s. 1. adrade 6, bidde 136; 3. barneð 253, bihoteð 38, exceptionally biswicað 14, mislicað 13, haued 70, 340, singed 311, contracted forms, three-sevenths of the total number, abit 130, abuið 146, bet 126, 166, bit 126, 357, itit 125, last 169, lat 129, lat 342, sent 42, wit 84 and others; pl. 1. abugeð 197, brekeð 91, findeð 332, wilnieð 319, but ileued 176, þenche we 192; 3. fareð 236, folȝeð 346, but habbed 141, 177: subjunctive s. 2. wende 86; 3. bringe 397, cume 156, ȝieue 56 (4), ȝeue 317, helpe 158, hopie 31, rade 158, reche 135, sende 27, silde 224, 303, warnie 304, wurðe 142; pl. 1. late 307, 341, luue 309, silde 308, ute 337, werie 339, all followed by we, haben 100, wurðen 334; 3. wende 400: imperative s. 2. wende 86; pl. 2. understondeð 231. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. sat 266, iseih 265; pl. 1. iseien 98, 99, 102; subjunctive s. 3. iseie 118: I b. s. 3. brac 185, cam 117 (4), nam 209; pl. 1. come 330; 3. binomen 263, comen 206, halen 161, stalen 162, come 141: I c. s. 3. swanc 362, unbond 190; pl. 3. bigunnen 247, gunne 276, swunken 258; subj. s. 3. bigunne 218, funde 68: III. pl. 3. luȝen 161: IV. s. 3. sop 84: V. pl. 3. biheten 246, hielden 172, 298, leten 270, 352, sewen 22, lete 264. Participles present: I c. barnende 222: V. wallinde 222; past: I a. biȝiete 105, forȝieten 98, ispeken 9: I b. bistolen 17, forholen 76, iborene pl. 105: I c. iboreȝe 167, ifunde 179, sprunge 175, unforȝolden 59: II. iwrite 117, write 228: II, III. unwrien 162: III. biloken 81, icorene pl. 104, forlorene 106: IV. forsworene 103: V. biualle 198. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hadde 15, sade 157; 3. bohte 186, kedde 193 (cȳðde), likede 13, sade 131, taihte 272; pl. 1. ladden 93, luueden 93; 3. arerde 172, hudden 162, ilaste 246, iquemde 273, leide 263, saden 227, sunegeden 262; subj. s. 3. hadde 139, 149 (= hadde he); pl. 1. swunke we 321. Participles past: alesed 136, ibet 100, 134, bicherd, bikeihte 322, idemd 106, demde 274, ofdrad 43, 288, ofdradde pl. 94, ispend 12, teald 120, wuned 57. Minor Groups: witen inf. 386, wot pr. s. 78, 89, 111, not 148 (= ne wot), witen pr. pl. 294, niten 240 (= ne witen), iwiste 1 pt. s. 17, wiste pt. pl. 141, nesten pt. pl. 229, 388 (= ne wisten); oh pr. s. 2; cunnen inf. 336, can 1 pr. s. 306, pr. s. 71, cunnen pr. pl. 305, cunne pr. pl. subj. 217, cuðe 1 pt. s. 9; þarf pr. s. 43, 45, 165; sal pr. s. 21, 26, sullen 1 pr. pl. 163, sulen 58, sulle we 92, sullen pr. pl. 103, sulle 22, 106, solde pt. s. 37, 267, solden 1 pt. pl. 47, 60, solde 51, solden pt. pl. 269; mai 1 pr. s. 16, miht 2 pr. s. 129, mai pr. s. 35, 44, maiȝ 88, 124, 217, muȝen 1 pr. pl. 159, 210, 332, pr. pl. 241, 288, 374, muȝe 207, pr. s. subj. 23, 55, 125, 338, muȝe we 1 pr. pl. subj. 325, mihte 1 pt. s. 15, 226, pt. s. 202, 1 pt. pl. 52; mot pr. s. 33, moten 1 pr. pl. subj. 317, 400; ben inf. 39 (12), bien 389, to be 2, am 1 pr. s. 1, is pr. s. 7, 72, nis 76, 79, beð 23, 32, 114, 1 pr. pl. 19, pr. pl. 75, 94, 237, bieð 291, 315, bed 104, 381, senden 290, bie 1 pr. s. subj. 4, 136, pr. s. subj. 29, 77, be 32, 251, bien pr. pl. subj. 80, ben 28, was 1 pt. s. 1, pt. s. 189, 212, waren 1 pt. pl. 100, 333, pt. pl. 102, naren 383, ware pt. s. subj. 155, nare 201, 1 pl. 322, iben pp. 3; wille 1 pr. s. 227, wulle 157, nelle 291, wile pr. s. 39, 55, nele 336, willeð pr. pl. 34, 97, 230, nelleð 374, wolde 1 pt. s. 16, pt. s. 35, nolde 140, 187, 265, wolde ȝie 2 pt. pl. 49, wolden pt. pl. 248, 270, nolden 247, nolde 242; don inf. 37, 69, 270, to done inf. dat. 37, to don 19, deð pr. s. 21, 221, doð 35 (8), 1 pr. pl. 60, pr. pl. 61, 78, do pr. s. subj. 8, 20, 23, 214, 1 pr. pl. subj. 308, dude 1 pt. s. 2, duden 1 pt. pl. 96, misduden 101, deden pt. pl. 269, 270, misduden 194, idon pp. 7, ido 304, fordon 274; forgoð pr. s. 358, goð pr. pl. 351, go we 1 pr. pl. subj. 343, 353.

Dialect: L is a copy of a Southern original made by a Midland scribe of the Southern border. His alterations, casual and inconsistent, affect mainly the sounds; the inflections are on the whole Southern, but the extensive retention of inflectional n is due to the scribe: the pronoun ha 215 and the infinitives warni 226, wernin 228 are Mercian features of the Katherine Group. T is South-Eastern bordering on Kent, with some trace of Midland influence, such as the exclusive representation of æ by a, the development of æ + g as ai, distinct from that of e + g as ei, the absence of breaking in ea before l + consonant, the past participles without prefix, the infinitives in -in, features which point to the northern border of the South-Eastern area as its place of origin. In phonology it closely resembles Vices and Virtues. The dialect of e is Middle South: its rhymes are mostly correct, and it is probably the best representative of the original. MS. E is assigned by Jordan to the same area, but nearer its northern border.

Vocabulary: The foreign element in these texts is small. French are bikehte bikeihte (first appearance), cunin kuning, ermine (f. a.), martres 50/362 (f. a.), sabeline (f. a.), serueden, werre: sōt is pre-Conquest French, soht 30/30, written for sŏtt, a pre-Conquest Latin borrowing: Sathanas with th is French. Scandinavian are bene, efninges eueningges (influenced by efen), ille, laȝe loȝe, lofte, niþinges, þralles þrelles, wrange wronge, and possibly fruden frute, lan 32/64: baþe boþe in a Southern text may descend from OE. bā þā (Björkman, 108).

Metre: The Septenarius is a purely syllabic metre of seven feet, with or without end-rhyme, fashioned on the model of such mediaeval Latin verse as the well-known méum | ést pro|pósit|úm || ín ta|bérna | móri; the first section of the line having four stresses with a masculine and the second three with a feminine ending. The trochaic rhythm of the verse is very often changed into iambic by the addition of a syllable as prelude before either half of the verse: the full scheme is accordingly (x)x́xx́xx́xx́ || (x)x́xx́xx́x̀. This is perfectly exemplified in the Ormulum with its invariable line of fifteen syllables, but in the PM, the earliest known attempt at the metre in English, the influence of the native prosody is strong, and a regular line like Þe Món | þe wúl|e sík|er bón || to háb|ben Gód|es blíssè L 39 is uncommon. The following scansions of L illustrate the deviations from the norm of the verse:

ich ém | nu áld|er þénẹ | ich wés || awín|tre ént | a láre

Ich wél|de má|re þénẹ | ich déde || mi wít | áhte | bon máre

Wel lóngẹ | ich háb|be chíld | ibón || a wórd|e ént | a déde

þáh ich | bó a | wíntre | áld || to ȝúng | ich ém | on réde

5 v́nnet | líf ich | hábbẹ i|léd || ⁊ ȝét | me þíngþ | iléde

þénnẹ ich | mé bi|þénche | wél || ful sárẹ | ich mé | adréde

mést al | þét ich | hábbẹ i|dón || bífealt | tó child|háde

Wel látẹ | ich háb|be mé | biþócht || búte | Gód me nu | réde

Fólẹ id|el wórd | ich hábbẹ | iquéðen || sóððen | ich spék|e kúðe

10 fóle | ȝúnge | dédẹ i|dón || þe mé | ofþínch|et núðe

Mést al | þét me | líkedẹ | ér || nú hit | mé mis|líkeð

þa múch|el fúl|iéð | his wíl || híne | sólf he bi|swíkeð

Ich míh|te háb|be bét | idón || héfdẹ ich | þé i|sélþe

Nú ich | wáldẹ ah | ích ne | meí || for éldẹ | ⁊ fór | unhélþe

15 Élde | me ís | bistól|en ón || ér ich | hít | wíste

ne míchtẹ | ich séon | bifór|e mé || for smí|ke né | for míste

Érȝe | we béoð | to dón|e gód || ⁊ to úf|elẹ ál | to þríste

Marẹ éi|e stónd|eð mén | of mónne || þánnẹ hom | dó of | críste

þe wél | ne dóð | þe hwílẹ (þe) | ho múȝen || wél oft | hít schal | rówen

20 þénnẹ ho | máwen | scúlen ⁊ | répen || þét ho | ér | sówen

Dó he | to gód|e þét | he múȝe || þe hwílẹ (ꝥ) | he bó | alíue

ne líp|nie ná | món | to múchel || to chíld|e né | to wíue

[þé] þe | hím | sólue | forȝét || for wí|ue né | for chílde

hé scal | cúmen in | úuel | stúde || bútẹ him | Gód bo | mílde

25 Séndeð | sum gód | bifór|en éow || (þe) hwíle | (ꝥ) ȝe múȝẹn | to hóuẹne

for bét|erẹ is án | elmés|se bifórẹn || þénne | bóð efter | sóuẹne

Álto | lómẹ ich | hábbẹ i|gúlt || a wérk|e ént | o wórde

Ál to | múchẹl ich | hábbẹ i|spént || to lítẹl | ihúd | in hórde

Ne béo | þe ló|ure þé|ne þe sólf || ne þín | mei né | þin máȝe

30 Soht is þét | is óð|ers món|nes frónd || bétre | þén his | áȝen

52 for þer wé | hit mích|te fínd|en éft || ⁊ hább|en bút|en énde

Elision of e occurs under the usual conditions: pronouns like me 6, 10, 15, þe 23, and nouns of the type of wintre 1, 4 are not subject to it. Instances of hiatus are worde 3, þe 13, werke 27. Syncopation of e occurs in muȝẹn, houẹne 25, biforẹn, souẹne 26, litẹl 28, and probably in muchẹl 28, though it might be regarded as forming part of a trisyllabic verse. The prelude is wanting in the first section, 4, 5, 6, 14, 20, 27, 28; in the second section, 8, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19, 26, 30; in both, 7, 11, 20, 24. It is doubled in the first section, 30, 52; in the second, 17. The first foot of each section is sometimes a trochee instead of an iamb; so in the first section, 9, 15, 17, 21, 25; in the second, 9. The unstressed element in a foot is sometimes wanting, 15, 20, 22; sometimes it is of two syllables, 8, 12, 24, 26 (three times), 29. Feminine endings before the caesura are not uncommon, 2, 9, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24; but the ending of the line is invariably feminine. A comparison of the manuscripts shows that the author’s practice was more correct than the representation of any of them; thus the unmetrical second section of 25 is in e, þe hwílẹ | he méi | to héuẹne. But it is clear that he used all the licences detailed above.

Introduction: The Moral Ode is, to all appearance, an original work, the natural product of an old man’s musings on life with its lost opportunities, death, and judgement. Its manner and spirit, simple, earnest, austere, sententious, are of the Old English cast. The author lived in Hampshire somewhere near the junction of the Stour with the Avon. He was probably a secular priest, for he makes no reference to the life of the cloister and names no saint or holy place. His theological learning was of a commonplace kind and without subtilty. He may have had some skill in medicine. He lived through the Anarchy, and the faithless vassal and the tyrannous noble wallow in his Inferno with the corrupt judge and extortionate official.

Another poem of similar content, the Sermon of Guischart de Beaulieu in Anglo-Norman, was written in England about the same time as the Poema Morale. If the author took his name from Beaulieu in Hampshire, where King John founded a Cistercian Abbey in 1204 A.D. (Dugdale v. 680), he may have written not far from the home of our poet. It abounds in striking parallels to the PM, but the editor of the Sermon thinks the resemblances are not sufficiently close to prove that Guischart used the English poem.

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 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.

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 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: 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.

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 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,’ 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 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 ⁊ 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., 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, 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 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.

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 5a 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.

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.

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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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,’ 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 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.’

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.

iv. ... A leaf is lost after f. 8
f 8

Other MSS. are v. Digby A 4, Bodleian D
“D” added by author

The dialect of PM is South-Eastern
printed as shown: error for “M” alone?

ēa is ea in deaþe 182
paragraph break added by transcriber for consistency

.... ā + g produces aȝ, aȝen 30 (5), maȝe 29, but ahen 161:
final : invisible

For sw ... qu is the regular equivalent of cw
cw misprinted as italic instead of bold

ēa is mostly ... but ie in bien 389
“ie” misprinted as bold instead of italic

gēar, ȝier 142
corrected by author from “gear”

a + g ... ǣ₁ + g is ei
æ₁

ēa + h in heie 16
ea

... þþ is simplified in seðen
þ

Accidence: ... d. -e, gode 73
-e misprinted as italic

s. g., are 179, s. d., 53
s. d. 53

... The s. d. regularly terminates in e
“e” misprinted as italic

Remnants of the strong declension ... (with woreldes f.)
woreldes f)

The infinitives ... past: I a. biȝiete 105, forȝieten 98
forȝieten, 98

18. ... (comp. Fr. être < stare)
être > stare

82. ... OEM 56/682
OEM.

142. ... Orm ii. 149/14482
number “ii.” missing

153. ... OWScand. skǽrr, clean.
OW Scand.

185. ... maȝhe . . . mei e
meie (one word)

201. ... read iþenchð, iðencð
iþenchð, iꝥencð corrected from Zupitza

257. ... wes has fallen out after wif.
wif misprinted as plain (non-bold)

265. ... to those to whom.
to whom,

292. ... where þe is preceded by another dative
þe misprinted as plain (non-bold)

361. ... in Bartsch & Horning
Hornung

385. alle &c.: to alle derlinges J.
printed as shown, with bold “&c.”

IX. ANCRENE WISSE

Manuscripts: i. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 402 (A); on vellum, 215 × 150 mm. The fly-leaf fastened down has the mark S. 15, then follow three leaves with writing in a seventeenth-century hand (? Joscelin), mostly a translation of the piece beginning in Morton, p. 6, ‘Nan ancre bi mi read,’ then 117 folios, on the first of which is a marginal rubric, J þe feaderes ⁊ i þe sunes | ⁊ i þe hali gastes nome | her biginneð ancrene | wisse, as at the beginning of SJ (139/1) and SM in MS. Bodley 34. On the lower margin of f. 1 r in a fourteenth-century hand is Liber ecclesie sancti Jacobi de Wygemore: quem Johannes Purcel dedit | eidem ecclesie ad instanciam fratris Walteri de Lodelawe senioris tunc precentoris. The Abbey of Wigmore was dedicated to S. James (Dugdale, vi. 344). There are glosses in red pencil and words underlined in red. The revival of Anglo-Saxon studies under Archbishop Parker, partly prompted by the desire to use in defence of the Reformation the evidences as to the tenets of the early Church in England, caused such books as this to be carefully read. William L’isle extracted from it some of the prayers (in Morton, 26, 28, 30) and, treating them as debased Anglo-Saxon, turned them into the latter speech as he understood it. His efforts are recorded in MS. Laud Misc. 201; they have led Dr. Heuser (Anglia, xxx. 103) to conclude that the Ancren Riwle is not a ME. but an OE. document.

The MS. belongs to the second quarter of the thirteenth century. It cannot be earlier than 1225 A.D., for it mentions the Dominicans and Franciscans, and it is probably later than 1230. It is the most correct, but it has additions to the original, such as 62/46-64/62, 64/73-78. See further A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by M. R. James, vol. ii, pp. 267, 8.

ii. Caius College, Cambridge, 234 (B); on vellum, 124 × 93 mm.; 368 pages; late thirteenth century. Pages 1-185 consist of extracts from the AR, but not in the order of the other manuscripts (ES iii. 536). It is addressed to ‘friends’ 55/1, not sisters, and the second passage printed here is not in this MS. The contents of the manuscript are given in A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, by M. R. James, vol. i, p. 298.

iii. Cotton Nero A 14, British Museum (N); on vellum, 146 × 114 mm.; written in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Its contents are ff. 1-120 r, the Ancren Riwle; 120 v-123 v, The Orison, printed at pp. 132-7 of this book; 123 v-131 v, the pieces printed in OEH i, pp. 200-17. It forms the text of Morton’s edition.

iv. Cotton Titus D 18, British Museum (T); on vellum, 158 × 120 mm.; 148 folios in double columns, written from f. 14, where AR begins, to the end, about 1220 A.D. Its relationship to two other manuscripts in respect to their contents is shown by the following table:

Manuscripts.
SK
SJ
SM
Sawles
Warde
HM
Wohunge
AR

Royal 17 A 27
—
—
—
—

Bodley 34  .
—
—
—
—
—

Titus D 18  .
—

—
—
—
—

For the Royal and Bodleian MSS. see the introduction to No. xvi.

v. Cotton Cleopatra C 6, British Museum (C), on vellum, 196 × 140 mm.; 196 folios of 19 to 26 lines to a page in a peculiar angular hand, written about 1240 A.D. The scribe, after finishing the book, had access to another manuscript, either A or one closely resembling it, and interlined or put on the margin passages from it which were not in the first exemplar. C was presented to Legh Abbey, Co. Devon, by Matilda de Clare, by whom the Abbey was converted into a Nunnery about 1285 A.D. (Dugdale, vi. 333).

vi. The Vernon MS. of the Bodleian Library (V), a very large book, written in two columns of eighty lines to the column, has a fourteenth-century version of the AR, which begins at folio 371 v². It contains our first extract, but only a fragment of the second.

vii. Another version of portions of the AR, written at the end of the fourteenth century, discovered by Miss Paues, exists under the title of the Recluse in the Magdalene College MS., Cambridge, Pepys 2498 (P).

viii. A fragment in a hand of 1330-40, corresponding to p. 138, l. 25 &c. of Morton’s edition, was described by Napier in the Journal of Germanic Philology, ii. 199-202.

ix. Magdalen College, Oxford, 67 (M). A Latin version in writing of the end of the thirteenth century; on f. 1 r it begins, Hic incipit prohemium venerabilis patris Magistri Simo|nis de Gandauo episcopi sarum in librum de uita solitaria | quem scripsit sororibus suis Anachoritis apu`d´ tarente. It ends on f. 95 r, Explicit liber septimus de uita solitaria: Octauus omnino taceatur:—with the addition in a later hand, eterna taciturnitate. The second extract is therefore not represented in this version.

x. Cotton Vitellius E 7 (L): fragments of a Latin version rescued from the fire of 1731, said by Macaulay to be the same as the Magdalen MS. version, but with the addition of the eighth part. In Smith’s Catalogue (1696) it is said to have had the note, Regulae vitae Anachoretarum utriusque sexus scriptae per Simonem de Gandavo, Episcopum Sarum in usum suarum sororum. Hunc librum Frater Robertus de Thorneton, quondam prior, dedit claustralibus de Bardenay. Bardney Abbey is in Lincolnshire (Dugdale, i. 623).

xi. Cotton Vitellius F 7 (F). A French version, written about 1300 A.D., but retaining many forms of the considerably older manuscript from which it was copied. This manuscript also suffered in the fire; the top half of the folios is scorched and shrunken, and a line or two is lost on each page: it consists of 164 folios in double columns. In Smith’s Catalogue it is described as, La Reule de femmes Religieuses et Recluses; sive de vita solitaria & anachoretica per Simonem de Gandavo, Episcopum Sarisburiensium in usum sororum ipsius.

Facsimiles: Of T. Palaeographical Society; Second Series, plate 75. Of C. Ibid., plate 76. Of P. The Recluse, ed. J. Påhlsson. Lund, 1911.

Editions: The Ancren Riwle, edited and translated by James Morton, B.D. Camden Society, no. lvii, London, 1853. Mätzner, E., Altenglische Sprachproben, ii. 8-41 (the second part of AR with introduction and notes). Shorter extracts in Sweet’s First Middle English Primer, 19-41, Emerson and Kluge. The text of all the preceding is from MS. N. Heuser, W., Anglia, xxx. 108-10 (passage from MS. A). Påhlsson, Joel, The Recluse, Lund, 1911.

Literature: Bramlette, E. E., Anglia, xv. 478-98 (the original language of AR); Brock, E., Philological Society, 1865, 150-67 (Accidence in N); Dahlstedt, A., The Word-Order of the AR, Sundsvall, 1903; Heuser, W., Anglia, xxx. 103-22; Kölbing, E., ES iii. 535, 6; ix. 115-17; xxiii. 306; Lemcke’s Jahrbuch, xv. 179-97 (collations and dialect); Landwehr, M., Das grammatische Geschlecht in der AR, Heidelberg, 1911; *Macaulay, G. C., The ‘Ancren Riwle’, Modern Language Review, ix. 63-78, 145-60, 324-31, 463-74 (collation of A and general discussion); Mühe, T., Über den im MS. Cotton Titus D. xviii enthaltenen Text der AR, Göttingen, 1901; Anglia, xxxi. 399-404; Napier, A. S., Modern Language Review, iv. 433-6; Ostermann, H., Lautlehre des germanischen Wortschatzes in der von Morton herausgegebenen Handschrift der Ancren Riwle. Bonner Beiträge, xix, Bonn, 1905; Påhlsson, J., ES xxxviii. 453, 4; Paues, A. C., ES xxx. 344-6; Redepenning, H., Syntaktische Kapitel aus der ‘Ancren Riwle’, Berlin, 1906; Williams, Irene F., Anglia, xxviii. 300-4 (language of C); Wülker, R., Paul-Braune, Beiträge, i. 209-39; Zupitza, J., Anglia, iii. 34.

Sources and Illustrations: Ælredi Regula, in Lucae Holstenii Codex Regularum Monasticorum et Canonicorum, Augustae Vindelicorum, 1759, vol. i, p. 420; also as Ailredi Rhievallensis de Vita Eremitica ad Sororem, in S. Augustini Opera, Antwerp, 1700, vol. i, p. 640; English version of ch. xxi-lxxviii from the Vernon MS. in ES vii, pp. 304-44; Vita S. Gileberti Confessoris: Institutiones beati Gileberti in Supplement to vol. vi, pt. 2, of Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, London, 1830; Eckenstein, Lina, Woman under Monasticism, Cambridge, 1896; Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, London, 1872.

Phonology: (1) of A. Oral a is a, calices b 17, cat b 2; a before nasals and lengthening groups is o, dronc 21, gomen 83, brondes b 161, wombe, 97; þen, þenne, hwen, hwenne, selthwenne b 195 are the usual forms, but once hwon b 116: and is ant 26 &c., man, indefinite, me 16. æ is usually e, bres 103, ed b 121, efter b 12, gedereð 87 (gæderian), hetter b 28, oðerhwet b 177, neppes 94, þet b 126, wes b 3, wicchecreftes 7, esken 79, 85 (æsce), weschen b 145, vesscheð b 112 (wæscan), but ea, an EME. writing for æ in bearuot b 39, bleasie b 162 (blæse, sb.), feader b 173, b 231, feaste b 42 (3), gleadliche b 186, measse b 83, readliche b 94, noðeleater b 169, weater b 94, inohreaðe 43 (hræþe), and a in awakenet 24, awakenið b 61, b 91 (awacenian), blac b 23, warliche b 148 (flexion forms), cappen b 45: habbe 25 &c., nabben b 130 descend from LWS. forms in a: quoð b 76 (cwæþ) is due to loss of stress. e is regularly e, bedde b 25, bereð 64 (but beore b 136), spekeð b 57 (but speoke b 132); before lengthening groups, ende 100, englene 76. Between w—f, e is rounded to eo in tweolue b 112; before a palatal it is raised to i in rikenin 25, rikeneres 82: stude b 171, sullen b 12, 14, swuch b 18 are due to OE. forms in y. i is regularly i, bidde b 237, binimeð b 221 (but neome b 34 &c.); before lengthening groups, blod binde b 69 (binde), bringen 49, child 22, but u in wule 72 and other forms of willan, nute b 130 (nyte). o is normally o, biuoren 57, hosen b 39, word 65, but a in an(an) b 87; nalde 90, walden 42, iwraht b 24 are Anglian. u is u, cume b 90, cuppe 103, sunderliche 24, wunder b 63, but i in kimeð 94, b 200 (cymeð; Bülbring, Ablaut, 74). y is u, brune b 160, sundreð b 161, sungið b 191, but i in pilche clut 68: mycel is muchel b 91, muche 82; sturne b 195 represents styrne.

ā is regularly a, are b 229; before two consonants, gast b 231; length is indicated by doubling in aa, b 162, b 234: man b 8 is *mān. ea for ā appears in eanes b 34, b 189, easkin b 181, easki b 78, easkeð b 118, b 203, wreaðfule 32, 63, coming from forms in ǣ. ā is o in cop b 142 (cōp), e in se b 67 &c., but swa 73. ǣ₁ is, as a rule (41 times), ea, ageasten 58, arearen b 159, asneasen 69, eani 8; before two consonants, eauer 54 &c., leafdi b 235, wreaððe b 153, b 166, but e in þer b 155, and before two consonants in flesch b 26, flesches b 91, fleschlich b 78, fleschliche b 75, leste b 37, b 54 (beside leasse 61 (4), leaste b 188), and a before two consonants in attri 12, attreð b 80 (? analogy of āttor). ǣnig is mostly ei 8 (possibly shortening of eiðer,—Holthausen); ǣlc is euch 34 &c. ǣ₂ is e (32 times), dreden b 196, her b 141, neddre 31, wepmen b 22, but eo in leote b 131, b 19, feorle 100. ea appears only in ileanet 16, read b 13, b 37, reade b 2 (but reden b 188, redeð b 223, b 224, b 228, ired b 235): þear 41 is probably a scribal error for þer, but comp. þiar 39/165. The difference in the representation of ǣ₁, as ea, rarely e, and ǣ₂, as e, rarely ea, is also found in the Katherine group, and is Anglian (Stodte, p. 31). ē is always e; ī, i, but wummon b 21 (5) after w; ō is o; ū, u; ȳ is regularly u, fur b 160, hudest b 57; before two consonants, cuððe b 144, fulðe b 113, but i in schriden b 85, beside schruden 90.

ea before r + cons. is ea, bearm 71, nearewe b 204; before lengthening groups, bearnes 75, heard b 44, but a in scharp 64, 65, 67 and always after w, warde b 231, -ward as in frommard b 165, inward 36, toward b 89, utward 37, warm b 23, warneð 11. ea in chearre b 238, wearien b 6 represents æ, i-umlaut of unbroken (Anglian) a. ea before l + cons. is regularly a (Anglian), alle 7 &c., falleð 6, halden b 193. The i-umlaut has ea = æ from unbroken a, ealde b 124, healden b 197, both before a lengthening group. eo before r + cons. is regularly eo, heorte 51, keorue b 34; before length. groups, eorðe 85, sweord 65, Beornard b 219, but Anglian smoothing is seen in werkes b 62, b 67, b 81. To the wur group belong wurðen 88, forwurðen 23, forwurðe b 95: warpere 64, warpeð 66 are Scandinavian; WS. forms are weorpere, wierpð. The i-umlaut is wanting in heordemonne b 6, iheortet 31; wier, wyr words have u, vnwurðe b 108, b 219, wurse 16, 56, b 37, iwurset b 191. eo before l + cons. is eo in seolf 59, seoluen b 204 &c. ea, the u- and å-umlaut of a, is seen in eateliche 58, 69, eawles 67 (awul), meaðeleð 73, 96, streapeles b 42, vnsteaðeluest 5; fearen b 197, misfearen 13, and analogically (Bülbring § 228 anm.), feareð 79, b 120, forfearinde 29, gleadie b 232, heatien b 141, ?peaðereð 81, ?skleatteð 53. This umlaut is specifically Mercian. eo, u-umlaut of e, gives heouene 3, b 185, but world 40, worldliche b 79 &c.: eo, å-umlaut of e, beoden b 124, b 206, b 237, breoken b 20, eoten 99, ȝeouen b 71 (from Mercian ġefan), and analogically, beore b 31, b 136, forbeoren b 149, breoke b 216, eote b 127, eoten b 150, ȝeoue b 131, b 173, b 233, forȝeoued b 200 (but ȝef 102), speoke b 132, speoken b 138: an Anglian feature. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is seen in cleopede 9, 11, bicleopet b 192, leoðeliche b 28 (liþig, OWScand. liðugr), neomen b 72, b 174, neome b 34, neomen b 189, neomunge 7, seoue 21, seouene 4, seolc b 69, seoluer 84, sweoke b 160, teolunges 6, but hare 5 &c. is the regular representative of heora, suster b 4 &c., of WS. sweostor, Anglian wike b 189, of WS. wucan (*wiucu). ea after palatals is a, schal 42 &c., ischauen b 101, schape b 146, but e in ȝeten b 128 (WS. gatu), eo before nasal, scheome b 51: schapieð b 70 is a ME. formation. ie after ġ is e (Mercian monophthong), ȝef 102, 104, ȝeueð b 68, ȝelden 15, b 7, forȝelde b 175, ȝelp 37; this e with å-umlaut gives forms in eo, ȝeouen &c. as above. ȝef, EWS. gief, is ȝef 9. eo after ġ is u, ȝungre b 132; after sc, schule 99, schulde 22 &c. (Anglian). eom is am b 236 (Anglian), heom, ham 4 &c.

ēa is regularly ea, beate b 31, deade 41, eadmode b 119, greatluker b 157, reaflac 15, but e in chepeð b 12, chepilt b 11, cwedschipe b 93, eð b 214, edscene b 147, and a in chaffere b 11, chapmon b 12, shortening due to stress on following syllable: its i-umlaut is e (Anglian), bemen 39, 76, bemere 42, bemin 43, dremen b 206, ȝeme b 190, ȝemeles 10 &c., ȝemeð 16, ȝemen b 98, iȝemen b 90, ihereð 53, leue b 174, b 207, leue b 36, misleue b 182, lefunge 7; but greattre b 67 is grēatra. ēo is eo, beon 4, cneon b 150, feondes 92, feorðe 21, but e in seke b 108, secnesse b 111, before c. The absence of its i-umlaut is Anglian, deore 71, feond s. d. 34 &c., neod b 1, neodeð 88, istreonede 23; e in nedlunge b 8, tene b 112. Absence of palatalization, characteristic of Mercian, after ġ, sć is seen in ȝer b 101, schende b 52 (Bülbring § 289), schon b 38, but scheos b 39, ischeoed b 40. ȝīet is ȝet b 193, the second element in edscene b 147, is gesīene.

a + g is ah, dahes b 105, drahe b 53, draheð 36, mahen 50 &c.; isleine 33 is geslegen; seið 46, 89, sægð; dreaieð b 233 (comp. dreaien 147/153, dreihen, 146/122) descends from *dreagaþ, form with å-umlaut (WS. dragaþ). æ + g is regularly ei, deies b 21, feier b 123, heiward b 6, mei 4 &c., meiden b 96, seide 46, b 117, iseid 26: mahe b 148, b 180 comes from LWS. mage. e + g is also ei, abreiden 75, aȝein 5 (ongegn), toȝeines b 56, eie b 18, eili b 9, leið b 152, pleien 67, b 139, b 146, pleieð 64, but plohien b 218 which descends with shifted accent from *pleogan with å-umlaut (comp. pleogede in a SW. Mercian text of Bede, ed. Miller, ii. 82). The MS. has in other places pleien as above, but the noun in Morton’s text pleowe 184/4, pleouwe 218/8 is in MS. A regularly plohe, in MS. C ploȝe. i + g, h, pliht b 97, ipliht 18, sihðe b 61, onsihðe b 55, wriheles b 49, but sygaldren 6: lið 71, b 93 is līþ < ligeð, il in ilespiles b 31, īl < igil. In twien b 210 from twiga the spirant has disappeared, as in monie b 168. Final ig is regularly i, bisi b 89, dusi 18. o + h, g is oh, bitohe b 225, dohter b 52, but dehtren b 15 with e from the dative singular. u + g, duhen b 59, muhen b 44: y + g, h, buð b 11, b 187, drihtines 41, b 206. ā + g, h, ah 17, ahne b 61, ahnes b 207, ahte b 181, lahe b 141, b 152, wah b 58. ǣ₁ + g, h, ahte 84, bitaht 16, tahte b 75, but eiðer 53 (ǣgþer). ē + g, iueitsomet b 168, iheiet b 234: ī + h, wrihen b 50 (*wrīhan inf.), wriheð b 58: ō + g, inoh b 79, inohreaðe b 41, ibroht b 214, þohten 39. ea + ht: lahtre 50, mahte b 213 come from Anglian forms in æ; the i-umlaut gives mihte b 230, niht b 215, but a in lahhen b 139, lahheð 97, monslaht 24 also represents Anglian æ. eo + ht, riht 51, rihten b 99: sist b 57, sið b 89, b 159 are Anglian forms corresponding to WS. siehst, siehð with i-umlaut (Bülbring § 217). ēa + g, h, deh b 66 (North, dēg), ehe 51, ehnen b 63, heh b 186, hehe b 185, neh b 90, b 120, but þah b 7, b 63, as if from Ang. *þæh. ēo + g, h, dreheð b 233, but lihte b 39, lihtliche b 3, b 87. īe + h, nest b 26, b 29 (North. nēsta), lihtin b 101. ā + w is aw, blawen 40, icnaweð b 201, itawet b 24, nawiht b 9, nawt b 53, sawle 94, slaw 12, but nowðer b 48 represents OE. nōwþer, nohwer b 33, b 41, nō(h)wǣr, similarly nohwider b 126, eawiht b 235, eawt 52 (*ǣwiht with i-umlaut, NED.); sehe b 139 is Anglian sēge, WS. sāwe. ǣ₁ + w is also aw, rawe 33, slawðe 11, 18. ēa + w, þeawes b 81, þeawfule b 106, but schawin 38. ēo + w is ow, fowr 39, b 101, trowðe 18, ow 99 &c., ower b 1; eo finally in gleo 47: neowe b 137 has no umlaut; the WS. form is nīwe (Bülbring § 306, anm. 5).

Unstressed swā is se 15 &c., but swa 73: a occurs for o in anan b 87; e for o in streapeles b 42, sunderliche 24, vnsteaðeluest 5; i for e in drihtines 41, b 206; u for i in dimluker 43, greatluker b 157, monluker b 110, as in the Katherine group; e is lost in earst b 52, meidnes b 106, b 183, added in luðere 32, ȝiuere 92; o is lost in unbischpet 19. The prefix ge is i; ǣr, ear in earunder b 209; æt is ed b 178; þǣr is syncopated in þrin, þrinne, þrof, þron, þrefter, þruppe, forms characteristic of the Katherine group, found also in MSS. C, T, but not in N.

w is assimilated in frommard b 165; isehen b 62 descends from gesegen, not from gesewen. Metathesis of r is seen in iwraht b 24 (late North. wroht). ll is simplified in druncwile 105; mm in grim 62. n is lost in earunder b 209, and often in iþe 1, i 25 for in, o 7 for on; nn is simplified in monluker b 110. p is inserted in nempneð b 48: bb is simplified in neb b 54. f is regularly u between vowels, or vowel and liquid, biuoren 94, heaued 8, froure b 221, bearuot b 39, underueð 74, vnsteaðeluest 5, but lefunge 7; once v appears initially, vet b 42, but not u. t is doubled in hetter b 28, lost in best b 43, olhnin b 6; d for t occurs in ed b 121 &c., edhalden 13, b 73 (but ethalt 87), prude 30: t is assimilated in ȝisceunge 14, 16 (gītsung), ȝiscere 79: milce b 182 is milts, milci b 175 miltsie: tt is simplified in cat b 2. d has disappeared in mungunge b 52; it is doubled in foddre b 5: t for d appears in ontfule 31, worltlich 36, b 107, b 108 (but worldliche b 139): mið 53 is Anglian for mid: dd is simplified in bidest b 238. Initial þ often becomes t after t, d, te 5, 32, b 178, b 216, tis 83, teo b 179, ter b 196, but þe b 43, b 171, þah b 196, þat b 215; it is lost in forfearinde 29, d is written for it in edscene b 147, ladlich b 7, t in leste b 37. For s, ce appears in ȝisceunge 14, 16; ȝiscere 79 is gītsere: sć is regularly sch, schrift 19, schende b 52, weschen b 145, but ssch in dissches 93. The stop c is commonly written k before e, i, kemese b 83, kene 69, kimeð 94, awakenet 24, lokeð b 215, makien 48, rikenin 25, stikeð 92, and ck after another consonant in þonckið b 228, also in easkeð b 203, esken 79; in other positions c, cat b 2, com b 74, cumeð 41, locunge b 143, exceptions are kues b 5, kun b 72: ah 25 is Anglian ah, WS. ac: k is inserted as a glide sound in skleatteð 53; see Archiv cxxxi. 305. č is ch, chearre b 238, cwencheð b 165, brech b 41, iþench b 237, kealche 103, swuch b 18, but keorue b 34, keoruinde 65, conformed to curfon, corfen. čč is cch in wicche(creftes) 7; isticchet b 142 is a ME. formation descending from OE. stiče; contrast stikeð 92 (Bülbring § 499, anm. 5). cw is usually preserved, cwide 13, forecwidderes 57, but quoð b 76. Palatal g is regularly written ȝ, biȝete 12, ȝemeð 16; h is written for g in murhðe b 221, orhel 38, teoheði 12; g is lost in sygaldren 6; čǧ is gg, liggen b 28, seggen b 72. Initial h is lost in lahheð 97, lahtre 50, lud 38, lust 54, ring b 64; hh is simplified in laheð 83 and h doubled in crohhe 94 (crōh).

(2) Of B. The principal divergences from A are noted. Some of them are due to the scribe’s inexperience; his handling of the consonants in particular is confused. eo in eondfule 48 for o from a before length. group is a French writing; similar is neolden 89. æ is a in bras 103, inohraþe 42, hwat 9, nappes 94, þat 16, craftes 7. cwude 12 is from cwyde; liki 50 is a mistake for loki; u is o in open 64 (uppan); y is i in mint 97. In leouerð 49, eo is for o from ā; ea 53 represents ā, ever; comp. nea L 1552, 1555. ǣ₁ is a in agastan 57, ilad 4, 19, e in asnesen 68, hest 17, lesse 60, wredfule 32, ae (= æ) in aetri 31, ea in eawer 72, 99: ǣnig is ai 8, 15, ei 7. ǣ₂ is e in ilened 15, as generally in A.

ea before r + cons. is a in barm 70, e in bernes 74, sherpe 64, but sharpe 63, 66: eo before r + cons. is e, swerd 64, but sweordes 68. There is no å-umlaut in ateliche 57 (but eateliche 68), vnstaþelfast 5, fared 78, forfarinde 29, paþered 80, as in A: skletteð 53 is OWScand. sletta. seofon is sewe 28. ēa is e, drem 37, 75, reflac 14; ēo is also e in strenes 28, thehewen 12: gief is gif 9. æ + g gives mai 4, 25; ā + w, out 51, slauwe 70, slaþ 11 miswritten for slaw; ǣ₁ + w, areawe 32, slauþe 20, slouþe 10; ēo + w, trouþe 17. In syllables of minor stress a appears for e, bemares 36, galnasse 23, warpare 63; e for æ, ethalden 12, i for u, neominge 7; e for ō, te 15 &c., tegederes 79: on is a 74. e is often inserted medially between consonants, bolehed 85, iboregen 41, deoueles 42, deouelen 57, iugelurs 46, wigeled 96.

For w, u is written in uule 72. l is lost in fundes 12, n in cunen 46, druch 20. For p, b is written in unbischbed 17: f medial occurs in bifore 39, biforen 60, vnstaþelfast 5, but biuoren 62 as in A, deoules 70 and w for u in biworen 94, eawer 72, 99, giwere 105, keorwinde 64, 69, kniwes 62, underweng 73. For t, d appears in bihald 82, blend 80; ts is ss in gissere 78, gissunge 14, but giscunge 13; d is lost in an 25 (but and 86 and consequently ⁊ þe 31, 73); it is unaltered in ondfule 31, wondrede 76, worldlich 35, where A has t: t is written for d in hont 60, lauert 95, ð for d, leouerð 49; d is often written for ð, beod 19 &c., drahed 35, gemed 15, libbed 33, puffed 36, serued 34, shuled 52, slead 30, tutelid 71, wid 2, wredfule 32, wigeled 96, wurden 87; t for þ, fondet 29, gat 2, w for þ, thehewen 12, warwið 89. sc is regularly sh, dishes 93, shal 87, shruden 90, &c.: etheliche 76 is miswritten for echeliche; in richkeneres 81, k was added above as a correction of ch not deleted; cw is qu in forquiddares 56. g is used for ġ, agein 5, bigete 11, ge 1. cht for ht is frequent, drichtines 40, iplicht 17, richte 14; þ for h occurs in þwitel 89, th for h in þothten 38, for t in thehewen 12.

(3) Of N. For an account dealing with the whole of Morton’s text see Ostermann: the examples given in the following summary illustrate such differences as exist between N and A. Oral a is a, blasie 143 (blase, sb.), wasshen 124, wassheð 95; gledie 204 is influenced by glæd: a before nasals and length. groups is o; hwon 6, 87, seldwhonne 179 are the usual forms, but þeonne 5, 144, 181 by influence of heonne. æ is regularly e, keppen 38, veder 154, ueste 37, gledliche 168; occasionally ea, heater 29, readliche 77; a in hateren AR 104/24, later 151, was 3 (Bülbring, Ablaut 62), water 76, and the flexion forms baruot 34, warliche 127. e is e, blodbendes 64; raised to i before a palatal, sigge 110, 130, siggen 152 (South-Eastern and Kentish); u in stude 153, sullen 12, swuche 18 &c. i is i, but u in hwuder 103, wute 138, nute 107. o is o: u is u, kumeð 184: y, u, drunch 187, wurcheð 70. ā is regularly o, anon 69, boðe 105, mone 8, more 196, but oa in moare 154, woanes 19 (comp. woaning 2/15, 2/25); eo in beoðe 173, 182, and a in lates 127 (Scand. lát). ǣ₁ is regularly e, clene 22, eni 93, geð 100, wreððe 133, but ea in arearen 140, unweawed 119, heale 193. ǣ₂ is mostly e, leten 108, lete 19, but ea in heare 36, readeð 208, weaden 125, and a in hwarse 95, hwarto 126. The representation of ǣ₁ and ǣ₂ is therefore practically identical. ē is e; ī, i, but u in hwule 71, 198, ihwulen 73, swuðe 197, wummen 171: ō is o; ū, u; ȳ, u, hure 167, schruden 67, but ui, expressing length, in huire 6, 164, 205.

ea before r + cons. is mostly e, hermes 7, hermie 9, neruwure 189; before length. groups, herde 28, herdure 189, and a, after w, urommard 146, warme 25; in other conditions occasionally a, sparke AR 296/13, or ea, schearpe AR 82/11; a in warien 6 is to be explained as ea in wearien 60/6. ea before l + cons. is a, halue 174, before length. groups o, holden 177; the i-umlaut is seen in elde 100, helden 181. eo before r + cons. is mostly eo, heorden 28, leornen 79, but e in hercnen 73, werc, werke 70, werkes 62; to the wur group belongs forwurðen 77; wyr words are iwursed 174, wurðe AR 38/17: the i-umlaut is wanting in heordemonne 6. eo before l + cons. is u in sulf 32, suluen 189. The u- and å-umlauts of a are not represented. eo, u-umlaut of e, occurs in heouene 167, but worlde 206, worldliche 90, 115; eo, å-umlaut of e, in beoden 100, ueole 33: eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, in bicleoped 175, seolke 64, but hore 105, sustren 1, wike 172. ea after palatals is a, schal 27, 181, ischauen 84, ea in ȝeate 105, scheape 125, but often e, ȝet AR 74/12; schepieð 65 is from sćeppan. ie after ġ is i, ȝiue 155, 205, uorȝiueð 185, e in ȝelden 7, forȝelde 156: gef is ȝif 20 &c. eo after ġ is u, ȝungre 108; after sć, schule 66, schulde 72. eom is am 210, heom, ham 188. ēa is regularly ea, cheapeð 13, cheapild 12, cweadschipe 75, but e in chepmon 13, cheffare 11, gretluker 137, gretture 62; its i-umlaut is e in ȝeme 173, ȝemen 80, ȝemeleaste 175, leue 156, 193, misleue 165, but ea in dreamen 192. ēo is regularly eo, but e in seke 91, secnesse 93; the i-umlaut has e in nede adv. 9, but neode 20, neodeð 26. Palatalization after ġ, sć is absent in ȝere 83, schon 33. gīeta is ȝete 176; gesīene is represented in eðcene 126.

a + g is aw, dawes 88: auh 54 is the equivalent of Anglian ah, WS. ac. æ + g gives ei, deie 94, feir 100; muwe 163 is LWS. muge for earlier mæge. e + g is also ei, eilie 9, weie 100: seihtnesse 139 is sæhtness. o + g, bitowen 198: o + h, iwrouhte 25. u + g, muwen 37, 67. ā + g, owen 167, owune 67, 190: ā + h, ouh 10, 80, ouhte 163, louh 121, lowe 118, louwe 131, nouhwuder 103. ǣ₁ + h, eihte 3, 8. ī + g, iueied 149, iheid 206. ō + g, inouh 36, 210, þouht 10. ea + h, muhte 116. ie + h, nihtes 22, isihð 23, 71, 140: lauhwen 115 corresponds to lahhen in A. eo + h, rihte 136. ēa + g, deih 56, eien 54, heie 168, 176: ēa + h, neih 72, heie 118, but þauh 7 &c., as if from þah > *þĕah. ēo + g, drieð 205. īe + h, nexst 27. ā + w, nout 10, nouhtunge 145, nouðer 112, 159, but drawe 11, itauwed 25 (forms from the scribe’s exemplar), iseie 116. ō + w, touward 71, 112, 199. ēa + w, þeaufule 89. ēo + w, four 83, our 91, ower 175, seouweð 65.

Swā is so 62 &c., once se 187, and in composition hwo se 29, hwer se 60. For e, a is written in demare 176, for on in akneon 129; for o, e in strapeles 37; e is added in heuede 197, sunegeð 174, ȝeorneliche 177, u in gretture 62, herdure, neruwure 189: in contrast with A, syncope is rare. The suffix -lēas is unchanged in wimpelleas 37.

w is assimilated in urommard 146, uppard AR 216/28. iwrouhte 25, corresponding to iwraht in A, has metathesis of r. ll is simplified in griðfulnesse 4; for l, r appears in irspiles 30. Final n is lost in iðe 83, o 141, but it is otherwise very regularly retained; it is simplified in monluker 93. f is kept in the combinations fd, ff, fs, ft, lefdi 208, cheffare 11, ofte 19, lufsumere 54; as a final, strif 134; initially after a word ending in a voiceless sound, foddre 5, fondunge 74, forwurðen 77 (with exceptions at 54, 90, 150, 172); also before u, ful 36, fur 142, 146, þeaufule 89, to avoid uu. Otherwise it is u, v, at the beginning of a sentence, Vor 5, Uorði 23; after a syntactical pause, vor 72, 94; after a word ending in a voiced sound, uet 37, ueond 69, or a liquid, uor 69, ueste 124, uere 110; or medially, iuestned 10, luuien 180. But f is exceptionally written sometimes after d, for 14, four 83, especially after and 147, 156, 204, 209, where the exemplar had ant, as well as in flesshes 74: of is shortened to o 195, 208; w is written for u in unweawed 119. ts is c in milce 157, 165. þ is assimilated in ette 160, but and te 189 is due to ant te in the scribe’s exemplar; þ is d in lodlich 7. For s, c is written in eðcene 126: sć is initially sch, schal 27, schon 33, medially ssh in flesshes 74, wasshen 124, but fleshe 27. c [k] is c before consonants, clene 22, hercnen 73, but akneon 129, iknotted 36, iknowed 185; k is regular before e and i, keppen 38, makien 129, and as frequent as c before other vowel sounds, kat 2, kom 75, kume 102. č is ch, but ecchenesse 207: istihd 119 is miswritten for istichd. Palatal g is regularly written ȝ; rg is rw in midmorwen 162; ng is nc in strencðe 18; čǧ is gg, liggen 29, sigge 110. hs is written xs in nexst 27.

(4) Of T and C. According to the careful investigation of Mühe, MS. T exhibits a varying mixture of Anglian and Southern forms, the former being predominant. MS. C differs in no main feature from A. As in the Lambeth MS. of the PM (317/6) ch for h is frequent, olchni 6, þocht, nawicht 10, iwracht 25, þach 53, echnen 54; noteworthy is the interpolated y sound in muchȝen 67 (mugon), sechȝe 116, lachȝe, hechȝe 118, iueiȝet 149 &c.

Accidence: (1) of A. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune b 231 represents sunu. Gen. -es, gastes b 165, bearnes 75: d. -e, bedde b 25, bure b 186, chearre b 238, hame b 122 (WS. hām), but the inflection is wanting in more than half the instances, clað b 23, hus b 148, &c. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, bemeres 36, brondes b 161, but scheos b 39, and schon b 38, a weak form: neuters, with the exception of word 65, have taken the masc. termination, felles b 24, b 31, gomenes b 218, þinges b 140, werkes 62, wordes 96, &c., or have joined the weak declension, beoden b 124, b 206, deoflen 58, 67, sygaldren 6: wa b 186, pl. a. is indeclinable: genitives are cunne b 30, englene 39, 76, þinge b 200; datives have mostly -es, breres b 32, streones 5 and 19 others, but beoden b 237, cneon b 150 (Mercian cnēom), ȝeten b 128, siðen b 19, b 101; mel b 177, þing b 129 are acc. in form. The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in the s. n., fulðe b 113, hure b 184, neode b 17, b 202, þuftene b 123; exceptions are heast 18, b 115 (hǣs), neod b 1, b 20, b 217, þuften b 119; the acc. also has -e. Gen. -e, helle 76, heorte 86: dat. -e, honde b 121, worlde b 234, sawle b 175, b 176, but uninflected half 40, 52, help b 75, hond 34, 95, luft 52, world 40, b 234. Pl. n. are teolunges 6, esken 85, weden b 146; d., esken 79, honden b 14, sunnen 21, talen b 106, wunden b 198, sawles b 176; a. ahte b 3, kemese b 83, leasunges b 140, secnesses b 36, glouen b 65, honden b 29, spechen b 139, sunnen 24, talen b 137. The extension of the weak declension at the expense of the strong is Southern. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular; exception, leafdi s. a. b 235. Pl. n. are neddren, tadden 88, ancres b 188, leafdis b 46, b 79; pl. d. bemen 39, 76, cappen b 45, earen b 206, ehnen 48, b 63, heorden b 27, hosen b 39, nomen 25; pl. a. earen 54, b 136, blodbinde, huue b 69, teone b 187 (Anglian absence of n). The minor declensions are represented by vet s. d. b 42; wummon s. n. b 41, monnes s. g. b 58, wepmonnes b 56, mon s. d. b 220, chapmon b 12, wummon b 47, s. a. b 21, cunnesmon b 144, men pl. n. 99, monne pl. g. b 15, b 70, wummone b 194, heordemonne b 5, wepmen pl. d. b 97; boc s. d. b 223, (o)boke b 134; brech pl. a. b 41; kues s. g. b 5; niht pl. n. b 215; feader s. n. b 173; broðer s. n. b 75, breðer s. d. b 76; moder s. n. 21; dohter s. n. b 52, dehtren pl. n. b 15; suster s. n. b 4, sustren pl. n. b 1, b 232, sustres ?pl. g. b 208; child s. n. 22, godchild s. a. 20, childrene pl. g. b 96; feondes s. g. 92, feond s. d. 34, 63, b 159; hettren pl. a. b 70 (hæteru): hetter s. d. b 28 is a ME. formation.

Adjectives which in OE. end in e retain that termination in all cases, as cleane b 21, softe b 198, swete b 43. Instances of weak inflections are s. n. eadmode b 119, fleschliche b 75, hehe b 185, swote b 43; g. sunfule b 51; d. dredfule 76, grurefule 40, hehe b 192, wide 103; a. greate 97, ondfule 50, rihte 15: a solitary strong inflection is linnene s. a. m. b 26. All other adjectives are uninflected in the singular, as ful b 93, heh b 186, riht 51. Those in -ig lose g, almihti b 231, attri 12; druncwile 105 represents druncwillen; lute b 116, lȳtel; mycel is mostly muche, but s. n. muchel b 18 (3); d. muchele 60, b 225; a. b 226; pl. a. 80: āgen gives s. n. ahne b 61; g. ahnes b 207; d. ahne b 205; pl. n. 57. The pl. ends in e, bĭsie b 121, idele b 137; exceptions are hāli b 14, idel b 87. OE. āna is ane b 2 &c.; ān is an, a; s. g. anes 14: nān is nan, na; s. g. nanes 51; pl. a. nane b 68, b 137, b 218. Adjectives used as nouns are inflected, as s. gode b 238, idele 74, nearewe b 204, slawe 71, wide b 205, wreaðfule 63, wurse 56; pl. neodfule 90, ontfule 31, prude 30, wreaðfule 32; exceptions are ȝemeles (predicative) 10, 12, god 53, 73: feorle 100 represents fǣrlic. Comparatives end regularly in e, lufsumre b 64, except dimluker 43, greatluker b 157: of superlatives only leaste b 188 is inflected.

The personal pronouns are ich, me, us, þu, þe, ȝe, ow b 37, b 196. The pron. of the third person is s. n. he m. 66, ha f. b 4 &c., heo b 127, hit neut. 5; d. him m. 88; a. him m. 69, hire f. b 89, hit neut. b 2; pl. n. ha 33, 51, 53, b 147, b 191, heo b 143, b 149; d. ham 4; a. 58 &c. Reflexives are ow b 106, ow seoluen b 85, him 27, him seolf 81, b 208, him seoluen b 234, hire b 30, b 33, hire seolf b 32, ham b 166, b 170, ham seolf b 138, b 194: definitive is ham seolf 59: possessives are mi s. b 91, mine pl. 99, b 1, b 232, þin b 162, ure b 173, ower b 1 &c., his 11, hire b 9, hare pl. 5 &c. The definite article is mostly þe, te after t; inflected forms are þet s. a. neut. b 205, þer s. d. f. b 155, þen s. d. neut., in ear þen b 126. Þet is used demonstratively 52, 53, 54, b 152, þet ilke b 152, b 153, b 161: the article is also used pronominally in þeo þe, those who b 86, which 25, þeo, that one b 122, teo, those b 179: þer buten, without that, b 103. The compound demonstrative is þes s. n. m. 74, þeos s. n. f. b 117, þis 82, þis s. n. neut. b 158, s. d. f. b 223, s. a. neut. b 188, tis 83, þes pl. n. 81, þeos 20, 56, þeose pl. d. 28, 43, b 115, pl. a. 97. The relatives are þe, þet b 126; þe sometimes means he who 11, she who 21, b 103. Interrogative is hwuch 9; its correlative is swuch b 18, b 65, b 146; ilca is ilke b 152; þyllic, þullich 104, þulliche pl. 3, 20. Indefinites are hwa se 15, hwam se d. 73, hwet se b 183; me 16, b 7; sum 27, summe pl. 47, b 46; eiðer 53 &c.; oðres s. g. 14, oþer s. d. 8, 47, oþre 66, b 239, pl. n. 26, oðer pl. g. b 15; oðerhwet b 177; euch 34, euche s. d. b 188, b 223; ǣnig is mostly ei 8 &c., but eani 8, b 111, b 213; nowðer b 48; eawt 52, nawt b 15, b 89; monie pl. 80, b 168; al s. n. a. 82, 72, alle s. g. b 207, s. d. b 149, pl. n. 20, d. 7, a. 24, mid alle b 20.

Three-fourths of the infinitives end in -en; those of the second weak conjugation mostly in -ien, as makien, þolien; with -in are bemin 43, grennin 59, hungrin 99, lokin 51, b 145, rikenin 25, 82, schawin 38 and the ME. niuelin 59, olhnin b 6, toggin b 145, wimplin b 51; with -i, teoheði 12; with -e, cume b 90, drahe b 53, forwurðe b 95, habbe b 2, teache 19, wrenche 48; contract verbs are underuon b 100, wreon b 50. The dat. inf. is inflected in forte donne b 227, to witene 17. Presents are s. 1. bidde b 237, hopie b 224; 2. hudest, sist b 57; 3. attreð b 80, bodeð 66, forms in -ið are þreatið 97, winkið 51, contract verbs, sið b 89, b 159, sleað 30, contracted forms, being about one-fifth of the total number of 3rd presents, bihalt 83, 97, ethalt 87, blent 82, buð b 11, b 187, hat b 135, leið 72, b 152, lið 71, b 93, punt b 6, seið 89, send b 127, understont 83, went b 204; pl. 2. dreheð b 233, feleð b 111, makieð b 80; 3. bihateð b 201, bodieð 57, makieð 38, in -ið, awakenið b 61, leornið 61, sungið b 46, b 191; also seoð b 22: subjunctive s. 3. arise b 55, beate b 31; in -i, biblodgi b 32, binetli b 33, easki b 78, eili b 9, frouri b 232, hearmi b 9, milci b 175; in -ie, bleasie b 162, gleadie b 232, makie b 18, b 155, b 217, trukie b 183; from contract verbs, seo b 143, wreo b 54; pl. cussen b 156, dreden b 196, heatien b 141, makien b 150, plohien b 218, þolien b 43; in -in, bemin b 206, lokin b 147; with apocope of n, ȝeoue b 131, segge b 172, ticki b 219; from contract verb, underuon b 151, underuo b 130: imperative s. 2. ȝef 104, ȝeot 103, loki b 9; pl. 2. ariseð 40, schurteð b 106, schapieð b 70, seowið b 70, talkið b 105, þonckið b 228, forȝeoued b 200, driue ȝe b 11, fondi(n), leue ȝe b 36, makie ȝe b 67, b 80, wite ȝe b 15, gruchesi ȝe b 177. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. quoð b 76; subj. s. 3. sehe b 139: I b. s. 3. com b 74, b 93: I c. s. 3. dronc 21, swonc b 236: V. pl. 2. edheolden, underuengen b 73. Participles present: I c. keoruinde 65, 69, singinde b 124: II. bitinde b 199: III. lutinde b 152: IV. drahinde 45, forfearinde 29: V. wallinde 103; past: I a. isehen b 62: I b. iboren b 213, ibroken b 21, utnume adj. b 221: I c. iborhen 42, icoruen b 141, fordrunke adj. 96, ilumpen b 19: II. iwritene 28: II, III. bitohe b 225: III. bilokene 26: IV. ischauen b 101, isleine 33: V. edhalden b 215, ileten b 103, ilete b 104. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. cleopede 9, hefde b 225, seide b 117; 3. schende b 52, gulte b 157, tahte b 75, ondswerede b 76; pl. 3. liueden b 14, þohten 39. Participles present: suhinde b 199, wundrinde b 76; past: awakenet 24, biburiet b 76 and 28 others in -t, ilead 4, igurd b 28, istreonede 23, iturnde b 147, ontende b 168 and six others in -d. Minor Groups: nat 1 pr. s. 3, wat pr. s. b 7, nat 10, wite pr. s. subj. b 226, nute b 130, witen pr. pl. subj. b 158; ah pr. s. 17, ahen pr. pl. b 184, ahte pt. s. b 181 (with present meaning); duhen inf. b 59, deh pr. s. b 66; con pr. s. b 134, cunnen pr. pl. 47, b 171; schal pr. s. 42, schulen 2 pr. pl. b 28, schule 99, b 105, b 191, schulen pr. pl. 58, 89, schule ȝe 2 s. imp. b 71, schulde 1 pt. s. b 90, pt. s. 22; mei pr. s. 4, mahen 2 pr. pl. b 29, b 85 (4), pr. pl. 50, b 79, mahe pr. s. subj. b 148, b 180, muhen 2 pr. pl. subj. b 44, mahte pt. s. 25, b 140, b 213; mot pr. s. b 5, mote pr. s. subj. b 208; beon inf. 4 (9), beo b 4 (4), to beonne dat. inf. b 195, beonne b 74, forte beon 41, am 1 pr. s. b 236, is pr. s. 2, nis 5, beoð 2 pr. pl. b 104, b 223, pr. pl. 3, 20, 26, beo pr. s. subj. b 9 (9), beon 2 pr. pl. subj. b 203, pr. pl. subj. b 38 (5), beoð 2 pl. imp. b 45 (3), beo ȝe b 86, wes pt. s. b 3, were pt. s. subj. b 96; wule pr. s. b 53, b 160, wulleð 2 pr. pl. b 101, b 113, b 205, wule pr. s. subj. 72, b 27, wullen 2 pr. pl. subj. b 45, nalde pt. s. 90, walden pt. pl. 42; don inf. b 22 (3), do b 226, forte donne dat. inf. b 227, to fordonne 30, dest 2 pr. s. b 60, deð pr. s. 50 (3), doð 2 pr. pl. b 67, b 227, pr. pl. 38, 82, do pr. s. subj. b 154, don pr. pl. subj. b 180, b 205, dude pt. s. 22, idon pp. b 176; gan inf. 19, b 39, geað pr. s. b 124, gað 2 pr. pl. 1, 2 pl. imp. b 210, ga pr. s. subj. b 124, b 126, b 129, aga b 160.

(2) Of B. This differs from A in being somewhat more fully inflected: divergences from A are noted. londe 2, schrifte 18 have dative inflection; domes 40 is probably a mistake for dome; sunnen 26, earen 71 are s. d.: þes 82, 92 is s. g. m. of the article, þen 103 s. d. m., 32 pl. d.: ha 60 is probably miswritten for hare. In the inflection of the verbs i is occasionally found, skirmin inf. 66, seruin 46, seruid pr. s. 48, tutelid pr. s. 71, shuli inf. 47, liki (loki) 50: other noteworthy forms are agastan 57, a survival, maken 47 inf. of the second weak conjugation, ablent 84 contracted pr. s., bitahted 15 pp.

(3) Of N. The inflections are generally better preserved than in A. Strong masculine and neuter nouns have -e in the dat. sing., deie 94, weie 100 &c.; exceptions are cloð, drunch 187: mele 158, þinge 90 are pl. d., blodbendes 64, pl. a. Of the strong feminines n. s. are neode 20, seihtnesse 139; s. d. ȝemeleaste 175, halue 174, hwule 198; s. a. hwule 21, 71, leasunge 117, ?mone 8; pl. d. soulen 157; pl. a. eihte 3: weak is ancren n. pl. 171. In the minor declensions ueonde 139 is s. d., monne 9, 109, 124, pl. d. The adjectives godere 182, heie 168 are s. d. f., sorie 91, pl. n., worldliche 90, pl. d. ān is on, o 138, g. ones 193, d. one 94, 208, on 29, a. one 22; nān, non 27, no 23, g. none[s] weis 3, a. m. nenne 20, 23, 108, no 27, a. f. none 11, 101, a. neut. no 11; pl. d. none 9, 109, 124: āgen is represented by owune s. d. 67, 190. The n. s. f. of the pronoun of the third person is heo: possessive mine 73 is a. s. f.: ēower is our 91, ower 175, heora, hore 105. Inflections of the article are s. n. þe m., þe f., þet neut. 140, d. þer f. 130, 170, a. þene m. 6 (4), þeo f. 21, 71; pl. a. þeo 88. The compound demonstrative has s. d. f. þisse 195, 208, s. a. f. þeos 209. The relative is þet; swuche 18, 92, 125 is s. d., sume 140, s. a. f., 90, pl. d.; ueole pl. a. 33; eueriche 195, s. d. m.; ǣnig is eni 8, 93.

Infinitives end in -en, those of the second weak conjugation mostly in -ien, but loken 124; forms in -in, -i are absent. An inflected infinitive is forto donne 199, in other cases the simple form is preceded by uorto, uorte, for to, except to schruden 67. Inflected forms with -i are not found in any part of the verb. The contract verb sēon gives isihð pr. s. 23, 71, 140: contracted forms of the pr. s. occur about as frequently as in A: the pr. pl. ends in -eð, drieð 205, sunegeð 174, but iseoð 23; the pr. subj. ends in -e, -en, eilie 9, gledie 204, hermie 9, milce 157, sigge 130, siggen 152, but iseo 119. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. iseie subj. s. 3. 116: II. wrot s. 3. 209. Participles present: I c. singinde 100: II. bitinde 183: III. lutende 131; past: I a. iseien 53: I b. ikumen 19: II, III. bitowen 198. Past of Weak Verbs: heuede 1 pt. s. 197. Inflected past participles are isette a. s. f. 164, iwrouhte pl. 25. Minor Groups: wot pr. s. 198, wat 7, wute ȝe imp. pl. 138 (Anglian); ouh pr. s. 10, 80, owen pr. pl. 167, ouhte pt. s. 163; deih pr. s. 56; schullen 2 pr. pl. 29, schulen 87, 175; muwe pr. s. subj. 163, muwen 2 pr. pl. subj. 37, 67, muhte pt. s. 116; beon inf. 4, pr. pl. subj. 24, to beon dat. inf. 179, was pt. s. 3; uorto don dat. inf. 199, don 2 pr. pl. subj. 62; uorto gon dat. inf. 34, geð pr. s. 100, go pr. s. subj. 100 (4).

(4) Of T: mainly a statement of divergences from A. In the strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns, wede s. n. 125 represents OE. gewǣde; heordes 6 is s. g. As in A, the dat. sing. is mostly uninflected, but ȝate 105, hame 98, rihte 164, tune 109. schon 33 is a weak n. pl., beodes n. pl. 192, a. pl. 100 has masc. termination, þinge 184 is pl. g.; datives have mostly -es, -s, cneos 129, 135, giltes 150, wahes 19, but siðe 19, 83, þinge 117; meal 158, þing 106, 188 are acc. in form. Strong declension of fem. nouns: somentale n. s. 139 represents -talu; dat. -e, lokinge 18, but uninflected are hond 97 (hond), rest 92; acc. -e, without exception: fondinges 74 pl. n. has masc. termination, tales 89 is pl. d., acc. are gloues 56, leasinges 117, speches 115, tales 114, ahte 3. Nouns of the weak declension are s. g. ancres 8 (4), chirches 66, schirches 32 (= chirches), d. deme 176, eare 192, fere 110, anker 165, lauedi 155, lafdi 112; pl. n. ancres 171, d. ehne 54, hose 35, heordes 28, a. cappes 38, eares 112. The tendency to substitute the terminations of the strong declension for those of the weak is Midland. In the minor declensions namon 9 is s. d.; sustre 204, pl. n.; childrene 78, pl. g.

An adjective inflected in the sing. is hehe 176: plurals have -e, with the exception of bisi 97, idel 69, sari 91: pl. a. is nane 115. Beside ich 86 (3), i occurs 72 as pers. pronoun. The n. s. f. and n. pl. of the pronoun of the third person is ho 4, 122; hom 167 is miswritten for ho; heora is hare 125, 127, hore 126. The relative pronoun is þat: the demonstrative þā, those, is seen in (⁊) ta 68, 161: the indef. is mon 8 (5); hwat as noun occurs at 145, 159; āwiht is oht 208; alle is s. d. 128, pl. d. 116.

Infinitives are divided equally between -en and -e; those in -ien are hatien 117, þolien 87, 169, in -ie, werie 27, but loke 124; forms with -in, -i are absent. Dative infinitives are for to biginnen 199, for to puffen 143, to habben 56, with four others in -en; to breke 20, to haue 11, to lose 94, to reare 140. The 3rd pr. s. ends in -es, askes 188, blawes 190, and 32 others, none being contracted forms, but lis 76, seos 71, 140, and bueð 170; the 3rd pr. pl. in -en, bihaten 186, hauen 208, and 13 others, but suneheþ 174; the subjunctive pr. s. in -e, blawe 148, cume 102, blodeke 32, eile 9, like 35, make 135, but blasie 143, gladie 204, trukie 166, werie 27, seo 23, pl. in -en, bemen 192, hauen 66, nabben 106, halden 202 (but halde 147), luuien 180, makien 129; imperative s. 2. in -e, loke 9, were 30, pl. in -es, biddes 201, haues 21, habbes 26 and twelve others, driue ȝe 12, gruse ȝe 158, &c. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. subj. s. 3. sehe 116: I c. s. 3. swanc 210: III. pl. 2. drehden 205, a weak form; comp. HM 37/6. Participles present: II. bitende 183: III. lutende 131; past: II, III. bitohen 198: V. bifallen 19, ileten 85, 87. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hafde 197. Participles present: seiende 100, suhiende 184; past: bicleopet 175, iset 164, ifest 149 and 8 others in -t, idodded 83, ilaced 37, iturnde 126, gurd 30, red 208, icnotten 36. Minor Groups: duhen inf. 24, deah pr. s. 56; cunnen pr. pl. 172, cunen 152; schule 2 pr. pl. 175, schuln 29, schule pr. pl. 122; mai pr. s. 4, muhen 2 pr. pl. 67, 89, 173; beon inf. 53, 196, beo 4 (6), to beon dat. inf. 179, arn 2 pr. pl. 87 (5), pr. pl. beon 126, 147, 149, beos 97, beo pr. s. subj. 148, 206, beon 2 pr. pl. subj. 189, pr. pl. subj. 33, 105, beos 2 pl. imp. 188, 201, beo ȝe 69, was pt. s. 3, were pt. s. subj. 198; wile pr. s. 28, 168, nule 29, wiln 2 pr. pl. 96, 191; don inf. 89, for to donne dat. inf. 199, to do 199, dos pr. s. 142, 189, don 2 pr. pl. 200, 201, pr. pl. 129, 157, 2 pr. pl. subj. 62, do 191, idon pp. 157; to gan dat. inf. 34, gas pr. s. 100, ga pr. s. subj. 100, 141. The termination of ladli adj. 7, gladli adv. 168, nomeli 149 is due to Scand. -ligr, -liga; nedinge 9 represents OE. nēadinga; wið prep. 20, 22 (in N mid), ni conj. 55 &c., and til conj. 172 are noteworthy.

(5) Of C. This differs little from A. Nouns of the weak declension are ancres s. g. 8, blodbinden pl. a. 64. The pronoun of the third person s. n. f., pl. n. is ha 4, 122. While the pr. s. of the verb regularly ends in -eð, makes 8, 20 survives from the Midland original; so too don 2 pr. pl. 200 beside doð 201, beon 126, 149. iburð pr. s. impers. 56, befits, represents OE. gebyreþ; other verbal forms are sechȝe pt. s. subj. 116, segginde pres. p. 100, nach for ne ah pr. s. 80, achȝen pr. pl. 167, muchȝen 2 pr. pl. 67, muȝen 92, wullet 2 pr. pl. 96, 191 beside wulled 84, wullen 38. The adv. nedunge 9 represents OE. nēadunga.

Vocabulary: The Scandinavian element is large: ai T 206, arn T 87 &c., blast T 144, eskibah 79, flutte b 182, geineð b 163, grið(fullnesse) b 4, hesmel N 118, lah b 143, lahe b 152, lane 13, lastunge 56, lates b 147, meoke b 38, b 66, nai b 48, b 76, riue b 83, riueð b 82, riuunges b 83, sahtnesse b 158, (but seih[t]nesse N is English), scale 95, semes T 3, skile b 118, skleatteð 53, tiþinges NT 114, tidinges b 138, C 114, til TC 172, wanes b 19, warpere 64, warpeð 66 (worpare, worpeð N are English), windowe b 59, wontreaðe 76, wursnet T 174: probably baðe T 105, T 156, T 187, brendes C 141, hird B 33, hwitel 89, lustni b 90, lustnen T 73, meaðeleð 73, 96, rukelin 80, rukeleð 86, ruken 81, somen (tale) T 139, suhinde b 199, suhiende T 184, suwinde N 184, umben b 229, TC 201: possibly dusten 68, glopnen T 56/58. The French element is very extensive; many of the words appear for the first time: accidie 11, amendeð N 65, mendið b 70, amices b 78, angoise 60, apostle b 50, atiffi b 63, untiffet b 64, tiffunge b 53, aturn b 146, augrim 81, best N 2, beastes 28, boistes b 16, broche b 65, caliz C N 17, chaliz T 17, canges 82, celer 92, change b 222, ichanget b 117, chartres b 16, cheres 48, complie b 179, criblin b 81, curt 34, cuuertur 89, cyrograffes b 17, dame b 129, (deuleset TC 198), disceplines b 35, dute N 79, eise b 187, eise b 223, eoli b 197 (Bonn. Beitr. xv. 110), familiers T 113, figures 81, folliche 18, frut b 177, gloire b 80, glutun 92, grace b 174, graces b 171, greueð b 105, gruchunge b 135, haire T 36, hurte b 214, hurten b 213, inobedience 6, iuglurs 47, large b 203, laz b 69, ilacet b 42, leattres b 99, leon B 30 liun 30, manciple 92, mantel C 120, imantlet C 121, meistre b 2, imembret b 65, meoster 35 mester B 48, mustreisun b 80, noise 38, obedient b 129, ore 7, parures b 79, penitence b 169, poure b 70, pouerte b 114, prophetes 57, religiun b 74, riwle b 116, rund b 59, sacrement 8, scoren b 16, scurge b 32 schurge N 31, seinte C 46, semblant 60, seruant b 181, seruin 47, seruise 43, silence b 180, skirmi 67, sot(schipe) b 111, spece 5, stamin b 27, strif b 154, isturbed N 163 isturbet b 181, suffreð N 205, surpliz b 66, taueles b 82, temptaciuns b 35, tendre b 73, terme 15, tohurten b 164, triccherie 17, vnicorne 32, ures b 135, vampez b 40, veiles b 45, veine b 80, uestemenz b 17. Latin borrowings are auez b 134 auees C 111, cuchene 93 (pre-Conquest), false 6, falsliche 19, paternostres b 134, presumptio 9, purses b 68, scapeloris C 120, unbischpet 19, venie b 150.

Dialect: The AR has hitherto been generally regarded as Southern, partly because of the prevailing Southern dialect of the manuscript printed by Morton, and partly because of the fancied connexion of the treatise with Tarrant Kaines in Dorsetshire. But the presence of Midland and Northern forms to a greater or less extent in all the manuscripts, although four of them at least were written by Southern scribes, points to the Northern border of the Midland area as the home of the original, while the large Scandinavian element in the vocabulary and the absence of the characteristic u in unaccented final syllables (-ud, -un, -us, -ut) decide for the East against the West Midland. MS. N is a copy made by a scribe of the Middle South; his alterations of the inflections are systematic, but with occasional lapses like timbrin Morton, 12/24, blescið 18/11, seihtni 28/19, kalenges tu 54/2, wenes tu 54/5 (beside wenest tu 54/20), muhtes 304/13 (but muhtest 270/3) &c.; more frequently he copies Anglian sounds from his exemplar. He also substitutes, as far as he can, English and French words for Scandinavian, e. g. hercnen 73 for lustnin, yet he retains such purely Northern elements as suwinde 184, and the suffix in godleic Morton, 136/15, ureoleic 192/25. Peculiar to the scribe are his representations of a + h, ā + h, ō + w (touward occurs in Layamon). MS. A presents the characteristic features of the Katherine Group; it is a copy by a scribe of the Northern border of the South. The Midland element in its sounds is considerable, but the inflection is mainly Southern; the u- and å-umlauts of a appear to be due to the scribe and not to the original. MS. B is closely related to A, but it is somewhat more Southern in preservation of the inflections; the scribe was more accustomed to French than to English. MS. C also closely resembles A, but in the flexion North-Midland forms appear more often by inadvertence. In MS. T, both sounds and inflections are predominantly Midland: still in other parts of the manuscript the Southern element is more evident than in our extract. This manuscript stands nearest in dialect to the original; it appears to be a copy of a North-Midland text made by a scribe not long enough resident in the Midland area to have quite forgotten his native Southern speech.

Style: MS. N is not only the most remote from the original in dialect, it has also been altered in language more than the others, partly from a desire to make the meaning plainer, partly from a dislike of any singularity of expression. The changes made may be classified as i. insertion of connecting particles, ‘and,’ ‘vor,’ ‘þeonne,’ N 144 &c.; ‘so uorð so’ in A is altered into ‘uor so’ Morton, 136/13: ii. expansions like ‘ȝe habbeð’ N 95, ‘he nout’ N 101, ‘to þer eorðe’ N 130, ‘þeo þinges’ N 160: iii. re-arrangement of words in a prose order, ‘kume hom’ N 102, ‘so’ N 115, ‘dreamen wel’ N 192: iv. substitution of nouns for pronouns, ‘nenne mon’ N 23; the writer has a peculiar affection for the word mon, so, ‘ase deð, among moni mon, sum uniseli ancre,’ Morton 128/23, where A has ‘monie’ without noun: v. elimination of words and expressions used in a figurative way, ‘hit is’ N 99 for ‘driueð,’ ‘kumeð—heouene’ N 170, destroying the alliteration. These alterations have tended to obscure the peculiar rhythmic movement of the prose, which was a feature of the original as of Sawles Warde, the Katherine Group, Hali Meidenhad and some smaller pieces. It is discernible in the other manuscripts, especially in elevated passages, as b 182-7, b 205-8, b 231-5, and the scribe of MS. A often shows by his punctuation that he recognized its existence.

Introduction: The Ancren Riwle, as it was called by Morton, the Ancrene Wisse (the Anchoresses’ Guide) as its title is in MS. A, was written for the instruction of three sisters, ‘gentile wummen,’ of whom the author says ‘ine blostme of ower ȝuweðe, uorheten alle worldes blissen ⁊ bicomen ancren’ (Morton, 192). Their dwelling is under the eaves of a church, they are ‘under chirche iancred’ (M. 142); there is but a wall between them and the Host (M. 262). They live in separate cells, for they send messages to one another by their attendant maids (M. 256), and they are fully provided for, ‘euerich of ou haueð of one ureond al þet hire is neod; ne þerf þet meiden sechen nouðer bread ne suuel, fur þene et his halle’ (M. 192). They are greatly beloved, ‘vor godleic ⁊ for ureoleic iȝerned of monie’ (M. 192); their whole life in so strict an order is as a martyrdom, ‘ȝe beoð niht ⁊ dei upe Godes rode’ (M. 348).

As they were not subject in their anchorhold to any recognized monastic rule, they sought some regulations for their way of life, and the treatise they received is represented, so far as the matter is concerned, best by MS. N. But a book so helpful was certain to be copied for the use of other anchorites, with suitable adaptations and possibly additions; such a copy is MS. A, made a considerable time after the original. It omits the important reference to the author, found only in MS. N, wherein he speaks of the practice of the lay brothers of the community to which he belonged (Morton, 24), the word ‘leawude’ in ‘ure leawude breðren’ (M. 412/8), and the passage addressed by the author to the ladies for whom the book was composed (M. 192) containing the biographical details quoted above: of the numerous additions the most interesting is that in which reference is made to the general adoption of the rule by anchoresses all over England, with such unanimity that it is as though they were all gathered within the walls of one convent at London, Oxford, Shrewsbury, or Chester (M. L. Review, ix. 470). As MS. T is imperfect at the beginning, its first leaf corresponding to Morton, p. 44, it cannot be known whether it left out the first passage (Morton, 24) mentioned above, but it does omit the second passage (Morton, 192), and further eliminates commendatory references to the sisters found in Morton, 48/2-4, 50/20-24; it is therefore adapted like A. So too is the French version; it contains some of the additions of A, and is subsequent to it. A third stage is reached when the book is recognized as profitable reading for others who are not anchorites, for nuns, as in the Latin version of MS. M, in which the first ritual part is abridged and the last wholly left out as inapplicable to those who have a definite rule of their own, such as the Cistercian sisters at Tarent, for whom Simon of Ghent may well have executed this translation. Similarly the extracts of MS. B were probably made for the use of seculars.

Hitherto no plausible guess as to the author has been made. Simon of Ghent, who died in 1315 A.D., is manifestly out of the question. Bishop Poor (d. 1237) has been drawn in solely because of his connexion with Tarent (Dugdale, v. 619), of which he was the principal benefactor. From internal evidence it may be gathered that the writer was a disciple of S. Bernard (1091-1153), whom he quotes some twelve times expressly, and from whose Liber Sententiarum he says he takes most of his sixth book; ‘hit is almest Seint Beornardes Sentence,’ Morton, 348/14. He was acquainted with Ailred of Rievaulx and with the treatise which Ailred wrote for his sister the anchoress (Morton, 368), of which he made extensive use. He belonged to some monastic order, for he speaks of ‘vre leawede breþren,’ and ‘ure ordre’ (Morton, 24). He appears to have been acquainted with other anchoresses (Morton, 102, 192, 410). There is a note of weariness at the end of the book, as of one already advanced in years, and indeed the accumulated experience of a long life must have gone to its making. He was a widely read man; he quotes from many authors, of whom, after S. Bernard, S. Augustine and S. Gregory were the chief, but he drew on the Bible twice as often as on all the others put together. Finally, the Scandinavian element in his native speech was exceptionally large, and French was so familiar to him as to colour his English far more than that of any previous writer.

There were two men living towards the end of the twelfth century who might answer to this description, Gilbert of Hoyland, Abbot of Swineshed in Lincolnshire (Dugdale, v. 336), and S. Gilbert of Sempringham. The former completed the treatise on the Canticum Canticorum begun by S. Bernard, in which the mystic interpretation is quite different from that which runs all through the Ancren Riwle. But for S. Gilbert (1089-1189) I think a good case can be made out. He was brought up in South Lincolnshire, where the Danish element was strong, and not far from the northern border of the Midland area, for Lincolnshire north of the Witham was more Northern than Midland. In later years his visitations took him often to his houses of Watton and Malton in Yorkshire. He received his early education mostly in France, and he probably visited that country often in later life; he spent more than a year there in 1147, 1148 A.D. To no other person would the recluses have been so likely to apply for a rule, since he was famous as the greatest director of pious women in England; ‘vir eximiae religionis, in feminarumque custodia gratiae singularis,’ says Trivet in his Annales; ‘vir plane mirabilis, et in custodia feminarum singularis,’ W. of Newburgh. His own foundation for women and men, the order of the Gilbertines, had its beginnings in an anchorhold which he built for seven maidens against the north wall of his own church of S. Andrew at Sempringham sometime about 1131 A.D. (Dugdale, vi, pt. 2, *ix). For these he framed a Rule, ‘dedit . . . eis praecepta vitae et disciplinae,’ and provided servants ‘puellas aliquas pauperculas in habitu seculari servientes.’ When, after a long visit to S. Bernard, he returned to England with his Institutiones confirmed by Eugenius III, his order was regularly founded, with himself as Master. The Rule of his nuns was framed on Cistercian lines, but with modifications from many sources. While it differs of necessity from regulations suitable to the life of the recluse, it shows the same extraordinary attention to details (‘non solum magna et maxime necessaria, verum etiam minima quaedam et abiecta . . . non omisit,’ Dugdale, *xiii) which is displayed in the Ancren Riwle. And the two Rules often agree in these details, as will be seen in the notes; the most remarkable example is the similarity of the devotions of the lay brethren of the order to which the writer belonged, as described in the AR (Morton, 24), to the rule for the Hours of the Fratres in the Sempringham Order (Dugdale, *lx). There are numerical differences in the number of Paternosters and Psalms, but the Gilbertine Rule, as we have it, is a revision, probably a relaxation, of Gilbert’s, and the principle is the same. This method of saying the Hours is given by the writer to the recluses as an alternative use to the more elaborate one already prescribed, and he adds, ‘Gif ei of ou wule don þus heo voleweð her, ase in oþre obseruances, muchel of ure ordre.’ Gilbert was intimate with Ailred of Rievaulx, and sought his advice in the case of the nun at Watton (Twysden, Decem Scriptores, i. col. 420). Unfortunately, no authenticated writing of his, save a formal letter addressed in his last days to the Canons of his Order (MS. Digby 36, f. 189 b), has come down to us. But the first of his biographers tells us that, when in the course of his constant visitations of his houses he rested for a time anywhere, he did not eat the bread of idleness, but among other occupations wrote books, ‘scripsit quandoque libros’ (Dugdale, *xv), and the writer of the Nova Legenda Anglie, i. 471, says ‘libros multos scripsit; verba eius nichil aliud quam sapientiam et scientiam sonuerunt.’ The first members of his Order would surely multiply copies of the works of their founder, and it is not likely that all of these have disappeared. The Ancren Riwle was probably one of them. But there is besides a group of writings which are seen in their true setting when regarded as a product of the Gilbertine movement; the table on p. 356 gives the contents of three manuscripts which are in my opinion collections of the works of S. Gilbert. Among them is that ‘Englische boc of Seinte Margarete’ (M. 244/20) possessed by the recluses, as the writer of the AR knew.

There has been much dispute as to the language in which the AR was written. The older scholars, Dr. Thomas Smith (1696 A.D.), Wanley (1705), Planta (1802) had no doubt that it was Latin. Morton (1853) championed the English version, but some of his arguments were refuted, others shaken by Bramlette. Muhe, holding the priority of the Latin proved, was obliged to adopt an involved and improbable view of the relationship of MS. T to the other manuscripts. It should be observed that these scholars were unable to take into account the Corpus MS. and the French version. The first to pronounce from a knowledge of all the materials was G. C. Macaulay in the M. L. Review, xi. 61. He appears to have disposed effectually of the claim on behalf of the Latin version, but his arguments in favour of French as the original language are not convincing. It must suffice here to say that nothing he adduces appears to be so crucial as the passage at 58/79, or even 56/38, 56/54, 70/170. In a general comparison, the English has all the vigour and raciness of an original work, while the French gives the impression of being unidiomatic and wanting in spontaneity.

In the foot-notes p. 60, l. 12, add C after chepilt: p. 61, l. 17, read chirche: p. 65, l. 62, add C after grettere: p. 67, l. 96, read wullet C for wulh C., also at p. 75, l. 191.

A. The Seven Deadly Sins.

The references throughout are to the Corpus MS., unless otherwise stated.

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 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, 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.

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. 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 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.

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.

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 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 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.’

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 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.

B. The Outer Rule

Passages in C (mostly interlined or marginal) which are not in N are inserted between asterisks in the text of the latter. The collations at the foot of pp. 60-75 show the other divergences of C and those of T from N; when not followed by any letter they give the readings of T; those followed by C are the readings of C, while B indicates agreement of T and C as against N.

The Eighth Book of the Ancrene Wisse consists of a brief introduction, to the effect that the outer rule is not rigidly binding, and seven sections (‘stucchenes’ 72/188) treating of i. eating and drinking; ii. worldly possessions and dealings, ll. 1-25; iii. clothes, 26-67; iv. occupations, 67-100; v. care of the person, 101-20; vi. servants, 120-222; vii. use of the rule, and conclusion, 223-39.

1. bute—reade corresponds to frequent phrases in the Gilbertine Rule, like ‘nisi necessitas postulet aliqua hoc fieri,’ ‘nisi magister aliter iusserit.’ With the former compare 60/18, 62/20, 64/84, 74/217; with the latter 60/13, 62/30, 37, 66/98; ‘þes riwle ⁊ alle oðre beoð in owres scriftes read ⁊ in oweres meistres breoste,’ MS. C f. 190. The master is ‘presbyter aliquis senex maturus moribus, cui raro, nisi de confessione et animae aedificatione, [inclusa] loquatur. A quo consilium accipiat in dubiis, in tribulationibus consolationem,’ Ailred, 642 c.

3. þuncheð bet, seemeth to be rather. The contrast of Martha and Mary, the active and the contemplative life, is a favourite topic in the AR; ‘Husewifschipe is Marthe dole; and Marie dole is stilnesse and reste of alle worldes noise,’ 414/16. Less frequently it is Lya and Rachel that are opposed, Hugh of S. Victor, i. 133.

5. for &c.: the passage is based on Ailred, ‘Aliae [inclusae] . . . pecuniae congregandae vel multiplicandis pecoribus inhiant: tantaque cum hac sollicitudine in his extenduntur, ut eas matres vel dominas familiarum existimes, non anachoretas. Quaerunt aliquibus pascua, pastores . . . Sequitur emptio et venditio’ &c., 641 c, but its vivid detail and interest are all the writer’s own.

6. Olhnin, wheedle, get on the right side of; a word peculiar to AR, SJ, SK, SM; ‘couendra . . . de querre la grace de messer,’ F. heiward: OE. *hægweard occurring in dat. hæigwerde; adopted by the writer of Quadripartitus, p. 22 (c. 1100), as heiwardo, d., but often called messor; among other duties, he kept cattle out of the enclosed fields and impounded strays: see Liebermann, Gesetze, i. 452; Leo, Rectitudines, 245. wearien: warien NCT; OE. wergian, curse, revile; comp. ‘ne ne warien hwon me agulteð to ou,’ AR 186/2, 284/22; ‘Ȝe ne schulen uor none þinge ne warien, ne swerien,’ 70/20: ‘mandir (for maudir) le qant il les enparke,’ F.

7. ȝelden &c., and moreover pay for the damage done. wat crist: comp. ‘Deu le set,’ AR 382/17. hwen &c., when there is complaint among the people at large about the recluse’s cattle, or possibly, wealth. The order of the words forbids the explanation, ‘complaint of anchoresses’ cattle in an enclosure,’ Morris. For the vague use of in tune, comp. KH 153 note. Comp. ‘si bestias haberetis, aliena pascua forsitan occuparent, essetque magnus clamor vicinorum dicentium: Utinam isti eremitae nunquam advenissent, nam multiplex eorum possessio multiplex nobis infert impedimentum,’ S. Stephani Grandimontensis Regula; De bestiis non habendis; Migne, P. L. cciv. col. 1143: possibly the source of this place.

8. Nu þenne introduces a command, 123/218, 126/311, or request 119/78, or argument 122/191, but its use here for still, notwithstanding, is peculiar. Note that the scribe of T deleted þenne in favour of þah.

10. ifestnet: L has nothing corresponding to the following ancre—heorte, but instead ‘Cauens enim psalmista [di]cente. Nolite cor appon[ere]’; a reference to Ps. lxi. 11.

11. driue, practise, pursue: comp. 130/72; ‘þa þe þone ceaþ drifað,’ Benedictine Rule, ed. Schröer, 95/11; ‘ꝥ nis bute dusilec | al ꝥ ha driueð,’ SK 424, 5, 1798; ‘long wune is her driuen,’ GE 1681. chepilt, a female trader, one who buys to sell at a profit, as the text explains.

12. efter: see 7/53. chepeð, offers for sale, with dat. chapmon; comp. ‘And chepte heom to sullen vre helare,’ OEM 40/115, but with prep. in sense of buying, ‘Ȝif me cheapeð on of þeos et ou,’ AR 190/8.

14 C: the addition þah—wordes, not in any other MS., is noteworthy: F has nothing corresponding to it or to the sentence in A, þing—honden.

14. sumhwile: he is probably thinking of the Fathers of the Desert, who plaited mats of palm, for the Vitas Patrum was a favourite book of his. The regulation is only of general application, these sisters being fully provided for.

15. wite, take charge of: in troublous times the anchorhold would be regarded as a place of safe deposit. of: so CN, but T omits (correct footnote by deleting B); it depends on Nawt. ‘Rien ne gardeȝ en vostre maisone daltrui choses,’ F. In N of must be partitive, for witen takes the acc. of the thing guarded: see 118/52 note.

16. boistes, boxes, caskets, mostly for ointment, but here probably jewel cases. chartres, deeds; probably the earliest instance. Scoren, scrolls: OF. escroe; comp. ‘Scrowe oðer quaer,’ AR 282/29.

17. cyrograffes, indentures, bonds; an early instance of the word. calices: there was a special objection, ‘nulla femina . . . calicem Domini tangat,’ Udalrici Sermo Synodalis, Migne, P. L. cxxxv. 1071 b.

18. strengðe, violence: comp. 40/168: ‘bute vor neod one, als strengðe ⁊ deaðes dred,’ AR 6/23; ‘auh teares doð him strencðe’ (= lacrima cogit), id. 244/27; ‘Ne dede dieuel him none strengþe,’ VV 113/19. F has ‘force.’

20. makeð—hus, causes your house to be laid open; comp. 117/8, 118/28; ‘oðer ȝif þu iherdest þeoues breken þine woawes,’ AR 242/23. The Gilbertine Rule, while forbidding access to the nuns ordinarily, says ‘propter ignis incendium vel mortis instantis periculum, vel propter furtum et latrocinium omnibus sustinemus introitum,’ p. *lxxvi.

22. seoð: comp. ‘Nullich ꝥ no mon iseo ou bute he habbe leaue speciale of ower meistre,’ AR 56/21; ‘inclusa etiam facie velata loqui debet cum viro,’ Ailred, 642 d. wel mei don of, it matters little about: don means originally, serve, suffice, as in ‘that will do,’ but the phrase with the words in this order is specialized: comp. ‘Ah wel mæi don hu hit ga; for wræcches we beoð æuere ma,’ L 12754, 5; ‘Scheome is understonden bi þe reade; auh wel mei don,’ AR 356/11, where Morton mistranslates. Quite different is, ‘an olde ancre mei don wel ꝥ tu dest vuele,’ AR 52/9. T has duhen here, as A at 64/59 and C at 65/52, ordinarily meaning to be of profit, to avail, but the sense is the same as in the phrase containing don. The construction is impersonal; ancre is dative at 64/59, 65/52, as at 64/74: for of, concerning, comp. ‘he . . . dyde of heom ꝥ he wolde,’ AS. Chron. D 208/9. ‘De colore autem vestium non est multum curandum,’ L; ‘ne puit chaler de voȝ draps,’ F.

23. unorne, plain, rough: ‘vils,’ F; ‘dum [ta]men non n[im]is (?) exquisite,’ L. But Förster (Morsbachs Studien l. 171) would translate, ordinary, usual.

24. ow to neodeð: comp. ‘nimen . . . þet hire to neodeð,’ AR 414/24. ow is dat. depending directly on the verb, the usual construction of the person in EME. for neoden and neod, comp. 123/210; to is adverbial and a superfluity, quite in the manner of the writer, comp. ‘þurh hwat muhte sonre ful luue of aquiken,’ AR 58/10; ‘þet ich spec er of þeruppe,’ id. 372/23; 130/80 note. Contrast, ‘Nefde he nane neode to us ac we hefden muchele neode to him,’ OEH i. 123/35, where to = of. to bedde: comp. ‘to ruggen and to bedde; iscrud mid gode webbe,’ L 19946, 7; ‘Nowe is the tyme of the yere when provysion was wont to be made . . . of ther wynter vesturys [to] theyr bodyes and to ther beddis,’ Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 68/4: ‘a lit ⁊ a dos,’ F.

26. linnene: its use in any form was a great concession. It was noted that Abbot Roger Norreys of Evesham, in his contempt for the Rule, ‘camisiis et lintheaminibus . . . palam utebatur,’ Chron. Abb. de Evesham, 104. hearde, hard; pl. of heard, l. 44: herde N 28 is the same word, but Morris glosses it, hards, hurds, tow, and heorden, hards of flax, referring both to heordan, without accounting for the difference in form. The meaning, of hards and of coarse hards, is not satisfactory. F has ‘sil ne seit de stupeȝ ⁊ de grosses estoupes’; the two nouns appear to be an Anglo-French and a French form from the same Latin word, stupa. Possibly the former means tow of flax and the latter tow of hemp; anyhow the cloth was called stupacium. Comp. generally, ‘Porro talia ei vestimenta sufficiant quae frigus repellant. Grossioribus peliciis utatur, & pellibus propter hyemem, propter aestatem autem unam habeat tunicam: utroque vero tempore duas de stupacio camisias vel staminas,’ Ailred, 644 e.

27. Stamin: OF. estamine, an under-garment loosely woven of coarse wool, nearly as uncomfortable as a hair shirt, ‘camiseam de grossiori panno [habeant], si voluerint’ of the Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxix. ‘Estamiȝ,’ F.

28. hetter, garment: ‘vn de voȝ vestures,’ F. OE. pl. hæteru, often in ME. as singular. ‘Vestiti quoque dormiant et cincti, vt semper sint parati,’ Grimlaici Regula Solitariorum, in Holstenii Codex, i. 291. Lay folk did not in those days wear night clothes. leoðeliche, loosely: the ME. adverb corresponding to the OE. adjective liþig, flexible; comp. OWScand. liðugr, free: liðeliche, 72/194 is OE. līþe, soft. The writer here and elsewhere shows himself anxious to mitigate the austerities of his pupils. F has nothing corresponding to swa—under.

30. cunne is historically genitive plural: see 132/9 note and 81/80 note. schriftes, confessor’s: the ‘meistre’ of 60/2: comp. 80/62; ‘bi ure shriftes rede,’ OEH ii. 55/29; ‘mid ðe rade of þine scrifte,’ VV 127/2. In F ‘sanȝ congie de son confessour’ corresponds to ‘wiðute schriftes leaue,’ 62/33.

31. ilespiles felles, hedgehogs’ skins: OE. igil, īl, hedgehog + pīl, prickle; the compound is used in ME. for the animal. Comp. ‘⁊ alle [sunnen] weren prikiende so piles on ile | He biþ þicke mid piles,’ Worc. Frag. F 21, 2. In irspiles N 30 r is probably due to OF. heriçun: F has ‘peel diricon.’

31 N. ileðered in this MS. only: it must mean, furnished with leather thongs: F has ‘[pl]umbee.’

32. holin: OE. holegn, holen, holly.

33. binetli, whip with nettles: NED. quotes from Cotgrave, ‘enortier, to benettle.’

34. biuoren, in front of the body. ne na keoruunge, practise no cutting or mutilation. ed eanes, at any one time. F ‘a nule foiȝ.’

35. luðere, severe, lit. wicked. disceplines: ‘smerte smiten of smale longe ȝerden,’ OEH ii. 207/6. Comp. ‘Disciplina pacis nostre super eum, seið Isaye, þus ure beatunge ueol upon him,’ AR 366/14, 346/24.

36. cundeliche: for sicknesses which come in the natural course they must not put faith in or try remedies which are unnatural, such as the nostrums of the herb-woman: see 54/6 note. The writer in another place, 368, says that recluses are apt to be far too much concerned about bodily health.

37. leste &c., lest worse befall you: see 30/18. leste descends from þȳ lǣs þe; this is an early instance of its use.

38. meoke, soft, supple; comp. 64/66: the only instances in English of the use of this word in the material sense of OWScand. mjúkr as in Icel. mjúk-hendr, soft-handed. ‘In yeme utamini sotularibus grossis ⁊ callidis,’ L.

39. Hosen wiðute vampez, stockings without feet; the ‘chausses’ were usually footed. ‘En chauces sanȝ auant pieȝ gise qi voudra,’ F; ‘In caligis sine pedalibus dormietis,’ L. vampez, pl. of vampe or vampey, are properly the front part of a boot, the ‘uppers’ (avant pied), here they mean the whole covering of the foot. In Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey (ed. Singer 335), Wolsey is represented as saying, ‘we do intend . . . to go afoot . . . in the vamps of our hosen,’ i.e. in our stocking feet. The second and in 35 N is superfluous.

40. Ischeoed—bedde: another prohibition of undue austerities. The passage is not in any other of the English MSS., nor in F, but L has ‘calciatis numquam nec nisi in lecto.’

41. Sum—wereð, it may be that some woman wears &c. For inohreaðe see 56/43; F has ‘parauenture’ here as there. brech, drawers; OE. brēc, pl. of brōc, answering to femoralia of the monastic Rules. here, haircloth; OE. hǣre.

42. streapeles, the legs of the drawers; especially so called when they were closely confined to the limb by cross-gartering. They were worn by men also: see Strutt’s Complete View of the Dress &c. i, plates 31, 49, 56, for good illustrations. OE. strapul: ‘Hoc tibiale: a strapylle,’ Wright, Vocab. 775/18, 734/23. F has ‘les braeis de heire m[u]lt bien noueȝ les tiguns aual desqe a pieȝ mult ferm laceȝ,’ but nothing corresponding to ah—here, which is in A alone: and yet it is necessary to the sense. The writer does not approve of the ‘brech of here,’ a sweet and patient disposition is better, an often-repeated idea; ‘Þis is Godes heste, þet him is muchele leouere þen þet tu ete gruttene bread, oðer werie herde here,’ AR 186/10. L is with A, ‘Alique utuntur femoralibus cilicium. Mallem tamen in vobis cor humile ⁊ potens sustinere dura verba · et probrosa · quam durum cilicium portare.’

43. swete . . . swote: a frequent combination: comp. ‘swete ⁊ swote iheorted,’ AR 118/3; ‘so unimete swote ⁊ swete,’ id. 102/26. þolien: comp. ‘A mis-word þet ȝe þolieð . . . ȝe nolden sullen hire uor al þe worldes golde,’ AR 190/7.

44. ȝef—wullen, If you can do without wimples, and you would doubtless wish to do so.

45. beoð bi, have for use: comp. ‘beoð bi þe leste þet heo euer muwen,’ AR 350/7; ‘gifð us al þat we bi ben,’ OEH ii. 69/29, 179/6. Similarly, ‘ne na mâ wifa þonne ân hæbbe, ac beo be þære anre þa hwile, þe heo lybbe,’ Wulfstan, 271/14 (B.-T.); ‘ne æac maran getilige to haldænne þonne ic gêmetlice bi beon mage,’ Blooms, ES xviii. 343/43. cappen: the ‘mitras lineas, nigras et forratas de agninis pellibus’ of the Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxix.

46. wimplunge: so S. Bernard contrasts the wimpled fine lady and the veiled nun, ‘Risus immoderatior, incessus lascivior, vestitus ornatior wimplatae magis quam velatae congruerent,’ i. 123 f. The wimple was a long strip of fine linen which encircled the head, neck, and the top of the shoulders; at this time one end of it hung down along the left arm. There is a good illustration of it in Shaw’s Dresses and Decorations, i, on the middle figure of plate 10. Like other linen clothing, it was at this time coloured with saffron; ‘hire winpel wit, oðer maked geleu mid saffran,’ OEH ii. 163/32; Rel. Ant. ii. 15/8; the ‘ȝeolewe clað’ of 82/108. The long passage from Ancren l. 46 to wimplunge l. 59 is in AC only; in the latter it is added on the margin, which has been cropped. L is very fragmentary at this point, but it had matter corresponding to A.

47. cundeliche, by reason of her sex, because she is a woman, and ordered as such by S. Paul to veil her head.

48. heaued clað: the ‘couvre-chef,’ a veil of fine linen worn on the head. Holy Scripture says nothing of wimples or other head-dress, but speaks of covering only. ‘Si turpe est mulieri tonderi aut decalvari, velet caput suum,’ 1 Cor. xi. 6.

51-55. The source of this passage is probably, ‘Linus papa . . . constituit ut mulieres in ecclesia velatae sint. Et hoc propter tres causas fit: una est, cum sint decipula diaboli, ne laxis earum crinibus iuvenum animi illaqueentur; . . . tertia est ut reatus originalis peccati, qui per mulierem evenit, ad memoriam nobis revocetur. Iudex quippe malorum est Christus: sacerdos eius vicarius. Ante sacerdotem ergo debet se mulier velare velut rea et tanti mali sibi conscia coram iudice celare. Unde dicit Apostolus, ut mulier velata sit propter angelos, id est sacerdotes,’ Honorius Augustodunensis (Migne, P. L. clxxii) 589 d. sunfule goes with eue; comp. 63/44.

52. on earst, at the beginning, would correspond to OE. *on ǣrest, which is apparently not found: OE. on ǣr means beforehand. Comp. ‘on erest,’ AR 264/8; ‘on earst,’ SM 14/7; ‘on alre earst,’ HM 17/25; SM 14/4. The phrase is confined to AR and its group; elsewhere at erst is used.

53. drahe, divert from their proper use: a rare meaning. tiffunge, adornment.

54. If ȝetten means yet, furthermore, it repeats and reinforces Eft. As a form it seems to be quite isolated: it may be derived from ȝette and owe its final n to the influence of such pairs as ofte, often; uppe, uppen; buten, bute; seþþen, seþþe. ȝette 47 C is also a rare form; comp. 76/19; HM 13/9, 43/13; ‘ewt ꝥ mon seið þe oðer deð ȝette,’ id. 43/21. It can hardly come from gīeta, which gives ȝete; perhaps it is for ȝet + þe, like þætte for þæt þe: þe ȝet is frequent in Layamon.

55. þurh hire onsihðe, through the seeing of her: comp. 124/253, perhaps the only other place where the word occurs: it is possibly formed on the analogy of OE. ansīen. Et hoc &c.: ‘Ideo debet mulier potestatem habere supra caput propter Angelos,’ 1 Cor. xi. 10.

56. iwimplet: the writer is addressing an imaginary disciple who insists on the wimple as satisfying the requirements of S. Paul. He replies that the apostle requires more; the face also must be veiled; his words are directed against the recluse who receives visits from men. The wimple can be dispensed with by the recluse who keeps within her walls and avoids the sight of men. The visits of various people to the recluse are often referred to; see AR 56/20, 58/5, 68/16.

57. þe is for þe þe, as in C and at 64/60.

59. wel is a mistake for þurl due to anticipation of the following wel. Three windows are mentioned, that looking into the church, the ‘chirche þurl,’ AR 68/16; the parlour window, through which they converse with visitors and communicate with the servants, the ‘þurl’ of 74/209, AR 68/19; and the house window, the ‘rund windowe’ of the text. Each window was hung inside and out with black cloths marked with a white cross, AR 50/2, 96/10, and furnished with shutters; compare the elaborate regulations for the windows in the Gilbertine Rule, Dugdale, *lxxv. wel mei duhen: see 62/22 note: ancre is dative.

60. þus ne dest, i.e. hidest not thyself from men’s gaze.

61. þer . . . of, thereby, by reason of that, see 1/3 note: so ‘hwarof,’ whereby AR 58/22.

63. þah, if. Comp. ‘Ȝif we weopeð for ure owune [sunnen] hit is nout muchel wunder,’ AR 312/23. ‘ki qe vult estre veue mes qele satife nest pas grant merueille,’ F.

64. untiffet wið uten: comp. 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.

65. broche: ‘fermail,’ F; ‘firmaculos,’ L (should be firmacula). imembret, striped, parti-coloured: comp. ‘Singuli Fratres singulas zonas tantum habeant, sintque zonae eorum simplicis corrigiae, sine fibulis & absque omni tinctura,’ Statuta Ord. Grandimont., Holst. ii. 303. glouen: comp. ‘Ut nunquam induant gantos,’ Regulae Sanctimonialium Fontis Ebraldi, Migne, P. L. clxii. 1097.

57 C-61. See 66/114-19. The scribe of C copied this passage by inadvertence at the bottom of f. 193 r instead of f. 194 r.

66. ow ne deh, it is not proper for you. meoke, soft and pliant, not like the heavy sheepskin winter garments. See 62/38 note.

67. greattre, coarser and larger pieces of work, not fancy trifles.

68. forte—wið, with which to get yourselves friends. ‘nec eorum (i.e. friends) munuscula litterasque suscipias, nec illis tua dirigas, prout moris est, puta zonas, marsupia, quae diverso stamine & subtegmine variata sunt,’ Ailred, 642 e. In the Gilbertine Rule the nuns are forbidden to make purses embroidered with silk, p. *xciv.

69. huue, coif, skull-cap: OE. hūfe; Germ. haube. blodbinde, ligatures of silk to stop bleeding: ‘tenas,’ L (a LL. form = taenias). laz, not ‘lace’ Morris, but laces, i.e. strings for lacing garments: ‘laqueos de serico,’ L.

70. chirche claðes: ‘les vestementȝ de seint iglise,’ F.

72. fore, beforehand: OE. fore: without telling him about it beforehand, as well as the circumstances, your relationship to the persons, how often you receive them, how long you entertain them.

73. tendre of cunne, affectionate towards kindred. The story which follows is in Eudes de Cheriton (ed. Hervieux, 270) and in Jacques de Vitry (ed. Crane, 54). Both were active in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Eudes may have found the story (which is, in any case, an interpolation) in AR, he quotes, p. 195, a variant of the proverb found in AR 96/24, ‘euer is þe eie to þe wude leie,’ and applies it correctly.

74. ⁊—him, to whom came.

75. efter: see 7/53.

76. dead biburiet: probably and has fallen out between these words.

77. dead gasteliche: ‘mortuus sum in claustro sepultus,’ Eudes, 271; ‘Quanti monachorum dum patris matrisque miserentur, suas animas perdiderunt,’ S. Jerome, ii. 577.

78. The amice, L. amictus, is the oblong piece of linen which envelops the neck of a vested priest. For a good illustration see Bock, Gesch. der liturg. Gewänder des Mittelalters, ii. Tafel ii. To its upper edge is sewn an apparel which forms a collar to it. The parures, apparels, are pieces of richly embroidered cloth sewn on the amice and on the alb, two at the lower hem before and behind, two on the cuffs, and sometimes two on breast and back. See Shaw’s Dresses, i. plates 14, 16; Rock, Church of our Fathers, i. 424-66. The Gilbertines were allowed to use silk for these embroideries.

80. mustreisun, ostentation, boasting: OF. mo(n)straison, L. monstrationem: NED. records a later monstrison and monstration.

81. For gode werkes spoilt by publishing them, see the characteristic passage in AR 146-52. Criblin: the exact meaning of this word, hitherto unrecorded, is hard to determine. Its connexion with F. cribler, LL. criblare (in Mulomedicina Chironis, ivth cent.), L. cribrum can hardly be doubted; it must mean some kind of open work; either embroidery on a net foundation, ‘filatorium,’ or drawn-thread work, or, what seems most probable, ‘tambour,’ wherein the strips of linen stretched in a ring frame, with the pattern pierced by a bodkin and the edges of the holes thus made framed in needlework, would above all things suggest a sieve. Such work might be used for ornamenting altar cloths, or pyx cloths, or even albs (see Bock, ii. 35). It was elaborate work, such as recluses ought not to undertake.

82. Taueles, linen cloths which are spread on the mensa of the altar, the ‘tres tobaleae mundae’ of the Roman rite. LL. toualia, Eng. towel. riueð, stitches, sews together; OWScand. rifa, to tack, sew loosely together: in Scottish dialects, riv.

83. measse kemese, albs: OE. cemes, LL. camisia. nomeliche oueregede, especially such as are foolishly elaborate: oueregede is found here only; egede is a characteristic word of the group, AR 282/13; HM 39/2; SM 11/9.

84. Helpeð &c.: comp. ‘Quod ut fiat, videat inclusa, ut si fieri potest, de labore manuum suarum vivat, hoc enim perfectum est,’ Ailred, 641 d. A general injunction, not applicable to the sisters, for whom ample provision had been made, AR 192/16.

85. se forð se, as far as: comp. ‘so uorð so,’ 65/67; ‘se uorð ase,’ 75/187; ‘ase forð as,’ 72/201; ‘so uorð ase,’ AR 268/10, 382/11.

86. The reference is probably to ‘ne quemquam otiosum possit diabolus invenire, ne variis desideriis pateat cordis aditus, altera sororum libros scribat . . . suat altera cucullas sororum,’ Opera v. 442.

87. lihtliche, without good reason. allunges, altogether, wholly: the genitive form is less common than the dative, 70/154, which represents OE. eallunga. of sumþing . . . idel, without something to do: comp. 58/73. anan rihtes, immediately, straight away.

89. for nawt, to no purpose.

90. iȝemen: OE. gegīeman occurs only in the sense of treating as a patient, amending: ȝeme T means, take heed to, give attention, the variant in N, ihwulen, have leisure: comp. ‘hwon so ȝe euer muwen ihwulen,’ AR 44/5. Apparently it occurs nowhere else.

91. ‘In desideriis est omnis otiosus,’ comp. Prov. xxi. 26. For awakeneð see 54/24. ‘Ecce haec fuit iniquitas Sodomae, sororis tuae, superbia, saturitas panis et abundantia, et otium ipsius,’ Ezech. xvi. 49.

94. rust: ‘otium enim et desidia quasi quaedam rubigo sapientiae est,’ S. Jerome, ii. 773.

95, 96. From Ailred; ‘sunt quaedam inclusae, quae in docendis puellis occupantur, et cellam suam vertunt in scholam,’ 641 f. forwurðe, degenerate into; a meaning apparently found only in AR; its ordinary sense is, to perish, 54/23. Comp. ‘Þeo þet schulden one lecnen hore soule mid heorte bireousunge . . . uorwurðeð fisiciens ⁊ licomes leche,’ AR 368/28; ‘bicumeð (forwurðeð T) meister, þe schulde beon ancre,’ 64/24.

96. ꝥ—of, concerning whom it would be danger; comp. 1/3. For of, meaning ground, cause, comp. ‘strengðe of,’ 66/116; ‘gostlich fondunge þat is more dred of,’ AR 194/23: for pliht, risk, ‘Nu ne sceole ȝe halden eower child to plihte to longe hæþene,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 6/7: dute 79 N has the same meaning.

97. bimong: a form characteristic of AR and the allied writings.

99. See 64/68 note. In the next line writen probably means compose or copy books; comp. ‘Nulla etiam de nostris praesumat libros aliquos, vel orationes, vel meditationes scribere vel scribi facere sine assensu prioris omnium,’ Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxxiii.

100. Their hair is to be cropped, idoddet, or shaven four times a year, or if any one prefers it, trimmed, ieueset, but in that case, the hair must be washed and combed more often, C 85; not more than seven times in the year according to the Gilbertine Rule.

102. beo bi, as at 62/45.

103. as ofte: four times a year, as in the Gilbertine Rule, p. *lvi. þe, who, equivalent to whoso; if any one can dispense with bloodletting; þer buten, without it: see NED. s.v. Here § 16.

105. þe þreo dahes, a recognized period of indulgence; ‘Minutis tribus diebus pitantia mane vinum autem bis datur . . . a laboribus vacant, ad lectos redeunt, a post prandium usque ad vesperas colloquium de bonis faciunt,’ Guigonis Consuetudines, Migne, P. L. cliii. 737.

106. schurteð, amuse: a rare word supposed to be cognate with Germ. scherzen. ‘Mes dalieȝ de paroles od voȝ meschines ⁊ od honestes countes solaceȝ vous ensemble,’ F.

107. beoð: the subject ȝe is understood from the preceding ow.

109. They were too severe in their austerities, AR 378/21, 228/18.

110. For monluker see 125/270 note.

115. ꝥ—riwle depends on nan. This passage corresponds to 65/57-61.

116. strengðe, weight, importance: a favourite word of the writer; comp. ‘of þincges wiðuten . . . nis nout muche strencðe,’ AR 12/12; ‘me schal makien strencðe of onnesse of cloþes,’ id. 12/5. For of see 66/97. In the introduction to part viii, he says that they must not promise, as unwise people might do, to observe any of the external rules.

117. inre, the inner rule, the ‘lady rule,’ to which the outer is but an handmaid: comp. AR 4/10, 12/24, 410/18.

118. skile, reason.

119. þuften, handmaid; comp. 68/123; ‘for mi lauerd biseh his þufftenes mekelac,’ HM 45/12; AR 4/11. OE. þyften.

120. feareð to wundre, goes to misfortune, ruin: OE. wundor, a portentous thing. Comp. 6/46 note; 117/10; ‘þu scealt to wundre gewurðan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 174/163; ‘⁊ tukeð ham alto wundre,’ AR 380/15; ‘ȝeuest þin ahne dere bodi to tuken swa to wundre,’ HM 27/14; ‘so was ðis were to wunder brogt,’ GE 3977. Ancre &c.: the first clause is conditional, as at 54/11; if an anchoress have not her food close at hand, two women are busy, i.e. have plenty to do, are needed. This absolute use of bisie, meaning fully employed, is noteworthy. F has ‘Recluse qe nad pas sa vetaille pres · mestier ad dauer ij femmes’; L, ‘Anachorita que non habet victum ad manum indiget duabus ancillis.’ The rule is founded on that of Ailred, ‘Itaque eligatur tibi aliqua anus, non garrula, non vaga, non litigiosa, non nugigerula . . . Haec ostium cellulae custodiat . . . Habeat sub cura sua fortiorem ad onera sustinenda puellam,’ 641 f.

121. þe leaue, who may remain, to stay: an intransitive use.

123. unorne, not ‘old,’ but plain in appearance; comp. 62/23; either a young girl or middle-aged, without adornment.

124. beoden, prayers: comp. ‘Cheatereð ouwer beoden euere, ase sparuwe deð þet is one,’ AR 174/24: ‘voise disant ses proiores,’ F.

129. dame, mistress: each of the anchoresses had her own maids; see 74/208.

132. ȝe: the reading of N is preferable: CT have no nominative: ‘Nul hom ne lessent entrer,’ F.

134. oboke, by book; comp. ‘Sum is clergesse ⁊ sum nis nout ⁊ mot . . . an oðer wise siggen hire ures,’ AR 6/12. bi, by the repetition of: ‘die par patre nostres,’ F. Comp. AR 24, where the writer describes how the lay brethren of his own order say their hours.

136. Comp. ‘So þet me seið ine bisawe, “Vrom mulne ⁊ from cheping, from smiðe ⁊ from ancre huse, me tiðinge bringeð,”’ AR 88/26: Ailred, 641 b.

140. to uuel turnen: ‘vnde quis aliquid mali poterit suspicari,’ L.

141. heaued clað: ‘coeuere chief,’ F. eiðer ligge ane, let each lie by herself, comes in awkwardly among the directions about their clothes: F has it here, but T after habben, l. 143.

142. cop is apparently the caputium of the Gilbertine Rule: ‘Conversae vero laicae sorores vestiantur sicut monachae, cucullis et scapulari exceptis; quorum loco habeant pallia de adultis agnis forrata; et caputia earum mamillas tegentia ad formam scapulariorum sanctimonialium,’ p. *lxxxvii: so a short cape covering the shoulders instead of the longer cloak called scapular. It was to be sewn high on the breast, not closed by a brooch: hence its name hesmel in N, as a garment with a hole for the head to pass through; Icel. hálsmal: istihd in N is probably miswritten for istichd. ‘lour cotes soient par de sus closes par deuant la poitrine sanȝ fermail,’ F.

143. unleppet, literally unlapped, not enfolded; ‘desaffublieȝ,’ F: not in their ‘cop’ or ‘hesmel.’ OE. læppa, skirt. unweawed N, ungarmented, means the same thing, not ‘unveiled,’ Morris: comp. OE. wǣfels, pallium, indumentum. open heaued, bare-headed; ‘teste descouerte,’ F. ihudeket C, covered; from *hȳdecian, derivative of hȳdan (NED).

144. cussen: the mode of salutation then general among lay folk is forbidden them. For the custom at a much later period see Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey, ed. Singer, p. 171.

145. toggin, tug, pull about; comp. 186/318. T has the derivative, toggle: Sc. dialect, tuggle.

146. aturn, attire, or possibly, bearing, manner. OF. atourn, equipment, adornment. Comp. ‘for þi is hare aturn se briht,’ HM 23/10; ‘aturnet,’ 123/209.

147. hwerto . . . iturnde, in what direction they are going, what way of life they have chosen. Hare lates &c., let them wisely give heed to their gestures, behaviour; ‘porteures,’ F.

150. venie, acknowledgement of fault and petition for pardon, usually in the form of a genuflection or of a profound bow (curvatio). It was also used as a formal act of humiliation at the end of a Psalm and with the angelic salutation, as ‘cum tribus veniis totidem feci salutationes,’ Caesarius Heisterbach., ii. 33, 39: see also Ecbasis Captivi, ed. Voigt, ll. 769-72. Comp. ‘nimeð ower uenie dun et ter eorðe mid te honden one; oðer ualleð adun al uor muchel misnimunge,’ AR 46/27; ‘sumat veniam super terram,’ Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxxi.

154. do—ut, put it utterly out.

156. eiðer &c., and let them raise one another and end with a kiss: ham in N is reciprocal.

157. þe greatluker gulte, who was more in fault; see 125/270.

158. witen &c.: see 90/73 note. some, concord: comp. ‘to some and to sehtnysse,’ Ælf., Hom. Cath. ii. 198/19, ‘myd sib and myd some,’ OEM 89/15; ‘sib ⁊ sæhte,’ 11/184; ‘sib wið ute uihte,’ 133/60. somentale in T means concord; in Orm, sammtale, in CM, samertale, concordant.

159. umben: see 74/229 note. For leaððe, OE. lǣððo, hatred, N has substituted the commoner wreððe.

160. o brune, alight; comp. ‘bed bringen o brune,’ SK 1355; AR 296/12. aga, go out; an uncommon use of a word which means, to depart. Comp. ‘That other fyr was queynt and al agon,’ Chaucer, C. T., A 2336.

161. nond, aphetic form of anond, onond. The emendation appears to be justified by the reading of N, although this shortened form does not occur elsewhere. All the scribes seem to have been puzzled by the peculiar use of the word; N adds a gloss ‘also.’ T has dos hond to, sets his hand to; C omits. The word is adverbial, meaning likewise; a development of on efen, on a level with. He doth likewise the same thing, is a tautology characteristic of the writer: ‘il fet meismes ceste chose,’ F.

162. ꝥ he wule ꝥ, which he wills that it should burn: comp. 7/52: ‘le quel il vult qe arde en nostre queor,’ F.

163. ne geineð nawt, is of no avail.

164. nohtunge, depreciation: comp. ‘for noht oðer nohtunge,’ HM 9/1. But F interprets it otherwise, ‘ascune altre chose qe rien ne vaut.’ to hurten, may dash asunder: ‘par quey il seuerent lune de laltre,’ F. to hurren CT means, whirl asunder: comp. dialectal Danish hurre, dial. English hurr, to whirr round.

165. For frommard see 58/66. cwencheð should be cwenche or hurten, hurteð. An early instance of cwenchen, to be extinguished.

166. halden ham, let them, i.e. the brands, hold themselves firmly together.

167. ne—of, let them not heed; see 8/84. F has ‘⁊ ne lour seit a rien tout soffle lenemy.’

168. monie, i.e. brondes. iueiet, joined; corresponds to OE. gefēged, pp. of gefēgan: a favourite word of the author; comp. ‘iveied togederes,’ AR 26/9; ‘iueied somed,’ id. 308/17; ‘hope ⁊ dred beon euer iveied togederes,’ id. 336/9, 356/7. ontende: comp. 128/370; ‘of þeos two treon ȝe schulen ontenden fur of luue wiðinnen ower heorte,’ AR 402/7. For wið see 130/52: F has ‘nomeement ensemble. si plusours estes ensemble iointes ⁊ bien damur esprises,’ where the first ensemble is superfluous.

170. schriuen ham, let them make their confession: a new development in the meaning of the word: OE. scrīfan means, to hear confession, to impose penance (scrift). F has ‘Al prestre ia le plus tard ne se confessent souent,’ where the equivalent of noðeleater, nevertheless, is noteworthy.

174. se lengre se mare: ‘a touȝ iours · plus ⁊ plus,’ F.

177. gruchesi, a hitherto unrecorded form, means, like the other readings, to munch, nibble. It is related to gruse T as the mod. dialect. forms growdge (Lincs.), grouge (Notts) are to grouze, to eat noisily (mostly Lincs.): gruselie N may be represented by gruzzle, to eat voraciously (Lanark). Similarly OF. groucier is grutch in ME., in mod. dialects, grouse, to grumble.

178. liht, readily given by the mistress; comp. 48/312. F appears to have read liþ, ‘le conge gist en toutes choses la ou ny ad pecche.’

179. na word: the rule for the anchoresses was, ‘Silence euere et te mete; vor ȝif oðre religiuse doð hit . . . ȝe owen biuoren alle,’ AR 68/21. ⁊ teo stille, and those few in a low voice: N has added beon, and let those be &c. complie: after the anchoress has said compline, the servant must be careful not to disturb her obligatory silence. The times of silence are stated in Ailred’s thirteenth chapter. aþet, until; OE. oð ðæt, until that, a conjunctional phrase, as at 72/189, 77/61, 69, 118/23, but here a preposition; comp. ‘aþet endunge þissere weorlde,’ OEH i. 119/15; ‘aðet tes dei,’ SK 1305. þet, þat are used alone as conjunctions, until; comp. 162/248; ‘ꝥ come þes dei,’ OEH i. 33/32; KH 123 note. a þa, 78/71 (= a þe) represents oð þe, conj., until: so too of = oð, 13/15. uort N 73/162, until, is shortened from for te (= for to); comp. ‘slepte uort midniht,’ AR 236/25; ‘for to þe fowertuðe dai,’ OEH ii. 23/7. But it is mostly a conjunction, as at 134/64, 136/156, 151/41; ‘uort ȝe beon al greiðe,’ AR 16/6; ‘for to þe time cam,’ OEH ii. 23/4; or it forms with þet a conjunctional phrase, 73/172; ‘vort tet we speken,’ AR 64/12; ‘forte ꝥ on þen þridde dai; ꝥ is heorte be liht,’ OEH ii. 103/23. Finally, in ‘ȝet nabbe ȝe nout wiðstonden uorte þet þe schedunge of ower blode,’ AR 262/17, uorte þet is a preposition. Note the readings of TC at l. 172.

181. hure appears to be a repetition of the preceding: N has cloð; CT clað: ‘fors le mangier ⁊ auestir,’ F.

182. ꝥ . . . bi, by means of which. flutte, subsist; OWScand. flytja, but the meaning here answers to the reflexive flytjask, to maintain oneself: ‘dunt ele se puit sustenir,’ F. Comp. ‘þet moni þusunt muhten biflutten,’ AR 202/25, apparently the only other place where it is used in this sense. The noun fluttunge is in HM, ‘to fluttunge ⁊ to fode,’ 27/8, 29/4; SM 22/34. Ne misleue &c., Let no recluse’s servant have such want of confidence in God as to think that He will fail her, whatever betide the recluse. The servant may rest assured that she will be provided for in any contingency. ‘Nule ne mescroie dieu qeiqe auienge de la recluse qil lui faille,’ F. See 141/36, and for trukie comp. further 82/105, AR 68/6, 234/17, 356/31.

183. þe meidnes wið uten would seem to restrict the application of the last sentence to the aged indoor servant, see 66/121. The reading of T, þeo ꝥ arn wið uten, applied to people in general who help the recluse, seems better.

184. alswa as, even as, just as: so ‘alriht so,’ AR 92/8. hom in T is a mistake for ho.

185. haueð ehe . . . toward: comp. ‘hwon ȝe habbeð touward me eien oðer honden,’ AR 76/15 (= ‘cum extenderitis manus’): ‘qi ad loil desperance vers si haut louer,’ F. In N 168 ‘of’ has been lost after ‘eie,’ which cannot mean any.

186. heh bure, Blake’s ‘heaven’s high bower’ is quite in the manner of the writer; he has ‘breoste bur,’ AR 34/11; ‘heorte bur,’ 102/22; ‘in to þe stirrede bur bliðe to heouene,’ SM 22/12. Comp. also, ‘in to þan heuenliche bure,’ OEH ii. 167/3. A has preserved the original reading: F has ‘vers si haut louer.’

187. eise . . . este: a frequent combination in AR, comp. ‘Eise ⁊ flesches este beoð þes feondes merken,’ AR 364/2, 136/26, 220/6, 374/27; ‘Al þe este ⁊ al þe eise is her,’ HM 29/26. ‘Od aise ne od delit ne achate hom pas tiele ioie,’ F.

188. reden: F has ‘lire,’ but the women would not understand French. euche wike eanes: ‘Quater in anno legantur scripta fratribus et sororibus,’ Gilbertine Rule, p. *xciv. ou beoðe in N 173, to both of you, means, to the anchoresses as well as to their servants; comp. N 176.

190. igodet, improved: comp. 8/92; AR 386/15.

192. for þi as, for the reason that: comp. 130/53. The writer affects a fullness of expression in such phrases: so ‘ȝef þet’ in the preceding line; ‘uor þi ꝥ,’ in order that, AR 66/22; ‘uor hwon þet,’ if on occasion, id. 160/3, 270/11, 300/16; ‘mid tet ꝥ,’ as soon as, id. 76/22; ‘wið þen þet,’ on condition that, id. 242/27; ‘bi þen þet,’ by that, id. 330/18. ow: dative, to you.

194. liðeliche ⁊ luueliche, gently and affectionately. wummone lare, teaching to women.

195. For selthwenne sturne, F has ‘relement estiburne’; the former word is dialectic for rarement, the latter apparently ME. stiborn, Chaucer C. T., D 456; comp. ‘Styburne, or stoburne (or sterne). Austerus,’ Prompt. Parv., ed. Way, 475: OF. estibourner, to palisade.

197. eoli ⁊ win. The source is probably, ‘Hinc namque est, quod docente Veritate per Samaritani studium semivivus in stabulum ducitur, et vinum et oleum eius vulneribus adhibetur, ut per vinum scilicet mordeantur vulnera, per oleum foveantur. Necesse quippe est ut quisquis sanandis vulneribus praeest, in vino morsum doloris adhibeat, in oleo mollitiem pietatis,’ S. Gregorii Pastoralis Cura, ii, ch. 6. The biographer of S. Gilbert says he applied this teaching, ‘Quoniam autem vulneribus saucii nunc vinum, nunc oleum infundere debet Samaritanus qui interpretatur custos, studuit . . . medicus iste animarum utroque uti genere medicamenti.’ Dugdale, p. *vi. Wine is mystically interpreted justice; oil, mercy.

199. suhinde, biting, smarting: perhaps connected with OWScand. svíða: a Northern word, see Minot, v. 12 note and EDD sou. C substitutes sturne.

200. luue eie, love-fear; ‘doute en amur,’ F. Comp. ‘With loue awe, sone, þy wyfe chastyse,’ How the Wyse Man taught hys Sone, 33/140, where the editor reads lone; ‘frigti luue,’ 197/18. The words are often associated, as ‘And quat for luue and quat for age,’ GE 3632.

201. icnaweð, confess: arn cnawe in T means are confessing; OE. gecnǣwe; see KH 983 note. Ase forð as: see 64/85: ‘Ausi auant come vus poeȝ,’ F.

203. nearowe, strict, sparing: comp. ‘hold hire neruwe,’ AR 268/25; ‘neruwe domesmon,’ id. 156/14; ‘et te neruwe dome,’ id. 308/9. It is a noun in the next line, as is wide, l. 205: ‘lestreit del corn . . . le large,’ F. hearde: as they in fact were; ‘Noðeleas, leoue sustren, ower mete and ower drunch haueð iþuht me lesse þen ich wolde,’ AR 412/28. Similarly Ailred, ‘parcissimo cibo vix corpus sustentas,’ 644 c.

205. ȝe don, may ye do, do ye.

207. ahnes, own; a gen. sing., corresponding to OE. āgnes, in a sort of apposition to ower: so aunes in C: the construction is probably the same in ‘His ahȝenes þonkes he þrowede for us,’ OEH i. 121/27. With ones N 193, alone, comp. 147/163; ‘mid his ones mihte,’ AR 160/10, where T has the curious anres as here; ‘wið his anes wit awarpen,’ SK 591, 1283; as in Latin, ‘Mea unius opera respublica salva est.’ In OE. are found, ‘mid þines anes ȝeþeahte,’ Boethius, ed. Fox, 128/19; ‘ðæt ge ures nanes ne siendon,’ Cura Past. 211/14, where the possessive has conformed to the adjective.

209. cumeð &c., pay a visit to your maids for relaxation. With froure comp. ‘iuvencula quaedam quae ei (sanctimoniali) ad solatium fuerat deputata,’ Caesarius Heisterbach., ii. 216. cumeð . . . to þe þurl: comp. the rule as to visits of the recluse’s friends, ‘ȝif eni haueð deore gist, do hire meiden ase in hire stude te gladien hire uere, ⁊ heo schal habben leaue to openen hire þurl enes oðer twies ⁊ makien signes touward hire of one glede chere,’ AR 68/22. earunder, before undern, noon: undern is from nine to twelve, sometimes twelve as here and at 206/323, sometimes nine as at 220/205: comp. ‘ereyesterday,’ the day before yesterday, quoted from Coverdale in NED iii. 267. With ouerunder, after undern, comp. ‘ofer non,’ Wulfstan, 205/9; ‘ouernon,’ afternoon, R. of Gloucester, ed. Wright, 7302, 7487; ‘mydouernoon,’ Hymns to the Virgin, 84/49; ‘þy feorþan dæge ofor undern,’ BH 93/14. The dialectic overday, overnight, overyear refer to the past day &c.

210. note gastelich, spiritual occupation, duties.

211. sitte &c.: do not remain at the window talking to them past the proper time for compline.

213. hurten heorte, wound another’s feelings, if retailed: that readily works mischief. Comp. AR 256/1-7, where the devil is said to be busy about separating the sisters with gossip.

215. lokeð, watches over, preserves; see 4/20. edhalden, entertained: comp. ‘Prohibemus . . . ne aliqua . . . praesumat alicui hospiti dare carnes . . . nec aliquem balneare, vel minuere vel ultra unam noctem retinere,’ Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxxv. ꝥ beo, let it occur.

218. plohien is subj. pr. pl., Let not the anchoress or her maiden play; it represents OE. pleogian as ME. pleien does OE. plegian. Possibly the dialect word ploy, amusement, usually explained as aphetic for employ, is connected with this form. The gomenes would be backgammon, chess, and the like.

219. ticki to gederes, pat, caress each other, or possibly, romp, play the child’s game of ‘ticky.’ See NED s.v. Tick, v.¹ for examples of the phrase ‘tick and toy.’

220. fleschlich froure: the reference is perhaps to ‘Venientibus quippe ad religionem non est consideranda carnis fragilitas, ut ei delicate subserviatur, sed impedimenta fervoris spiritus, ut sollicite fugiantur,’ Opera, i. 370 b.

221. wið ute met &c., beyond measure (exceptional) exquisite joy. Comp. ‘utnume feir,’ SJ 6/1.

222. þruppe usually means, in addition, as at 127/358, but in AR it generally refers to what has previously been said. Comp. ‘Turneð þeruppe (= back to the place) þer ich spec hu he was ipined,’ AR 188/17; ‘þet ich spec er of þeruppe,’ id. 372/23; where it repeats ‘er’; ‘þeruppe is inouh iseid,’ id. 194/5, already enough has been said. The passage to which he refers them is probably ‘ne schal tu nonesweis þeos two ilke cumforz, min ⁊ te worldes—þe joie of the holi gost ⁊ flesches froure habben togederes,’ AR 102/13.

223. eise, at leisure, have opportunity: so ‘hwen þu art on eise carpe toward ihesu,’ OEH i. 287/11; ‘eise (= opportunity) makeð þeof,’ HM 17/24; AR 288/21; ‘aisie,’ convenient, OEH ii. 47/16; ‘efter hire eaise,’ to her liking, AR 114/10. In ‘Et te one psalme ȝe schulen stonden ȝif ȝe beoð eise,’ AR 20/27, it means, in good health, as ‘hwo se is ful meseise,’ id. 46/22, means, whoever is very infirm. The Gilbertine Rule gives leave to sit at the choir offices, especially after bloodletting, p. *lvii.

225. biheue: see 91/108. bitohe: see 21/106.

226. wite: subj. as in the exclamation ‘wite Christ,’ OEH i. 29/26: the ind. as in N is usual. CT have deu le set. do me toward, set out for Rome, a journey of hardship and difficulty; see Arnulfi Lexov. Epistolae, ed. Giles, 197. The simple infinitive after leouere is noteworthy: the reading of N represents the normal OE. to donne.

229. beoð umben, be bent on. The phrase is constructed with (1) inf., 70/159: (2) noun, ‘and beo ge embe þæt ylce,’ Ælf., Lives, i. 120/79, 154/120, 434/34; ‘Ac hi efre beoð ymbe þat an,’ OEH i. 221/7: (3) relative adverb as here and at 75/201: (4) with relative clause, ‘⁊ ymbe þæt wæron þæt hig hig sylfe on Hierusalem beclysan woldon,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 185/123; ‘is vmbe eueriches weis þet heo him luuie,’ AR 218/12. beon abuten has the same meaning and constructions: comp. 46/267, 118/29; ‘Aure to feawe men bien abuten to habben ðese hali mihte,’ VV 133/20; ‘Satan is ȝeorne abuten (= expetivit) uorto ridlen þe ut of mine corne,’ AR 234/15, and absolutely, ‘Inouh ich was abuten,’ I did my best, AR 88/8. But ‘abuten to eggen,’ AR 146/1, means, employed in inciting. þeronuuen, thereupon, on that object, i.e. that ye keep it better &c., where the adverb is somewhat superfluous, but in the writer’s manner. OE. þǣr an ufan. But on uuen has in two places at least the meaning of, for the future; SJ 53/9; AR 236/14; and the word in the text might mean, thereafter. þer abuten N 202, about that thing.

231. wite . . . warde: see 118/50.

233. dreheð ⁊ dreaieð, suffer and endure; OE. drēogað ⁊ dragað: comp. ‘þe alre meast derue | ꝥ eni deadlich flesch | mahe drehen ⁊ drawen,’ SK 1889; ‘þu hauest for mi luue muchel idrohen ant idrehen,’ SJ 34/9. For the form dreaieð, comp. 123/206, 147/153.

234. him seoluen: comp. 50/360. aa, ever: comp. 118/53, 119/90, 120/108, 125/276: so in SK (MS. R) 664, 1480; HM (MS. T) ‘aá’ 15/34. The doubling is merely an indication of length.

235. þe leafdi: comp. ‘Saluum la Dame souent,’ Adgar, 200/58.

236. meaðful, moderate: OE. mǣþfull; comp. 122/197.

237. writere, the scribe; comp. 128/375. sum chearre, sometimes; comp. ‘sume cherre,’ AR 108/10.

238. þe, for thee, dative.

v. Cotton Cleopatra C 6
corrected by author from “C 5”

Literature: ... Mühe, T.
Muhe

Phonology: ... but u in wule 72
“u” misprinted as bold instead of italic

ā is regularly ... (beside leasse 61 (4), leaste b 188)
(4) leaste

ū, u;
u,

ea before r ... ȝeouen b 71
ȝeouen,

ēa is regularly ... ȝīet is ȝet b 193
printed as shown: apparent error for “gīet”

a + g ... in MS. C ploȝe
C. ploȝe

Final ig is regularly i
“i” misprinted as bold instead of italic

siehst, siehð with i-umlaut
“i” misprinted as bold instead of italic

ea before r ... and a, after w
w misprinted as italic instead of bold

before length. groups o
length groups

eo, u- and å-umlaut of i
i misprinted as italic instead of bold

(4) Of T and C. ... investigation of Mühe
Muhe

Three-fourths of the infinitives ... witen pr. pl. subj.
pr. pl. subj.,

idon pp. b 176;
176,

(2) Of B. ... sunnen 26, earen 71 are s. d.
d. s.

(3) Of N. ... ueonde 139 is s. d.,
comma missing

Infinitives end in -en ... II. bitinde 183:
183.

Infinitives are divided ... II. bitende 183:
183;

Vocabulary: ...
all commas in this paragraph are printed (or missing) as shown

Dialect:
Dialect.

3. ... inter scorpiones et colubros
colubres

32. ... F. T has ‘þe ondfule ⁊ te luðere
open quote missing

37. ... a windes puf
þuf

26. ... Grossioribus peliciis utatur
spelling unchanged

65. broche: ‘fermail,’ F; ‘firmaculos,’
open quote missing

68. forte—wið, with which to get yourselves friends
“with” added by author

75. efter: see 7/53.
efter;

78. The amice, L. amictus
L amictus

103. ... p. *lvi ... see NED. s.v. Here § 16.
N.E.D.

207. ... apposition to ower
ower misprinted as plain (non-bold)

X. IN DIEBUS DOMINICIS

Manuscript: Lambeth, 487: see p. 312.

Editions: Morris, R., OEH i. 41-47, and Specimens, 17-21; Zupitza-Schipper, AE Lesebuch, ed. viii, 92-95.

Literature: (1) of the Vision of S. Paul. Brandes, H., Ueber die Quellen der me. Versionen der Paulus-Vision, in ES vii. 34-65; id. Visio S. Pauli, Halle, 1885; Batiouchkoff, Th., in Romania, xx. 17; James, M. R., Visio Pauli in Texts and Studies, ii. 3, Cambridge, 1893; Meyer, P., in Romania, vi. 11-16, xxiv. 357-375, and in Notices et Extraits, xxxv. 153-158; Ward, H. L. D., Catalogue of Romances in the British Museum, ii. 397-416; Cohn, O., Die Sprache in der me. Predigtsammlung der Hs. Lambeth 487, Berlin, 1887. Vollhardt, W. (see p. 269/19). (2) of the Vision in general. Fritzsche, C., Die lateinischen Visionen des Mittelalters, in Romanische Forschungen, ii. 247, iii. 337; Peters, E., Zur Geschichte der lateinischen Visionslegenden, in Romanische Forschungen, viii. 361-364; Becker, E. J., A Contribution to the Comparative Study of the Mediaeval Visions of Heaven and Hell, Baltimore, 1899; Bedae Opera Historica, ed. C. Plummer, ii. 294. (3) of the Sunday Letter. Priebsch, R., in Otia Merseiana, i. 129, and in Mod. Lang. Review, ii. 138-154; Napier, A., in An English Miscellany, 355-362.

Phonology of x and xi: References to piece xi are marked b. Oral a is a, crabbe b 84, slakien b 67; a before nasals, o, biwon 73, from 87, but swam b 90; a before lengthening groups, o, ahonge 14, ontful 53, but and 8, 85, b 25. æ is regularly e, cweð 45 (3 times), þet 25 &c., but abac b 86, blake b 82, b 120, blaca b 99, saterdei 71, þat 25, 68, watere b 86: with habbe b 14, b 77 comp. LWS. subj. habbe. e is regularly e, betre b 24, eten b 101, b 104 (but eoten 80), engles 5 (4), sunbendes b 67; but it is i in tilden b 110, eo in seolcuðre 17: stude 40, 41, b 26, whulche b 80, wulc b 20, swulc b 85 are due to OE. forms with y, hwilc b 21, swilc 21, uwilc 83, 85 to forms with i. i is i, bidde 60, wille 60, b 62, bindeð b 110, but en 59, wule 6, nule b 28 and all other parts of willan. o is o, froggen b 83, longe 47, but iwrat 79, walde 46, 47, b 93, nalde 46, 51, nalden 32, 58, all Anglian forms with a; in weord 65 (5) eo is written for o. u is u, bicumeð 73, sunedei 4, hundes b 38. y is u, cunnes b 80, cunde b 85; mycel is muchele 67 &c.

ā is regularly a, an 16, claþeð b 114, gast 87, lauerd 39 (5), na b 100 (Anglian), þas 30, swa 29, but on 43, louerd 60, þon 5, þeo b 19, þeos b 14 (4) þos b 95, b 99, se b 11, b 69; noteworthy is foage b 119: escade 44, 49 descends from ǣscian. ǣ₁ is e, efreni 27, ledde 50, but a in þare b 98, ea in eani 18, 48, sea 24 (4); ulcne b 66 descends from ylc. ǣ₂ is e, breðe 42 (Anglian brēþ), neddren 26, but ariste 87. ē is e, gleden 35, ferde 10, but deað b 58. ī is i, is 25, swiþeliche 90, fifte 26. ō is o, bicom b 9, nom b 10, bisocnie 80, but eoðre 45. ū is u, hus b 73, lude 33. ȳ is u, fur 25 (3), mus b 113, tuneð b 27 (4), uþe 24, but forþi 6.

ea before r + cons. is e, herde b 51, midelerd b 81, both before lengthening group; a between w and r appears in swart b 105, warp 16, warðe 41. ea before l + cons. is invariably a, ald 43, alle 5. The i-umlaut is e, aweriede b 29, erming 6 (3), but earming 22, bicherreð b 112. eo before r + cons. is eo, eorðe 59 (4), ȝeorne 49, heorte 16 (3), weorkes 67, but ibureȝe 36, apparently from OE. gebeorgan (comp. ‘bureȝe,’ OEH i. 25/16, ‘bureȝest,’ id. 39/20). The wur group is represented by wurþien 75, 90. The i-umlaut is wanting in beorninde 12, after w it is u, wurse 26, wursien b 14, unwurðe b 29: berninde 16 (3) is from bærnan, smurieð b 114 from smyrian. eo before l + cons. is seen in seolf 76, 83. ea, u-umlaut of a, appears in eateliche 17, heauekes b 38. eo, u-umlaut of e, is eo, heofene 5, 99, ȝeolewe b 107, b 108, weorlde b 91, b 100, or o, ȝolewe b 120, world b 36, but hefene 82, heueneriche 55, ȝeluwe b 83, without umlaut. eo, å-umlaut of e, is seen in beode 80, beoden b 29, beoreð b 82, eoten 80, feole 19: unaneomned 28 is perhaps an analogic form. eo, å-umlaut of i, is eo in seodðan 16, b 115, seoðþan 40, seodðe b 25, heore 6 (3); hare 31 is Anglian heara: analogous are dalneominde 99 (comp. ‘neoman,’ OEH i. 29/18), icleped 88 (4). eo, u-umlaut of i, is seen in seofen 41, seofe 17, seofeþe 26. The palatal diphthong ea appears in sceal 62, scal b 89, ȝete 13: ie after ġ in ȝeue 71, ȝefe 60, 69, geuen b 49, b 102, ȝeueð 93; gef is ȝef 1, gif 6. eo after ġ is u in ȝunge b 87; after sc it is seen in sceolde b 13, scolde b 111, sculen b 21: heom is heom 9 &c., ham 70.

ēa is e, deðe 87, eren b 27, aȝen b 90 (ongēan), and six others, but ædie b 19 (‘eadi,’ OEH i. 39/5), dead, deade b 59: the i-umlaut gives e, alesnesse b 76, chese b 111, iheren b 28 (12), remeð 33. ēo is regularly eo, beot 98, feorðe 25, iseo 58, þreo b 51, but bitwenen 83, fredome 3, þre b 69; the i-umlaut does not occur. After sc, ēa appears in scean 29.

a + g is aȝ, daȝes 98, maȝen 40 (5); slage b 57, slaȝeð b 98 are new formations from the pp. slagen (Bülbring, Ablaut, 96); ah 51 (5) is Anglian ah. æ + g is invariably ei, mei b 103, seide b 87. e + g is also ei, eisliche 12, toȝeines 60 (3), wei b 24, but awey b 94. o + g is seen in forhoȝie b 25. ā + g is aȝ, aȝene 23 (4), faȝe b 82 (3), foaȝe b 119, expressing the [āo] sound. ǣ₁ + ht gives ehte b 100, b 105. ē + g appear in leies 17, leit 30 (lēget), tweien 8; ō + g in wohe 47; ū + h in þruh b 60. ea + g is seen in gneȝeð 34 = *gneagað, with å-umlaut of a, idreȝen b 70, pp. analogous to dreagan inf. with the same umlaut; ea + h, ht, in iseh 48; the i-umlaut in mihte 42, mihte 92, niht 30. The i-umlaut of eo + h occurs in siste 26 (siexta). ēa + g is eȝ, eȝen 15, heȝe 12; ēa + h, eh, abeh 64, heh 45: þah 23, b 97 is Anglian þæh. ēo + g, ht are seen in liȝere 53, lihtliche b 43, the i-umlaut in lihting 72. ā + w is aw in iknawe b 24, nawiht b 22, au in saule 7 (7), snau 25. ǣ₁ + w gives eu in eubruche b 34. ō + w, noht b 11 (nōht). ēa + w is seen in sceawede 12 (8), sceaude 16, scawede 11, scawere b 116; ēo + w in eow 2 &c., feower b 45, heowe 17 (WS. hīw), reowliche 33, how b 118, fower b 80, bireusunke b 53.

In syllables without stress a is usually levelled to e, but it survives in dringan 47, ilca 31, locan 86, 91, pinan 36, 37: o becomes e in heuene 55, seofeþe 26, suteliche 3, but a in escade 44, 49; onuppan is anuppon 46. In alla b 76, alra b 46, blaca b 99, wiðinna 43, a is written for final e, similarly clusterlokan 41, manaðas b 34; comp. quica 41/192. The prefix ge- is largely retained as i, iblissieð 5; it is u in uwilc 83 &c. e is added in amonge 30, medially in hefede 68, swiþeliche 90, lost in onswerde 57, sceaude 16.

w is added in hwure 61. ll is simplified in suteliche 3; m doubled in summe 14 &c.; mm simplified in swim b 88, swam b 90, as nn in clenesse 51, 91, ene b 45, ine b 34: n is doubled in sunne 100. p is doubled in deoppre b 41. Initial f is written u in ualleð b 46, b 47, uindeð b 7, uenne b 8, b 33, but f in falleð b 106: f between vowels or vowel and liquid is usually u, but ȝefe 69, leofe 72, monifolde 57, ufele 42, b 94, wifes b 37, nefre 45, 51, 52, efre 97, efreni 27: f is assimilated in wimmen b 113, but wifmen 93. tt is simplified in put b 31; ts is c in milce 63, milcien 62. dd is simplified in midelerd b 81; d is lost in onswerde 57, 70: d is t in ontful 53, iseit 82, b 14, td in feðer fotetd 28, ð in forðwarð b 87, iclepeð 3, iherð 73, isceaweð b 49. þ is written ðd in strengðdeð b 85, dþ in redþer 68, d in dringan 47, rested 95, wurdliche 91, t in speket b 92: þþ is dð in seodðan 16, b 115, seodðe b 25, but seoðþan 40. sć [š] is sc in gledscipe 81, iscild b 121, scal b 89, scolde b 111, and other forms of sceolan, scrift 32 (5), s, ss, ssc in fis b 84, fisses b 88, fissce b 84: the scribe writes elsewhere ‘ichefte,’ OEH i. 77/5 (gesceafta), ‘iblesced,’ id. 5/7, ‘edmodnesce,’ id. 5/19. č is expressed by ch, chese b 111, chirche 79 &c., eche b 98, tech b 89, uwilche 74, whulche b 80; but c is used finally for the same sound in ic 57, hwilc b 21, swilc 21, swulc b 85, uwilc 85, wulc b 20. čč is seen in totwiccheð b 94, wrecche 7, 11. The stop c is k before e, i, stoke b 113, swike b 111 and in clusterlokan 41, otherwise c, locan 86, but apparently ch in musestoch b 109, b 110. čǧ is gg in liggeð b 34, seggen 3. cw appears in cweð 45 (3), but qu occurs elsewhere in the MS., as ‘quic,’ OEH i. 81/1. ġ is ȝ, daȝes b 45, ȝef 1, ȝeue 71, ȝete 13, slaȝed b 98, but Gif 6, slage b 57, geuen b 49: ng is nk in bireusunke b 53, ‘of sprinke,’ OEH i. 75/31 (comp. Horn, Beiträge, 29); but ng for nc occur in ‘þong’ (= þonc), OEH i. 39/33, ‘dringen’ (= drinken), id. 37/33. Initial h is lost in lauerdes 4 &c., lusten 1, lude 33, redliche 64, redþer 68, remeð, reowliche 33, bireusunke b 53, witsunne 88; it is added in heow b 21, how b 118, hiheren b 16; h is also lost in iwrat 79; for it ð is written in þurð b 53. hw is seen in whulche b 80, wulc b 20: siste 26 is siexta, Angl. se(i)sta.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune b 120 represents sunu. Gen. -es, muðes b 53, cunnes b 80, but monedeis 72; d. -e, deie 3 (3 times), scrifte b 69, fredome 3, ȝete 13, but domesdei 72, sunnedei 61, gast 87, 100, scrift b 67, atter b 106, non 71, smel b 112, without inflection. Plural n. a. of masculines, -es, daȝes 98, sunbendes b 67, but euencristene b 96 with adj. termination; neuters n. are deor 28, 33, weord b 14, beode 80 (gebedu), but þinges b 80, with masc. termination; beoden b 29, clusterlokan 41, deoflen 21, 43, 48, weak forms; a. hors b 37, weord 65, but huses b 36, weordes b 16 (4), wifes b 37, treon 12; d. -es, rapes b 12, weorkes 67, -weorkes 94, weordes b 94, but manaðas b 34, treon 13 (? trēum). Of the feminines mihte 92, 94, 95 has added e in the nom., bisocnie 80 represents -socn. The other cases end in -e, s. g. dede b 54, but weorldes b 100, a masc. form; s. d. ireste 77, weorlde b 91, but irest 5, sea 24, 27, b 84 (sǣ); s. a. reste 7 (5), but rest 6, sea 24; pl. n. ehte b 105, saule 19, but gleden 35, saulen 6; pl. d. pine 27, 97, saule 7, 73, but honden 14, pinan 36, 37, sunnen b 32 (3); pl. a. laȝe 59, b 28, pine 57, saule b 98, but laȝen 46, pinen 39, saulen 14, 22, sunnen b 62 (3) are weak forms. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular, n. crabbe b 84; g. heorte b 53; d. chirche b 28; a. nome b 96: the plural has -en, n. crabben b 84, neddren 26, b 82, but neddre b 91; d. eȝen 15, haleȝen 68; a. eren b 27, but licome 31. Minor declensions: fet pl. d. 14, 28, 64 (possibly sing.); mon s. n. 42 (3), s. a. 43, b 66, men pl. n. b 33, monne pl. d. 32, 74, 83, men 31, wepmen 93, wifmen 93, wimmen b 113; boc s. d. b 7; mus pl. a. b 113; þruh s. d. b 60; niht s. a. 30; feder s. n. b 120, fedre s. d. 99; moder s. n. b 88; breðre pl. n. 72; children pl. a. b 37.

The weak declension of adjectives has -e throughout the singular, n. m. alde 44, b 87, halie b 121, f. leofe b 88, foaȝe b 119, blake b 120, neut. faȝe b 91; d. m. ȝunge b 87, halie 87, 100, ufele 42, f. eche b 98, stronge b 106, neut. halie b 17; a. f. muchele b 36. The only exception is heh s. n. m. 69. The strong forms are flectionless in the singular, except s. d. f. halie b 7, b 27, b 75, heuie b 66, mildere 70, seolcuðre 17 (with heowe neut.), warde 41 (= wardre); s. a. m. sunfulle b 66, s. a. f. muchele b 15, b 49. The termination of all cases of the plural, strong and weak, is e; exceptions are blaca b 99, freo b 50, sari b 56. āgen is represented by aȝene s. a. f. 34, pl. 23, 35, b 98: ān, nān appear as an n. 45, 50, b 84, on 43, nan 42, b 69, naþing 79; ane d. m. b 8, a. m. 40, ene b 45, an 16, ane a. f. 20, b 9, an a. neut. 49, nan 51, na b 101. Adjectives used as nouns are deade s. d. b 59, fulle s. a. b 104, god 48, 52, b 101, sunfulle pl. d. b 76, pl. a. 11: nouns as adjectives, erming 6, 22, 31, 96, liȝere 53, wrecche 7, 11, 13: hindene b 116 has pl. adj. termination. Noteworthy among numerals are þridde 25, 95, fifte 26, siste 26, seofeþe 26 (seofoþa).

The personal pronouns are ic, we, us, þu, ȝe, eow, heow b 21, how b 118. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 13, heo f. 50, 86, 91 (dei like L. dies is fm.), b 88, b 104, hit neut. 10, d. him m. 12, 13, hire f. 91, a. hine m. b 10 (4), heo f. 50, hit neut. 2, pl. n. hi b 93, heo 8 (10), ha 21, b 15, d. heom 9, 56, b 39, ham 70, b 117, a. heon b 98 (for heom), ham 36, 39. Reflexives are ham 5, heom 94, heom seoluen b 117, b 118; definitive, seolf 76, 83; possessives, mine s. a. f. 63, pl. a. 58, þin s. n. m. 60, 69, þines s. g. m. b 62, þine s. d. m. 66, b 63, s. d. f. 67, pl. d. 66, his 34, hire 20, ure 55, 83, heore 6 (5), hare 31. The definite article is s. n. þe m. 4, f. 25, þet neut. 25 &c., þat 25, g. þes m. 4, f. b 100, neut. 68, d. þam m. 41, 87, þan 3 (6), þen 61, 69, þon 5, þe b 8 (4), þa 3, þare f. b 98, þere b 60, b 84, b 103, þer 15, b 106, þe 15, þan neut. b 17, þon 23, þa b 111, þe 15, a. þenne m. 75, þene 90, 97, b 59, þon 88, þe b 24, þa f. 20, b 32, þe 24, þet neut. b 70 (with scrift m.), pl. n. þa, 5, 6, b 79, d. þam 7 (4), þan 13, 32, þa 14 (4), þe 15, a. þa 11 &c.: þet 8, b 35, b 47, b 51, b 114, b 115, b 116, is demonstrative. The article is also used as antecedent to relatives, þeo þe b 19, þa þe b 39, they who. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þis m. b 84, þes b 31, þis neut. b 91, þas b 73 (comp. 13/43), d. þisse m. b 10 (3), þis b 77, þisse f. 54, b 91, neut. 31, a. þeos m. b 81, þas f. b 36, þis neut. b 39, pl. n. þas 30, b 90, þos b 95, b 99, þeos b 14, b 33, b 105, d. þas b 113, a. 57, 65, þes b 100. The relative is mostly þe, but ꝥ 43 (6), þet b 106: interrogatives are hwa s. n. 7, 73, hwet 44, hwat, ꝥ b 78, hwilc s. n. b 21, wulc b 20, whulche pl. n. b 80, correlative swilc 21, b 40, swulc b 85: ilca is ilke s. d. 27, pl. n. 30, ilca pl. d. 31. Indefinites are hwa 6, hwa efre 97; me 36, b 9, mon 98, b 24; sume s. d. 9, sum s. a. 95, summe pl. n. 14, 28; oðer s. d. neut. 50, eoðre 45, oðre pl. d. 27, b 35, oðer pl. a. 97; ulcne s. a. b 66; uwilc s. n. 85, uwilche pl. d. 74, uwilc 83, uwilcan s. n. 17 (gehwilc ān); eani 18, 48, efreni 27; monie pl. b 113; alle s. d. f. 5 (4), al s. a. m. b 81, s. a. neut. 90, b 39, alle pl. n. 17 (4), alra pl. g. b 46, alremest b 35, alle pl. d. 27, alla b 76, alle pl. a. b 121.

The infinitive ends regularly in en; locan 86, 91, iþolie b 11 are the only exceptions; verbs of the second weak conjugation have -ien, iðolien 40, lokien 46, and six others; exceptions are enden 32, iloken 85, sceawen b 21. Dative infinitives with inflection are to bihaldene 18, to brekene 30, to demene 89, to swimminde b 86, uninflected are to haliȝen 74, to wurðien 75 (virtual nominatives), for to lokien 9, for to arisen b 40 and ten others in piece xi with for to, to draȝen b 117 and fifteen others with to. Presents are s. 1. bidde 60, iseo 58; 2. bringest b 63, leist b 60; 3. bicherreð b 112, wuneð b 91, exceptional are bitacnet b 74, speked 37, speket b 92, contracted forms as beot 98, bret b 111 amount to one-third of the total number; pl. 1. cumeð b 58, slage we b 57, tuneð b 44; 2. habbeð 73, b 20; 3. beoreð b 82, wepeð 34, and of the second weak conjugation, iblissieð 5, lokieð b 115, smurieð b 114, wunieð b 80; subjunctive s. 2. ȝefe 60, 69, milcie 68; 3. ibureȝe 36, iknawe b 24, icnawe b 25, cume 61, 69, forhoȝie b 25, ilokie 97, trukie b 105; pl. 1. tunen b 44: imperative s. 2. aris 70, haue 39, iscild b 121, swim b 88, tech b 89; pl. 2. ihereð b 79. Past of Strong Verbs: Ia. s. 3. cweð 45 (3), iseh 48: Ib. s. 3. com 10 (3), bicom b 9, nom b 10: Ic. s. 3. biwon 7, 73, gon 65, bigon 54, b 89, swam b 90, warp 16; pl. 3. urnen 20: II. s. 3. scean 29; pl. 3. swiken 30: III. s. 3. abeh 64: IV. s. 3. stod b 7: V. s. 3. het 9, weop 55. Participles present: Ib. dalneominde 99: Ic. beorninde 12, berninde 16 (3): II. glidende 35; past: Ia. ibeden 71, geuen b 49, b 102, ispeken b 77: Ic. biwunden b 79, idoluen b 46: III. icorene pl. 68: IV. idreȝen b 70, istonde b 9: V. ahonge 14, 19, ihaten 4, b 52. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. ferde 10, ledde 50, sende 88, escade 44, 49, onswerede 70, onswerde 57, sceawede 12 (7), sceaude 16, hefde b 69, b 70, hefede b 8, seide 59, b 87; pl. 3. ledden 44, 49. Participles present: graninde 33, liuiende 42, wuniende 12, 53; past: afered b 104, ibet b 62, forgult 22, iherd b 20, iherð 73, b 77, isceaweð b 49, iseit b 14, ise[i]t 82, isend b 39, iwrat 79; fotetd 28 is participial in form; inflected are aweriede b 29, blessede b 19, iclepede b 110, forgulte 73, isende b 73. Minor Groups: witen inf. 7, 58, wat pr. s. 62, witeð 2 pr. pl. imp. b 118, b 119, wiste pt. s. 51, biwisten pt. pl. 21; aȝen 1 pr. pl. 90, b 65; sceal 1 pr. s. 62, scal b 89, sculen 1 pr. pl. b 21, sceolde pt. s. b 13, scolde b 111; mei pr. s. b 103, b 107, maȝen 1 pr. pl. 40, b 50, 2 pr. pl. 65, 92, pr. pl. b 101, mihte pt. s. 42, b 11; to beon dat. inf. b 49, is pr. s. 60, nis b 69, bið 53, b 59, beoð 1 pr. pl. b 56, pr. pl. 34 (5), beon b 19, beo pr. s. subj. 79, 84, beo 2 pr. pl. subj. b 119, pr. pl. subj. 99, wes pt. s. 8, nes 52, weren pt. pl. 17 (4), were 11, nere 23, were pt. s. subj. 44, nere b 70; wulle 1 pr. s. 62, wule pr. s. 6, nulle 85, nule b 28, b 67, wulleð 1 pr. pl. 2, wuleð 2 pr. pl. 1, walde pt. s. 46, nalde 46, nalden pt. pl. 32; don inf. 48, dat. inf. b 101, deð pr. s. 29, deað b 58, do we 1 pr. pl. b 44, doð pr. pl. b 34, fordoð b 81, idon pp. b 69; gan inf. 42, 43, eode pt. s. 10, eoden pt. pl. 9.

With ȝette adv. 19, comp. ‘ȝiete,’ OEH i. 139/13, ȝetten 64/54; mid prep. 65 with accusative is Anglian (Napier, Anglia, x. 138): leste conj. b 104 (þȳ lǣs þe) is an early instance of the compound.

Dialect: These pieces were copied by the scribe of the PM in the same MS. As was said at p. 327, he belonged to the Southern border of the Midland area. On the evidence of the spoilt rhymes in the Pater Noster, inne : sunne, OEH i. 55/23, 24 (4 times), linnen : sunnen, id. 67/230, 231, he must be located to the West of that area, where u was the representative of OE. y, ȳ.

In the present articles his exemplars were in the South-Western dialect. That of piece x was considerably the older, probably of the early transition period about the beginning of the twelfth century, as is evident from the archaic forms which have survived in the copy. There is no trace of these in piece xi, the original of which was probably little older than the copy. As in the copy of the Poema Morale, the scribe’s alterations affect mainly the sounds; the grammar remains Southern; a Midland form like beon b 19 is isolated.

Vocabulary: The foreign element is small; most of the Romance words are in piece xi. French are archangel 8, blanchet b 114, castles b 38, feble b 9, glutenerie b 34 (first appearance), grace b 49, lechurs b 117, manere b 84, prophete b 7, b 43, sacreð b 76, sacramens b 75, salmes 47, seint b 22, merci 39, meister 21, meistres 23, ureisuns b 75: Latin, apostles 88, sancte 8; mihhal 8 is probably a direct borrowing from the Vulgate Michahel. Scandinavian are caste b 10, icast b 68, griðe 80.

Introduction: The ultimate sources of this discourse are (i) the Legend of S. Paul’s visit to the other world, and (ii) the Sunday Letter as extended by the addition of the Dignatio diei Dominicae.

(1) S. Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians, xii. 2-4, said that he had been caught up to the third heaven and heard words unspeakable. But a detailed account of what he saw, partly drawn from the Revelation of Peter (ed. M. R. James, p. 65) and coloured by Egyptian ideas of the other world, was extensively circulated in the early Church, and existed in two Greek versions as early as the fourth century. One of these, the Ἀναβατικὸν Παύλου, is lost, but it is probably represented in a Latin version discovered by Dr. M. R. James and published in Texts and Studies, ii. no. 3. The other younger Greek version, denounced by S. Augustine as ‘nescio quibus fabulis plenam’ (iii. 541 e), was printed by Tischendorf in Apocalypses Apocryphae, 34-69: he dates it about 380 A.D. There is an early Syriac version, an English translation of which is reprinted by Tischendorf under the Greek Text.

The Latin version already mentioned is the most ancient and the fullest form of the legend, and it is the main source of the Latin mediaeval versions, which have been classed by Brandes in six redactions. Of these the first alone contains an account of S. Paul’s visit to heaven, the others describe only the abode of the lost. The fourth redaction (B iv) printed in Brandes, Visio Pauli, 75, in the Cologne edition of Beda, vii. 362, as one of his sermons, and by P. Meyer from a Toulouse MS. of the fourteenth century in Romania, xxiv. 365, appears to be the main source of most of the versions in the modern languages, as of our text. Meyer enumerates twenty-three MSS. of it; he thinks that it is not anterior to the twelfth century and that it was widely circulated in England. In Notices et Extraits, xxxv. 153, he gives a list of six versions in French: (1) by Henri d’Arci, there printed; (2) by Adam de Ros, trouvère anglais, printed by Ozanam in Dante et la philosophie catholique, 1845, p. 425; (3) Anonymous, MS. Bibl. Nat. 2094, of which Brandes cites the beginning and end, p. 51; (4) Anonymous, B.M. Add. 15606, printed in part in Romania, vi. 11-16; (5) by Geoffroi de Paris, an adaptation of the preceding; (6) by an anonymous English trouvère, printed in Romania, xxiv. 357. The English versions in verse are (1) MS. Laud 108, Bodleian, printed by Horstman in Archiv lii. 35; (2a) MS. Jesus Coll. Oxford E 29, printed in OEM 147-155; (2b) MS. Digby 86, Bodleian, printed by Horstman in Archiv lxii. 403; (3) Vernon MS. Bodleian, in OEM 223-232 and ES i. 293-299; (4) MS. Douce 302, Bodleian, in OEM 210-222. There is, besides the present article, a fourteenth-century prose version printed in ES xxii. 134. The relations of the English and French versions are determined by Brandes in ES vii. 34.

Some references in the older literature should be noticed. Ælfric (Hom. Cath. ii. 332) calls the legend a lying composition, and proceeds to tell that of Fursey as true. The writer of the Blickling Homilies (43, 45) relates the episode of the wicked bishop, following a text closely resembling the oldest Latin version, which differs little from the Greek at this point. In a second passage, 209/29-211/7, he has combined vague recollections of the legend with scenery drawn from Beowulf (see the Preface to BH, pp. vi, vii).

The first part of the present article differs from B iv and agrees with F iii in substituting smoke (‘smorðer,’ l. 26) for fulgur; with F iii it omits the Fiery Wheel and the Bridge of Dread, and the punishment of usurers by name. It is therefore possible that it and F iii had a common source. But our author has exercised a free choice in details; he says nothing of the punishment of the unchaste child murderers, of the oppressors of widows and orphans, of those who broke their fast before due time, and of those in the pit; nothing of the vision of sinful and righteous souls borne through the air; all of which are in B iv. His own fantasy is probably responsible for the division of the torments of the furnace, l. 24, between the furnace, the fount of fire and the sea of hell, and for the pleading of S. Paul in ll. 56-72, which are without parallel in any of the other versions.

(2) The Sunday Letter was a fiction which originated in the south of France or northern Spain towards the end of the sixth century. It purported to be a letter, which had fallen from heaven, written in Latin by Christ’s own hand, denouncing judgement on those who did not observe Sunday rightly. It had great vogue in England before the Conquest, and furnished material for the homilies printed in Wulfstan, ed. Napier, nos. 43, 44, 45, 47, in Otia Merseiana i. 129, and in An Eng. Miscellany, 357. Latin versions are printed in the two last-named. Our author makes only general reference to it in 78/75-85, but ll. 85-91 are taken directly from a Dignatio diei Dominicae which is sometimes associated with it, and is found separately in the Pseudo-Augustine Sermons clxvii, cclxxx, and Alcuin, ed. Froben, ii. 487. It is also added to one MS. of the Visio Pauli (Brandes, 102), and it precedes the German version which he prints at p. 83. It also forms the subject of the fourteenth homily in OEH i. 139.

1. Leofemen: like ‘Men þa leofestan’ of the Blickling Homilies: the writer also uses, ‘Gode men.’ But ‘Lordinges and leuedis,’ 215/31 is French = Seingnurs & dames. ȝe willeliche: Zupitza prints ȝewilleliche (adv., meaning gladly), and the separation of the words in the manuscript is of no weight against it. But the prefix ge is in this text commonly reduced to i, and ȝewilleliche occurs nowhere else and has nothing to correspond in OE., the forms in which are willīce, willendlīce, while willeliche is in AR 396/20. ȝe is probably a repetition of the preceding by mistake for ec, which very frequently goes with and in these homilies (comp. 76/4, 78/68).

2. hit belongs to lusten as well as to understonden; comp. ‘þe luste nulleð þesne red,’ OEH i. 63/161, and for the postponement of hit, ‘Al hit us mei rede ⁊ to lare ȝif we wulleð,’ id. i. 15/5, where to goes with rede.

3. fredome: the Latin version in Harley 2851 has for title Priuilegia diei dominice.

4. blisse &c.: see 78/77.

6. erming, only here and at 76/22, 31 as adjective, for the usual armliche. OE. earming, a miserable person. rest of: comp. 78/96; ‘þæt is sio an ræst eallra urra geswinca,’ Boethius, 144/27; ‘hwonne him lifes weard, | frea ælmihtig frecenra siða | reste aȝeafe,’ Genesis, 1426; ‘lagosiða rest,’ id. 1486. Rare in ME., but for the verb comp. ‘thei rest of her traueilis,’ Apoc. xiv. 13 (Purvey).

7. to soþe &c.: see 90/73 note.

8. þet wes: comp. 1/10, where the verb is plural.

10. hu—ferde, how things went on there: ‘quia deus voluit ut Paulus videret penas inferni,’ B iv. 75/5. Mihhal—wuniende, there is nothing corresponding in B iv, but James has, ‘dixit [angelus] mihi: Veni et sequere me, et ostendam tibi animas impiorum et peccatorum ut cognoscas qualis sit locus,’ 28/17, and Adam de Ros, ‘Seint michiel en ueit auant | Sein pol ses hores disant,’ Ward, ii. 410.

15, 16. eȝen: probably a mistake for eren (= ‘auribus’ B iv), as Kölbing pointed out in ES xxii. 137. hefede, by the hair, ‘capillis.’ heorte: a strange substitution for ‘brachiis’ of B iv.

16. ouen—leies: ‘fornacem ignis ardentem per septem flammas in diversis coloribus,’ B iv. he, i.e. ouen; if not a mistake for þe, a striking example of parataxis.

17. eateliche to bi haldene: comp. ‘eatolice on to seonne,’ Beda, 240/21; the dat. inf. answers to the L. supine as in terribilis aspectu. In sead . . . to iseonne, 133/30, it corresponds to the genitive of the L. gerund, aspiciendi.

18. strengre: see 21/94 note, and comp. ‘ne geþæncaþ hio na, hu strang hit biþ an helle to bionne,’ Wulfstan, 225/12.

21. meister deoflen, principal devils: for this use of meister comp. KH 642 note. They are not in B iv, but F iv has ‘Soignours, an l’apre fornoise habitent · vij · delo[u]rs | · vij · diable l’atisent: cest lor maistre labours | Et · vij · flames an issent de diverses colours.’ swilc, as if; OE. swilce, conj.; comp. ‘He . . . geseah | modiglice menn on merebate | sittan siðfrome swylce hie ofer sæ comon,’ Andreas, 247; ‘mon geseah swelce hit wære an gylden hring on heofonum,’ Orosius, 234/8; ‘þe king Leir iwerðe swa blac; swlch hit a blac cloð weoren,’ L 3069. Swylc swa is also found with the same conjunctive sense, ‘þyslic me is gesewen . . . þis andwearde lif . . . swylc swa þu æt swæsendum sitte,’ Beda, 134/24. For swilc swa, such as, 76/29, see 34/80 note.

24. þe sea of helle: B iv has ‘Et septem plage erant in circuitu eius (i.e. fornacis): prima nix, secunda glacies’ &c. The writer or his original has changed these plagues of the furnace into waves ‘uþe’ of the ‘flumen orribile in quo multe bestie dyabolice erant quasi pisces in medio maris,’ which is mentioned at a later point in the Latin, while he alters the river into a lake, perhaps due to a recollection of the ‘stagnum ignis et sulphuris’ of the Apocalypse, xx. 9.

25. snau: comp. 120/100.

26. smorðer, thick smoke: B iv has ‘sexta fulgur’; F iv ‘Et la siste de foudres et d’avenimemant.’ F iii agrees with the English text. ful stunch: comp. 46/277; 133/44.

28. unaneomned, without a name, because they were like nothing in this world; not ‘unmentionable, on account of their number,’ Morris. There is no description of the beasts in the Latin, but such details are to be found elsewhere in the Visions literature, e.g. Visio Tnugdali, 16/7, 17, 19/26.

31. to brekene: dative infinitive: OE. swīcan, geswīcan, to cease from, are often constructed with dative of nouns, as, ‘gif he ðonne ðære hnappunge ne swicð,’ Cura Past., 195/11, but apparently not with the dat. inf. This construction is common with analogous verbs such as onginnan, forlǣtan, ieldan. In ME. the dative of the noun occurs, as ‘þa aswac worden; Merlin þe wise,’ L 16112; and the gen., ‘iswikeð unrihtwisra dedan,’ OEH i. 117/32 as in OE., ‘ðæs noldan geswican,’ BH 211/6. Comp. 81/85, 6. þe—nalden: ‘qui non egerunt penitenciam post peccata commissa in hoc mundo,’ B iv. 75/14.

32. enden: see 80/54.

33. lude remeð: ‘ululant’; comp. 120/99, 192/528.

34. his, each of them his; distributive in meaning.

37. Miserere &c.: possibly from some unprinted version of the Visio, or from some version of the Evangelium Nichodemi; comp. The Harrowing of Hell, ed. Hulme, 18/203.

39. ham: the writer frequently doubles the subject or object by a pronoun; comp. ‘ꝥ ic hit efre dude mid mine wrechede licome þas sunnen,’ OEH i. 29/9; ‘þe mon þe leie · xii · moneð in ane prisune nalde he ȝefen,’ id. 33/9; ‘Gif þu hine iseȝe þet he wulle,’ id. 17/13. See also 78/97 note; 136/144; 138/12.

41. midde warðe: OE. middeweard is usually an adjective, occasionally a noun: it is probably adj. here, and miswritten for middewarðre. Comp. ‘In mideward þe felde,’ KH, O 574. clusterlokan is explained as ‘enclosures,’ Morris; ‘cloisters,’ Strat.-Bradley. The corresponding passage in B iv appears to be, ‘Et ostendit illi puteum signatum ·vij· sigillis et ait illi: Sta longe ut possis sustinere fetorem hunc,’ and the meaning, fastening, lock, seems most appropriate here. The word is OE. clūstorloc: comp. Pogatscher, §§ 179, 182; L. L. claustella, pl. of claustellum, is glossed clusterlocæ, Sweet, Oldest E. Texts, 50/220; hæpsan, loca, Napier, OE. Glosses, 106/4003; clustello, loce, fæstene, id. 136/5936. The metrical versions have ‘seals,’ except the Jesus MS., ‘Seoue duren þer beoþ on’; OEM 153/235 and the second prose version renders, ‘a put ylokke wiþ seuen lockes,’ ES xxii. 136/53. Comp. also, ‘Til he vnclustri al þe lokes | þat liif ligges vnder,’ ES ix. 441/59, 60.

42. þar neh, near that place; an expression of rare occurrence; comp. ‘magas þa þe þær neah wæron,’ BH 139/16.

44. escade . . . to: see 77/49; a rare construction, not in OE., and probably influenced by F. demander à; comp. ‘Huet may þe zone betere acsy to his uader þanne bread,’ Ayenbite, 110/14: analogous is, ‘fulluht we to þe ȝeorneð,’ L 29473. But at is older, ‘hwæt axast ðu æt us,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 74/112, and of is in Layamon, ‘he axede gauel of þan londe,’ 6122. Comp. ‘þretest to,’ 155/83.

45. In the Latin and the other versions the bad bishop is not in the ‘puteus,’ but in another place of less torment; there he is ‘avarus et dolosus et superbus,’ here he is specialized into one who iniquitously vexed his tenants and dependants by legal proceedings and steady oppression. So the Monk of Eynsham saw a bishop grievously tormented ‘quod placitoris loco inter saeculares iudices consedere plurimum delectari soleret, multis etiam bona conscientia nitentibus in litigantibus violentus contra iustitiam oppressor exstiterit,’ 698/5. Some contemporary is here meant, such as Gilbert Glanville, Roffensis (Godwin, De Presulibus, i. 572), or perhaps the earlier Gerard of York (id. ii. 27; Mapes, De Nugis Curialium, 224). The haughty maiden of ll. 50-54 is not in the Latin; in all probability she is drawn from the life.

46. lokien: ‘non custodivit legem dei,’ B iv. 77/21; see 4/20 and comp. ‘witen,’ 77/58.

49. swiðe unbisorȝeliche, with great want of care, consideration, like ‘mid mycelre reþnesse,’ said of the bishop’s treatment by the devils in BH 43/29.

52. Elmesȝeorn, fond of giving alms, benevolent; OE. ælmes-georn: it occurs here only in ME. prud . . . ⁊ modi: comp. 3/4; ‘So modi and so prute,’ OEM 82/300.

53. wreðful ⁊ ontful: comp. 56/31.

55. forð mid, together with: see 1/19 note. of, from: a common use with dative in OE.; comp. ‘Peahte ðeod com of Scyþþia lande on scipum,’ Bede, 28/7.

56. on þunres liche, in the likeness of thunder: the alteration of the MS. reading wunres is due to Morris, but the resultant meaning is unsatisfactory. He suggested, on þunres sleȝe, comparing ‘þær com swylce þunres slege,’ Ev. Nichod. ed. Thwaites, 13/3, and the expression occurs in ME. ‘ofdradd of ðese muchele ðþunresleiȝ ðe cumþ ut of godes auȝene muðe,’ VV 11/18. The writer has elsewhere, ‘Vre drihten wile cumen dredliche in fures liche,’ OEH i. 143/15, which may suggest the true reading here. The Latin has ‘deus descendit de celo et dyadema in capite eius’; possibly crunes lurks under wunres.

60. toȝeines, adv., in reply: him depends directly on seide, as in ‘ic eou habbe þet godspel iseid,’ OEH i. 5/13; ‘heom seggen godes lore,’ id. 7/33, though the construction with to is also found in these homilies. Comp. ‘Cuðberhtus him togeanes cwæð,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 138/34. But the word is generally a preposition, as at 64/56, 86/142. ȝef—is: see 134/84.

61. la hwure, ah! at any rate. This writer uses La mostly with interrogatives, ‘La hu ne beað,’ 89/34; ‘Lahwet scal þis beon,’ 89/36. a þet: see 72/179 note.

63. efterward, in quest of, seeking; = ‘efter’ 7/53; comp. ‘þat ha beon þe lasse afterward swuch þing,’ HM 37/7; ‘Iohannes . . . wearð him æfterweard,’ Ælf. de Novo Testamento, 18/21. Similar uses of the compound in the sense of the simple preposition are, ‘al urommard þisse,’ AR 178/18; 58/66 note; 70/165: ‘They met Beues inwarde the paleys,’ Beues of Hamtoun, 69/1208; ‘alysde of þam witum ða þe towearde wæron,’ Wulfstan, 228/11. Similarly ‘þu most beon on ward þine sunnen,’ OEH i. 37/20 appears to mean, thou must give attention to thy sins.

64. swiðe wa: see 40/181 note and comp. ‘Ofte hadde horn beo wo | At neure wurs þan him was þo,’ KH 115, where him shows that horn is dative. abeh &c.: ‘Post hoc prostravit se Michahel et Paulus et angelorum milia milium ante filium dei,’ B iv.

66. for, by: comp. 94/26.

68. þes þe redþer, the sooner on that account, the sooner. The more regular comparison is seen in, ‘ah þes þe we heoueden mare wele on þisse liue, þes we ahte to beon þe edmoddre,’ OEH i. 5/27, 21/12.

69. a þet: see 72/179 note.

71. non, three o’clock, when the Sunday festival began; ‘ab hora nona sabbati usque in prima hora secunde ferie,’ B iv. 79/21; ‘fram nóntide þæs sæternesdæges oð monandæges lihtincge,’ Wulfstan, 207/11. a þa: see 72/179 note.

72. þet efre forð, for all future time: for þet, until, see 72/179 note; it is so used especially when aþet, or aþa precedes it; comp. ‘a þet ic beo ealdre oðer þet ic beo sec,’ OEH i. 23/3. forð, right onwards, develops the meaning, continuously, ever; comp. ‘ðat we moten forð mid ȝew on blisse wuniȝen,’ VV 21/24, 25/12, 113/16.

74. mucheles, by much; an adverbial genitive, mostly used in comparative phrases, as, ‘mucheles þe swuðere,’ AR 368/6; ‘mucheles þe more,’ OEM 86/74; ‘se læce bið micles to bald,’ Cura Past., 60/2.

75. for—seið: ‘Hanc epistolam scripsit dominus Iesus Xristus manibus suis,’ Sunday Letter in An Eng. Misc., p. 400. The Latin quotations which follow are probably from some redaction or expansion of the same fiction.

79. Ne beo &c.: ‘nec aliud faciatis in die dominico nisi sacerdotibus meis seruiatis,’ An Eng. Misc., 403.

80. bisocnie, visit, frequenting; elsewhere, petition, request: Mätzner compares ON. kirkju-sókn: see chirchsocne 82/4; hamsocne 12/9.

82. iset, miswritten for iseit, translating ‘dicitur.’

85. iloken, observe, from the idea of keeping guard over something; comp. 116/156.

86. ester dei: ‘Dominicum ergo diem Apostoli . . . religiosa sollemnitate habendum sanxerunt, quia in eodem Redemptor noster a mortuis resurrexit,’ Pseudo-August. Sermo cclxxx; ‘dies clarus in quo resurrexit Dominus a morte . . . in quo Spiritus sanctus descendit in Apostolos et in quo speramus Dominum nostrum . . . ad judicium venturum,’ id. Sermo clxvii. Comp. Wulfstan 219/27-29, 230/26-28; 294/5-12; Alcuin, ii. 488; OEH i. 143/7.

91. hafð mid hire, there is inherent in it.

92. mihte, virtues, the power to accomplish certain purposes.

93. eorðe þrelles: a combination after the pattern of eorðwaru, as in ‘Sunne dei blisseð togederes houeneware ⁊ horðeware,’ OEH i. 139/22: not ‘slaves,’ Morris, but said of men generally as enslaved by earthly pursuits; comp. 14/54-56.

94. heom: the corrupt reading of the MS. perhaps points to he heom as the original; see 77/39 note. Comp. ‘þe sonenday is best of alle | þanne aungles habbuz heore pley,’ Archiv lii. 35, the Latin has only ‘in quo [die] gaudent angeli et archangeli maior diebus ceteris.’

96. ireste . . . of: comp. 76/6.

97. Whosoever then observes Sunday . . . let them be participators &c., is a sentence of much the same type as, ‘Se þe Drihten ondræde herie hine, eall Iacobes cynn,’ Psalter, ed. Thorpe, xxi. 21; 77/39. Morris suggests the change of heo to he, but singular and plural in these texts often alternate: for beo, pl. subj., see 82/119. þa oðer halie daȝes: the feast-days of obligation.

100. abuten ende: see 34/85 note.

Literature: ... Bedae Opera Historica
text unchanged, but work cited spells it “Baedae”

w is added ... ġ is ȝ
“ȝ” misprinted as bold instead of italic

Accidence: ... monedeis 72;
72:

The weak declension ... strong and weak, is e;
e,

The personal pronouns ... (dei like L. dies is fm.)
L dies

(1) S. Paul in ... One of these, the Ἀναβατικὸν Παύλου, is lost
Παύλου is

represented in a Latin version
Version

The Latin version ... (4) Anonymous, B.M. Add. 15606
B M

XI. HIC DICENDUM EST DE PROPHETA

Manuscript: As for piece x.

Editions: Morris, R., OEH i. 47-53, and Specimens, 21-25.

Literature: Cohn, O., Die Sprache in der me. Predigtsammlung der Hs. Lambeth 487, Berlin, 1880.

Phonology &c.: See piece x, pp. 407, 410, 413.

Introduction: No source has been found for this singular piece, which, in its treatment of Jeremiah in the pit as the type of the unshriven sinner, differs from the usual mystical interpretations of this episode in the life of the prophet. So Adam of Prémontré, ‘Pax tibi, o sanctificate in utero, virgo et sacerdos Dei, o Jeremia sanctissime! quem de lacu lutoso et funes et panni levant veteres, quia sanctos Dei ab aeterno ad vitam ab ipso praedestinatos de sordido vitae praesentis profundo et sacrae Scripturae praecepta et sancta elevant exempla,’ De triplici genere Contemplationis, Migne, P. L., cxcviii., col. 824. So for S. Gregory, the ropes are ‘praecepta Dominica,’ the old rags, ‘antiquorum patrum exempla,’ Moralia, xxv. 7, and the interpretation of Hugh of S. Victor, ii. 256, is similar.

The homily consists of two parts, very dissimilar in style and discordant in tone; the joint is plainly discernible at 81/76. The first part is an earnest insistence on the necessity of sacramental confession, a question much debated at the time of this sermon and after, till it was finally disposed of by the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 A.D. The passages in Latin, like 81/64, do not necessarily imply a Latin original, they are rather headings of the divisions of the discourse, which is probably an effort of the writer’s own ingenuity in support of his favourite contention. It contains no hint of the crabs and other ‘wurmes’ of the pit. The second part reads like a translation; it has all the vivacity and simple directness of the contemporary French Sermo ad Populum. Its leading idea was probably suggested by the famous apologue in the legend of Barlaam of the man who, pursued by a furious unicorn, fell into a well tenanted by a dragon, a four-headed snake, and two mice. This story was used by Eudes de Cheriton, p. 217, and Jacques de Vitry, no. cxxxiv.

The thirty-third Homily in OEH ii. should be compared with this second part: it is in the same style, if not by the same author.

1. The Latin is based on Jeremiah xxxviii. 6-13, but there is no authority in that place for the second sentence and the first half of the fourth. Comestor adds to the Scripture narrative, ‘et erat propheta in luto usque ad guttur.’

7. ꝥ = þet: see 76/8, 25.

8. ⁊ ꝥ, and what is more, and indeed: comp. 80/33; OEH i. 121/9.

12. claðes: ‘veteres pannos et antiqua quae computruerant,’ Jer. xxxviii. 11.

15. bitacnunge, spiritual meaning, allegorical significance.

17. fuliwis: see 32/40. almihtin, comp. 51/337: according to NED., it owes its n to imitation of drihtin: Morsbach, ME. Gram. 95/4 sets it down to late OE. acc. ælmihtigne.

18. Beati &c.: S. Luke xi. 28.

23. Alanus de Insulis, Opera, ed. Visch, 78, has the same words as a quotation without naming the author. S. Gregory, Regula Pastoralis, pars iii. ch. 34 and in four other places, quotes 2 Pet. ii. 21 thus, ‘Melius enim eis non cognoscere viam justitiae, quam post agnitionem retrorsum converti ab eo quod illis traditum est.’

25. þe: miswritten for þen; see 80/39: þet, from the preceding clause, is to be understood with it.

26. ‘Qui declinat aures suas ne audiat legem, oratio eius erit execrabilis,’ Prov. xxviii. 9, is quoted by S. Gregory, Moral., xvi. ch. 21, with variant ‘aurem suam,’ as in Codex Amiatinus, and again Moral., x. ch. 15, with ‘avertit aurem suam.’ Obturat is probably due to ‘Qui obturat aures suas,’ Isa. xxxiii. 15, also quoted by S. Gregory, Op. i. 755.

28. þe—beoð, that proceed from him.

29. unwurðe: pl. OE. unwierþ, despicable: see 26/258. Puteus &c. What follows is drawn from S. Augustine’s Enarratio in Psalmum lxviii. 15, 16, ‘Eripe me de luto ut non infigar: libera me ab iis, qui oderunt me, et de profundis aquarum. Non me demergat tempestas aquae, neque absorbeat me profundum: neque urgeat super me puteus os suum,’ on which part of the comment is, ‘Magnus est puteus profunditas iniquitatis humanae: illuc quisque si ceciderit, in altum cadet. Sed tamen ibi positus, si confitetur peccata Deo suo, non super eum claudet puteus os suum,’ Op. iv¹, col. 523, an interpretation adopted by Bede, viii. 655. The writer of the homily probably had for his immediate source the abbreviated quotation in the Liber Poenitentialis of Alanus, 195. Comp. OEH ii. 43 for another comment on this passage.

32. heueð sunnen: see 54/8.

34. glutenerie, gluttony: OF. glutunerie; apparently here only.

35. ꝥ: comp. 1/10.

37. hames, estates, possessions, as in ‘hig cípton ealle hira hámas,’ Gen. xlvii. 20 = ‘vendentibus singulis possessiones suas.’

38. tunes, enclosures, such as parks: comp. OE. dēor-tūn.

39. þe liggeð—arisen: comp. ‘in quo lacu sunt multi qui se ibi esse non sentiunt, quia peccata sua non attendunt, nec clamant ad Dominum,’ Beda, viii. 508.

41. propheta, S. Augustine: the quotation in Alanus is ‘non claudet super te os suum, si tu non claudas os tuum.’

43. Comp. ‘ne ꝥ þe pit tune ouer me his muð,’ OEH ii. 43/16.

45. feower daȝes oðer fiue, for a considerable length of time: comp. ‘Iesus þo his wille wes · aros from deþe to lyue. | Þeyh hyne bi-wusten knyhtes voure oþer vyue,’ OEM 52/538.

46. ualleð &c.: probably suggested by ‘Lacum aperuit, et effodit eum: et incidit in foveam, quam fecit,’ Ps. vii. 16.

47. him: comp. 2/17, 120/96, 121/132. This dative instead of the possessive adj. is common with parts of the body affected: in ‘þat his ribbes him to brake,’ KH 1077 we find both. ꝥ is ꝥ, that means: comp. ‘ꝥ is þet þe deofel þe geð abutan . . . ꝥ he neure ne maȝe cuman wið-innan us,’ OEH i. 127/27. þer &c., where he never again cometh out of penance, i.e. where he must make perpetual expiation instead of a brief one on earth. For omission of the subject comp. 6/18 and for of = out of, ‘forfaren of ða rihte weiȝe,’ VV 125/30: for bote comp. 80/58. Morris, in OEH i. 48, translates, ‘from whence he will never again return to repent,’ joining þer of and taking bote as = to bote. In Specimens it is taken to mean, ‘therefrom neuer again cometh help,’ but of should be after bote for that sense, comp. 64/61, 66/116, and the examples in the note at 1/3, though the prep. is occasionally awkwardly placed before a noun which it does not govern, as at 84/45,106/210.

51. þreo herde weies: comp. ‘Tria debent occurrere ad hoc ut vera sit confessio; scilicet cordis contritio, oris professio, operis satisfactio. . . . Haec est via trium dierum per quam debemus ire in solitudinem,’ Alanus, 99. But it is a commonplace: see the Liber Sacerdotalis on Confession. In a French sermon we find, ‘Vocabatur [diabolus] primo, gallice “Clocuer,” claudens cor contra contritionem; secundo “Cloboche,” claudens os contra confessionem; tertio “Cloborse,” claudens bursam contra satisfactionem,’ Hauréau, Notices, iv. 159.

54. dede wel endinge is wrongly explained in Specimens as = wel dede endinge, completion or performance of good works. It is a very literal translation of the Latin phrase, dede, gen. = operis, wel = satis, endinge = factio. For enden, to perform, especially of religious observances, comp. 77/32; ‘þat oure louerd hem ȝeue grace: þis holi dede wel ende,’ E. E. Poems, 47/137. Cordis &c.: the source of this is unknown to me.

56. þe[nne]: the correction was perhaps unnecessary, for þe = when, occurs in OEH i. 79/21: possibly in both places þe is for þē = þen.

58. sunbote, confession, here corresponds to ‘oris confessione’: its more usual meaning is penance, ‘operis satisfactione,’ as in ‘Alle weldede beoð freomfulle to sun-bote · ah nan mare freomful denne elmes idal,’ OEH i. 135/29: so ‘bote’ in l. 48 above. In 48/314, ‘cume to bote’ has a more general sense of, find pardon.

60. þruh, coffin, not ‘tomb,’ Morris; the burial belongs to the third stage, 81/63.

61. scrift underuongest, dost undertake, submit to the penance enjoined by the priest: comp. ‘ær he hæbbe godcunde bote underfangen,’ = ‘antequam divinam emendationem susceperit,’ Schmid, Gesetze, 178/5.

62. þenne &c., when thou hast done penance for thy sins in accordance with the directions of thy confessor: see 62/30.

63. þine onwalde, authority, power over thee: þine corresponds to the genitive which goes with OE. anweald, onweald in the same sense, as ‘onwald . . . ðæs folces,’ Cura Past., 3/5, power over the nation.

66. heuie is probably a mistake for heued; comp. 80/32; but ‘heuie sennen,’ OEH ii. 11/29.

67. sunbendes: ‘colligationes impietatis,’ Isa. lviii. 6; comp. 85/100; ‘þeo þat ye aleseþ here · of heore sunnes bende,’ OEM 55/629. Similarly ‘bendes’ 40/188: the verb is common, 135/123; ‘Ðe ilke mann ðe is ibunden mid heaued-senne,’ VV 101/8; OEM 192/5.

76. in alesnesse, for the deliverance: in expresses purpose and the noun is historically accusative; comp. ‘in gemynd þæs wundres,’ Beda, 204/27.

77. þe . . . embe, about which: comp. 1/3; 89/48; 90/73; 118/44; ‘mast ðar embe spekð,’ VV 101/9. So, þe . . . mide, 79.

80. fower cunnes wurmes, crawling things of four kinds; in such expressions the sing. gen. cunnes often displaces the normal plural; comp. 27/295, 88/13, 92/117, 119/90, 124/264, 134/93, 187/358, and contrast ‘kunne,’ 132/9 note. So too the predicative ‘manie kinnes,’ of many kinds, 85/104, 105.

82. ⁊ beoreð, which carry: parataxis as in 150/27; ‘Euelin iseh enne gume . . . ⁊ bar an his riht hond; ænne stelene brond,’ L 8435.

85. euer, as an invariable result; comp. 7/69. Connect se mare, the more. strengðdeð him, exerts himself; comp. ‘⁊ streinþede him by al ys miht | to serue god,’ Bödd., AE. Dicht. 257/7. to swimminde, in order to swim, for swimming: corresponding in form to LWS. to swimmende, alternating with the regular dat. infinitive to swimmene: comp. ‘to quemende,’ 84/68, 70; ‘to lesende,’ 87/148; ‘to clensende,’ 87/177. Another exchange of terminations is seen in ‘Hit is to vnderstondinge þat sir Renaud . . . purchacede’ &c., An Eng. Miscellany, 350/6. The writer has ‘to brekene,’ 76/31, ‘for to lokien,’ 76/9.

86-90. Comp. ‘Ecce quot laqueos diabolus tendit litteratis et maxime theologis et predicatoribus, nam subplantatis et dejectis doctoribus facile deiciuntur discipuli; verum dicitur quod cuidam querenti a cancro cur non incederet recte sed retrograde, respondit cancer: “Ita didici a parentibus meis,”’ Jacques de Vitry, xliv. (the Exempla ex Sermonibus Vulgaribus may have been written as early as 1210 A.D.). The crab is accordingly the type of the teacher who cannot himself perform what he expects his pupils to do.

90. swam hire, swam: see 13/34.

92. alse feire . . . alse, as kindly as if.

93. in—bosme puten, clasp to their heart, like ‘suo sinu complexuque recipiet,’ Cic. Phil. xiii. 4, 9.

94. to twiccheð, pluck to pieces, speak censoriously of; like L. vellicare, discerpere. to draȝeð, rend, practise detraction, L. detrahere.

95. doctores: perhaps detractores; comp. ‘Detractores, Deo odibiles,’ Rom. i. 30. But the mother crab was a ‘doctor,’ and eciam here may be significant.

96. For the absolute use of bihinden comp. ‘þe ꝥ spekeð faire bi-foren ⁊ false bi-hinden,’ OEH i. 143/25.

97. monslaȝen, homicides. S. Gregory calls them cannibals, ‘Sciendum quoque est quia hi etiam qui alienae vitae detractione pascuntur, alienis procul dubio carnibus satiantur,’ Moralia, xiv. 52.

100. þes—ehte: read þes weorldes muchele ehte.

101. itimien represents OE. getīmian, to befall, happen, a meaning which does not suit here or at 104. The ME. word may here have been influenced by OWScand. tíma, always used with a negative as in tíma ekki, to grudge (Egge in Mod. Lang. Notes, i. 131), but his suggestion of a connexion with ‘beteem,’ Shak. Hamlet I. ii. 141, must be rejected, and the isolated use of the word in a Scandinavian sense, afford, find in his heart, in this Southern text makes a difficulty. Mätzner suggests the meaning, ‘verfallen auf etwas,’ and Strat.-Bradley, ‘to use opportunities.’ Possibly the writer was trying to translate some such Latin as, non potest temporanee manducare, or temporare (= in tempore vivere, Catholicon), or adtemporare, which would suggest getimien in a strained sense of, to do at the proper season.

102. ah liggeð þer uppon: comp. ‘Condit opes alius, defossoque incubat auro,’ Virgil, Georg. ii. 507; ‘Chryseros quidam nummularius, copiosae pecuniae dominus . . . sordidus aureos folles incubabat,’ Apuleius, Metamorp. iv. 9.

103. Eudes de Cheriton, Fabula lxvii. has, ‘Contra auaros et laycos tenaces. Bufo, qui habitat in terra, rogauit Ranam, que habitat in flumine, quod daret ei de aqua ad potandum. Ait Rana: Placet; et dedit ei quantum uolebat. Rana esuriens rogauit quod daret ei de terra. Respondit Bufo: Certe nichil dabo, quia ego ipse, timens ne deficiat, [non] comedo ad sufficienciam. Sic sunt plerique in tantum tenaces, quod expectant quod panes sint muscidi, bacones rancidi, pastilli sint putridi; nec possunt manducare nec pro Deo dare; timent quod terra eis deficiat. Hii sunt bufones Diaboli.’ Eudes flourished about 1219 A.D. The parallelism between ‘nec—dare’ and ‘maȝen—godalmihtin’, 101, 2; and between ‘timent—deficiat’ and ‘swa—trukie,’ 104, 5, is striking.

105. trukie: comp. 72/183.

107. The passage in brackets is conjectural: the copyist passed over a line ending with the same word as that which he had just completed. For the yellow cloth see 62/46 note.

109. helfter, halter, noose: OE. hælfter. The original had, no doubt, laqueus diaboli. For similar expressions comp. ‘Revera ornatus muliebris sagena diaboli est,’ Caesarius Heist., 287; ‘diaboli hamus,’ Vitas Patrum, 302. þeos wimmen &c.: comp. ‘Mundus est la garanne au diable in qua venatur ut capiat animas, et tendit ibi laqueos infinitos. Unus laqueus ejus est pulchritudo corporalis et ornatus. Unde istae dominae, quae tam pulchrae videntur esse et tam bene ornatae, acemées, sunt muscipula diaboli, quam tendit ad capiendum fatuos; ipsae sunt la ratière au diable,’ Hauréau, Notices, iv. 154. lumeð, shine, are splendidly attired. The MS. reading luueð and Morris’s conjecture liuieð give a poor sense. For lumen comp. ‘Hire lure lumes liht, | ase a launterne a nyht,’ Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 169/23; ‘þat lemeþ al wiþ luefly lyt,’ id. 152/6, 155/8, 145/3. The transitive ‘alemeþ,’ illuminates, occurs in OEH ii. 109/1; ‘alumþ,’ id. 141/29. musestoch: comp. ‘Similiter assatur caseus et ponitur in muscipula. Quem cum sentit Ratus, intrat in muscipulam, capit caseum et capitur a muscipula. Sic est de omni illicito. Caseus as[s]atur, quando mulier paratur, ornatur, ut stultos ratos alliciat et capiat,’ Eudes de Cheriton, 221/1; ‘Mulier pulchra . . . est caseus in muscipula. Mulier adornatur . . . Hoc est caseus assatus,’ id. 328/1. See also 62/51 note.

114. blanchet, ‘fine wheaten flour,’ Halliwell, who quotes from MS. Bowes of Robert of Brunne, ‘With blaunchette and other flour | To make thaim qwytter of colour.’

116. scawere, mirror: comp. OEH ii. 29/9-13. hindene, Morris thinks is miswritten for hid-ern, hiding-place; a word which does not occur elsewhere; if it were connected with OE. hȳdan the first syllable would be hud- in this text. In Specimens it is translated snare, with comparison of OE. hinderhōc, stratagem, as if for hindere. I take it to be the adv. hinden in substantive use, the hinder parts, the ‘behind’; in CM 22395, ‘hindwin.’ There is an ‘exemplum’ preserved in Le Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry, ch. xxxi, which tells what the lady who devoted a fourth of the day to her toilet once saw in her mirror; it was probably in our writer’s mind here. The Book of the Knight was written for the instruction of his daughters.

118. wið: comp. 48/299 and ‘þer wið,’ 82/121; ‘þe clenesse iscilt heo wið unþeawes,’ OEH i. 111/17; but ‘from,’ 148/141; ‘Wiðtieð giu fro flesliche lustes,’ OEH ii. 63/28.

61. ... Schmid, Gesetze, 178/5.
Schmidt

103. ... The parallelism between ‘nec—dare’ and ‘maȝen—godalmihtin’
second set of quotation marks missing

XII. SERMONS FOR PALM SUNDAY AND EASTER DAY

Manuscript: Trinity College, Cambridge, B. 14. 52. See p. 312.

Facsimile: Frontispiece to OEH ii.; gives f 44 r.

Edition: Morris, R., OEH ii., and Specimens, pp. 26-33.

Literature: Krüger, A., Sprache und Dialekt der me. Homilien in der Handschrift B. 14. 52. Trinity College, Cambridge, Erlangen, 1885.

Phonology: Oral a is a, ateliche 128, axen 183; a before nasals, a, manne 168, þanken 48, but o in þonc 72, þonked 84, 139; a before lengthening groups, o, honde 23, understondeð 146, but a in lange 101, 184, understandeð 180: þanne 45, 136 alternates with þenne 52, 117. æ is a (12 times), bad 88, 120, wat 175, and e (9 times), bed 11, set 71, wecche 97. e is e, eft 37, bendes 100, but understont 176, understant 181 (-stent). i is i, bidden 188, bringen 11, often written ȳ in synne OEH ii. 57/5, synfulle id. 57/17, synegeden id. 65/16, and similar words: but i is e in beð 122 (from pl.), sleðrende 169. o is o, biforen 28, one 11, 14, borde 87, wolde 22, but an 185, a 4 (5 times). u is u, burh 21, bunden 127, but o in comen 66, 69, folcninge 111, beside fulcninge 114. y is i (29 times), iuele 116, kinne 103 (3), but e in specð 85, euel OEH ii. 183/10, kenne id. 201/11, u in cunde 162, fulste 76; cuinde 160 shows hesitation between u and i. ā is normally o, aros 137, bitocneð 102, but a 11, an 19, hatte 9, naðeles 13, 74. ǣ₁ is mostly e, bileueð 158, clensinge 186, leren 65, but a in ani 136, ar OEH ii. 11/24, lareð id. 15/2, o in goð 4, 56 (from plural); a diphthong has developed before sc in fleis 144 (6). ǣ₂ is also mostly e, beren 23, selðe 123, but a in aristes 140, adrade OEH ii. 193/18, dade id. 187/22. ē is e, bete 73, este 166, but o in doð 15, 159, 164 (from plural), ie in gie OEH ii. 21/9. ī is i, lichame 126, lif 67. ō is o, blod 47, blostme 24, but te 11. ū is u, abuten 101, husel 47. ȳ is i, kidde 135, e, bet 147, u, cudden 18.

ea before r + cons. is a, armheorted 119, harde 98, warð 175, but e in bern 30, smerte adj. 98, ea in smeart pt. s. OEH ii. 21/27, ia in giarked 84. ea before l + cons. is a, al 71, half 68, but sometimes o, olde OEH ii. 47/3, ea, ealde id. 19/15, ealse id. 35/23, and ia, ȝiald id. 169/4: the i-umlaut is e, eldre id. 43/35. eo before r + cons. is eo, eorðliche 72 (3), heorte 62, but e in beregeð 114, herte 17, lerneð 17, sterre OEH ii. 161/4, o in storre id. 161/19, storres id. 161/6; the wur group has u, wurðe 84, 140, wurðlice 92, the i-umlaut is wanting, wurð 162, wurðe 91. eo before l + cons. is e, self 155, seluen 90 (4), but sulfen OEH ii. 45/6. eo, u-umlaut of e, gives heuene 74, 79, wereld 168: eo, å-umlaut of e, is wanting in fele 105. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is e in bileue 149, clepen 10, cleped 44, 108, here 20, 107, 123, seueðe 102, but biliue 172. ea after palatals is a, shal 27 (3), gaf 14, shap 158, but gef 172, giaf OEH ii. 113/27; a in shameliche 127 before nasal. ie after g is i in giueð 160, forgiuenesse 46, but gief OEH ii. 9/10. ȝef is gif 57, 182. eo after sc is u, shulen 74: eom is am 17, heom, hem 171. ēa is regularly e, bred 87, 156, deð 6, ec 105, ester 101 (4), leue 143, þeh 12, but a in admod 17, admodnesse 15, shad 148, ea in deaðe 137; its i-umlaut is e, lesen 147, lesende 148, remden 28, semeð 73. ēo is also e, beð 51, ben 63 (10), crepe 100, preste 9 (5), but ie in bie 30, 115, bien 61 (4), and i in bi 57; its i-umlaut is e, þester OEH ii. 39/29, but þiesternesse id. 9/27, and þeoster id. 171/25. īe after g is e in geme 57, 182; hīe is hie 74, 105.

a + g is ag, lage OEH ii. 3/6, dages id. 3/14. æ + g is ai, dai 4 (5), fair 12 (3), mai 38 (4), but sunedeies 99, seið 24, 31, seide 155. e + g is ei, leiden 20, wei 32 (5); agen 37, 182 descends from ongēn, so togenes 19, but toȝanes OEH ii. 177/32 is tōgēanes. e + h gives eh, sehte 51 (3), sehtnesse 53, but Scand. sahtnesse 50. i + g, reine 171 (O.North. regnian). u + g is ug, muge 152, 188, but mo 77 (Kentish). y + h, drihten 33, driste 189. ā + g is seen in agen 165, ogen 121; ǣ₁ + g in eiðer 126; ē + g in tweie 39, tweien 10, 17, tweire 103; underfoð 106 (-fēhþ) has o from the plural. ō + g gives boges 33, 65; ō + h, boh 24, brohten 34; ū + g, bugen 88 (3). The i-umlaut of ēa + ht is i in mihte 135, 159, ie in niehtes OEH ii. 11/5. eo + h is represented in riht 68, rihte 143, six 96, sixte 101, its i-umlaut in sest OEH ii. 137/5, seð id. 121/26. ēa + g, h in hege 21, heg 35, nehgebures 122; hegeste 176 has no umlaut. ēo + ht is seen in leochtes OEH ii. 11/5, liht id. 13/16. ā + w is ou, ow, soule 116 (4), snow 169, wowe 138, 181; noðer 12 is nōþer, noht 65, nōht. ēa + w is ew, sheweð 94. ēo + w is eow, eou in reoweð 119, reouð 122, ew in trewes 34, 60, hew 159 but hiu 158 (hīew), giu 147, 148, 153, comp. ȝiu 16/117: feorðe 99 is fēorþa, reoðe 121 (*hrēowð) is probably miswritten for reowðe.

Swā is swo 9, in combination alse 15, wat . . . se 175. e is inserted in beregeð 114, forsinegede 71, 124, husel 47, ouelete 154, shameliche 127, added finally in one 11, 14, þermide 139 by analogy of inne 45, uppe 71. For a, e appears in felefolde 164, for e, i in giarked 84; the prefix ge- is i in iwis 150. o is e in makede 5, u, e in þureh 54 (3); the suffix -ung is ing, clensinge 186, tocninge 55, wissinge 95, but wissenge 187 and the compromise þroweinge 52. ǣ is e in naðeles 74; ea, o in felefolde 164; ēa, e in endelese 74, loðlesnesse 109.

In nemed 118, n is omitted, by influence of the past nemde: n is lost finally in selde 98, a 4 &c.: nn is simplified in mankin 136, sinbote 109, sunedai 183: ng is gg in biginnigge 5. bb is u in hauen 71, liuen 153. f becomes u between vowels or vowel and liquid, driuen 127, freureð 124, ouelete 154; in other positions it is generally unchanged, fele 105, stefne 28, but uantstone OEH ii. 61/17, uele id. 63/11. t is doubled in settle 35, ts is c in milce 188, sc in blesced 30: d is doubled in bidded 86; for d, ð appears in sleðrende 169; ð in dauiðes 30 is OE. þ is assimilated in atte 156, likeste 122; te for þe 6, 166 is probably from the scribe’s exemplar as tis 174 for þis; betfage is French, bethphage from the Vulgate: d is written for þ in bidded 86, maked 62, quedinde 145. ss is simplified in cos 53; initial sc is sh, shal 27, shrud 113, shrifte 183, but exceptionally srifte OEH ii. 73/5, scrifte id. 11/11: medially it is seen in axen 183, acxen 96, bisshopes 61, englisse 44, it is s final in fles 47, fleis 150 (6). The stop c is written k before e, i, drinke 150, kinne 103, but spece 118: it is omitted in ofþinð 123. č is ch, eche 125, swinch 98; chosene 78 (coren) is conformed to cēosan; for cruche 185 see NED. s.v. Crouch: čč is cch in wecche 97, wrecche 123: cw is qu, quemende 68. Palatal g is written g, giueð 160, gaf 14, hege 21, but occasionally ȝ, ȝaf OEH ii. 141/28, heȝest id. 197/14: final -ig is i, but bode 189: swimesse 156 represents swīg(e)messe: čǧ is g in wig 14, gg in briggeden 32, 59. h is added initially in heste, hestene 164, heorðliche 35, his 47; h is lost in ider 130, louerd 13, lude 28, remden 28, reoweð 119, reouð 122, reoðe 121; for h, g occurs in hegsettle 35: hw is w, wat 38 (3), wile 114, wit 113, conversely hū is hwu 130, wu 167: ht is written st in driste 189, cht in leochtes OEH ii. 11/5.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. Gen. -es, sunedeies 99, kinnes 104, 105: d. -e, deaðe 137, borde 87, but the inflection is often wanting, as in the compounds of dai, 101, 183, 184 and in most of the neuters, blod 144 (4), fleis 144 (4), &c.; muð 156 may be acc. (Anglian) after mid. In the acc. weie 59, 60, 62 has e like jo-stems, and tacne 53 from pl. tācnu: mule 12 is French. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, cloþes 20, prestes 61, bendes 100; preste 9 is a scribe’s mistake for prestes: neuters are burhfolc 21, þing 148. Pl. g. kinne 103, but englene 172, estrene 140 (ēastrena), kingene 13, muðene 44 are weak forms, louerdes 12; d. boges 33, 65, trewes 34, 60. The fem. nouns, except wereld 168, have e in the s. nom., chirchsocne 4, sinbote 109, abstracts in -nes, 109, 118, 119 as also in the s. acc. cuinde 160, forbisne 14, mihte 135, 159; hond 69, wereld 168 are exceptions: g. -e, sinne 100, but aristes 140 (occasionally m. in OE.): d. -e, cunde 162, dede 15. Plurals are n. hese 73, wede 103, wedes 104; g. estene 166, hestene 164, wedes 127; d. weden 131, honde 23, wedes 22, 125; a. mede 74, sinne 119, sinnes 46 (4), honden 128, pinen 96. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular; lichames s. g. 162 excepted. Plurals are n. names 39, sanderbodes 18: d. axen 183, blostmen 26: a. acxen 96, blostme 24. The minor declensions are represented by fot s. a. 9, fet pl. a. 128; man s. n. 36, cristeman 176, mannes s. g. 62 (4), man s. d. 117, manne 176 (a weak form), men pl. n. 10, pl. d. 116, pl. a. 143; burh s. d. 21, bureh 11, 18 (byrig); boc s. n. 24; helende s. n. 5 (5) with participial termination; comp. 273/3, helendes s. g. 57; child s. a. 112; children pl. n. 31.

Strong inflections of the adjective are s. n. f. bicumeliche 116, holie 45, 51; s. d. m. bicumeliche 93, eche 125, f. bicumeliche 93, 94, 183, eorðliche 72, faire 64, lude 28, wise 66; s. a. m. endelese 181, rihte 143, sehte 55, f. eche 181; but holi s. d. m. 184, soð 183, fair s. a. m. 12 are not inflected. The weak form has mostly -e in the singular, holie 24 (9), but holi 47 (9), lift 69, riht 68 are not inflected. Adjectives in the plural have -e; as also comparatives and superlatives, loðere 116, hegeste 176, but biterest 178. Adjectives used as nouns are bitere pl. g. 178, half s. a. 68. āgen is ogen s. d. f. 121; ān is an 19, a 11; nān, no 106 (3). Noteworthy among the numerals are tweire pl. g. 103 (twēgra), fifte 100, sixte 101, seueðe 102.

The personal pronouns are ich, me, we, ure pl. g. 182, us, te = þu in likeste 122, ge, giu 147, 148, 153. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 12, d. him m. 19, a. 27, hit neut. 19 (with asse m.), it 21 (with strete f.); pl. n. hie 33, 74, g. here 107, d. hem 72, a. 11. Reflexive is himseluen d. 107, a. 90: definitive, himself s. n. 155: possessives are mi, ure, þin, his, hise pl. d. 10, 78, here. The general form of the article is þe, te 6, 156, 166; inflected forms are ðet s. n. neut. 26, 117, þo pl. n. 17 (3); þet 14, 84 is demonstrative: the article is used pronominally in þo þe, those who 27 (10). The compound demonstrative is s. þis, tis 174, pl. þese, once þis[e] 125. The relatives are þe, ꝥ = þet, þat 115: wat 38 (3) is interrogative: swiche 106, 129 is pl. Indefinites are me 27; sum 24, sume pl. 33 (3); eiðer 126; oðer 117, oðre s. d. m. 15, s. a. m. 136, pl. d. 22, pl. a. 135; ech 38, elhc 36, eches s. g. m. 175, 178; ani 136; manie 104; fele 105; al s. a. m. 71, s. a. f. 167, alle 114, pl. n. 105 (3), alre pl. g. 12 (6), alle pl. a. 135 (3).

The infinitive ends in -en, bidden 188, þolen 6 and fifteen others; exceptions are crepe 100, reine 171, and the contract verb fon 74. Dative infinitives with inflection are to clensende 177, to lesende 148, to quemende 68, for to quemende 70; without inflection, for . . . to hauen 70, to blissen, to gladien 83, to bete 73 and ten others. Presents are s. 1. speke 104, spece 118; 2. likeste (= likest þu) 122; 3. beregeð 114, liðe 100 (miswritten for liðeð), bidded 86, for biddeð; contract verb, underfoð, 106, 117; syncopated forms, about one-third of the total number, bet 120, bet 147, bit 120, 143, sent 53, understont 176, &c.; pl. 1. hauen 186, undernimen 142; 2. understonden 154; 3. bidden 46, herien 46, noten 45, þanken 48, wunien 9 and ten others in -en, lereð 67, semeð 73, wisseð 63, maked 62, for makeð: subjunctive s. 3. drinke 91, wurðe 84, 140; pl. 1. bugen 88; nime we 56, 182, understonde 88; 3. liuen 153: imperative s. 2. haue 121, underfo 113; pl. 2. brukeð 147, cumeð 87, lerneð 17, understondeð 87, 146. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. gaf 14, gef 172, bad 88, 120, bed 11, set 71, spec 160; pl. 3. eten 172: I b. s. 2. come 130; 3. com 8, 26; pl. 3. beren 23, breken 33, 60, comen 28: I c. s. 3. warð 175; pl. 3. funden 19: II. s. 3. aros 137, rod 20: IV. pl. 3. understoden 27: V. s. 3. let 171; pl. 3. bihengen 21; s. 3. hatte 9. Participles present: I a. queðinde 16 (3), quedinde 145; past: I b. brokene adj. 65, cumen 182, cumene pl. 185: I c. bigunnen 179, 187, bigunne 177, bunden 127, worpen 128: II. driuen 127: III. chosene pl. 78: V. forleten 179, 187, shad 148. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. fette 138, kidde 135, lufede 175, rerde 137, seide 155, sende 10 (3); pl. 3. wenden 23, ferden 18, 28, leiden 20, makeden 61, but exceptionally ferde, makede 58. Participles present: seiende 89, 120, seggende 86, sleðrende 169; past: blesced 30, nemed 118, bet 179, 187, clepede pl. 108, forsinegede pl. 71. Minor Groups: wot pr. s. 38; agen pr. pl. 165; shal pr. s. 27, shulen pr. pl. 74; mai pr. s. 38 (4), muge we 1 pr. pl. 188, mo 77 (Kentish), muge [ge] 2 pr. pl. 152; ben inf. 77, 127, am 1 pr. s. 17, is pr. s. 44, his 47, beð 122, 154, ben 1 pr. pl. 142, 185, pr. pl. 63 (10), bien 61 (3), beð 51, bie pr. s. subj. 30, 115, bi 57, si (lof) 30, bien 1 pr. pl. subj. 182, was pt. s. 18, weren pt. pl. 31, 67; wile pr. s. 78, wolde pt. s. 6, 22; do 1 pr. s. 105, doð pr. s. 15, 159, 164, don 1 pr. pl. 141, fuldon pr. pl. 74, do pr. s. subj. 114, do we 1 pr. pl. subj. 88, dide pt. s. 136, diden pt. pl. 31; gon inf. 101, goð pr. s. 4, 56.

Dialect: A scribe of the South-East Midland has copied a manuscript written in the South-Eastern area bordering on Kent. The changes he has made affect both sounds and inflections in varying degree; in this extract the Midland element is more pronounced than usual; towards the end of his task the Southern gains the upper hand. But his exemplar was in its turn descended from an original of the Middle or Western South, written not long after the Conquest, or at any rate by a man to whom OE. constructions, such as the uses of the dative in him 106, iuele 116, folke 174, manne 176, were not strange.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are rideð 62, sahtnesse 50, shereðursdai 184, wanrede 124, and probably gestninge 84. French are absolucion 100, custume 3, diciples 10, mule 12, oliue 24, palefrei 12, procession 4, prophete 169, proue 90, richeise 72, sepulcre 102. Latin are apostles 20, bisshopes 61, calice 52, cruche 100, crisme 112, fant(ston) 101, munt 10, temple 23.

Introduction: These pieces appear to be original compositions of the Middle English period, but the work of a writer who drew his ideas from the older literature, Beda and Ælfric, and used many archaic words such as burhfolc, chirchsocne, hegsettle, ouelete, sanderbodes, swimesse, wig. There is similarity in parts to the sixth Blickling Homily.

1. Turbe &c.: S. Matt. xxi. 9.

4. ⁊ = and. haueð—of, has its origin in: for of comp. 131/98.

6. Et &c.: not a quotation from the Vulgate or Comestor.

8. þe is a mistake for he, necessary as sende l. 10 has no subject.

9. preste: ‘Bethphage erat viculus sacerdotum in monte Oliueti,’ Beda, Opera, vii. 183. þe . . . one: see 1/3 note.

11. into . . . ierusalem: ‘in castellum quod contra eos erat ·i· in hierusalem,’ Comestor, Hist. Euang. ch. cxvij. wig: OE. wicg, steed; a poetical word, but here apparently in a depreciatory sense.

12. noðer stede &c.: comp. ‘Ne he nedde stede · ne no palefray. | Ac rod vppe on asse · as ich eu segge may,’ OEM 39/67; OEH i. 5/19; ‘Broght þai noþer on hir bak | Na sadel ne panel,’ CM 14981.

15. on his dede . . . on his speche, by means of act and word: on is more energetic than in: comp. ‘herte biðencheð ꝥ hie seggen shal on songe,’ OEH ii. 211/17. But on oðre stede is a purely local use.

16. Discite &c.: S. Matt. xi. 29.

18. sanderbodes, messengers; apparently the word occurs only here, but sandermen is in AS. Chron. 1123 A.D. A combination of sand, gen. sande, message, and boda, messenger: r may be due to Scandinavian influence (NED viii. 91), or it is possibly analogous to that in provender, OF. provende, lavender, Anglo-French lavendre, from LL. lavendula. þiderward, on the way there; see 91/93 note.

21. hihten, adorned; comp. ‘alle þos wennen huihten his wurðshipe,’ OEH ii. 195/32, 71/24.

22. oðre: adj. pl. d., practically adverbial, besides.

25. Occurrunt &c.: Antiphon sung in procession on Palm Sunday, according to Old English and Roman uses: see York Breviary i. 367.

27. understoden, received: for the earlier underfōn in this sense, comp. 6/37, 11/187, 197, 207.

28. remden lude stefne, cried with a loud voice; stefne is dative; comp. ‘and on cleopie agan; loudere stemne,’ L, MS. O 20789.

29. Osanna &c.: S. Matt. xxi. 9.

31. Pueri Hebraeorum vestimenta prosternebant in via, one of the Antiphons sung at the blessing of the palms in the Old English and Roman uses: see York Missal, i. 85, Breviary i. 367. v. p. are incorrectly expanded in the text, through a too trustful following of Morris.

35. heg settle. OE. setl, stōl continue in regular use for the official seat of king and dignitary till the middle of the thirteenth century, when they are displaced by F. trone.

37. fro chirche to chirche. The Palm Sunday procession at Mattins issued from the west door of the church, visited the stations in the churchyard and re-entered the church by the same door. In so doing it was mystically said to leave Bethphage and return to Jerusalem. The scribe has misplaced ⁊ eft agen; it should come before to chirche. ⁊ bitocneð parataxis; see 81/82.

40. domus bucce: ‘Bethphage autem domus buccae . . . dicitur . . . quia multos ante passionem suam docendo [Saluator] donis piae confessionis & obedientiae spiritalis impleuit,’ Beda, Op. vii. 183; ‘Venit Bethphage quod dicitur domus maxillae, dum adveniente morte salvandus quisque peccata sua aperit in confessione,’ Godefridi Homiliae in Migne, P. L. clxxiv. 22: Hildebert, id. clxxi. 500; ‘Betfage, se tun, getacnaþ þa halgan cyricean on þære biþ sungen ꝥ halige geryne, ⁊ men þær heora synna andettaþ, ⁊ him þaer forgifnesse biddaþ,’ BH 77/14.

45. þet . . . inne, in which: see 1/3. noten, employ (with advantage) the functions of their mouths: comp. ‘here wiken hem binimeð · þe hie ar noteden,’ OEH ii. 183/1: it takes an acc. here and at 87/165, but ‘noten of,’ 191/488: OE. notian often governs gen. of the thing enjoyed.

48. uisio pacis: so Beda, vii. 262; Ælfric, Hom. Cath. ii. 66. soð, l. 50, is a mistake for sihð, repeated OEH ii. 53/20; it really translates pax uera; see 116/140. Comp. ‘sibbe gesihð Sancta Hierusalem,’ Crist, 50; BH 81/1.

52. of þe calice. At this period, the celebrant after the consecration of the elements kissed the chalice and then the Deacon, with the words ‘Habete vinculum pacis et caritatis’; the Deacon next passed on the kiss to the assistants and so to the congregation. See York Missal, i. 198, Zaccaria, Bibliotheca Ritualis, ii². cxlviii-cli. Ælfric calls the messe cos, ‘sibbe coss,’ Lives, ii. 46/699.

53. þe folc sent, dismisses the people, with the words ‘Ite, missa est’: a sufficient sense, but interposing awkwardly between ‘cos’ and ‘þer mide.’ Probably folc should be taken as dative, or folke should be read; and sends it to the people and thereby betokens &c.

56. ⁊ eft should come before of ierusalem: the church is Bethphage when the procession goes out of it, but Jerusalem when it returns to it: see 83/37.

60-72. The interpretation is peculiar; in some points it resembles that of Hildebert of Tours, Migne, P. L. clxxi. 501.

62. rideð, clear the road; OWScand. ryðja; elsewhere in this text ruden; comp. ‘ich sende min engel biforen þine nebbe þe shal ruden þine weie to-fore þe,’ OEH ii. 133/27. makeð—heorte: comp. ‘ut Christo iter ad mentem parent,’ Hildebert.

64. forbisne: ‘virtutum suarum exemplis,’ Beda, vii. 263.

65. þo þe leren: ‘Hi sunt qui a sanctis patribus bona sumentes exempla, aliis etiam normam [bene] vivendi proponunt,’ Hildebert.

68. quemende: see 81/85 note.

69. hereworde: see 56/37.

72. unwilliche is an adverb; OE. unwilsumlīce; comp. 40/181 note.

73. semeð, burdeneth, as at 4/18.

74. fuldon, fulfil: comp. ‘dædbetan and þæt fuldon on þæs abbodes hæse,’ Benedictine Rule, ed. Schröer, 70/21. As it appears to be always transitive, the following hie, them, must be taken as its object, and shulen is without subject expressed.

79. Read secla.

82. Hec &c.: Ps. cxvii. 24: the Graduale in Old English and Roman uses for Easter Day.

84. þonked wurðe him, lit. be it thanked to him: comp. ‘we ahte . . . þonkien hit ure drihten,’ OEH i. 5/29. þe . . . offe, concerning which.

85. Ecce &c.: St. Matt. xxii. 4 adapted.

87. Morris alters þe to we, but the article is necessary, and the subject is often omitted by this writer; see 83/10, 85/105, 87/152, and 6/18 note.

88. bord bugen: so at 85/102, but ‘to godes bord bugen,’ 88/188: bugen, to bend one’s steps, to go, is elsewhere used with a preposition; either to has dropped out in these two isolated instances, or there has been some confusion in the writer’s mind with begin.

89. Probet &c.: 1 Cor. xi. 28.

91. wurðe þer to, fit for that: þer to replaces an older genitive, ðæs wierþe; comp. 86/142.

94. Erest, firstly: oðer siðe, 95, secondly; þridde siðe, 99, thirdly.

95. wissinge, instruction, guidance; i.e. penance.

96. acxen: referring to the ceremony of giving the ashes to the congregation on Ash Wednesday. bilien, pertain, are associated with: comp. ‘þe six werkes of þesternesse · þe bilige to nihte,’ OEH ii. 15/3.

97. saccum, a penitential garment of sackcloth, worn over other clothes, thus differing from cilicium, hair-shirt; S. Jerome, Ep. 44. The writer has omitted after it, plagas, the ‘smerte dintes’ of the next line, ‘disceplines,’ 62/35.

99. siðes: read siðe; the superfluous s is due to the initial of the next word: in liðe, 100, final þ has been lost before initial þ: swiðere, 119, owes its final re to the beginning of the next word. shereðuresdaies, of Maundy Thursday: corresponds to OWScand. skíriþórsdagr, purification Thursday, but was wrongly connected with ME. scheren, to shear. The form in sh is native or naturalized; see Björkman, 125, and comp. 99/73.

100. sinne bendes: see 81/67 note. crepe to cruche, creeping to the cross; the adoration of the cross on Good Friday; Rock, Church of our Fathers, iii². 88.

101. lange fridai: langa frīgedæg, an ancient name for Good Friday, so called from its fast and observances. gon—fantston, appears to refer to some procession of the laity at the blessing of the font on Easter Eve, perhaps local, as it is not noticed in the service books. Brand, Popular Antiquities (Bohn), i. 158, quotes from Googe’s translation of the Regnum Papisticum of Kirchmayer, ‘Nine times about the font they marche, and on the Saintes do call; | Then still at length they stande, and straight the priest begins withall.’ Of course there was a procession of the clergy to and from the font, Frere, Use of Sarum, i. 149. In ‘ðor-of in esterne be we wunen | Seuene siðes to funt cumen,’ GE 3289, the reference is to the procession made to the font every afternoon in Easter week. The font is the symbol of the sepulchre because, as Durandus, vi. De Sabbato sancto, says, ‘fit hac die baptismus, quia in eo consepulti sumus christo.’ It is noteworthy that nothing is said of the Easter Sepulchre, which was probably not instituted before the fourteenth century.

103. tweire kinne, of two kinds; OE. twēgra cynna, but kinnes, 104, 105 is a sing. gen. in form, with plural meaning: see 81/80 note.

105. do: comp. 122/185 note.

106. faire him, becoming to him; ‘bicumeliche,’ 86/116.

107. underfo, used absolutely, like mod. receive, to communicate: comp. the full expression 86/117. himseluen to hele, to his spiritual well-being. here oðer, one of these two; but eiðer þese wedes, 86/126 can only mean, at this date, each, i.e. both of these garments. If eiðer be a mistake for oðer, then þis wede must be read in l. 125.

109. sinbote is explained by ll. 119, 120.

112. crisme cloð: in the service books ‘chrismalis pannus, vestis’: ‘crismale seu vestis candida que super caput baptizati imponitur significat secundum rabanum interioris et exterioris hominis castitatem et innocentiam,’ Durandus vi. The chrism cloth was put on with the words, ‘Accipe vestem candidam, sanctam et immaculatam,’ after the sign of the cross had been made with chrism on the head of the person baptized.

115. for þat, by reason of which, through which.

116. iuele is predicative dative, equivalent to the usual construction with to, as in l. 125. It is OE.; comp. ‘heora nan him ne mehte bion nane gode,’ Orosius 282/18.

118. embe: usually þe . . . embe, about which.

120. he: for the personal pronoun used instead of a repeated relative, comp. ‘hem,’ 87/156; ‘He ðurh hwam kinges rixit, ⁊ alle mihtes . . . of him cumeð, he lai bewunden on fiteres,’ VV 49/27. bet ⁊ milce bit, amends and prays for mercy; comp. 36/126, 44/238. Read seiende.

121. Miserere &c.: Ecclus. xxx. 24.

123. likeð . . . selðe, is pleased at the prosperity of all of them.

126. soule, lichame, datives; comp. ‘himseluen to hele,’ 85/107; 176/24 note.

129. Amice &c.: S. Matt. xxii. 12.

132. ‘Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea,’ Ps. cxvii. 24.

135. oðerluker, in quite another fashion: a comparative adverb: see 125/270.

140. for þi . . . for ꝥ þe, for this reason . . . because.

142. þer togenes, for its coming, to meet it, as in ‘biþ hit eft him togeanes gehealden on þæm heofonlican goldhorde,’ BH 53/13. Comp. ‘þer to,’ 85/91, and for a similar pregnant use of ‘efterward,’ 77/63; ‘hamward,’ 91/93.

143. Holthausen in ES xv. 307 emends this sentence by omitting ⁊ before bringe and before þus and changing bringe, leue into bringeð, leueð. It might be better to omit þe and retain ⁊ before bringeð, with leued and omission of ⁊ before þus.

145. Accipite &c.: from the Missal, with substitution of commedite (S. Matt. xxvi. 26) for manducate (1 Cor. xi. 24), as in all the English service books. After novi, add ‘et aeterni testamenti, misterium fidei.’

148. to lesende: see 81/85 note.

149. Caro &c.: S. John vi. 56: the quotation in l. 151 is from verse 54 of the same.

152. Morris says muge = muge ge: probably the latter word has dropped out.

154. ouelete, oblation, the thing offered, here the wafer to be consecrated. OE. oflǣte, oflēte from L. oblata.

156. ⁊ . . . hem, and which: comp. 86/120. swimesse, lit. silent mass, explained in Specimens as a mass without music; in Bradley-Strat. as a low mass. But the words of consecration were used in masses low and high; the meaning is the Canon of the Mass, containing the words of consecration, which was said secreto, and was often called secretum, as by Durandus, ‘secretum silentium in quo & misse canon devote dicitur.’ Comp. ‘Si comenca puis le secrei | De la messe, par bone fei; | Et quant li secrez ert finez, | Est danz Theophle auant alez; | Receut le dulz cors de Jhesu,’ Adgar, Mary Legends, 113/1041; and see the Lay Folks Mass Book, pp. 267, 274. A similar compound is ‘swidages,’ OEH ii. 101/15, the still days, the last three days of Holy Week, which is called ‘swiwike’ in MS. Cleopatra of AR 70/7.

157. Comp. ‘colorem et saporem panis voluit [Christus] remanere, et sub illa specie veram corporis Christi substantiam latere,’ Hildebert, 535.

159-61. The words in brackets were supplied in Specimens, with translation, ‘Greater might doth our Saviour than the holy words which he spake by his (the priest’s) mouth, when he giveth mankind his flesh and his blood,’ an explanation unsatisfactory in substance, for the ‘might’ is not ‘greater,’ but the same. Besides ‘his’ must refer to helende, and the earliest certain example of man’s kind = mankind ‘þar he for mans kind wil dei,’ CM 14909, is more than a century later; the word in this text is ‘mankin,’ 86/136 (mann cynn), ‘manken,’ OEH ii. 19/14. mannes cuinde cannot mean anything but man’s nature, humanitas, like Orm’s ‘mennisske kinde,’ Dedic. 218, ‘mennisscnessess kinde,’ id. 15687. Omitting the supplement the meaning appears to be, Our Saviour works a greater miracle than if the words of consecration were literally fulfilled, since he gives us in the sacrament his perfect human nature.

161. ⁊ Naþeles &c., and moreover when a man eats and drinks in the ordinary way, the bread he eats and the drink he drinks do change into flesh and blood by the natural working of the body, wherefore &c.

163. swo doð: comp. 6/18 note.

166. estene dai, day of dainties, with a word-play on estre as in hu sel = wu god: sǣl, happiness.

169. sleðrende, falling gently, like dew or rain. Pluit &c.: Ps. lxxvii. 24, 25.

172. biliue, food: comp. ‘bileue,’ 87/149.

173. Manna &c.: ‘filii Israel dixerunt ad invicem: Manhu? quod significat: Quid est hoc?’ Exod. xvi. 15.

177. clensende: see 81/85 note.

178. michele sinnes, mortal sins.

179. ‘Qui enim manducat et bibit indigne, iudicium sibi manducat et bibit: non diiudicans corpus Domini,’ 1 Cor. xi. 29.

182. agen, with reference to; an early example of this use: comp. OF. devers.

189. driste, for drihte, Lord, as at 35/79. For st = ht, see KH 249 note. But Morris reads Ariste, resurrection.

Phonology: ... and e (9 times), bed 11
comma missing

ea in smeart pt. s. OEH ii. 21/27, ia in giarked 84
“ia in giarked 84” added by author

eo, å-umlaut of e
a-umlaut

eo, u- and å-umlaut of i
a-umlaut

a + g ... toȝanes OEH ii. 177/32 is tōgēanes.
corrected by author from togeanes

underfoð 106 (-fēhþ) has o from the plural
—fēhþ

ēa + g
eā

In nemed 118 ... ss is simplified
s is

The infinitive ... pr. pl. subj. 88,
88;

pt. pl. 31; gon inf. 101, goð pr. s. 4, 56.
31,

112. ... secundum rabanum
lower-case as shown

XIII. VICES AND VIRTUES

Manuscript: Stowe 34, British Museum: of the early part of the thirteenth century; written on vellum, 223 × 160 mm., by three scribes, with numerous corrections by at least three other hands. It belonged once to William Fleetwood, Recorder of London, and to Thomas Astley. See Catalogue of the Stowe MSS., and Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Stowe MSS., no. 240.

Facsimile: Palæographical Society; Second Series, plate 92.

Edition: Holthausen, F., Part i. Text and Translation. E. E. T. S., O. S. 89.

Literature: Schmidt, G. Ueber die Sprache und Heimat der ‘Vices and Virtues.’ Leipzig, 1899; Philippsen, M. Die Deklination in den ‘Vices and Virtues.’ Kieler Diss. Erlangen, 1911; Heuser, W., Anglia, xvii. 88.

Phonology: Oral a and a before nasals is a, wascen 82, swanc 4; a before lengthening groups wavers between a (9 times) and o (5), lande 16, londe 8, understanden 34, understonden 138. æ is regularly a, after 42, cwað 94, was 3; wrecche 60, 116 comes from wrecca. e is generally e, but umlaut e before nasal is a (representing æ, Bülbring, § 171) in namden 117, inamde 120, sant 127, sante 84, wante 88; before lengthening groups e, lengðe 45, but a as above in andin 122, andeden 123, wand 93, and æ in wænden 46, strænges 28; a, æ for umlaut e before nasals is characteristic of the South-Eastern area (Morsbach, § 108); i for e in ðingþ 41 is due to confusion of þencan and þyncan; hwilliche 112 descends from hwilc. i is i, bidde 52, finde 83; cherche 9 is cyrice, ferst 91, ðessere 22 (3) come from forms with y. o is o, dropes 12, borde 15; ðane 3 is LWS. ðane. u is u, cumeð 26, swunken 146, grundwall 53, but beswonken 136, forðer 45 (late North. forþor). y is e, euele 26, kennes 13, þelliche 36; mycel is muchele 4 (3), beside michele 21 (8); þincþ 47, 63, þingþ 70 represent þyncþ.

The representation of ā wavers between a and o, the former predominating, lare 20 (3), lore 57 (3), swa 5, swo 12, wat 136, wot 137; before two consonants, annesse 115, onnesse 148, tacneð 79, tocneð 130. ǣ₁ is regularly a, ani 35 (5), sade 75 (8); before two consonants, alche 139, aure 125 (3), but æ in ær 4, 47, bræde 44, mæst 29, næure 31, tæche 54, ea in sea 22; ilke 130 descends from ylc. ǣ₂ is also a, dade 92, 98, rad 19, 42, ware 129; before two consonants, blastes 27, latst 48, but æ in ræd 44, wære 60, and e in leten 56, nahwer 83. ē is e, bene 95, feden 116, before two consonants, dest 36, misferde 125, but ie in hie 36, hier 144, and more frequently in other places, bienes VV 65/3, diest id. 41/2; o in doð 33, 42 is from the plural. ī is i, liue 8, wisdome 32, but bleðeliche 66 beside bliðeliche 63. ō is o, don 123, godnesse 91. ū is u, trukede 120, dust 70. ȳ is e in screden 116, ie in inȝied 80, 91 (ingehȳd), i in litle 12, litel 42, 91, little 136.

ea before r + cons. is a, harm VV 29/10; before lengthening groups a, harde 31, warnin 27 (4), warð 87, but middeneard 6; the i-umlaut is e, wernde 83. ea before l + cons. is also a, all 6 (14), grundwall 53, halt 40 (heald), scalt 38, but ea survives in ealde 128, healden 57 (4), before a lengthening group; the i-umlaut is e, eldest 118. eo before r + cons. is e, berȝen 140, berȝin 138, ferr 45, herte 34, 82, but ie in hierte 31, 98, liernin 64, 138, a in harkeð 66 (*heorcian); eo survives in weorc VV 95/3 &c.; the i-umlaut is ie, hierdes 1, but worð 133. eo before l + cons. is seen in seluen 20. eo, u-umlaut of e, is e in heuene 24, heuneriches 140; after w, o in woreld 2 (5). eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is e, icleped 58, leðebeiȝe 15, seððen 5, the datives ðese 60, 143, 144, ðesen 119, 120, ðese 53, 140; heora is here 15, 30, and hire 14: niðer 30 is without umlaut. ea after palatals is a, scal 79: ie after g is i, ȝif 90, 101, ȝiuen 40, ȝiue 74, e in beȝete 125, forȝete 60, ei (for ie) in forȝeit 149. ȝef is ȝif 32, gif 102. eo after sc is u, scule 8, sculen 1, 74, but scolde 129. eom is am 59, heom, hem 112.

ēa is ea, breade 100, dead 87, forleas 7, teares 73 (8), but bred 77, ec 2: aȝean 93 is ongēan: the i-umlaut has e, ȝemeleastes 13, hersum 15, hersumnesse 115 (2), iherde 95 (5), netene 130, but unbiliefde 33. ēo is mostly ie, bien 12 &c., dier 129, dieuliche 11, lief 3, ouerȝiede 6, ðies 79, 91, but e in be 39, betwen 112, deules 26, lef 88, twene 139; eo is rare, beon VV 121/10. The i-umlaut is e, fiftene 95, inede 74, steren 9, and ie, niede 92 (4), niedfulle 74, stieren 1, stierde 5. Palatal ēa after g is seen in ȝear 95, biȝeates 14 (begēat, Napier, OE. Glosses 2698); after sc in scadwisnesse 121. ȝīet is ȝiet 90, 95.

a + g is aȝ, laȝe 128, 131, forðdraȝen 97. æ + g is ai, faire 11, mai 34, sai 94 (sæge), tail 129, but daiȝ 77. e + g is ei, aweiward 48, seið 17 (segeð), but iseȝen 119 (gesegen). o + g is seen in ibroiden 28; o + ht in þohtes 25, 30. u + g is uȝ, muȝe 97, muge 125. ā + g, h are seen in wauȝe 89, auh 17; ǣ₁ + ht in betaht 7; ǣ₂ + g in ȝeseiȝe 124; ē + g in wreiȝede 83; ī + g in stieð 24; ō + g in bowes 44, ō + ht in besouhte 84, ȝeþouht 46, þouhten 77; ea + h in iseih 94; ie + ht in miht 98, mihte 5 &c., mihtes 46, niht 77; eo + ht in riht 146; ēa + h in þeih 105; īe + ht in ieiht 96; ā + w in saule 10 (6), sawle 80: naht 12, 87, 126 is nāht. nielnesse 30 represents neowolnes. ēa + w gives eaw, feawe 40, sceawin 25 (3), unðeawes 55; ēo + w, ew, ȝew 20, ȝewer 19, ȝewere 20, newe 131, īe + w, ew, trewe 39.

a without stress is levelled to e in andswereð 51, middeneard 6; o to e in forðer 45, niðer 30, sikere 12, sikerliker 98, sikerest 113, te 28, 42; u to e in leðebeiȝe 15. e is lost in eule 81, heuneriches 140, o in nielnesse 30, e is added in ofte 60. on is a 149.

For w the rune is used. ll is simplified in dieuliche 11. n is doubled in þennken 49: for almihtin 143, see 79/17 note. Initial f is f, ferr 45, f between vowels or vowel and liquid is u, euele 26, aure 125, otherwise f, unbeliefde 33. d is doubled in godd 7, goddspell 118, lost in finst 40; dd is simplified in amidewarde 70; for d, t appears in halt 40. Initial þ becomes t after t in tin 40, tu 37, 47, 87; for þ, d is written in seid 21, 67, speked 73, tobrekd 35, wid 71. s is represented by sc in bledscin 147: sc is regularly sc [š], iscop 52, scal 79, sceawin 25, scipes 14, scolde 129, scule 8, wascen 82. The stop c is written k before e, i, lokin 1, munekes 38 and before another consonant, forsakþ 20, tobrekð 32, but tobrecþ 36, c in other positions, cumen 113, exceptionally ch in ilche 52 (ilca), arche 5, 9 (if not French), g in ðingþ 41 (4): ic is ic and ich. č is ch, alche 139, beseche 58, ilich 69, iswinch 48, michel 122 &c., tæche 54, þelliche 36, þench 89, þenchinde 59, but exceptionally k in beseke 106, beseken 97, ilke 130 (ylc confused with ilca): čč is cch, wacchen 114, wrecche 60, 116. cg is gg, segge 99, 109; cs, x, rixin, rixið 110; cw, cw, becweð 86, cwað 94, cwide 86. Palatal g is ȝ, initially, biȝeates 14, ȝemeleastes 13, but Gif 102 (with capital letter); medially, maniȝe 4 (4), heriȝen 147 (3), wuniȝeð 15, 18, muȝe 97, VV 3/18, 73/17 &c., but muge 125. The prefix ge- is often retained, ȝewriten 23, ȝeþanc 57, ȝeswinkes 145, beside iþanke 66, iswinch 48, and ȝ is added in ȝew 20, ȝewer 19, ȝewere 20, ouerȝiede 6. For the stop, g is used initially, grundwall 53, agunnen 123, ȝegunnen 53, but iȝunnen 47, medially, bringen 8, but the palatal symbol is used for the spirant after l, r, berȝin 138 &c., folȝin 44 (3), foriswelȝen 39: myr(i)gþ is represented by merhðe 25, merchþe 140. g is lost in heuiliche 48. For h, ȝ is written in þurȝwunie 131, ðurȝwuneð 133; h is added in Hvte 143, lost in þurwuneð 128, inȝied 80, 91 (inȝehied VV 141/1): initial hl is preserved in hlesteð 17 (3), but lhesten 50, lesten 44.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. Sing. g. -es, priestes 43, kennes 13, scipes 14: d. -e, hlauerde 143, netene 130, but daiȝ 151 (comp. OE. on dæg), hlauerd 52, ræd 44, sal 111 (OE. æt sumum sǣle, on sumne sǣl) are without inflection. Pl. n. a. of masculines, -es, hierdes 1, bowes 44, but wintre 4 (wintru); neuters are n. dier 129, a. ȝear 95, þing 137, bede 114 (gebēdu): pl. g. ðinge 71; d. -es, blastes 27, biȝeates 14, ȝeswinkes 145, wordes 66. Of the fem. nouns of the strong declension, forbisne 66, mihte 126, niede 151, sawle 51 (3), scadwisnesse 121 have added e in the s. n. and bene 95, mihte 106, niede 92, 150 in the s. a. Gen. -e, herte 34: d. -e, bræde 44, cherche 9, but sea 22, woreld 2 (4). Pl. g. saule 13; d. ȝemeleastes 13, mihtes 46 (5); a. dade 92, 98, mihtes 69. Nouns of the weak declension are s. d. hope 28, ileaue 28; a. lichame 10; pl. n. dropes 12; d. wisen 117; a. wacchen 114. The minor declensions are represented by mann s. n. 33, mannes s. g. 145, manne s. d. 33, stieresmanne 15, man s. a. 127, stieresmann 3, manne 124, stieresmenn pl. n. 8, mannen pl. d. 38, stieresmannen 18, 21, stieresman[nen] 23; moder s. n. 109; faderes pl. n. 109, 111.

Remnants of the strong declension of adjectives in the sing. are haliȝes g. m. 145, faste d. m., rihte 28, dieuliche d. f. 11, mannliche 10, michele 21, 96, faire d. neut. 11. The weak declension in the sing. has -e throughout, unware n. m. 41, unwise 33, eule n. f. 81, gode 80, lieue 136, muchele d. m. 5, wilde 6, bitere d. f. 22, ealde 128, soðe 29, &c., gode a. m. 3, 35, michele a. f. 25, little a. neut. 136; exceptions are hali 64, 117, 124, muchel 48. The pl. strong and weak has -e in all cases, sikere n. 12, halie d. 140, euele a. 26, but hali n. 108, 111, hersum 15, hali d. 46, 53 are uninflected; comparatives and superlatives are gladdere s. n. f. 98, eldes[t] pl. d., wisest 118, ān is a n. m. 91, on 118, an f. 66, 126, one a. f. 106, nān, non n. f. 71, neut. 103, none d. m. 10, 11, f. 72, neut. 32, 134. Adjectives used as nouns are gode s. d. neut. 72, 134, arst s. a. neut. 71, betste 89, god 38, 40, lasse 43, litel 42, gode pl. d. 150.

The personal pronouns are ic 45 (8), ich 46 (8), me, we, us, þu, (ðat) tu 37, 58, (scalt) tu 87, ðe, ȝew 20. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 4, 7, ?hie 45, hie f. 108, 109, he 110, hit neut. 29; d. him m. 7, hire f. 110; a. hie m. 36, f. 5, his 127; pl. n. hie 2; d. hem 56; a. hes 50, 54, 56. Reflexives are me seluen 19, hem pl. d. 112: possessives, min 57, 79, mine pl. 76, 79, þin 98, ðine s. d. f. 57, 90, 91, s. a. m. 95, s. a. f. 95, tin s. a. neut. 40, þi 96, ure 23, ȝewer 19, ȝewere 20, his 82, is 93, hire 81, here pl. 30, hire 14. The definite article is s. n. ðe m. 17, f. 79, 80, se 81, þat neut. 80, 117; d. ðan m. 33, 52, ðe 5 (6), ðo 69, ðare f. 29 (8), ðe 9, 31, ða 147, ðe neut. 64, ðo 100; a. ðane m. 3, 53, ðanne 127, ðe f. 25, 39, ða 4, 9, þat neut. 89, ðe instr. 98: pl. n. ða 8, ðe 1; d. ðan 74, ða 21 (3), ðe 46 (4); a. ðe 26, ðo 31. The article is used as pronoun antecedent to relatives, se ðe, he who 19, 65, ðo ðe, those who 1, 2: ðat is demonstrative 17, 33, 64, 80, 102, 121. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þies f. 91, 79 (with neut. bedd); d. ðese m. 60, 144, ðessere f. 22, 71, 131, ðese neut. 143; a. ðese f. 58, 124, þis neut. 20, 136: pl. n. þese 73; d. ðesen 119, 120, þese 38, 53, 140; a. ðese 103. The relatives are ðe 1, ðat 37, 60, what, se ðe 148, who; ðe 4 means with which. Interrogatives are hwam s. d. f. 71, hwat 17, 36, hwilliche 112: ilca is ilche s. d. m. 52, þyllic, þelliche pl. d. 36. Indefinites are se ðe 125, whoso; se . . . he 132; hwat hwat 134, whatever, me 113, man 104, 110; feawe pl. 40; sum s. n. 113, sume s. d. m. 111, pl. a. 97; oþres s. g. neut. 77, oðer s. d. f. 61, oðre pl. d. 108; ilke s. n. m. 130, alche s. d. m. 139; auriche s. d. neut. 130; ani 35 &c.; maniȝes s. g. m. 145, neut. 12, manies 117, maniȝe pl. n. 12, manie 119, maniȝe pl. d. 55, pl. a. 4, 119; all s. a. m. 6, f. 39, al s. a. neut. 37, alle pl. n. 14, 129, alre pl. g. 71, alle pl. d. 14 (7), pl. a. 137.

Infinitives of the second weak conjugation, except watrien 79, end in -in, andin 122, folȝin 44 (3), rixin 110, all others in -en, -ien, berȝen 140, beseken 97, herien 143, except berȝin 138, herborȝin 115. The dat. inf. is not inflected; to laten, to libben 88, to speken, to þennken 49 are virtually nominatives. Presents are s. 1. beseche 58, habbe 56; 2. hauest 53, lokest 47, syncopated are dalst 37, finst 40, hafst 37, latst 48; 3. answereð 51, haueð 45, rixeð 148, tocneð 130, rixið 110, and twelve others, but syncopated forms predominate, hafð 35, sant 127, and nineteen others; pl. 1. fareð 21, habbeð 119 (3), speked 73, finde we 83; 3. cumeð 26, stieð 24, wuniȝeð 15, 18, exceptionally folgið 3, seggeð 109, stikð 30; subjunctive s. 2. beseke 106, forðbringe 54, heriȝe 149, sette 59, tæche 54, þanke 150; 3. beȝete 125, þurȝwunie 131; pl. 1. bledscin, heriȝen 147, hvte we 143, segge we 99, speken 71, þankin 147; 3. forliesen 9, lokien 14, tobreken 27: imperative s. 2. becweð 86, sai 94, wand 93; halt 40 for hald; pl. 2. hlesteð 17. Past of Strong Verbs: Ia. s. 3. cwað 94, iseih 94; pl. 1. ȝeseiȝe we 124: Ic. s. 3. swanc 4, warð 87, worð 133; pl. 3. agunnen 123, swunken 146: III. s. 3. forleas 7: IV. s. 3. iscop 52: V. s. 3. hatte 106, 126. Participles present: Ia. spekinde 112; past: Ia. iseȝen 119: Ic. agunnen 133, ȝegunnen 53, iȝunnen 47, beswonken 136, ȝeborȝen 119, iborȝen 133, ibroiden 28: II. ȝeswiken 57, ȝewriten 23: V. ihoten 29, 128. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hadde 46, 47; 3. besouhte 84, ȝeherde 93, hadde 7, sade 75 &c.; pl. 3. andeden 123, namden 117. Participles present: liuiende 16, þenchinde 59, wuniende 60; past: betaht 7, ȝeluued 90, icleped 58, ihafd 56, ieiht 96 (geīecan), unbiliefde adj. s. d. 33. Minor Groups: wat pr. s. 136, wot 137, witen pr. pl. 41, wite 2. pr. imp. 73; auh pr. s. 17; scal 1. pr. s. 79, scalt 2. pr. s. 38 (3), sculen pr. pl. 1, 74, scule 8, scolde pt. s. 129; miht 2. pr. s. 98, 139, mai pr. s. 34 (3), muȝe 2. pr. s. subj. 97, muge pr. s. subj. 125, mihte pt. s. 5 (3), mihten pt. pl. 13 (3), mihtin 122; bien inf. 72, 87, am 1. pr. s. 59, is pr. s. 23, nis 103, bieð pr. pl. 2 (4), bien pr. pl. subj. 12, 15, 105, be 2. imp. s. 39, was pt. s. 3, waren pt. pl. 77, wære pt. s. subj. 60, ware 129; wile 1. pr. s. 46 (3), wilt 2. pr. s. 63 (3), wile 37 (subj. form), wile pr. s. 31 (4), willeð pr. pl. 16, wile 40 (for willen, subj. form), woldest 2. pt. s. 49, wolde pt. s. 82, wolden pt. pl. 39; don inf. 123, dest 2. pr. s. 36, doð pr. s. 33, dede pt. s. 42, deden pt. pl. 121, idon pp. 45, 90, don 134.

Dialect: Here, as in the Trinity College manuscript of the Poema Morale, a scribe of the northern border of the South-Eastern area has turned a composition in the dialect of the Middle or Western South into his own, with occasional retention of Southern forms. After a considerable interval his version was copied with little alteration by the three scribes of the Stowe manuscript, for the differences between the sections are mainly graphic and only in a minor degree dialectal. As a consequence, the language of VV is older than that current at the time when the copy was made; in some respects older than that of MS. T of the PM., as in its representation of ā, ā + g, ā + w. Occasional lapses into OE. forms at the beginning of the manuscript, such as acwellan inf. VV 9/19, daȝas 27/22 (which would have been in OE. dagum), have been thought to point to an OE. original, but they are more probably due to a scribe acquainted with the older native literature.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are hahte 21, skele 121, sckelewisnesse 107; an OE. borrowing is stieresmann 3: French are carite 29, cariteð 58, hert 35, prophete 75, richeise 88, (stan) roches 31, seruise 130, and probably arche 5: offrin 129 is a pre-Conquest Latin borrowing.

Introduction: The book is imperfect at the beginning, but probably little has been lost. It opens in the middle of a confession by a sinful soul of a formidable array of sins, to which Reason (‘Scadwisnesse,’ 90/62, ‘Ratio,’ 92/135) replies by a series of discourses on the virtues which will help the soul against its vices. The first extract, written by the first scribe, is part of this. The second piece, written by the third hand, concludes the book.

The writer speaks of his work as a compilation from many authors (93/144). The framework of it may have been suggested by S. Isidore’s Synonyma de Lamentatione Animae Peccatricis, wherein Homo and Ratio hold similar alternate discourse (Opera vi. 472), but nothing else. The author appears to have been acquainted with the writings of Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1140); he may have borrowed from him (Opera i. 69) the idea of the contest between Mercy and Truth (VV 113), but the influence of the older English literature dominates his style, vocabulary, and mode of thought.

1. hierdes, pastors: comp. ‘þe selue herdes beð þe lorþewes of holi chiriche,’ OEH ii. 39/12; ‘se cyning ⁊ se biscop sceoldan beon Cristenra folca hyrdas,’ BH 45/25. lokin, to take care of, preserve: comp. 4/20; ‘ðe sceaweres ðe lokeden ðe hali burh,’ VV 103/13, 121/11; generally with acc., but ‘to lokin of mine wrecche lichame,’ VV 17/3. ⁊ = and, 89/28.

2. ute, in the cloister.

3. noe: a type of Christ; the Ark is the Church, a common idea, Ælf. Hom. Cath., ii. 60; OEH ii. 43/4; AR 142/12, but especially beloved of Hugh of St. Victor, ‘Noe significat Christum sive quemlibet praelatum qui in quantum potest facit arcam, id est, aedificat Ecclesiam,’ i. 226.

4. þe, with which: see 46/292 note.

5. mihte . . . ȝemaked, was able to complete: the last word is more adjective than participle and its syntax is primitive, comp. ‘hie alle on þone Cyning wærun feohtende oþ þæt hie hine ofslægenne hæfdon,’ AS. Chron. 755 A.D.

8. to liue ⁊ to londe: a zeugma, bringen has its ordinary meaning with to londe, but bringen to liue means, preserve alive, without any sense of motion; comp. ‘To lyue God him wolde bringe,’ Gregorius, 269; similarly ‘to liue go,’ escape death, KH 97, where see note for other uses of the same kind. Note the variant in 88/16.

10. For none winde, because of any wind.

11. on, in: comp. 90/66, 93/147; ‘forsakene on godes awene muðe,’ VV 3/2; ‘wakien on godes seruise,’ id. 3/27, and often in this text. See 83/15 note.

13. kennes: see 81/80 note.

15. leðebeiȝe, pliant, ready to obey: OE. leoþu-bīege, supple-jointed; the figurative use is noteworthy: comp. ‘leðebeih ⁊ hersum gode,’ VV 109/3: ‘Soð was leðebei,’ id. 113/26.

16. liuiende lande, land of the living: glossed ‘terra uiuentium,’ VV 41/11.

18. ‘Qui vos audit, me audit: et qui vos spernit, me spernit,’ S. Luke x. 16.

20. fullȝewiss: see 32/40.

21. hahte, danger: OWScand. hǣtta; see Björkman, 99.

22. hoc mare magnum: Ps. ciii. 25. bitere: probably from ‘Porro iuxta allegoriam, mare sive stagnum quod cum suis transire desiderat [Dominus], tenebrosus amarusque seculi praesentis accipitur aestus,’ Bede, ed. Giles, xi. 70 (comment on S. Luke viii. 22).

23. Ascendunt &c.: Ps. cvi. 26.

26. deules blastes: comp. ‘Al so al holi chirche, þet is schip icleoped, schal ancren . . . so holde þet tes deofles puffes, þet beoð temptaciuns, hit ne ouerworþe,’ AR 142/12: ‘flante vento diabolicarum suggestionum,’ Hugh of S. Victor, ii. 483.

28. strænges, strands. The expressions ‘rihte ileaue,’ ‘soðe luue’ are of common occurrence; comp. 113/49, 189/435; OEH ii. 47/25, 103/28; Orm 46/1407, and for the latter, Ælf. Lives, i. 354/247. But ‘faste hope’ is unusual; comp. VV 15/27, 39/1. For hope te, see 178/89.

31. nexin, soften: OE. hnexian: beside the ordinary neschen, OE. hnescian. This text has ‘nexxin,’ 145/33, ‘nexce herte,’ 63/26: these forms do not apparently occur anywhere else.

32. watere of wisdome: suggested by ‘Sitierunt, et invocaverunt te (sapientiam), et data est illis aqua de petra altissima, et requies sitis de lapide duro,’ Wisdom xi. 4. Comp. ‘flowinde wettres of wittie wordes,’ SK 687. ðar . . . to: see 1/3.

33. unbiliefde, unbelieving, as though not possessed of belief: OE. gelīefed, believing, a believer. With 33-44, comp. OEH ii. 29/33-36.

35. The unwise man, if he have any generous purpose, makes shipwreck (on the stone-rock of the unbeliever), because the latter collides with his good will and wrecks it by using such words as these. The figure of the ship and the rock is continued in this sentence; the change of subject in ‘he hert’ is not uncommon.

37. spelleres, talkers, preachers. For hadede, see 4/20.

38. Holthausen puts a comma after mannen, making Wile ðu subjunctive, if thou wilt, which was no doubt the intention of the author.

39. be trewe mann: equivalent to our, Be a man!

42. te gode: comp. 30/21.

45. Hie &c. Charity has led me into talking about it at greater length than I had intended. Comp. ‘Ich hadde iþoht ðat ic naht ne scolde writen bute of ðese haliȝe mihtes . . . ðanne am ic iladd ut oðerhwile, ær ic hit ouht wite, to oðer þinge,’ VV 53/15.

47. lokest aweiward, avertest thy face: comp. ‘a-weiward his heued heold; [&] nolde hit ihere,’ L, MS. O 8878.

48. heuiliche latst, appearest to be wearied; in common phrase, look bored.

51. me to helpe, for my help: comp. 85/107; 176/24 note.

53. grundwall, foundation: comp. ‘Ne mai no mann leiȝen oðer grundwall’ (= fundamentum), VV 93/30.

54. forðbringe, bring forward, utter; perhaps here, build up on the foundation already laid.

58. halwende, sanctifying, purifying: OE. hālgian, comp. 130/78.

59. for ðan &c., because I am very pensive as long as I dwell in this wretched body: comp. ‘Ðarhwile ðe ðu art,’ VV 75/9, translating ‘Dum es.’ This archaic use of the particle þe is characteristic of the writer: so ‘ðar ðe,’ 91/109, VV 69/25; ‘ðarof ðe,’ id. 69/26; ‘ðar to ðe,’ id. 73/15; ‘ðo ðe,’ id. 49/15; ðat, what, in l. 60 is elsewhere ‘þat ðe,’ VV 65/16: Ðas þe in l. 63 is for Ðas.

61. Comp. ‘for ðan ȝif hit ne helpð one, hit helpð an oðer,’ VV 53/18.

63. Ðas þe, according to that, according to what you say, so then: adverbial use descended from OE. þæs, gen. sing. neut. of the article se, with þe annexed, as sometimes in OE.; so too in ‘Harke nu ðe formeste forbysne ðe he mankenn sceawede ðas þe we cunnen understonden,’ VV 49/12, where the meaning is, so far as we can understand. Otherwise þas þe, þes þe is regularly associated in ME. with a comparative adverb, as ‘ðu scalt hauen ðas te more iswink,’ VV 75/4.

65. Qui &c.: S. John viii. 47.

66. on iþanke: comp. 12/4.

67. ‘Qui enim sine humilitate virtutes congregat, in ventum pulverem portat,’ S. Greg. Op. i. 1461. Alcuin quotes with substitution of ‘bona opera agit’ for ‘virtutes congregat,’ Op. ii. 132.

72. wið healden, restrained; which gives an inadequate sense: omit wið, which is due to the preceding wið, the meaning then is, without which (humility) no other virtue can be possessed to any advantage or use. Comp. ‘for ðan hie (humility) is þe swa swiðe nedfull ðat tu ne miht none oðre mihte habben ne healden . . . bute þu ðese habbe,’ VV 53/21. wiðhealden has the meaning, keep company with, associate with, in ‘he is to luuiȝen ⁊ to wiðhealden,’ VV 101/5, 101/10.

73. Wite ðu to soðe, know thou for a truth; a favourite expression of the writer, but with te, not to, as at VV 41/32, 55/23, 59/11, 69/28, ‘wite ðu te fulle soðe,’ 65/22: comp. the variants at 70/158, 76/7, 142/73, 143/75, 91, and, ‘wite ȝe hit to wisse,’ SJ 27/16. ðe . . . spekeð: comp. 81/77.

74. inede, needy persons: comp. the ME. verbs ineden, neden; OE. genīedan.

75. Fuerunt &c.: Ps. xli. 4.

77. Of—teares, of tears of another kind; so 91/101.

78. Lacrimis &c.: Ps. vi. 7.

79. Comp. ‘Sit animae beatae culcitra conscientiae suae puritas: sit cervical aut capitale tranquillitas: coopertorium securitas: et in hoc strato delectabiliter dormiat et feliciter requiescat,’ Hugh of St. Victor, iii. 236.

82. þar of ðe, whereof, of what: comp. ‘Ðar is ðin herte ðarof ðe ðu mæst þenkst,’ VV 69/26.

85. Dispone &c.: Isa. xxxviii. 1. Omit ⁊ before tu.

86. cwide, legacy.

88. lað: comp. 189/412: richeise is accusative.

89. dede þat betste, took the best course.

90. for—idon, exerted myself cheerfully for love of thee.

91. god inȝied: referring to Hezekiah’s words, ‘Memento quaeso quomodo ambulaverim coram te in veritate et in corde perfecto.’

93. hamward, on his way home; ‘antequam egrederetur Isaias mediam partem atrii, factus est sermo Domini ad eum, dicens: Revertere,’ 4 Kings xx. 4. Comp. ‘þa ða he hamwerd wæs,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 318/181, ii. 150/110; ‘eoten wæs ut-weard,’ Beowulf, 761; ‘þiderward,’ 83/18; ‘þa wes it cud ouer al þe burh þet þe helind wes þiderward,’ OEH i. 3/15; ‘is towerd on worulde,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 170/28. These expressions are elliptical; farende or the like is to be understood.

94. Vidi &c.: Isa. xxxviii. 5. lacrimam tuam: so Codex Amiatinus. The Vulgate has ‘lacrymas tuas’.

97. muȝe forðdraȝen, art able to produce from thy store; L. depromere.

99. forð mid: see 1/19. Ciba &c.: Ps. lxxix. 6 (adapted).

104. alswa alswa . . . alswa, even as . . . even so.

107. sckelewisnesse, skillwiseness, discretion: OWScand. skilvíss.

108. beheue: comp. 74/225, 127/346: a favourite word of this writer, see VV 99/25, 107/28, 109/8: comp. ‘Geþyld is micel mægen · and mannum nyd-behefe,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 166/142; ‘hemseluen to unbihefe,’ OEH ii. 121/24.

109. moder: ‘Haec dico ut discretionem, quae omnium virtutum et mater et nutrix est, detegam,’ Ælredi Regula; ‘imetnesse is alre mihta moder,’ OEH i. 101/24; ‘Witerlice meteȝung is alræ mæȝene moder,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 90/29.

110. rixin is a mistake due to the preceding rixið: the text, as it stands, must mean, who wills to rule and follow her. hlesten is the word associated with folȝin in VV, comp. ‘for ðan ðe hie nolden godes lare hlesten ne folȝin,’ 61/16, ‘Hlest ⁊ folȝih se ðe wile,’ 77/9.

111. vitas patrum: see pp. 551, 2, ed. Roswey, Antwerp, 1628. sume sal, at a time when a number of the hermits of the Thebaid came to visit S. Antony, ‘perfectionis inquisitione et collationis gratia.’

112. on—cumen: ‘quaenam virtus . . . certe ad Deum recto tramite firmoque gressu perduceret.’

115. annesse: ‘remotiorem vitam et eremi secreta.’ Comp. ‘Munec mai ut-faren mid ileaue in to hermitorie, oðer in to onnesse te wunien,’ VV 73/24. The same word means unity at 93/148.

116. to lokin is syntactically on a level with herborȝin, but has to, because it is separated from ðurh: comp. ‘Hit bieð sume þat non imeðe ne cunnen of hem seluen to feden,’ VV 139/23.

117. on manieskennes wisen: see 81/80 and 132/9.

118. on: S. Antony. Ðurh &c. Holthausen translates, ‘Through all these we have seen and heard a great many saved, and many by all these named virtues perished, because discretio failed them,’ which gives an unsatisfactory sense for the second clause and involves a forced meaning for ‘of’ as equivalent to ðurh (for which the only near parallels in VV are 97/19, 103/3), and a meaning in which it would hardly be used immediately after ‘manie’; ‘inamde’ (elsewhere ‘forenammde,’ VV 15/29) is superfluous. The original is, ‘Omnia quidem haec quae dixistis, necessaria sunt et utilia sitientibus Deum: sed his principalem tribuere gratiam nequaquam nos innumerabiles multorum fratrum casus et experimenta permittunt. Nam saepe vidimus fratres has observationes tenentes repentino casu deceptos, eo quod in bono quod coeperant discretionem minime tenuerunt.’ The English appears to be corrupt: mihten belongs to the former ðesen; the second alle is repeated from the first; under the superfluous inamde lurks the equivalent for repentino casu, which would hardly be overlooked by the translator; perhaps in a munde, in a handwhile, in a moment. The sense would then be, We have seen and heard of very many persons protected (comp. VV 73/7) by all these virtues, and (we have seen) many of these lapse in a moment, because discretion failed them. This meaning of mund is not in the dictionaries, and the evidence for it is slight, but comp. Varnhagen’s note on ‘boten a mounde’ in Anglia, iii. 283. More usual, but less appropriate, would be, in a niede.

125. muge is subjunctive after se ðe, indefinite, whosoever, as is wile in ‘Weriȝe se ðe wile,’ VV 89/33, but se ðe, he who, is followed by the indicative, ‘se ðe luueð,’ VV 41/7 (= qui diligit), ‘se ðe swereð,’ id. 79/3 (= qui iurat). There seems to be no distinction in meaning between ‘Bie war, ȝif ðu wilt,’ VV 59/2, and ‘Bie war, ȝif ðu wile,’ id. 61/8, but the forms of this verb are confused, see 89/37. Note also the indicative after ‘hwat hwat,’ 92/134.

126. to laten, to be passed over without mention, to be omitted.

127. ðe—to sant, to whom God sends it.

128. This is from S. Gregory, ‘Quia nimirum virtus boni operis perseverantia est; et voce Veritatis dicitur: Qui autem perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit. Et praecepto legis cauda hostiae in sacrificio iubetur offerri. In cauda quippe finis est corporis; et ille bene immolat qui sacrificium boni operis usque ad finem debitae perducit actionis,’ In Evang. Homiliae, ii. 25, § 1. Similarly S. Isidore, v. 427; Alanus, 78. See Lev. iii. 9.

129. alle dier, a subject without a verb; the construction is altered.

132. S. Matt. x. 22, xxiv. 13.

136. beswonken, worked at; like L. elaborare, with acc. as in OE. he it wat &c.: a favourite expression of the author, as VV 21/3, 95/26; ‘He it wot ðe all wot,’ id. 75/2.

137. wissin . . . warnin: so ‘wissedest ⁊ warnedest,’ VV 21/27.

139. twene, doubt: OE. twȳn.

143. Hvte we, let us: comp. 175/422; ‘Wuten we fare,’ VV 23/22.

147. on, in: see 83/15.

149. ne heriȝe: see 25/241 note.

151. ofte ⁊ ȝelome: see 32/47.

153. implet: a variant, without authority, for imple.

Facsimile: Palæographical Society
anomalous æ unchanged

ea before r ... halt 40 (heald)
40,

ēa is ea ... ȝīet is ȝiet 90, 95.
text unchanged: apparent error for gīet

a + g is aȝ, laȝe 128, 131, forðdraȝen 97
forðdragen

59. ... ‘ðarof ðe,’ id. 69/26
open quote missing

‘ðar to ðe,’ id. 73/15
close quote missing

93. ... Comp. ‘þa ða he hamwerd wæs,’
Comp,

XIV. LAȜAMON

Manuscripts: i. Cotton Caligula A 9, British Museum (C); on vellum, 216 × 153 mm.; 192 folios in double columns of 32 to 34 lines, written by two scribes in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. It is bound up with another manuscript containing the Owl and the Nightingale and other pieces.

ii. Cotton Otho C 13, British Museum (O); injured in the fire of 1731; on vellum; 145 folios in double columns of 38 lines; written in one hand, of the third quarter of the thirteenth century.

C is by far the better representative of the original, yet O alone not infrequently preserves it in details; though fifty years later than C, it has probably been transmitted through fewer copies than the latter. Mistakes common to both versions have been derived from an intermediate manuscript X. O represents a recension of X, made by a man who was mainly interested in the chronicle of events, a matter-of-fact person who stood in a critical attitude to his exemplar and took no pleasure in simile, epic repetition or descriptive touch. Under his handling, much that is characteristic of the author disappears.

Facsimiles: Of C. Madden, i. p. xxxv, and New Palaeographical Society, plate 86. Of O. Madden, i. p. xxxviii.

Editions: Madden, Sir Frederic, Laȝamons Brut, London, 1847. Of the present extract: Mätzner, E., Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 19-39; Morris, R., Specimens, 64-86.

Literature: Manuscripts and Texts. *Bartels, L., Die Zuverlässigkeit der Handschriften von Laȝamons Brut, Halle, 1913; Seyger, R., Beiträge zu Laȝamons Brut, Halle, 1912; Stratmann, F. H., ES iii. 269; iv. 96, 7; v. 375; Zessack, A., Die beiden Handschriften von Layamons Brut und ihr Verhältnis zu einander, Breslau, 1888. Sources. Brown, A. C. L., Welsh Traditions in Layamon’s Brut. Modern Philology, i. 95-103; Imelmann, R., Laȝamon Versuch über seine Quellen, Berlin, 1906; Krautwald, H., Layamon’s Brut verglichen mit Wace’s Roman de Brut, Breslau, 1887; Wülker, R., Ueber die Quellen Layamons, Paul-Braune, Beiträge, iii. 524-55. Phonology. Bowen, E. W., Open and close ē in Layamon. Anglia, xvi. 380; Lucht, P., Lautlehre der älteren Laȝamonhandschrift, Berlin, 1905; *Luhmann, A., Die Überlieferung von Laȝamons Brut, Halle, 1906; Stratmann, F. H., Das paragogische N in Laȝamon. Anglia, iii. 552, 3. Grammar. Bohnke, M., Die Flexion des Verbums in Laȝamons Brut, Berlin, 1906; Funke, O., Kasus-Syntax bei Orrm und Laȝamon, Wien, 1907; Hoffmann, P., Das grammatische Genus in Laȝamons Brut, Halle, 1909, completed in Morsbachs Studien, xxxvi; Lange, H., Das Zeitwort in . . . Laȝamon’s Brut, Strassburg, 1906; Lichtsinn, P., Der syntaktische Gebrauch des Infinitivs in Laȝamon’s Brut, Kiel, 1913. Vocabulary. Monroe, B. S., French Words in Laȝamon, Modern Philology, iv. 559. Metre. Brandstädter, K., Stabreim und Endreim in Layamons Brut, Kirchhain, 1912; Luick, K., Anglia, Beiblatt, xii. 37, 8; Trautmann, M., Anglia, ii. 153-73; Bartels, as above. Style. Regel, K., Spruch und Bild im Layamon, Anglia, i. 197-251; *Seyger, as above. Antiquarian. Kolbe, M., Schild, Helm und Panzer zur Zeit Laȝamons, Breslau, 1891; Krautwald, as above. B. S. Monroe, in Modern Philology, iv. 559-67, gives a detailed bibliography.

Phonology: (1) of C. Oral a is a, fare 176, habben 189, but færeð 43, færen 45, hæfuest 50; uerden 48 is from fēran. a before nasals is normally o, comp 120, moni 93 (5 times), but whanene 31, whænnenen 27, þenne 182, muni 113; a before lengthening groups is o, hond 201, imong 141, but and 9 &c., andswerden 11 (6), answarede 51 (4), angles 34. æ is a (48), e (20), æ (16), after 179, æfter 186, bad 241, bed 298, hafde 212 (7), hæfde 233 (3), hehde (for hefde) 69, wes 8 (5), wæs 78, nes 104 (3), heleðes 248, sætterdæi 75. e is normally e, bereð 44, sellic 267 (often elsewhere seollic), speken 12; before lengthening groups, ende, uelde 211, hende 273; but æ is common, spækeð 159, ænde 34, 109, fæld 209, hændest 95, hændeliche 99; Hængest 89 (8) is the common form; a occurs in fareð 276 (ferian), ualde 203, þa 15, 39, 68, u in sugge 52, suggeð 167; eo in heoreð 58 (if from herian): bærnan gives berneð 108, forbærnan, forbærnen 165, ærnan, ærneð 108, mengan, mæingde 292, beside mengde C 15530 (Morsbach, § 107, anm. 3). i is i, blisse 146, wille 25, but u in nulle 191, nuste 264, us 62, wulle 25, and the pres. forms of willan; before lengthening groups i, child 44, þinge 61. o is o, folc 36, hope 58, but durste 137, dursten 158; on is mostly an or o, once æn 211; before lengthening groups o, bord 215, wolde 20 (4), wolden 19, 192, but walden 12, 42. u is u, burh 173, cumen 137, iwune 117, but ilomp 122, sonedæi 75; before lengthening groups u, funde 298, murnede 293. y is normally u, cume 118, wunne 188, but kime 263, kineborne 168, kineliche 173, kinelond 56, 192; before lengthening groups u, guldene 257, vmbe 36: king 139 is the regular form, but kenge 94.

ā is regularly a, hali 66, ihaten 34, but æ in bræd 218, bræ[d]ne 209, mære 42, særi 103; before two consonants a, hatte 32, ladlic 294, madmes 134, but hæhte 59 (7). ǣ₁ is æ, bilæfuen 24, hæðene 8 (3), sæ 2, spræde 210, or e, bitechen 191, breden 250, stenene 222, but a in bitache 173, haðene 295 (possibly Scandinavian), ea in leare 150; before two consonants æ, ælche 129, æuer 44, læfdi 74, lædden 259, næuere 176, or a, alc 51, alchen 280, auere 7, nauere 23, vnwraste 80, wraððe 150, but e in arerde 223, elchen 21. ǣ₂ is æ, æten 251, dæde 197, þræd 218, or e, deden 96, vnimete 254, but eo in weore 8, weoren 2 (9), neoren 138, and a in mare 223; before two consonants, þærfore 175, setten 250. ē is e, greten 144, ueden 190, but heo 73, þæ 63, 231; before two consonants, imetten 18, lette 283, but igrætten 18 (r. w. imetten), iuædde 100. ī is i, bliðe 24, 116, swiðe 2, fiftene 36, but bluðeliche 282, swuðe 129. ō is o, com 113, godne 49, most 110, but neoðeles 83. ū is u, bute 176, runen 148, 159, but ronenen 156. ȳ is u, biclused 177, cudðe 98, iscrudde 100, but forþi 48, 66, þa 8, 184.

ea before r + cons. is a, ȝare 224, iȝarked 238, 240, and æ, hærm 8, 295, kærf 217; the i-umlaut is seen in awariede 81, and, before a lengthening group, in ferde 85. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, al 37, and the numerous forms of eall, scat 189, but hælf 117, helue 129; before lengthening groups, a, alde 28, anwalde 83, athalden 20, halden 150 &c., walden 71, but athælde 83, hælden 13, holden 143, olden 187: the i-umlaut is a before lengthening groups, aldeste 29, halde 290, iuald 109, but æ in ælderen 193, ælderne 69. eo before r + cons. is eo, feor 160, heorte 288, but hærcne 147, werpeð 37; before lengthening groups, ȝeorne 288: the wur group has u, iwurðe 90, wurðliche 190, wurðscipe 71. The i-umlaut before lengthening groups is seen in ȝirnde 206, sturne 120, but deorne 148: wiersa is wurse 81, 291. eo before l + cons. is eo in seolf 81 &c. eo, the å-umlaut of e, is seen in feole 119, weoli 60; eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, in cleopien 249 and its forms, heore 37 &c., seoluer 88, seoððen 96, 97, seoueðe 64, but hennen 160, iluued 22, and without umlaut, niðer 82. ea after palatals is a, scal 38, æ, ȝæf 134, e, ȝef 133, 299, and before nasal o, scome 86. ie after ġ is e, biȝeten 87, ȝeuen 88, and i, biȝite 172, ȝif 201, ȝiuen 297: after sc, æ in schæren 216. ȝef, conj., is ȝif 10 &c. eo after ġ is u, ȝunge 160, ȝungen 187: geond is ȝeond 209. eo after sc is seen in scolde 241, scolden 45, scullen 24, 39, 68. heom is heom 9; eom, am 175, æm 24, 263, næm 176.

ēa is usually æ, æc 28, hæne 204, særes 216, slæn 165, but e in ȝette 242, ȝettest 184, iȝette 206, hehne 102, ileuen 53, 80, a in bad (influenced by bæd) 239; before two consonants æ, hæfden 87: the i-umlaut is e, bemen 249, dremden 146, heren 13 and its forms, ileueð 53, but æ in hæren 19, 68, ihærde 264, ihærd 156, i in hiren 184, biliueð 91, eo in heoreð 58 (if from hīeran), ileoueð 80, 81. ēo is regularly eo, beon 175 &c., biheold 288, feollen 127, freond 273, leoden 165, þreo 4; the i-umlaut is mostly wanting, deore 68 (4), freonde, dat. 273, neode 171, 212, but (fif)tene 36, 233. OE. sīen is seon 27. ēa after a palatal is seen in ȝer 36, ȝere 44, ȝeuen 76, ȝiuen 73 (4), ȝifuen 72, 76. gīet is ȝet 65.

a + g is aȝ, laȝe 69 (6), ofslaȝen 163, but dæȝen 69, ofslæȝen 138. æ + g is mostly æi, dæie 23, fæire 18 (9), fræinede 265, mæi 73, mæidene 290, sæide 152, uæin 263, but ai in dai 130, fain 286, mai 174, 204, main 290, maide 266, 283, maiden 282, ei in feire 210, feirest 89, seide 240 (3), seið 270, æ in færeste 7, æȝ in dæȝe 193, 194. e + g is generally ei, leide 215, toȝeines 240, þeines 101, weies 202, but awæi 129, bilæde 220: e + h is seen in hæhte 225, hæhten 230: i + g in þrien 284, þreoien 277 (influenced by þrēo): i + h in dihteð 67, dihte 135, isihðe 103: o + g, h in hohfulle 156, dohter 181: u + g, h in duȝeðe 141 (6), fluȝen 129, 130, but floȝen 129, fuhten 127. ā + g is aȝ, aȝene 208, 296, aȝere 201; ā + h is oh, oht 113, ohte 84 (3). ǣ₁ + g, h is seen in fæie 127, bitæht 205, bitæhten 284; ǣ₂ + g in maies 182; ē + g in beyne 168, twene 168 (with loss of g); ī + g in fridæi 74; ō + g in droȝen 93, inoȝe 134, sloȝen 126, ofsloȝen 119, vnnifoȝe 130; ō + h in biþohte 111, 142, noht 80, rohten, sohten 10, þohten 122, exceptionally afeoh 188. ea + h, ht is seen in æhtene 234, isæh 116, mæhti 65, sæh 23, sæxisce 97, sæxelonde 271, but saxelonde 124, 278, saxisce 114, sexisc 180; the i-umlaut in mihte 46, mihte 58, nihtes 23. eo + h, ht is mostly i, cnihtes 17, fihte 115, 172, rihten 20, but feht 120, 126, sexte 39, fæhte 155, sæxte 63, Peohtes 84, 107. ēa + h, is eh, heh 66, neh 291, æh, hæh 64, 65, hæhliche 16, 190, hæhne 205; ēa + g gives hæȝe 141, 259: the umlaut is wanting in hæhste 62 (3), hærre 13, ihæȝed 153. ēo + g, h is seen in driȝen 25, 196, iuaid 175, ræh 291. ā + w appears in nawiht 104; ī + w in tisdæi 76; ēo + w in acneowe 261, bleowen 249, neowe 28, 106, treowe 28, eouwer 24 (4), eoure 54, æoure 53, eou 26: feorðe 61, 72 is fēorþa.

The prefix æt is at, atstonde 183, atwite 204; on is a in afon 178, afeoh 188, among 146, but imong 157 is gemang. oþ is a in aþet 229: o is levelled to e in whanene 31, whænnenen 27, wunder 213: eo is written for e in cusseoð 277; i for e in cristine 294. The glide e is inserted in æuere 132, nauere 23, læuedi 65, næueden 228; i is prefixed in iliue 22, probably by anticipation of iluued.

w is lost in þong 219, beside þwong 217, 218; for w, u is written in Cantuarieburi 15, l is lost in scat 189. m is doubled in icummen 3, n in hennen 160, iborenne 259, whænnenen 27. n is lost in gome 228, and often in i 137 for in, iþan 126, iþere 72, a 81 for on: in 240 represents inn. f is kept in the combinations fd, fn, hafde 212, læfdi 74, æfne 70, 296, and as a final, hælf 117, initially after a word ending in a voiceless sound, færeð 43, fain 286, feorr 160, folc 36. Otherwise it is u, initially, as classified at 365/3-6, uorð 41, ualde 203, uerden 48, uast 132, uæin 263, ueden 190, uiue 105, uul 276, 277, medially, bilæuen 39, biuoren 95, uuele 280, deluen 221, helue 129; it is written fu in hæfuest 50, bilæfuen 24, ȝifuen 72, 76, leofue 54, 79. But exceptions are numerous, fare 176, færen 45, feole 119, fiue 39, forð 39, fforð 14, fuliwis 225, biforen 17, toforen 144, ifaren 105, vfel 78. of is shortened to o 213. For t, d is written in bed 100, th in bithecheð 276: in bezste 200 (4), z = ts; t is doubled in bett 100, lost in henges 32, 151, Hænges 55; for tt, ht is written in hæhte 59 &c., if it represents hatte. d is lost in lon 64, selcuðe 2, 35, walden 71. For þ, d appears in cudðe 98, dod 86, falled 38, iuald 109, ladlic 294, luted 54, madmes 134, odere 228, 276, swide 120, 236; whar 28 represents hwæðer. sć is regularly sc, scal 38, scenden 192, monscipe 153, bruttisc 281, but særes, schæren 216. The stop c is written k before e, i, also in kærf 217, in other positions c, castel 173, dronc 283; ah 8 (6) is Anglian ah, WS. ac. č is ch, ælchen 78, elchen 21, bitechen 191, drenche 272, muchel 42, richen 154, sechen 49, swulche 23, wulche 53, but alc 51, swulc 218. ic is ich 22, ic 175; cæster, Chastre 226. čč is cch in ræcchen 148; cw is qu, queð 147. Palatal g is written ȝ, ȝare 224, ȝirnde 206, hærȝieð 108: a parasitic ȝ appears in iȝeten 252. g is lost finally in weoli 60, moni 93; it exchanges with w in herberwe 131. čǧ is gg in sugge 52, 167, ligge 174 &c. Initial h is lost in lauerd 49, læuedi 65, loten 37, iloten 252, lust 30, lusten 149, nap 275, ræh 291, and added in hi[s] 36; also medially in hehne 102 (hēanne), whar 61. hw is regularly wh, whæt 27 &c., whar 28, while 237, but wulche 53. In burhȝe 205, burhȝen 251, the scribe wavers between h and ȝ; elsewhere he writes burhe, burȝen, burje, buruwe.

(2) Of O. Oral a is a, ac 8, faren 45; a before nasals is regularly a, fram 203, gan 92, 207, nam 92, wan 183, wane 189, wanene 27, þanne 204, 282, but drong 283, isomned 36; a before lengthening groups is o, among 156, londe 19 (16 times), longe 104, but amang 251, answerede 21, 78, lang 217, þwang 217, 218, onderfang 188: and is and 18, an 133, man, pron., me 276. æ is a, after 186, bar 257, sat 261, 287, spac 195, 262, nas 104, but þes 292. e is normally e, beste 238, Dence 229, selliche 2 (seollich O 14409); before lengthening groups e, ende 109, Englene 262, Englisse 226, felde 203, but Ænglis 34 (comp. 266/15), Œnglisse 281: forbærnan is forbearne 165, bearneþ 108; ærnan, erneþ 108; mengde, meynde 292. i is i, amidde 203, ligge 177, wille 196; before lengthening groups i, children 187, þing 60, but cheldren 159, þenges 35. The present forms of willan have o, wolle 20, wolleþ 87, wolt 184, a French writing for u, but nelle 191: ġift is ȝeftes 88, 133. o is o, bolle 257, dorste 137; before lengthening groups o, borde 215, wolde 19: on is a 117, 261, an 53; þane 74 (7) descends from LWS. þane. u is regularly o, borh 191 (4), come 137 (3), drongken 251, foliwis 225, gomes 2, loue 69, þos 183, wonie 173, but þus 48, 77, vp 38; before lengthening groups it is u, funde 298, grunde 109, hundred 5, 233, but mornede 293, wonder 35. y is u, Bruttesse 225, cunne 181, custe, clupte 289, dude 117, fulþ 276, lust 269, nuste 264, vuele 21; for u, o is written in come 118, comes 263, mochel 123 (6), soche 23, 291, woche 53 (hwylc), and before a lengthening group, goldene 257; but y is i in win 63, winne 188, kinelonde 192, and as usual in king 50, and e in dedest 162, wercheþ 68.

ā is regularly o, brod 218, ihote 34, 67, non 258, no 23, 204, (nā), on 59 &c., but a 60, 63, an 64, 65; before two consonants o, loþlich 294, one 214 (ānne), but ane 217, 223, 257, nanne 191, hatte 32 (8), haxede 265: þā is þe 7 &c., þās, þeos 18, 69, 215; þām, þan 1 &c.; hwām, wan 38. ǣ₁ is e, bilefue 24, 46, erest 262, heþene 8 (3), sprede 210, but bitak 173, bitake 191, bitakest 205 (confusion with tacan), deal 220, heaþene 295, leore 150, rounded before r, stonene 222 (*stānen); before two consonants e, arerde 223, ech 185, euere 7, wendesdei 72, but leafdi 65, ladde 259, wraþþe 150. ǣ₂ is e, dedes 87, onimete 254, sete 250, þere 44, 48, weren 2 (10), but ea in beade 298, reade 110, 171, 298, a in þar 119, þarin 283, þaron 5, þare 37 (4), ware 176, 210, eo in beore 93, eoten 251 (elsewhere ge-eten, pp., is represented by iheote O 6691, iȝeote O 14952); before two consonants it is a in þarfore 48, 86, adradde O 7575, ea in sealþe O 25574, and e in wepne O 14838. ē is e, cweme 184, seche 41, wene 175; before two consonants, cwemde 139, grette 18, 144, lette 221 (4), OE. lēt: aȝen 131, toȝenes 240 represent ongēn, togēnes; gē, pron., is ȝeo, 27, 53, 79; doþ 292, pr. s., has o from plural. ī is i, bliþe 24, swiþe 2, 51, wif 178 &c., written always ii in hii 8 (20), and y in tydinge 1 (3); but bloþeliche 282 (blȳþe), heredmen 67 (? influenced by heord); before two consonants i, fifþe 62, wisne 214, but womman 299. ō is o, com 1, soþ 50; before two consonants, most 110, moste 46. ū is ou, French writing for u, aboute 220, couþe 214, nou 48, þou 20, but u in dun 246, vre 35, 64, vs 20, 45, and o in bote 177, 218. ȳ is regularly u, biclused 177, cuðen 269, hude 202, lutel 206, prude 254, scrude 190: þȳ is þe 8, 184.

ea before r + cons. is regularly a, harm 8, iȝarked 238, ȝarue 224. The i-umlaut is represented by deorne 148, which points to Anglian e. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, al 22 &c., falleþ 38, halt 275, halle 99, half 117, salt 189, wal 222; before lengthening groups o, anwolde 83, atholde 20, 83, biholde 209, 223, holde 143, 150: the i-umlaut is seen in elder 29, heoldre 187, falleþ 109 (Ang. fællan). eo before r + cons. is eo in heorte 288, e in hercne 147, werpeð 37, o in for 203; before a lengthening group eo in ȝeorne 288: words of the wur group have o, worsipe 26, 68, worþliche 190, iworþe 91; the i-umlaut is o, forst 26, ȝornde 206: wyr is represented in worse 291, 292. eo before l + cons. is eo in seolue 113, seolf 209. The u-umlaut of a is wanting in care 123, 176. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, gives cleopede 230, soueþe 64, and analogically ileued 22, but heora is hire 69 &c. ea after palatals is a, sal 89, e, ȝef 133 (3), before nasal, a, same 86. ie after g is e, biȝete 172, ȝeue 88, ȝefue 69, ȝef 201. ȝef, conj., is ȝif 20. eo after g is o, ȝonge 159, 187; after sc, o, solde 45, 178. eom is ham 24, 175, nam 176; heom, heom 69 (4).

ēa is divided between ea, dead 175, deaþe 46, slean 165, and e, bileue 53, 79, gret 63, lefue 92, lesing 50: the i-umlaut is represented by bilefeþ 53, ihure 149; before two consonants by ihord 50 (4). ēo is regularly eo, beo 27 &c., deor 43; before two consonants, biheold 246, 288, freond 273, 274; but biful 122, 140, ful 45: bitwine 167 descends from betwinum: deore 88, 236, freond, dat., 273, neod 38, 171 are without umlaut. OE. gīet is ȝet 65. ēa after g is e, ȝer 36, ȝere 44.

a + g is aȝ, daȝes 69, ofslaȝe 138 (ofslagen), and aw, lawe 285. æ + g is mostly ai, dai 23, faire 18 (7), mai 173, saiþ 273, saide 51 (5), or ay, mayde 282, moneday 70, but ei in seide 19, 240, seiþ 270, tisdei 70, wendesdei 72. æ + h occurs in iveiþed 175. e + g is ei, leide 220, oþerweies 122, or ey, awey 129, but ai in laide 215. e + h occurs in hehte 162, 225; i + h in sihte 103; o + h in dohter 181; u + g in floȝe 129. ā + g is ow, owe 201, owene 208. ā + h is seen in ohte 84; ǣ₁ + h in bitahte 284; ī + g in friday 74; ō + g in sloȝen 126, ofsloȝen 119; ō + h in iþohten 122, noht 41, 218. ea + h is eh, seh 23; the i-umlaut of ea + ht is i, mihte 210, mihti 60, 65. eo + ht is i, cnihtes 5, fihte 126, rihte 20, sixte 63, but Peutes 84, 107; the i-umlaut is represented by nihte 23. ēa + g occurs in hehȝe 259; ēa + h in heh 64, neh 291: the i-umlaut in hehest 62. ēo + w is ou, ȝoure 53 &c., ȝou 24, 88, ou 83, but cnouwe 261.

e is added in here 7, ofte 86. on is reduced to an 53, a 117, and in the prefix of aboute 220, amidde 203; o becomes e in forte 229. For u, o occurs in onderfang 188, onimete 254. The suffix -ung is ing in rouning 143, tydinge 147.

Initial f is once v, vare 176, elsewhere f, faren 45, fareþ 48; between vowels or vowel and liquid it is u, v, delue 221, ived 100, iveiþed 175, vuele 21, but bilefeþ 53, life 46, and before u f is retained, biful 122: fu is written in bilefue 24, 46, lefue 92, 207, leofue 79, 274, lifue 22, lofuieþ 286, wifues 43 (5). For t, d is written in bed 100; fifþe 62 (fīfta) is an early instance of the modern form. d is lost in an 133, answerede 21. For þ, th appears in deathe 157; ð occurs only in louieð 57. sc is regularly s, sal 89, same 86, sende 192, solle 24, worsipe 26, Ænglis 34, but ss in Bruttesse 225, 281, Englisse 226, Œnglisse 281, and c in Dence 229 (Denisc), which appears to indicate a pronunciation for sc of [s]. The stop c is written k before e, i, ilke 34, kinelonde 192, and finally bitak 173, folk 36; nc is ng, dring 282, dringe 273, 275, dringþ 275, drong 283, drongken 251. č is ch, childe 43, ech 185, ich 22 (ihc 177), mochel 123, soche 23, 291, speche 266. Palatal g is regularly written ȝ, aȝen 131, ȝarue 224, sloȝen 126: hehȝe 259 represents hēage, meynde 292 mengde. h is added initially in ham 24 &c., haxede 265, heoldre 187, hifulled 258, himakede 240, hin 131. Initial hl is reduced to l, lotes 37, lust 269, hn to n nap 275, hw to w, wan 38, wanene 27, ware 176, wat 27, wile 237, woche 53. heo, pron., she, is regularly ȝeo 67 &c., comp. Orm’s ȝho, 112/2.

Accidence: (1) of C. A peculiar feature of these texts is the occasional addition of n after a final vowel. This ‘nunnation,’ fairly common in C, rare in O, is marked here by round brackets. Its use makes it doubtful at times whether a noun or adjective ending in n is a weak form or a strong form with added n. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. a. maide 266, 283, 295 has lost final n. Gen. -es, þunres 73, twines 218: dat. -e, ræde 197, gomene 291, londe 3, vfele 51, crafte(n) 214, cume(n) 24, cunne(n) 188, inne(n) 112, liue(n) 25, rihte(n) 20, wurðscipe(n) 26; without inflection are ræd 298, gomen 231, kinelond 56, lond 162, vfel 78, gome (gamene) 228, lon 64, and the proper name Saturnus 75. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, cnihtes 17 (6), madmes 134, but cnihten 5, 27, ridern 233, sunen 105 are weak forms: neuters are ȝer 36, þing 50, wif 43, but haefden 87, loten 37, scipen 4 (3) are weak. Genitives are londe 33, þinge 260, weak forms are ænglene 262, cnihtene 55, 89, and, before a vowel, cnihten 77, 152, 195: datives have mostly -en, cnihten 155, dæȝen 69, goden 68, scipen 92, 232, but londes 137, þinge 61. The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in the s. n. a., duȝeðe 170, 252, 272, hude 202, 210, dæde 197, ferde 85, duȝeðe(n) 166, but sæ 2. Gen. -e, duȝeðe 141; humbre 117 is an indeclinable form: dat. -e, halle 99, helue 129, honde 257, halle(n) 259, but hælf 117, hond 201. Pl. n. are laȝe(n) 278, 285, probably weak; d. deden 96, laȝen 163, leoden 295 (from pl. noun lēode), runen 159, nihtes 23; a. leode(n) 165, 285, rune(n) 148, 156, probably weak. Nouns of the weak declension have mostly -e in all cases of the singular, but iueren 276, monen 76, læfdi 74 are dative, læuedi 65 acc.: the plural has -en throughout, n. gumen 2, ileuen 53, 80; d. iueren 233; a. bemen 249, nomen 231. The minor declensions are represented by mon s. n. 41, wimmon 180, monne s. d. 205, mon s. a. 214, wimmon 299, men pl. n. 7 &c., wimmonne(n) pl. g. 270, monnen pl. d. 112 (5), hiredmonnen 157, scipenmonnen 6 (for scipmonnen), cunnesmen pl. a. 98; burh s. n. 228, s. a. 173, 191, 223, burhȝe 205 (? confusion with pl. burga), burhȝe(n) s. d. 251; broðer s. n. 29; dohter s. d. 181; freond s. n., freonde s. d. 273; walden s. n. 71; childe s. d. 43, child s. a. 44, children pl. d. 187.

Adjectives, which in OE. end in a vowel, have e in all cases, bliðe 116, deore 181, ȝare 224, hende 287, mare 223, sturne 120, vnimete 254, wilde 43; those in -ig lose g, hali 66, mæhti 65, weoli 60. Of the weak declension are s. n. cristine 294, holde 154, leofue 274, d. bare 158, quicke 25, a. feire 210, hæðene 193, haðene 295. Strong inflections are s. d. m. richen 154, soðen 26, fæire 211, hæȝe 141, hæðene 205, s. d. neut. uncuðe 40, s. a. m. brædne 209, hæhne 205 (with burg f.), hehne 102, godne 49, guldene 257, stenene 222, wisne 214, but long, smal 217 are not inflected, s. a. f. gode 136, kineliche 173, stronge 85. mycel is s. n. muchel 42, d. muchele f. 171, a. muchele m. 221 (but dic is usually f. in L), muche 220, muchele f. 223, muchel neut. 201, pl. n. muchele 234: āgen gives aȝene s. n. neut. wk. 296, aȝere s. d. f. 201, aȝene s. d. neut. 208. The plural of all adjectives ends in -e, except særi pl. n. 103 (sārig), dæde(n) 110, ȝungen d., olden 187. OE. ān is s. n. an 59, 64, 161, a 218, 267, g. anes m. 202, d. ane m. 140, 141, 203, 213, an neut. 51, a. ænne m. 173, 209, 214, enne (ende) 211, with d. uelde 211, 217, ane 257, a 153, anne f. 65, ane 173, 212, 223, an neut. 240, a 215: nān is s. n. na 41, d. nane neut. 47, nan 228, a. nane f. 191, nan neut. 281: bēgen is beyne 168. Adjectives used as nouns with inflection are hæne s. n. m. 204, hæhste 62, bezste s. d. 238, fæie pl. n. 127, ælderen pl. g. 193, ælderne 69. Comparatives end in -e, mære 42, mare 8; the superlative has weak inflection in aldeste s. n. m. 29, bezste 268, hæhste s. a. f. 69, but strong in aðelest 33, fæirest 55, 89, 152, 270, hæhst 155, hendest 77, 95, 195; plurals are færeste n. 7, bezste 200, 256, deoreste 244.

The personal pronouns are ich 22, ic 175, me, we, us, þu, þe, ȝe, eou. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 16, heo 73, heo f. 66, hit neut. 5; d. him m. 72, heom 71, hire f. 74, 224; a. hine m. 13, 230 (with burg f.), 275, heo f. 66, 225; pl. n. heo 3 &c., d. heom 9, a. 67. Reflexives are þe seoluen 166, hine 111, him seoluen 145: definitive, seolf 81, 209: possessives, s. mi n. m. 32; mine d. m. 83, mire f. 181, 199, 201, mine neut. 22 (7); mine a. f. 149, 197, mi neut. 182; pl. a. mine 182; s. þin n. m. 154, þine 170, þine d. m. 154, 197, 263, þire f. 171, þine neut. 183, 186, a. m. 153 (possibly f., the nouns in -scipe are mostly f. in L), f. 166, þi neut. 108, 165, þin 196; pl. þine n. 167, d. 155, a. 165; his 10, hire 232; ure 35; eoure 54, eouwer 24 (4), æoure 53, heore 37. The definite article is s. þe n. m. 29, 218, þæ 63, 231, þa 15, 39, þe f. 224, þæ 228, þa 238, þat neut. 36, þe 43, þas g. m. 292, þere f. 117, þan d. m. 4, 40 (with leode f.), þa 73 (miswritten for þan), þere f. 3, 72, 217, þene 75 (miswritten for þere), þan neut. 1, 126, 136, 253, 290, þene a. m. 72 (7), þane 139, þa f. 174, 193, þat neut. 283, (for) þi instr. 48, 66, þa 8, 184, 252; pl. þa n. 7 &c., þan d. 6, 137, 187, þa a. 229, 285. Þat is used demonstratively, 8, 277, 283, 266 (with speche f.), 34 (with ænde d. m.); the article is also used pronominally in vppen þan þe, upon whom 38. The compound demonstrative is s. þes n. m. 162, þis neut. 7, 278, þas d. f. 117, þisse neut. 19, 162, þissen 285, þis 56, þas a. f. 215, þis neut. 116, 178, 209, 280; pl. þas n. 17, 79, 169, a. 231. The relatives are þe, þat 7, 150 (= that which), þa 58, 68, 96, 105, 172, 174; þer . . . on, on which, 210. Interrogatives are whæt 27 (3), what 31 (4), wulche pl. n. 53, the correlative is swulchere s. d. f. 103, swulche s. d. neut. 231, pl. n. 23: ilca is ilke s. n. m. 237, 275, ilken s. d. m. 34, ilke pl. a. 285. Indefinites are me 276; oðer s. n. m. 29, odere d. neut. 228, oder a. m. 276, oðer a. neut. 283, oðere pl. n. 164; anoðer s. n. neut. 122; ælches s. g. m. 202, ælche d. m. 203, f. 129, neut. 155, 291, aelchen 78, 185, alchen 280, elchen 21, alc 51; æueralche s. d. neut. 44; æi s. n. f. 272, a. f. 205; nohtes g. s. 82; moni 93, 153, 286, muni 113, pl. monie 126, 130; feole 119; al s. n. neut. 37, alle d. f. 244, neut. 22, al 56, alle a. m. 130, al 109, f. 197, pl. alle n. 99, all 110, alre g. 33 (8), alle d. 61, 68, al 112, alle a. 50, 135.

Four-fifths of the infinitives end in -en; cleopien 249 is the only infinitive of the second weak conjugation; there are no examples in -in or -i; those in -e are athælde 83, bilæue 46, cuðe 158, ligge 174, liðe 39, 92, 207, 243, ræde 171, spræde 210, all at the end of line or half-line, cume 164, iwurðe 90: contract verbs are afon 178, slæn 165. The dat. inf. is not inflected. Presents are s. 1. habbe 22, libbe 174; 2. ȝettest 184, hæfuest 50; 3. bereð 44, bitecheð 276, dihteð 67, drinkeð 275, fareð 276, falled 38, fordemed 170, exceptionally gladieð 272; contracted are halt 275, seið 270, sæið 274, sæiðe 273 (miswritten for sæið); pl. 1. biliueð 91, luuieð 57; 2. haldeð 193, luted 54; 3. ærneð 108, cusseoð 277, liggeð 82, hærȝieð 108, hatieð 157, luuieð 66, spilieð 159, wunieð 160, iuald 109 (gefiellaþ): subjunctive s. 1. fare 176, habbe 182; 2. biȝite 172, bitache 173, habbe 205, sugge 52: imperative s. 2. afeoh 188, drinc 282, hærcne 147, lust 30, 269. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 1. sæh 23; 3. bad 241, 297, bed 298, ȝæf 134, ȝef 133, 299, isæh 116, queð 147, sæt 261, sat 287, spæc 195; pl. 3. æten 251, setten 250: I b. s. 3. bar 257, com 113 (4), nom 92, 207, 215; pl. 3. comen 1, 235 (11), come 229; subj. s. 3. come 241: I c. s. 3. bigon 221, dronc 283, funde 298 (weak form), gon 92 (3), ilomp 122, 140, kærf 217; pl. 3. drunken 146, 251, fuhten 127, gunnen 14, 249: II. pl. 3. driuen 229: III. s. 3. bad 239; pl. 3. fluȝen 129, 130, floȝen 129: IV. s. 3. scop 224, stod 136 (3); pl. 1. uerden 48 (weak form from fēran); 3. droȝen 93, sloȝen 126, ofsloȝen 119: V. s. 3. biheold 246, 288, hæhte 225 (weak form), lette (weak form), 283; passive, s. 1. hatte 32; 3. hatte 64, hæhte (hatte) 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 161, 162, if it be not the active form with passive meaning; pl. 3. bleowen 249, feollen 127, hæhten 230, hetten 250. Participles past: I a. biȝite 212, iȝeten 252: I. b. iborenne adj. pl. 259, (kine) borne pl. 168, icumen 2 (6), icummen 3, icume 117, ouercumen 128: III. iloten 252: IV. ifaren 105, ofslæȝen 138, ofslaȝen 163, atstonde 183: V. ihaten 34, ihate 67, ihalden 102, 279, underfon 241. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. andswerede 21, arerde 223, bilæde 220, fræinede 265 (gefrægnan), ȝette 242, hafde 212 (5), hæfde 233, hehde (for hefde) 69, bitæhte(n) 284, hæfde(n), 214, næuede(n) 228; pl. 3. andswerden 11, cleopeden 226, halde 290. Participles past: biclused 177, bitæht 205, ibrusted 256, iȝarked 238, 240, ihæȝed 153 (*hēagian), islit 219, iuaid 175; inflected are iscrudde, iuædde 100. Minor Groups: nuste pt. s. 264; cuðe pt. s. 214, 281, cuðen pt. pl. 11; dursten pt. pl. 158, durste 137; scat 2 pr. s. 189, scal pr. s. 38, scullen 1 pr. pl. 68, 2 pr. pl. 24, pr. pl. 39, scolde pt. s. 241, scolden 1 pt. pl. 45; mai 1 pr. s. 174, pr. s. 204, mæi 73, mihte pt. s. 111, 210, mihte we 1 pt. pl. 46; most 2 pr. s. 110; beon inf. 28, am 1 pr. s. 175, æm 24, 263, næm 176, is pr. s. 32, js 67, us 62, nis 56, beoð 45, 1 pr. pl. 31, 33, 48, 110, seoð 31 (with s for b from sind, sīen), beoð 2 pr. pl. 79, pr. pl. 35, 271, 278, beo 1 pr. s. subj. 183, pr. s. subj. 41, beon 2 pr. pl. subj. 27, seon 27 (sīen), wes pt. s. 8 (6), wæs 78, nes 104, 218, weoren pt. pl. 2 (8), weore 8, neoren 138, weore(n) pt. s. subj. 266, ibeon pp. 154; wulle 1 pr. s. 25 (7), wulle(n) 30, 88, 184, nulle 191, wult 2 pr. s. 149, 178, wule pr. s. 202, wulleð 1 pr. pl. 194, 2 pr. pl. 87, pr. pl. 164, wulle pr. s. subj. 90, wullen 2 pr. pl. subj. 28, wolde pt. s. 20 (4), wolden pt. pl. 19, 192, walden 12, 42; don inf. 111, to don dat. inf. 298, dod pr. pl. 86, dude pt. s. 292, duden pt. pl. 71, 117, idon pp. 9, 63, 180; eode pt. s. 144, 253.

Noteworthy are the adverbs forðrihtes 107, at this very moment, stilledliche 159, probably miswritten for stilliche of the exemplar, rather than for stilleliche, which is unmetrical wherever it occurs, and whænnene(n) 27, representing hwanone. OE. nā conj. is once na, nor 191, but no 23, no . . . no, neither . . . nor 138.

(2) Of O. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. a. maide 266 (3) has lost final n. Gen. -es, kinges 292: dat. -e, crafte 214, lifdaȝe 138, ȝere 44, inne 253, londe 19 (9), but dai 23, and the neuters folk 295, ȝer 36, hin 131, lond 64, 262 are uninflected; game 285, 291 represents gamene: borde s. a. 215 has added e. The pl. n. d. a. ends in -es, n. m. comes 263, kempes 5, neut. sipes 4, þenges 35, wifues 43, d. m. cnihtes 133, godes 68, neut. sipes 232, þinges, 61, a. m. cnihtes 23, neut. bordes 250, godes 93, londes 37, 193, lotes 37: gen. are cnihtes 112, Englene 262 (weak form), þing 260 (miswritten for þinge). The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in the s. n. a., blisse 251, hude 202, speche 266, tydinge 1, care 123, see 2, but leafdi 65, lesing 50, rouning 143: dat. -e, halue 221, winne 188, but half 117, hond 201, 257, win 63. Pl. n. are lawe 285, tydinge 104, lawes 278, d. rouninges 148, wiþerededes 87, a. leode 165, tydinge 147, ȝeftes 88, 133. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular, n. wone 271, d. ivere 276, a. bolle 257; pl. n. are bileue 53, bilefues 79, gomes 2, d. ivere 233, a. rideres 233. The minor declensions are represented by man s. d. 205, s. a. 214, womman 299, men pl. n. 7, heredmen 67, wommanne pl. g. 270, men pl. d. 193; borh s. n. 224, s. a. 191; nihte s. d. 23; broþer s. n. 29, s. a. 164; dohter s. n. 181; childe s. d. 43, 44, cheldren pl. d. 159, children 187; freond s. n. 273, s. d. 273.

Adjectives, which in OE. end in a vowel, have -e throughout, bliþe 24, deore 236, deorne 148, ȝarue 224, hende 299, onimete 254, riche 33, 133, wilde 43; those in -ig lose g, mihti 60, sori 103. Of the weak declension are s. n. m. cristene 294, leofue 274, but heh 64, 205 is not inflected, s. n. f. faire 287, s. d. f. bare 157 (deathe is treated as f.), s. a. neut. heaþene 295. Strong inflections are s. d. m. heþene 205, s. a. m. goldene 257, stonene 222, wisne 214, but lang, smal 217, strong 222 are uninflected. mycel is moche s. n. neut. 181, mochele s. d. m. 26, f. 171, moche s. a. m. 220, mochel f. 123, neut. 201: āgen, owe s. d. f. 201, owene s. d. neut. 208. All adjectives have -e in all cases of the plural, except wonder 35, noun used as adj., and ȝong 187, miswritten for ȝonge. ān is s. n. an 64, on 59, 161, a 60, 63, d. one m. 203, on 140, 177, f. 237, one neut. 33, a. ane m. 217, 223, 257, one 173, 214, an f. 65, on neut. 240; nān is s. n. non 258, a. nanne m. 191, no f. 50. Adjectives used as nouns with inflection are Bruttesse s. d. neut. 225, 281, beste 238, Œnglisse 281. Of comparatives heoldre 187 is pl. d.; the superlatives beste s. n. m. wk. 268 and faireste pl. n. 7 are alone inflected.

The personal pronouns are ich, ihc 177, me, we, vs, þou, þe, ȝe, ȝeo 27, 53, 79, ȝou, ou 83. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 21, ȝeo f. 67 (6), hit neut. 5, d. him m. 19, a. hine m. 18 (5), hire f. 67, 225, pl. n. hii 8 (21), d. heom 69, a. 188: reflexive is him seolue 113; definitive, him seolf 209. Possessives are s. n. min m. 32, mi 269, f. 181, neut. 178, d. min m. 83, f. 201, mine neut. 22 (4), a. mine f. 149; s. d. þine f. 171, neut. 186, a. þine m. 196, þin neut. 108, þi 165, pl. n. þine 167, 263, d. 156, a. 165; his 19, 99, 101; hire 224; vre 35; ȝoure 26; hire 37 (6). The definite article is s. n. þe m. 29, f. 224, þat neut. 36, 38, 128, g. þes m. 292, d. þan m. 1 (11), þane 72, 144, þare f. 157 (with deathe, usually m.), þan 103 (m. form with sihte f.), neut. 1, 126, 238, a. þane m. 74 (7), þat neut. 206, þe instr. 8, 184, pl. n. þe 7 &c.: þat is used demonstratively 8, 45, 283. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þis neut. 278, d. þis f. 117, þisse neut. 137, þisne 285 (miswritten for þisse), a. þeos f. 215, þis neut. 178, 280, pl. n. þeos 18, þes 7, g. þeos 112, d. 68, a. 69. The relatives are þat 7 &c., þe 57, þat . . . he, who, 21, wan s. d., whom 38. Interrogatives are wat 27, 264, 266, 270, woche pl. 53, with correlative soche 23, 291: ilca is ilke s. n. m. 237, 275, s. d. m. 34, f. 103, neut. 285. Indefinites are me 276; oþer s. n. m. 29, a. neut. 283, pl. n. 164; anoþer 114; eche s. d. m. 203, neut. 21, 36, 280, ech 185; euereche s. d. f. 129, euerech 221, euereche neut. 44; eni s. a. f. 205; mani s. n. 114, pl. n. 286, manie pl. a. 119, 126; al s. n. neut. 89, alle d. m. 78, al neut. 22, alle a. m. 109, al 196, alle pl. n. 99, alre g. 77 (3), alle 260, alle d. 61, 68, al 270, al a. 93.

Nineteen-twentieths of the infinitives end in e; wonie 173 is the only infinitive of the second weak conjugation; those in -en are cuðen 269, faren 45, slean 165, wreken 164; in i-, granti 184, sarui 19, both French. The dat. inf. is not inflected, to biholde 209, 223, for habbe 293, for to . . . seche 37. Presents are s. 1. habbe 22, wene 175; 2. bitakest 205, hauest 50; 3. falleþ 38, fareþ 48, takeþ 276, stondeþ 227; contracted, dringþ 275, fulþ 276, halt 275, saiþ 273, 274, seiþ 270; pl. 1. habbeþ, louieð 57, but ȝefue 69 (5); 2. bilefeþ 53; 3. bearneþ, erneþ 108, falleþ 109, hatieþ 157, louieþ 67, 286, sleaþ 108: subjunctive s. 2. biȝete 172; 3. ȝefue 297: imperative s. 2. bitak 173, dring 282, ȝef 201, hercne 147, lust 269, nim 186, onderfang 188, send 186. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 1. seh 23; 3. bad 239, 297, ȝaf 206, ȝef 133, 299, sat 261, 287, spac 195, 262; pl. 3. eoten 251, sete 250; subj. s. 3. beade 298, speke 266: I b. s. 3. bar 257, com 1 (3), come 144, nam 92 (3), pl. 3. beore 93, come 7, 104, 285, comen 18, 119; subj. pl. 3. come 113, 245: I c. s. 3. drong 283, funde 298 (weak form), gan 92, 207; pl. 3. drongken 251, gonne 245: II. pl. 3. driuen 229: III. pl. 3. floȝe 129: IV. pl. 3. sloȝen 126, ofsloȝen 119; subj. s. 1. bitoke 193: V. s. 3. biful 122, 140, biheold 246, 288, ful 45, hehte 225 (weak form active), 162 (in meaning passive), lette (weak form) 221, 250, 254, 283; passive s. 1. hatte 32; 3. 32 (8). Participles past: I b. ibore 259, icome 2 (4), icomen 27, 107, ouercome 128: IV. atstonde 183, ofslaȝe 138: V. ihote 34, 67. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. answerede 21, arerde 223, bitahte 284, grette 144, hadde 214, mornede 293 (murnde), swipte 284; pl. 3. cleopede 230, grette 18, hadde 123, ladde 259, seide 19, sette 230, wende 99, iþohten 122. Participles past: biclused 177, hifulled 258, iȝarked 238, ihord 50, 156, ileued 22, iscrud 100, isomned 36, ived 100, iveiþed 175, iwoned 121, himakede 240. Minor Groups: nuste pt. s. 264; couþe pt. s. 214, 281; dorste pt. pl. 137; salt 2 pr. s. 189, sal pr. s. 89, solle 2 pr. pl. 24, solde pt. s. 178, 1 pt. pl. 45; mai 1 pr. s. 173, pr. s. 204, mihte pt. s. 210, 258; most 2 pr. s. 110, mot pr. s. 38, 41, moste we 1 pt. pl. 46; beo inf. 175, ham 1 pr. s. 24, 175, nam 176, his pr. s. 34 (9), beoþ 1 pr. pl. 33 (4), 2 pr. pl. 79, pr. pl. 35 (5), beo pr. s. subj. 41, 2 pr. pl. subj. 27, beon pr. pl. subj. 172, was pt. s. 8 (10), nas 104, 218, weren pt. pl. 2 (5), were 4 (5), nere 138, were pt. s. subj. 218, 266; wolle 1 pr. s. 26 (8), nelle 191, wolt 2 pr. s. 149, 184, wole pr. s. 202, wolleþ 1 pr. pl. 184, 2 pr. pl. 87, pr. pl. 164, wolle 2 pr. s. subj. 20, woldes 2 pt. s. 178, wolde pt. s. 143, pt. pl. 19, 192; don inf. 178 (4), doþ pr. s. 292, pr. pl. 86, dedest 2 pt. s. 162, dude pt. pl. 117, idon pp. 138; goþ pr. pl. 43, 44.

Dialect: The speech of North Worcestershire, where the Brut was written, descended from a Saxon patois which was substantially South-Western, but with an Anglian element derived from the neighbouring Mercia. Occasional forms in the texts, which are foreign to this dialect, may be due, as Luhmann thinks, to the poet himself, who, as he tells us, had travelled ‘wide ȝond þas leode,’ or to some intermediate copyist, but otherwise the manuscripts present, on the whole, the natural development of the dialect of the original. What the professional scribes who copied them contributed to the divergences from the original text was mainly graphic and in a great measure due to the clash of native spelling with the French scribal methods to which they were accustomed.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian words in C O are bule bole, gærsume garisome, gistninge gystninge, hæil hail, laȝe lawe, swaines sweines, wæshail wassayl; in C only, ibon, dring, grið, loten, tiðende, utlaȝen; in O only, sleh, þorisdai: French in C O, castel, latimer; in O only, granti, pore, sarui.

Metre: (1) Of C. Like the Worcester Fragment, p. 232, and the Proverbs of Alfred, pp. 292-4, Layamon’s verse presents an intermediate stage in the transition from the OE. alliterative long line to the rhyming couplet as exemplified in King Horn (KH p. xlvi). Our text has i. lines which continue the OE. practice of binding together the two halves of the line by alliteration only, as Ah héo weore hǽðene; þat wes hǽrm þa máre, 8; of þat ílken ǽnde; þe ángles is iháten, 34; these have four stresses separated by light syllables varying in number: ii. lines which add rhyme as an ornament to alliteration, as heo cómen into hálle; hǽndeliche álle 99; út of þan léode; to úncuðe lónde, 40; swiðe monie péohtes; heo slóȝen iþan féhte, 126, and with similar imperfect rhymes 79, 92, 174, &c.; the rhythm of these also is alliterative: iii. lines like those of the second class in structure, but already showing in various degrees the disintegrating effects of rhyme in their wavering rhythm, as þat ouer sǽ weorẹn icúmen; swíðe | sélcuðe | gúmen, 2, or with a regular syllabic rhythm, as ne mí|hte wé | bilǽ|uè; for lí|ue né | for dǽ|ðè, 46: iv. lines with rhyme only, as þe féor|ðe hǽh|te Jú|pitér; of ál|le þín|ge hé | is whár, 61; and ǽf|ter óh|te món|nèn; þa béz|stẹ of mí|ne cún|nè, 200; these can be scanned as syllabic verse without assuming any licence which is not to be found in the Poema Morale: v. lines without alliteration or rhyme, as 67, 242, 286, 297; these may be regarded as corrupt. The alliteration is varied, rarely 2 + 2, as 75, 127, 161; 2 + 1, normal in OE., as 17, 29, 32 &c.; 1 + 1, by far the commonest, as 30, 36, 38, 42, &c.; 1 + 2, as 2, 13, 33: the last stress sometimes falls at the end of the second half-line, contrary to OE. usage, as 17. Crossed alliteration occurs at 31, 39, 40, 91, 124; distinct alliteration in each half-line at 76, 249. Perfect rhymes like sohten : rohten 10, imetten : igrætten 18 are comparatively few, imperfect ones frequent, as vnwraste : criste 80, ænde : grunde 109, dæðe : cuðe 158, monnen : hennen 160, ræde : neode 171, spræde : hude 210, hude : neode 212, inne : cunne 235, nap : up 275, wīn : ĭn 283; a final consonant is negligible, to : idon 9, wolde : athalden 20, laȝe : dæȝen 69, peohtes : fehte 126, fluȝen : vnnifoȝe 130, fæhte : cnihten 155, cumeð : gærsume 189, monnen : cunne 200, hude : ouerspræden 202, sætte : hæhten 230, scruden : prude 254, even a final syllable, scenden : lond 192; assonances are frequent, as driȝen : liuen 25, lond : strong 56, londe : stronge 85, 124, ligge : libbe 174, faste : castle 177, atwite : riche 204, ende : uelde 211, while : time 237, time : liðe 243; inflectional rhymes are admissible, as andswerden : cuðen 11, peohtes : londes 137, andswarede : wolde 151, children : olden 187, ihærde : seide 264; partial correspondences of sound suffice, as tiðende : kinge 1, wenden : kinge 14, leofue : laðe 79, læue : liðe 92, arerde : mare 223 (Bartels, 61), tiðende : londe 271, hende : kinge 287; proper names have special freedom, as Jupiter : whar 61, appollin : idon 63, Teruagant : lon[d] 64, alemanisce : horse 125, vortigerne : sone 265. The text has suffered much less from a metrical point of view than the Proverbs of Alfred, the interval of time between the original and the extant copy being shorter, but the changes are the same in kind. i. Words altered: for þa king 15 read muri; comp. ‘Swa he uorð to Cantuare-buri; þer him þuhte swiðe muri,’ L 29519, 20: l. 37, see note: l. 63, MS. O has possibly preserved the original: l. 85, read leod-ferde ful stronge: l. 146, for blisse—heom, read dune wes heom among; comp. ‘Þer wes swiðe muchel dune; þeines þer dremden,’ L 11574, 5: l. 242, for wolde read ȝirnde (Bartels 55); comp. 106/206: l. 268, for ær read euere: l. 286, for fain read sæl: l. 288, read þe leuedi he ȝeorne biheold; and comp. ‘He clepede to þere leuedi; heo wes him on heorten leof,’ L 1190, 1: l. 297, read dringe : ȝunge (for child). ii. Words omitted: l. 67, read dihteð alswa (Bartels 69): l. 107, read Lauerd king! nu forðrihtes; comp. 94/30, 96/50, 108/263: l. 131, read Vortigerne þe king; to herberwe wendẹ on hiȝing; comp. ‘Þa sæide þe king; Nu to scipe an hiȝing,’ L 32040, 1: l. 134, read hehȝe maðmes inoȝe; comp. ‘þa hæuekes ⁊ þa hundes; ⁊ hehȝe mine maħmes,’ L 22397, 8: l. 148, read runen swiðe deorne; comp. ‘and Hengest spæc wið Vortigerne; of rune swiðe derne,’ L 14768, 9: l. 209, where two lines have been compressed into one, read ‘⁊ he seolf wende; wide ȝeond þissen londe | To sechen on folde; ænne brædne fæld’; comp. ‘Ah anan heo wende; toward þissen londe,’ L 11634, 5; ‘Leir king wende on anne feld; ⁊ reste hine on folden,’ L 3510, 11: l. 215, read bule hude: l. 224, read nome þare; comp. ‘Þa andswarede eorles þare; Alle we beoð ȝarẹwe,’ L 27332, 3. iii. Substitution of forms: read l. 5, cnihtes; l. 110 alle; ll. 149, 178, wule; comp. ‘Ȝif ȝe hit lusten wlle,’ L 919: read l. 159, stilliche; l. 196, iwille : alle; l. 233, rideren. iv. Words rearranged mostly in a prose order: read l. 3, icumen weoren to londe; l. 14, wenden gunne; l. 82, nohtes ne beoþ; l. 83, ich eou wullẹ; l. 129, ⁊ awæi floȝen swuðe; forð an ælche helue; l. 214, ænne wisne mon he hæfden; l. 232, hider liðen; l. 250, Bord heo breden hetten; cnihtes þer to setten (Bartels 35). v. Padding: omit l. 9, and; l. 23, aer; l. 31, we; l. 86, muchele; l. 88, lond; l. 93, heore scipen; l. 97, heore; l. 113, read mani oht mon: omit l. 121, ofte; l. 128, þa; l. 218, noht; l. 248, mid him; l. 252 þa (wes); l. 285, þissen; l. 293 read hire for þat mæiden.

Elision takes place under the usual conditions, auerẹ 7, 132, cnihtenẹ 55, 89, sendẹ 198, bezstẹ 200, hudẹ 217, but hiatus is not infrequent, þinge 61, swiðe 84, alle 135, fæire 144, fulliche 183, hafde 212. In trisyllabic words the vowel of the middle syllable sometimes suffers syncope, as neoðẹles 83, hengẹstes 232, nauẹre 23, læuẹdi 65, naeuẹden 228, similarly answerẹde 21, 29, 55 and generally bịliue, weorẹn. The added n has small share in the metrical scheme; of the twenty-six certain instances of its use, three, rihten 20, cumen 24, comen 235, prevent hiatus, to which, however, the poet seems indifferent; once it makes a rhyme, hallen : men 259; twice it is in excess cunnen : wunne 188, Rouwenne : wimmonnen 270; once it rhymes with itself, hæfden : craften 214 (as emended above); four times it completes a rhyme, driȝen : liuen 25, iwiten : wurðscipen 26, ræden : dæden 110, innen : monnen 112; the remaining instances are whænnenen 27, wullen 30, 88, 184, duȝeðen 166, næueden 228, burhȝen 251, weoren 266, bitæhten 284. Doubtful are runen 148, ronen 156, leoden 165, 285, laȝen 278, 285; but they are most probably weak forms, and it may well be that the use of n spread from such cases to other forms. It is noteworthy that, out of these twenty-seven instances, the added n appears sixteen times at the end of line or half-line.

(2) Of O. The author of this recension had little regard for the metre of his original; ll. 68, 93, 112, 193, 226, 265, 297 are quite formless. Two lines are compressed into one, mostly unmetrical, at 67, 90, 157, 159, 173. Rhyme is substituted for alliteration at 114, 123, 131, 133, 149, 178, 221, 245; occasionally attempts are made to improve the rhyme, as at 35, 63, 253. At l. 7 a prose order is adopted; archaic words and phrases are rejected at 92, 108, 138, 139, 184, 207, 230, 251, 258, 267, 273, 278 &c.

Introduction: The priest Layamon, son of Leovenath, served the church at Ernley (Arley Regis) on the Severn near Radestone, ‘sel þar him þuhte.’ There it came into his mind that he would tell of the noble deeds of the English, and journeying wide over the land he got the noble books, Bede’s History in English, the Latin text of the same, which he ascribes to S. Austin and S. Albin, and the history which a French clerk made. Such is the poet’s account of his authorities, but of the two first he made no use, Wace’s metrical version of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Britonum was his main source. This he greatly amplified out of his legendary store and from other sources, writing in epic style and a somewhat archaic diction derived from the older English literature, and investing the whole with the charm of his imaginative and descriptive powers. But Imelmann maintains that, apart from some insignificant details, Wace was his only source, not indeed the text as we have it in Le Roux de Lincy’s edition, but a later lost redaction enlarged from an intermediate version which blended the original Wace with the first part of Gaimar’s Chronicle.

Layamon wrote in the early years of the thirteenth century, and finished his book before 1205 A.D.

This extract gives ll. 13785-14382 in Madden ii. pp. 152-177: it corresponds to Wace (W) 6860-7168. The references are to the older text of L, unless O is prefixed.

1. Vnder ðan, meanwhile; OE. under þām, where the prep. means among: ‘Entretant,’ W. Comp. ‘Under þis,’ SK 1858; ‘vnder þat,’ R. of Gloucester 116/11. L has also ‘Vnder þan ilke þinge,’ 29849, ‘Wnder þon,’ 6433. tiðende is OWScand. tíðindi: tydinge in O is OE. tīdung: see Björkman, 167. vortiger is from W: the OE. form is Wyrtgeorn.

5. Alse hit weoren, to all appearance: usually with swulc in L, ‘heo leopen ut of þan wuden; swulc hit deor weoren,’ 12828, 3070, 11571. For hit comp. 1/10. Kempes, champions, in O is a characteristic toning down of Kinges in C, but comp. L 25301.

6. wiðuten, not counting. scipen monnen is probably a scribal mistake for scipmonnen. þer wiðinnen, in the ships.

7. þis: sing. like þet 1/10 note: so too at 110/278, and with Hit, 110/271. færeste: ‘Od biax viaires et biax cors,’ W 6863.

8. ꝥ—mare: a typical comment, comp. ‘hire cheap wes þe wrse,’ L 385; ‘his hap wes þe betere,’ id. 4894, 816, 3857, &c.

9. hu—idon: Madden translates, ‘how they were disposed (their business)’: Mätzner, Sprachproben, says it corresponds exactly to OHG. wio getân, how conditioned, circumstanced; but his dictionary does not notice this use, which appears to be without support, for ‘þine ræddes ne beod noht idon,’ L 24956, where Madden translates, vaguely, ‘good,’ seems to mean, your counsels are not completed, i.e. ripe, perfect. On the other hand, wel idon occurs in L at least twenty-three times; with it Madden compares MHG. wol getan, translating good, excellent, brave; but it means more specifically, well equipped, (1) mentally, comp. 104/180; ‘þa wifmen wel idone; and þa betere biwitene,’ L 24677: (2) physically, 96/63; ‘ah he ne blakede no; for he wes cniht wel idon,’ L 7524; well fitted out, ‘scipen he hæfde sone; monie ⁊ wel idone,’ L 28234; well provided with money, ‘þe riche burh wel idone,’ L 5923; ‘Ðu ert wel don man,’ OEH ii. 29/15, the latter answering to the colloquial ‘well-to-do.’ Similar expressions are seen in ‘cnihtes wel bihedde,’ L 18010; ‘Jurdan is his bur-cniht; he is swiðe wel idiht,’ id. 18960; ‘twa hundred scipene; þer weoren wel biwitene,’ id. 20505; ‘wel bifunden,’ Orm 73/2176. The meaning here is accordingly, how they were provided for; a polite way of asking what they wanted.

11. cuðen, knew how, were able.

13. heren, obey: comp. 94/19; ‘nulle we him nauere hæren; ne hælde for ure hærre,’ L 7671, 4887, 8483.

15. Cantuarie: see 1/14.

16. Hæhliche spilede: Madden translates ‘nobly diverted themselves,’ with the usual meaning of OE. spilian, to play; and his interpretation is supported by, ‘mid haueken ⁊ mid hunden; hired-plæie luuien,’ L 14480. Luhmann, p. 91, regards this place as the only instance of that meaning in Layamon; he points out that everywhere else (as at 110/266) spilien has, from expressions like ‘spilede mid worden,’ L 17269, ‘plaȝede mid worden,’ L 17335, developed the meaning, to discourse, proper to OE. spellian. It seems unnecessary to make an exception here; the explanation, held high counsel, gives a good sense, and one more suitable for ‘hæhliche’ than the other.

17. folc kinge: comp. 96/47: variants are, ‘biforen þen folke kinge,’ L 9107; ‘þeos folkes king,’ id. 4872; ‘leod king,’ id. 6797; ‘leode king,’ id. 3691; ‘leodene king,’ id. 5394; ‘leodisc king,’ id. 2144. As here, O avoids the archaic expression in each case except the last, where it has, ‘on leodene king.’ Comp. OE. folc-cyning, lēod-cyning.

18. Sone swa: see 130/51.

20. mid rihten at halden, retain them and treat them fairly.

21. of—war: this phrase, which is repeated after the epic manner with the king’s name, as 96/51, 98/78 &c. appears for the first time at 13254, ‘of ufele he wes wel iwar,’ where the context requires the meaning, he was well versed, practised in evil-doing. (OE. wær, having knowledge of.) His character is bad, ‘Fax fu et faussement parla,’ W 6796; ‘þat iharde Uortigerne; þe swike wes ful derne,’ L 13603. Less ambiguous is, ‘Æfter Cap Oein; for elchen vuele he wes fein,’ L 6993. Þat . . . he in O = who.

23. Comp. ‘Ne seah ic el-þeodige | þus manige men mōdiglīcran,’ Beowulf, 336, 247-50. bi nihtes: comp. ‘feorh færde bi nihttes,’ L 4415.

24. for—bliðe: comp. 108/263; ‘Þe king wes gled for his kime,’ L 3962: with of, 128/9, 206/321; ‘forr mani mann | Wass off hiss come bliþe,’ Orm, 24/795, as in OE., ‘ealle wæron swiðe bliðe his ongeancymes,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 208/292.

26. þurh—wurðscipen, by your true worthiness, as truly as you are honourable. For the position of eouwer comp. 102/154, 104/171. With for in O comp. 78/66, 119/78.

28. whar: OE. hwæðer. alde &c., at all seasons, under all circumstances: comp. 25/226.

32. hors: so W; in Hist. Britonum, Horsus: comp. such double forms as Sceaf, Sceafa; Geat, Geata.

34. ænde, quarter: comp. 100/109, 127/344, ‘heofon biþ open on sumum ende,’ BH 93/1; ‘þe alre leste ende,’ SK 587 (= de remotis partibus); Minot, ix. 3. angles, Ænglis O: the OE. names are Angel, Engel, Ongel; the final s here is probably due to Englisc. ‘De Saisone, dist-il, venon,’ W 6889; but they were Jutes.

35. tiðende, lit. happenings, here, customs, ways: comp. 110/271; ‘In France weore læwen; sulkuðe a þan dawen. | ⁊ selcuðe tidende,’ L 5137, where læwen and tidende are synonymous. gonde in O is regarded by Madden as a mistake for goude, a spelling found in C, but not, I think, in O: he translates ‘many good things’; Mätz. ‘wondrously good things’; but that gives a very unsuitable sense and spoils a rhyme. In Specimens it is taken for goinde: O has goinde, 1582, but mostly goinge, which is hard to parallel at this date in the sense of taking place, progressing. Brotanek, in Zupitza-Schipper, 339 suggests that gonde is OE. geondan, yonder; but L otherwise has only ȝeond, ȝond, prep. as at 106/209. Possibly it is a mistake for wonde, accustomed, instead of the usual iwoned 101/121; ‘To hire weren iwoned; wonder craftie men,’ O 1153: C has iwunde, wounded, 10420, and the prefix is occasionally dropped, as somned, 104/167.

36. vmbe is ambiguous: bi eche &c., O, means every fifteenth year: ‘Li prince qui les teres ont | Tos les jenes asamblé font | Qui de quinze ans sunt et de plus,’ W 6909. hi[s] for is: him MS. cannot be reflexive here: comp. ‘Þa ferde wes isumned,’ L 1482, and so always in L. But Kock, Anglia, xxv. 318 takes isomned as isomneð, assembles, with him as reinforcing dative, like 13/34.

37. iledene is regarded by Mätzner as for ledene, with otiose i prefixed, as in ‘iliue’ 94/22; it would in that case be pl. g. of leod as in ‘leodene king,’ L 5394. But ‘folk of the people,’ ‘nation-folk,’ Madden, is a strange expression (though leod-folc is common enough), and it would be a meaningless repetition; besides e for OE. ēo is rare in L. Kellner, Archiv cxiv. 164, proposes ileuede representing OE. gelyfed, advanced in age, and one MS. of W has ‘Tout li viellart et li plus fort’ as a variant of ‘Tot li millor et li plus fort | Sont mis fors del païs, par sort,’ 6193. But ileuede is not used elsewhere in L, and would connote decrepitude. Geoffrey of Monmouth has ‘totius regni iuvenes coram se venire praecipiunt (principes): deinde sorte proiecta potiores atque fortiores eligunt,’ 82/20; something corresponding to ‘iuvenes’ is required here, such as iwepned; comp. L 9942-6.

38. of: see 80/47.

45. feole is impossible: Mätzner suggests the substitution of lot, as in O, for beoþ, but that would require feol instead of feole. More probably the scribe has been influenced by beoð into miswriting feole for fallen: beoð is singular.

46. for liue &c. apparently means, for any consideration, at any price, like ‘for love or hire.’

47. for þan, because of the, for fear of the.

49. vnder lufte, under heaven: comp. ‘nes þa na man vnder lufte; þe cuðe betere cræftes,’ L 10104: lufte is Madden’s correction.

50. þurh alle þing, in every respect, qualifying Soð: comp. ‘he wes god þurh alle þing,’ L 6894: somewhat different is ‘⁊ þar an hiȝinge; þurh ut alle þinges,’ L 2358.

51 O. wis . . . war: comp. 18/16.

52. sugge: for the subj. comp. ‘geliefeð ðæt he swelc sie swelce he gehierð,’ Cura Past. 110/11. soðriht, adv. truly; comp. ‘a þilke time soh riht,’ L 9668, MS. O.

53. þat . . . on, and 54. þe . . . to: see 1/3.

55. cnihtene &c.: a recurring phrase, as 98/89, 102/152; ‘cnihten alre hendest,’ 104/195.

57. mode, feeling: comp. ‘on his heorte he hauede grome; on his mode muchele scome,’ L 4847, and with O, ‘þe leof hire weis on mode,’ L 4489. See KH 281 note.

58. hope to: see 178/89 note. heoreð . . . mid mihte, strenuously exalt; from herian, to glorify: it might be from hīeran, to obey, but the former meaning is more suitable here; comp. 102/139.

59-68. There is little doubt that Layamon found this strange jumble of the gods of the Romans, Teutons, and French Romance in his original, but appollin and teruagant are missing in the printed Wace. Identification of the Roman gods with those of the Teutons and Celts proceeded rapidly among the barbarians from the first century onward, so that the Spanish bishop, Martin of Bracara, denouncing in the sixth century the pagan practices of his flock, uses the Roman names of the gods (De Correctione Rusticorum, ed. Caspari, pp. xci, 7-11), in which he is followed by Ælfric in the homily De Diis Falsis (Kemble, Solomon and Saturn, 120; Wulfstan, ed. Napier, 104). L appears not to have known that under this system Mercurius is Woden; Jupiter, Thunor; Mars, Tiw; Venus, Frea; and Phoebus, perhaps the Sun, yet Wace says ‘Mercurion | Qui en nostre langage a non | Woden.’ In L 16790-4, there is a similar list of the Saxon gods with addition of Didon and Mamilon.

60. weoli, rich, powerful.

62. hæhste: comp. ‘Nu hateð Aganippus; þe is þe heȝest ouer us,’ L 3648: ‘Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt,’ Tacitus, Germania, 9: see Müllenhoff, Deutsche Alterthumskunde, iv. 212.

63. appollin is the god of Cassivellaunus, L 8081: one of the three idols of the Saracens in French romance, Mahomet and Tervagant being the others; ‘Mahummet sert e Apollin recleimet,’ Chanson de Roland, 8; ‘La lei i fut Mahum e Tervagan,’ id. 611. In L, Tervagant is the god of the Romans, 5353. wel idon: see 94/9 note. of gret win O, in whom we greatly delight: OE. wynn.

66. hired men, members of a household, courtiers. But Frea had nothing to do with these; she was the patroness and helper of lovers. Possibly L has misunderstood cortoier or cortois in his original.

67. dihteð, guides, directs.

69. Comp. ‘and habben þa ilke læȝen; þe stoden bi heore ældre dæwen,’ L 5960. hehde is for hefde: comp. ‘what he i Rome hæhde biwunnen,’ L 10547; ‘enne sune he hehde,’ id. 6958, 30185: for other instances in L of h substituted for f, see Luhmann, 45: the expression, to hold the highest law, may well mean, to have the highest authority, for Layamon’s use of laȝe is very wide and varied. But Brotanek treats hehde as past of heȝen, OE. hēgan, to put in force, to establish: this in L is hæhȝede, heȝede: Logeman suggests hehte (OE. hatan), promised.

71. heom is written for him, and they did worship to him: the subject heo is not expressed, because it is contained in heore preceding: see 6/18.

72-76. The Romans adopted the week of seven days, with their allotment to the heavenly bodies, from the Chaldaeans. They were already well acquainted with it in the first century A.D., and it was in regular use in the third. Owing to their many points of contact with the barbarians, it spread rapidly everywhere among the northern nations, each of which adapted it by substitution of their own equivalent deities in the names of the days, Saturn alone proving intractable (see Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 1. 122 ff.; Müllenhoff, iv. 644 ff.). The North German invaders were already in possession of the system when they settled in England: comp. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, Anglia, viii. 321/4-17.

72. to wurðscipe, in his honour. wendesdei O, for Wednesdei, is representative of *Wēdnes-, Wǣdnes-dæg, out of Wōdines. (Holthausen, Anglia, Beiblatt, iii. 39.)

73. þunres dæi, day of Thunor: þorisdai O is Scandinavian: ODanish þūr (Björkman, 181): OE. þūres dæg. Comp. 85/99.

74. fridæi: OE. frige-dæg, the day of Freya, identified with Venus.

75. sætterdæi corresponds to OFrisian saterdei, OE. Sæterdei: sateresdei O to OE. sæteresdæg. The fullest form is Sæternes dæg = Sāturni dies (? Sǣ; see Anglia, Beiblatt, xx. 194). þene should be þere. sonedæi: OE. sunnan-dæg; perhaps OWScand. sunnudagr has influenced the ME. form.

76. monedæi: OFrisian mōnedei. tisdæi: OWScand. týsdagr: OE. tīwes-dæg. Tidea is said in the glossary to Specimens to be a Latinized form of Tiw in the dat. case, without support from any parallel and without explanation of d: probably it is a mistake for Tiwe, and as O has Tydea, the mistake would be derived from an earlier MS. common to both.

81. wurse, the evil one, the devil; comp. 110/291; ‘þat he wið þene wurse spæc,’ L 2841 where O has ‘feonde.’

82. nohtes, of a worthless kind: a descriptive genitive used predicatively: comp. ‘eower godas ne synd nahtes,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 182/205; ‘ne beoð ha riht nohtes,’ SJ 22/10: it is in principle the same as ‘ðæt fleax ðæt bið hwites hiewes,’ Cura Past. 86/19.

83. ‘Mult volanters vous retanrai,’ W 6957.

84. ohte, doughty: OE. āht, shortened from āwiht: so the root sense is ‘anything, good for anything, worth something.’ Comp. ‘ahte cniht wes Auelin,’ L 8141.

86. scome . . . grome: see 96/57 note, and for the corresponding verbs comp. ‘þerfore him ofte scomede; ⁊ his heorte gromede,’ L 13763.

94. dringches, warriors: OWScand. drengr, young man: the change of e to i is normal; see Björkman, 292.

95. hændest is taken by the editors generally as, nearest (to him), but everywhere else in L it means, courteous, or the like: comp. 98/77: perhaps him should be omitted.

97. him to, to Vortigern, but senden is corrupt; reading, seoððen siȝen him to, the meaning would be, next the Saxon knights followed after them; comp. ‘þe eorles heom siȝen to; mid fele heore cnihtes,’ L 9996.

98. aldene cannot be right, its final e does not belong to the dat. sing.: comp. ‘in alden hire denne,’ L 22027. Read aldrene, of the kin of his ancestors: comp. 98/69, 104/193; ‘of his eoldrene istreon,’ L 18609.

99. hændeliche is translated by Mätzner, courteously; rather, making a brave show.

100. iscrudde . . . iuædde: comp. ‘he us haueð wel iued; he us haueð wel iscrud,’ L 13573; 104/190.

101. hængest is the last word on the page, and the scribe has in consequence omitted -es: for swaine read swaines.

102. hehne, ‘hæhne,’ L 11378, represents OE. hēanne, acc. of hēan, mean, humble, and ‘hæne,’ 106/204, its nom. hēane: but ‘hæhne,’ 106/205, represents the acc. of hēah, high (seldom hēahne, mostly heanne).

104. Comp. ‘Nes hit noh[t] longe; buten ane stunde,’ L 14423. ne: see 25/241 note. longe is adverbial in form.

108. Comp. ‘ꝥ lond heo þurh arnden; ⁊ herȝeden ⁊ barnden,’ L 12129, 9934.

109. ænde: see 96/34. iuald, they fell; comp. ‘sixti þusende; he leide to þen gronde,’ L 4751.

111 is formal: see 102/142, L 1035, 3147 &c.

117. duden—iwune, behaved as usual: comp. ‘hu Osric Edwines sune; dude ut-laȝen wune,’ L 31270.

120. Comp. ‘þat fæht wes swuðe strong; ⁊ swuðe stær ⁊ swuðe longe,’ L 4170.

121. ‘Por ce que vaincre les soloient | Lor costume tenir voloient; | Mais lor usage i ont perdu,’ W 6991.

122. an oðer, nom. adj. agreeing with hit: the construction is frequent in L; comp. ‘ah al an oðer hit iwærd; oðer he iwende,’ L 17336: oðer, adj. is also found in the same construction; comp. 203/202; ‘ah al hit iwrað (= iwarð) oðer; þene heo iwenden,’ L 19506, but it is mostly adverbial, as, ‘ah al heo þohten oðer,’ L 5429; ‘al oþer hit schal go,’ OEM 41/140.

123. If hele represents OE. hælo, safety, heom means, to the Britons, but the transition is abrupt, and Logeman suggests that hele may mean, thing hidden, secret; its known meanings being, concealment, hiding-place; it might be better to substitute iheled for al hele.

127. feondliche, furiously; comp. ‘Dunwal i þan fæhte; wes feondliche kene,’ L 4168, where O substitutes ‘swiþe.’ feollen þa fæie: an oft-repeated formula in L.

130. vnnifoȝe: OE. ungefōg, immense; here, countless. Comp. ‘muchel ⁊ unifoh,’ L 8674, ‘monie ⁊ vniuoȝe,’ id. 13187; ‘For noldest þu nefre [hab]ben inouh, buten þu hefdest unifouh,’ Worcester Frag. D 39.

132. on uast, close to, fast by him; OE. on + fæst: comp. ‘He makede an temple onfest þe baðe,’ L 2852: but Luhmann, p. 95, deduces it from on œfeste, influenced by the prep. fæst bi.

133. The subject of ȝef is he, contained in kinge: see 6/18. ‘Et Lindesée et bons manoirs,’ W.

134. ‘unc sceal worn fela | māþma gemǣnra,’ Beowulf, 1783, 4.

136. a þan ilke, on the same footing, thus: comp. ‘⁊ þus ane stonde; hit stod æ ðon ilka,’ L 3117, 3716, 14890 &c. ‘Ensi ont longement esté | Et lor amor a mult dure,’ W 7001.

137. For londes read londe, or for þan, þas.

139 O. hendeliche, cleverly.

141. hæȝe dæie, festival; mostly associated with religious observance; comp. ‘Hit wes an anne hæhȝe dæie; halȝeden leoden,’ L 10708. ‘Un jor trova le roi haitié | Si l’a à consel afaitié,’ W 7009. duȝeðe monnen, the men of his nobility, the retainers of his court; the first element answers to OE. duguðe, s. g. of duguð.

148. ræcchen . . . runen, expound, disclose secret counsels; comp. ‘summe heo muche runen; ræhten heom bitweonen,’ L 25123; ‘þe sunne reccheð hire rune euch buten reste,’ SM 9/30. (‘Sol in aspectu annuncians in exitu, vas admirabile opus excelsi,’ Ecclus. xliii. 2.)

150. halden to wraððe apparently means, consider it a ground for anger: perhaps wenden should be read for halden.

153. þine monscipe ihæȝed, advanced thy dignity; comp. ‘⁊ mine monscipe hæien,’ 5451; ‘þurh þe haueð Morgan mi mæi; is monscipe afallet,’ id. 3838.

154. þine: see 92/26.

157. ‘Ai jo assés aparçéu | . . . | Que tu n’en as baron qui t’aint; | Cascuns te het, cascuns te plaint,’ W 7017.

158. bare, actual, absolute; comp. ‘his leode hine hateden | in to þan bare dæðe,’ L 7034; ‘bi þine bare life,’ id. 25800. þare O is a scribal error.

159. stilleliche, secretly; so too stille 104/170; comp. ‘mid stilliche runen,’ L 355; ‘mid heore stil rune,’ id. 3249: with spilieð comp. 110/266; ‘Þus speken þeos swiken; and spileden mid worde,’ L 3816.

161. ambrosie: Aurelius Ambrosius: O has the former name.

163. laȝen, ways, practices, a sense developed out of that of custom, but Mätzner translates, in a treasonable manner. His death was compassed by Vortigern, as O says.

169. androeinnes: L has elsewhere only Androgeus, and Androgeum as in W, with once Androchies gen. 8194. The present form corresponds to Androgen, Andragen, Andragenus of the prose Brut, ed. Brie, p. 33.

173. kineliche, royal, and therefore in the king’s gift.

175. Comp. ‘Þin hired þe hateð for me | ⁊ ich æm iuæid for þe,’ L 14458. iuaid is pp. of ȝefeogen, OE. *gefēogan: see NED v. 525, s.v. ivee. iveiþed is pp. of a derivative verb from OE. fæhð, feud: it occurs four times in O. uor þe, because of your unpopularity. ic wene &c., I expect to be killed.

176. fare &c.: see 34/86.

177. biclused: comp. ‘⁊ hæuede Valentin wel uaste | biclused in ane castle,’ L 12191: elsewhere O substitutes ‘bituned.’ ‘Si ai por toi maint anemi; | Ne puis par nuit estre aséur | Fors de castel et fors de mur,’ W 7040.

180. of—idon: see 94/9 note.

182. wine maies: OE. wine mǣg, a loving kinsman: L has also vniwinen, onwines, enemies, 14466.

184. hiren: comp. 94/19, 98/68. ‘Plus séurs en sera de moi | Et jo en servirai mius toi,’ W 7035.

188. afeoh: ‘Et bien les recoif et conroie,’ W 7052.

190. ueden . . . scruden: see 100/100.

195. Þa ȝet, still: OE. þā git. Comp. ‘hafde þa ȝet an honde,’ L 8540; ‘þe ȝet þe he wes i Rome’ (= while he was still in Rome), id. 9733.

196. driȝen, submit to. her &c., in this and in all things.

201. stonden—hond, to be in my possession permanently: comp. ‘Nu stond al þis muchele lond; a Bailenes aȝere hond,’ L 4330. Stonden in L often means little more than beon. a, unemphatic on: comp. ll. 215, 210.

202. anes bule hude: Madden suggests an or bules, but in the glossary treats bule as genitive: Mätzner thinks bule may represent a Scand. gen. bola; but bule-hude is a compound of which the first element is uninflected, yet genitive in essence, and so capable of association with an adjective in that case: the principle is the same as in ahnes, 74/207 note; the meaning is, the hide of one bull. Ælches weies, in every direction, but Mätzner explains, in any wise, any way, quoting ‘Ælches weies him wes wa,’ 18703, where the meaning appears to be, in both directions, on either side. in grene O, on a green, is a curious variant, and an early use of the noun in this sense.

204. hæne . . . riche; a frequent combination in L: it means the lowly . . . the exalted, the commons . . . the nobles, rather than, the poor . . . the rich.

210. þer . . . on, on which: see 1/3.

213. þe refers to hude. wunder ane strong: this combination of wunder ane with an adjective as here and at 106/219, 108/258, is frequent in the older text of L. So we find wunder ane brad, bliðe, cræftie, deop, fæir, laðe, lihte, monie, wod. It is also found with adverbs, as ‘Þa weop Vðer; wunder ane swiðe,’ L 18140, and once ‘bitter ane swiðe’ occurs, L 30302, where O has ‘biterliche swiþe.’ For wunder ane, O usually substitutes swiþe or wunderliche or rewrites or omits, but once for ‘wunder ane kene,’ 19935, it has kept ‘wonder one kene.’ Wunder is an adverb, as in ‘Þat feht wes wnder strong,’ L 1744; ‘mid wunder muchele strengðe,’ id. 25078, and ane is OE. ǣne, āne, adverbial derivative of ān, in an extended use, uniquely, exceptionally, so that the combination means, wonderfully strong beyond all comparison. The translation in Specimens, ‘a wonderfully strong one,’ does not take into account the form of ane, and anticipates the pronominal use of an. In ‘summe heo sæten stille; mucle ane stunde,’ L 25121, ane is the acc. of the article, the meaning being, for a long time.

214. cuðe a: on and of interchange with this verb elsewhere in L: so ‘And alle þe cuðe a boken,’ C 14431, ‘Ac al þat couþe of boke,’ O.

218. swulc, as it were: OE. swylce: O regularly substitutes ase.

220. ‘Une coroie en estendi | De coi grant tère avirona,’ W 7072. Similar tales are found in Virgil, Aeneid, i. 371; Saxo Grammaticus, ed. Holder, p. 143, of Ivar’s foundation of London: comp. Geoffrey of Monmouth, ed. San Marte, p. 313.

223. muchele ⁊ mare, great and glorious: B-T. quotes ‘Mære ⁊ miclu weorc drihtnes,’ Ps. Lamb., cx. 2.

224. scop . . . hire, shaped for it: OE. naman, or to naman scieppan, with dat. of person or thing named, as ‘scōp him Heor[o]t naman,’ Beowulf, 78; 179/107 note. L has a weak past also, ‘ah scupte him nome,’ 1951. ‘Cest non Vancastre li a mis, | El langage de son païs. | Vancastre cest nom del quir prent, | Sel puet l’on nomer altrement | Chastel de coroie en romans, | Kaer Kaerai en bretans. | Or l’apèlent pluisor Lancastre | Qui ne savoient l’aqoison | Dont Vancastre ot premier cest non,’ W 7075-84. The traditional site is Tong in Kent: ‘Tong Castle or rather Thong Castle, in Saxon Þwangceastre, in British Caer Kerry . . . both whiche woordes signifie a Thong of leather,’ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent, ed. 1576, p. 195. But Camden in his Britannia, published in 1586, p. 306, places it in Lincolnshire, at Caster, six miles from Grimsby. L specializes in place-names; see his account of London, 7099, Hampton, 9376, Caen, 27923, Cernel, 29674. The formula in l. 227 occurs at 6062, 9380 &c.

228. gome is translated ‘adventure’ by Madden, rather, proceeding, tricky device.

230. lane castel and Wace’s ‘Lancastre’ can hardly be meant for Lancaster; they are possibly due to the Lincolnshire tradition.

232. com is practically an auxiliary verb: comp. ‘Leir wes cumen liðen,’ Lear had arrived, L 3626, 5379; ‘Þenne þu cumes faren ham,’ when thou dost fare home, id. 4398: similarly ‘gon forð liðe,’ 108/243, 245.

233. Read rideren: used vaguely for knights.

234. comen is probably an interpolation. to iwiten, that is to say: comp. ‘and forð he gon liðen; mid his Brutleoden. | þat is to iwitene; mid twa hundred scipene,’ L 30914. æhtene, ‘good,’ Madden; but the meaning wanted is, eighteen large ships; ‘Vinrent dix huit nés cargies | De chevaliers et de maisnies,’ W 7087; and so Madden corrects, iii. 487. Mätzner reads æhtetene, OE. eahta tyne, but ahtene occurs again C 18015, where O has ehtetene.

237. umbe while, after a (short) time: so ‘umbe stunde,’ L 26505; ‘umben ane stunde,’ id. 15924; ‘umben longne first,’ id. 287: O has usually the same variant as here, but ‘bi on lutel stunde,’ O 11969: see KH 333 note.

238. mid, among, ranking with: comp. ‘cniht mid þane beste,’ L 707, ‘swike mid þan meste,’ id. 2547; ‘hærm mid þon meste,’ id. 9806.

239. bad in C is OE. bēad, offered him hospitality; in O, OE. bæd, invited him to a banquet, as also in C 241. gistninge, entertainment; ME. gistnen, derivative of OE. giest, influenced by OWScand. gista: see Björkman, 152.

240. to ȝeines him, against his coming, to receive him: comp. ‘scipen he þer funde. | þat to-ȝenes him weoren ibonned,’ L 9731. Elsewhere in L the preposition is joined with a verb of motion.

241. fæire underfon: see 5/11 note.

245. ꝥ, until: see 72/179.

246. ‘Le castel et l’oevre agarda, | Mult fu bien fais, mult le loa,’ W 7103.

249. Layamon’s delight in descriptions of feasts and music is in strong contrast to Wace’s prosaic manner. The present passage may be compared with L 3634, 5107, 14946. Mätzner would read gomen-men, musicians, or gleomen, with change of cleopien into gleowien, but gomen means games, a regular accompaniment of the feast (see KH 478 note), and cleopien proclaim, as in ‘Lette þe king gan awal; ⁊ lude clepien ouer al,’ L 3644.

250. hetten, ordered; perhaps a mistake for letten, as L has generally hehten in this sense. With breden comp. ‘bordes heo brædden,’ L 18523, where O has ‘bordes hii leiden’: it means, to cover with cloth and viands.

251. dræm &c.: comp. 102/146; ‘blisse wes on folke,’ L 5108, ‘blisse wes on hirede,’ id. 14947.

252. þa—iloten, then had the better fallen to their lot; lucky men were they! OE. gehlēotan, to share by lot.

253-268. In L 14956-81 Ronwen again appears as cupbearer.

254. vnimete prude, boundless splendour: OE. prȳto, influenced in this meaning by OWScand. prýþi, ornament.

255. al ꝥ scrud, all the clothing; sing., the pl. is ‘alle þa scrud,’ L 10180: the number changes in heo weoren. ibon, prepared, adorned: comp. ‘wel wes he ibon,’ L 12805, in O alle wel idiht; ‘þas scipen ibone,’ id. 32037. It is an East Scand. pp. bōin, as buen is West Scand. búinn: ‘iboned,’ L 8086, with same meaning is pp. of the derivative *ibonen parallel with bounen, derivative of buen. See Björkman, 206.

256. ibrusted, made bristly, rough: comp. ‘alle þai mete-burdes; ibrusted (ibrustled O) mid golde,’ L 24667; ‘vestes auroque ostroque rigentes,’ Virg. Æn., xi. 72.

261. sæt, went down on: comp. ‘þa hie for þam cumble on cneowum sæton,’ Grein, ii. 484/180: see KH 781 note.

263. wæs hæil is OWScand. væs heill, be well, good health to you! In ‘Lavert King wes hel tant li dist,’ W 7115, the forms are English: comp. ‘Wes þu, Hroðgar, hal!’ Beowulf, 407. for—uæin: see 94/24: O means, for thy coming is wholesome to me; for comes, plural with meaning of singular, comp. ‘hwanan eowre cyme syndon,’ Beowulf, 257; ‘hwonan his cyme sindon,’ Grein, iii. 89/1196; and for the usual expression, 94/24 note.

266. See 102/159. weoren, might be.

267. Keredic: ‘Redic li respondi premiers, | Brez ert, si fu bons latiniers; | Ce fu li premiers des Bretons | Qui sot le langaige as Sessons,’ W 7119. The name, Cerdic, Ceredic, Cerdicelmet, is in Nennius, ed. Petrie, ch. xxxvii. sellic, marvellous, gifted.

268. ær is probably a scribe’s mistake for æuer, due to her following.

271. tiðende, pl. practice: see 96/35; and for Hit with beoð pl. 1/10, 94/7. ‘Costume est, sire, en son païs,’ W 7127.

272. gladieð of drenche, find enjoyment in drinking: of with the adj. is common, with the verb rare: comp. 126/310.

273. Mid—hende, with pleasant courteous looks, or manner, generally including gesture: ME. lat, lot is OWScand. lát, Björkman, 91. Comp. ‘mid leofliche læten,’ L 19396; ‘mid swiðe uæire læten,’ id. 15661; ‘mid wunsumme lades,’ id. 12278. In Havelok 1246, ‘Wesseyl þe[i] ledden fele siþe,’ read seyden for ledden.

274. ‘Quant ami boivent entre amis, | Que cil dist wes hel qui doit boire | Et cil drinkel qui doit recoivre,’ W 7128. drinc hail, drink health, the latter word being a noun, OWScand. heill.

276. oðer—fareð, one brings another full one there. Different in W, ‘Dont boit cil tote la moitié,’ but afterwards he has ‘Et de boivre plain ou demi,’ 7143.

277. þreoien: nothing corresponding in W, only ‘entrebaisier.’

278. sele laȝen, pleasing customs: see KH 1110 note.

284 O. swipte, tossed it off: OE. swipian, to lash; comp. OWScand. svipa, to move quickly.

286. fain: the English had a bad reputation for their drinking habits among their French neighbours. Wace describes their revels on the night before the battle of Hastings, ‘Bublie crient e weisseil | E laticome e drincheheil, | Drinc hindrewart e drintome, | Drenc folf, drinc half e drinc tode,’ Roman de Rou, ed. Andresen, 7377, that is, They cry, be blithe and wassail, and let it (the cup) come and drinchail, drink after and drink to me, drink full, drink half and drink to thee. ‘Fercula multiplicant et sine lege bibunt. Wessail et dringail,’ says Burnellus of the English students at Paris at the end of the twelfth century, Nigelli Speculum, 63/19. The parallel place in the prose Brut is, ‘þat was þe ferst tyme þat “whatsaile” and “drynkehaile” come vp into þis lande; and fram þat tyme into this tyme it Haþ bene wel vsede,’ 52/13.

290. mod . . . main, mind and might: an OE. combination; comp. ‘ða ongunnon heo sticcemælum mod ⁊ mægen monian,’ Bede, 54/8, = ‘vires animosque resumere.’ halde to, inclined to: OE. hieldan: its use elsewhere in L is quite different; ‘þa hæðene hundes; hælden to grunde,’ L 19558, is typical.

291. Comp. ‘þe wurse him wes ful neh,’ L 13284, 16636; ‘þe wurs him wes on heorte,’ id. 9215; ‘þe scucke wes bi-tweonen,’ id. 276; ‘Tant l’a diables cimoné | Qui maint homme a à mal torné,’ W 7159. For ælche, swilce should perhaps be read.

292. mæingde, troubled, lit. mingled: the verb is mostly passive in L, as ‘his mod him gon mengen; he morȝnede swiðe,’ 3407; comp. ‘Almast menged him his mode,’ CM 8804.

293. murnede, said of painful longing.

295. leoden to hærme, to his people’s hurt: comp. ‘Twenti ȝer he heold þis lond; þa leoden al to hærme,’ L 2580; 176/24 note: folk in O is dative.

298. funde—ræd, thought it advisable: comp. ‘he uunde on his ræde; to don þat heo hine beden,’ L 21933; ‘Hit is on mine rede; to don þat þu bede,’ id. 31106; 12/5 in piece v. But W says he took the advice of his brother and friends, ‘Loë li ont et consillié | Que il li doint délivrement,’ W 7172.

Phonology: ... eo in heoreð 58 (if from herian)
missing close parenthesis

w is lost ... bilæuen 39, biuoren 95
39 biuoren

(2) Of O. ... The present forms of willan
misprinted as plain (non-bold)

... Initial hl is reduced to l
“l” misprinted as bold instead of italic

hn to n, nap 275
“hn to n” added by author

Adjectives ... enne (ende) 211
enne(ende)

The personal pronouns ... mine neut. 22 (7)
22(7)

Four-fifths of the infinitives ... I c. s. 3. bigon 221,
221;

V. s. 3. biheold 246, 288
period after “s.” invisible

(2) Of O. ... man s. d. 205,
205.

The personal pronouns ... ilca is ilke s. n. m. 237, 275, s. d. m.
275 s. d. m.

al a. 93.
al.

Metre: ... To sechen on folde; ænne brædne fæld’
close quote missing

comp. ‘Þa andswarede eorles þare
comp,

37. ... one MS. of W
W.

72-76. ... Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 1. 122 ff
122ff

123. If hele represents OE. hælo
text unchanged: error for “hǣlo”?

175. ... because of your unpopularity.
unpopularity,

263. ... Beowulf, 257
Beowulf 257

XV. ORM

Orm’s three forms of the letter “g” (screenshot repeated from main volume):

The printed linenotes almost always use yogh (ȝ) for insular g (ᵹ).

Manuscript: Junius 1, Bodleian Library, Oxford: an oblong folio, written in double columns on 118 leaves of parchment varying considerably in size, the largest being 508 × 200 mm.; about 1210 A.D., and an autograph, but corrected by a second and third hand. See further Holt, i. p. lxxvi.

Facsimiles: Skeat, W. W., Twelve Facsimiles, plate iv. Palaeographical Society; Second Series, plate 133. Napier, A. S., Notes on the Orthography of the Ormulum, Oxford, 1893, also in History of the Holy Rood-tree, E. E. T. S., O. S. 103.

Editions: White, R. M., Oxford, 1852. Holt, R., 2 vols., Oxford, 1878. Extracts in Mätzner, Sweet’s First Middle English Primer, 48-81, Emerson and other Readers.

Literature: The Author: Logeman, H., Archiv, cxvii. 29; Björkman, E., Archiv, cxix. 33, cxxiii. 23; Bradley, H., Athenaeum, May 19, 1906; Wilson, J., ibid., July 28, 1906; Phonology: Blackburn, F. A., The Change of þ to t in the Ormulum, American Journal of Philology, iii. 46; Bülbring, K. D., Die Schreibung eo im Ormulum, Bonner Beiträge, xvii. 51; Callenberg, C., Layamon und Orm nach ihren Lautverhältnissen verglichen, Jena, 1876; Hale, E. E., Open and Close ē in the Ormulum, Modern Language Notes, viii. 37; Kaphengst, C., An Essay on the Ormulum, Elberfeld, n. d.; *Lambertz, P., Die Sprache des Orrmulums, Marburg, 1904; Menze, G., Der Ostmittelländische Dialekt, Strassburg. diss., Cöthen, 1889; *Napier, A. S., as above; Grammar: Funke, O., see p. 450; Sachse, R., Das unorganische e im Orrmulum, Halle, 1881; Thuns, B., Das Verbum bei Orm, Leipziger Diss., Weida, 1909; Weyel, F., Der syntaktische Gebrauch des Infinitivs im Ormulum, Meiderich, 1896; Zenke, W., Synthesis und Analysis im Orrmulum, Götting. Diss., Halle, 1910, completed in Morsbachs Studien, no. xl; Consonant Doubling: Björkman, E., Orrms Doppelkonsonanten, Anglia, xxxvii. 351 (good summary of previous literature); Effer, H., Einfache und doppelte Konsonanten im Ormulum, Anglia, vii, Anzeiger, 166; Holthausen, F., Wel und well im Ormulum, Anglia, Beiblatt, xiii. 16; Trautmann, M., Orm’s Doppelkonsonanten, Anglia, vii, Anzeiger, 94, 208, Anglia, xviii. 371; General: Brate, E., Nordische Lehnwörter im Orrmulum, Paul-Braune, Beiträge, x. 1, 580; Deutschbein, M., Die Bedeutung der Quantitätszeichen bei Orm, Archiv, cxxvi. 49, cxxvii. 308; Kluge, F., Das französische Element im Orrmulum, ES xxii. 179; Kölbing, E., Zur Textkritik des Ormulum, ES i. 1, ii. 494; Monicke, C. H., Notes and Queries on the Ormulum, Leipzig, 1853; Reichmann, H., Die Eigennamen im Orrmulum, Göttingen, 1905, and as no. xxv of Morsbachs Studien; Sarrazin, G., Über die Quellen des Orrmulum, ES vi. 1.

Phonology: Orm supplemented the current graphic methods by devices of his own. Thus he systematically doubled a consonant after a short vowel in a closed syllable, so tunnderrstanndenn 109. Whether he meant thereby to indicate shortness of the vowel or length of the consonant is disputed. The latter view seems the more probable; the difficulty which is presented by the occurrence of the doubled consonant in unstressed syllables, where it is short in ordinary speech, is removed if, with Björkman, we suppose that the phonetist isolated his syllables in testing their value. Where the consonant after an open syllable is in fact short, Orm often places a breve over the preceding short vowel, as wĭtenn 3, tăkenn 40, wăke 76, 82, 105, hĕte 87, hĕre 123, but fails at times, as in sune 20, wake 56, here 114, 143. Likewise he uses very seldom an almost horizontal accent to indicate vowel length, as á 174, but more frequently, as if to emphasize his warning against possible error, doubles it, as le̋t, fe̋t 10, ha̋t 37, űt 53, &c., or even for greater insistence trebles it, as clū̋t 2, ȝē̋t 39, mostly before final t. Here, too, he is not systematic, thus time 115 has a single mark of length twenty times elsewhere, and words like ut have sometimes two, sometimes three accents.

see textFurthermore, Orm invented a special symbol see text with a flat top projecting on both sides for the guttural stop g, reserving the continental g for the dzh sound in such words as egge (edge), leggen, seggen: the latter occurs in this extract only in gluternesse 167, and that by mistake. In his representation of late OE. eo, ēo, the author hesitated between eo and e, preferring the former at the beginning, but gradually increasing the use of the latter, so that it becomes normal in the last third of the work and invariable in the Dedication and Preface, which were, no doubt, written last of all. He then appears to have aimed at uniformity by scraping out, not always effectually, the o wherever he had written eo, which was restored in many instances (but apparently not in this extract) by a later scribe in a fainter ink and thinner letter. Holt, by printing eo wherever it once existed, fails to represent the actual state of the manuscript: in this extract o is still visible, though partly erased, in heore 56, heoffness, leome 57, þeossterrnesse 65, deofless 67, heoffness, leome 70, heoffness 77, mildheorrtnesse 78, heoffness 107, 113, deofless 126; everywhere else it is completely erased. Finally, heffness 174 is so written without erasure in a line added lengthwise on the margin, perhaps from the following leaf, which is now missing and may have been withdrawn by the author. It is generally held that Orm employed eo and e to represent the same sound, the former being a traditional spelling. This is unlikely on the part of a determined phonetician like Orm, who would naturally be impatient of traditional spellings. Much more probable is Bülbring’s view that Orm spoke a mixed dialect, in which an [ö] sound existed beside the [e] sound, and that he finally decided for the latter.

Oral a is a, acc 3, habbenn 51; a before nasals a, grammcunndnesse 86, ‘năme’ i. 9717; a before lengthening groups a, faldess 56 (fal(o)d), hande 10, sang 131, but short in annd 114, unstressed, stanndenn 67, 117: the indefinite pronoun is mann 36. æ is a, affterr 21, fasste 59, wăke 76; ꝥat 46 was probably meant for þatt: wrecche 4 (4 times), wrecchelike 24 is OE. wrecca. e is e, cwellen 38, hĕre 123, hĕte 87, sett 146, but se̋tt 68 (probably miswritten), stressed wel 34 (13), qualifying a verb, and in most cases at the end of the first half-line, beside well 29 (4), qualifying adjective or adverb; e before lengthening groups is e, ende 113, genge 129, but short are senndeþþ 62 and enngle 15 (10), with a consonant after the lengthening group: whillc 152, iwhillc 134, 161 represent hwilc, gehwilc, swillke 69, swilc. i is i, cribbe 2, friþþ 133, inn 2 &c., mikell 93, wĭtenn 3 (Orm divided wiþþ utenn 113), but in 170: i before lengthening groups is i, bindenn 10, child 4, shildenn 67, 126, but brinngenn 18, sinndenn 74, 169, winnde clū́t 2, 7. o is o, follc 30, biforenn 16; before lengthening groups o, unorneliȝ 45, worde 60, but short are wollde 5, forrþrihht 1 (usually forþ uncompounded): o is u in wurrþenn 33, 48 (worden) by analogy of the infinitive. u is u, stunnt 27, vnnorne 4; before lengthening groups u, sungenn 131, tunge 119, wundenn 7, but short are hunngerr 37, unnderrstanndenn 109, wullderr 132, wunnderrliȝ 35. y is i, dill 27 (*dyll), gillteþþ 155, ifell 64, þrisst 37, wrihhte 151; before lengthening groups, kinde 108, but birrþ 3, 44.

ā is a, á 174, lare 79, whas 90; before two consonants a, bitacneþþ 100, gast 73: shortening in hallȝhe 69: swā is usually swa 17, but se 1 (swē). ǣ₁ is æ, hæþenndom 161, læreþþ 73, sæ 12; before two consonants æ, næfre 41, unnclænnesse 161, but a in aniȝ 157 (ānig), lasse 39, mast 169 (North. māst). ǣ₂ is mostly æ, færedd 84, 91, lætenn 45, 54, þær 19 (4), wæde 8, wære 17 (3), wærenn 58 (3), but e in greditleȝȝc 167, and with shortening fordredd 88 (4); before two consonants æ, wæpnedd 90, and e with shortening, sellðe 95. ē is e, betenn 158, eche 19, fe̋t 10, le̋t 10, but o in doþ 29 &c., from the plural. ī is i, bliþe 85, pinenn 36, riche 5 (4); before two consonants i, crist 1, 90, cristenndom 49, but elsewhere usually crisstendom. ō is o, dom 75, god 71; before two consonants o, frofrenn 60, 66: shortened in comm 26, 30, 55, soffte 85. ū is u, brukenn 174, -clū̋t 2, űt (numen) 53; shortened in vpp 18, 142, uss 3, 62. ȳ is i, bisne 43 (bȳsne), grisliȝ 91 (*grȳslig), kiþenn 92, litell 21 (3), shrideþþ 6.

ea before r + cons. is a, naru 13, starrke 75; before lengthening groups æ, ærd 5, middelærd 6, but harrd 37, towarrd 87, warrþ 3 (3). The i-umlaut is not represented in this extract, it is e in ‘errfe’ i. 1068, beside ‘dærne’ i. 2004, where æ represents ea before a lengthening group. ea before l + cons. is a (Anglian), all 3 &c., hallf 36, 93; before lengthening groups a, haldenn 22, kald 37, walde 124; the i-umlaut is e, beldeþþ 79, corrected out of miswritten beoldeþþ; see 359/5. eo before r + cons. is e, herrte 89, 119, but misspelt herte 134; before lengthening groups e, erless 164, erþe 20 (4). To the wur group belong forrwerrpenn 149, wurrþenn 17 (3), wurrþshipe 132: ȝernenn 21 is without umlaut, but hirde 53, hirdess 46, irre 75, 167. eo before l + cons. is seen in sellf 53, sellfenn 19 (4). eo, u-umlaut of e is eo, heoffness 57 (5), but e in heffness 5 (11), hefennlike 8, werelld 9: the å-umlaut of e is wanting in berenn 29; the umlaut of i is eo in heore 56, but here 50, ‘fele’ i. 7640. ea after palatals is a, shall 134, shaffte 9, unnshaþiȝnesse 50 (scæþþig). ie after g is i, ȝifenn 14 (5), ȝifeþþ 72, gife 174: ȝef is ȝiff 80. eo after g is u, ȝung 108; after sc, o, shollde 47, 94, sholldenn 50, 96.

ēa is æ, læfe 49, ræfenn 89, sæm 29, but e in ec 53 &c.; its i-umlaut is e, ekedd 129, lefenn 96. ēo is e, ben 7, bitwenenn 141, defell 86 (3), lefe 34, lem 77 (4), sen 40, þed 15, and eo, deofless 67, leome 57, seo 91; ȝho 2 (hēo) shows shifted accent: the i-umlaut of ēo is wanting in lesenn 102, nede 33, stereþþ 9, þessterrnesse 63, 160, þeossterrnesse 65. gīet is ȝḗt 39. ēa after palatals is e, shep 50, 54, īe after g, e, ȝemenn 52, 125.

a + g is aȝh, laȝhess 22. æ + g is aȝȝ, daȝȝ 99 (= daī), daȝȝess s. g. 100 (= dai-iess), laȝȝ 16, maȝȝ 40 (3), but seȝȝde 92 (as if from *segde). e + g is eȝȝ, leȝȝd 13 (= leīd). Final -ig is iȝ (= ī), aniȝ 157, bodiȝ 173, grisliȝ 91, modiȝnesse 87; greditleȝȝc 167 is probably miswritten. i + h is ihh, sihhþe 58, 77. o + g is oȝh, forrhoȝhenn 149. u + g is uȝh, muȝhenn 80, 142. ā + g is aȝh, aȝhenn 3, 54. ō + g is oh, inoh 31. ea + h is seen in waxenn 137; the i-umlaut in mihhte 36, 137, nihht 55, 57, but mahht 72, allmahhtiȝ 108, nahht 46 (4) descend from Anglian forms in æ. eo + ht is ihht in brihhte 77, rihhte 49, 89, 91, fihhten 123; the i-umlaut is wanting in seþ 84 (corr. out of seoþ). ēa + h is ehh, þehh 74 (ðēh shortened by loss of stress), neh 30. ēo + ht is seen in lihht 57 (as if from leoht). ā + w gives aw, sawless 69, 129, wawenn 151. hewe 70 is from Anglian hēow: ohht 145 represents oht, similarly nohht 40, 91. ēa + w appears in awwnedd 105 (*ēawnian); ēo + w in reweþþ 158 (corr. out of reoweþþ), trowwþe 90 (treowþ without umlaut and with shifted accent), þeww 72 (= þeū: from þeow), so, too, þewwten 31.

Ealswā is alls 172: for e, i appears in drihhtin 42 (6); it is lost in wiþþren 150, added in swikedomess 67, 168, onne 29, ‘offe’ i. 4097 by analogy of inne, uppe: o is a in anan 1. The prefix ge is i, iwhillc 134, 161.

Metathesis of r is seen in þrisst 37, wrihhte 151. n is lost in i 2, o 36; by inadvertence it is not doubled in unorneliȝ 45, comp. vnnorne 4. f is used in every position, faldess 56, hafeþþ 28, hallfe 93, but it was probably voiced between vowels and vowellikes, v as in ‘serven’ i. 506 is rare. For d, þ appears by analogy in wurrþenn 33, 48. After d, t, certain pronominal words change initial þ to t, tær 13, tanne 94, tatt 13 &c., teȝȝ 128, te 25, 115, tu 34. sć is regularly sh, shrideþþ 6, shop 9, nesshe 37; in bisscopess 51, ‘bisskopess’ i. 7233 (but elsewhere bisshopess), and mennisscnesse 38, sc is probably due to Scandinavian influence. The stop c is k before e, i, makenn 5, mannkinn 21, c before o, u, other consonants and final, comm 26, clut 2, flocc 49, ec 53 (contrast ekedd 129), k or c in other positions, kald 37. č is ch, child 4, eche 19, but palatalization does not take place in swillke 69, illke 13, illkess 161, iwhillc 134, whillc 152 and ekedd 129, mikell 93, miccle 33. čč is cch in wrecche 4: cw is regularly preserved, cwellenn 38, cwike 15; qu occurs in the Latin words quarrterrne, quaþþrigan. Palatal g is ȝ, ȝæn 73, ȝernenn 21, ȝifenn 14 (6), but gife 174: the guttural spirant is ȝh, follȝhenn 79, 107, 165, hallȝhe 69, sinnȝheþþ 155. The guttural stop see text is distinguished from the dzh sound in edge, which is represented by g. h is lost initially in laferrd 25, nesshe 37, reweþþ 158: hēo is ȝho 2: hw is wh, whas 90, whatt 137.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune 20, 106 represents sunu. Gen. -ess, daȝȝess 100, deofless 67, heffness 14, lifess 100, but, by a scribal error, daȝȝes 75: d. -e, hewe 170, sune 96, worde 60, and six others, but the inflection is mostly wanting, as in bodiȝ 173, daȝȝ 99, dom 75, and thirty-two others. The acc. heffne 12 is due to the LWS. fem. heofone. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -ess, hirdess 46, bisscopess 51; neuters are shep 50, 54, ?wiless 126: genitives are enngle (þed) 15, 122, kinne 64, 71, 157: datives have mostly -ess, bandess 11, claþess 24, but þinge 71, wrihhte 151. The fem. nouns of the strong declension end in e in the s. n. a., blisse, sellðe 95, are 80, bisne 43, except mahht 72, þed 15, werelld 9, and sæ 12. Gen. -e, helle 101, 151, possibly blisse 174: dat. -e, blisse 18, cribbe 2, hallfe 93, but hallf 36. Pl. g. is þede 122; d. sawless 129; a. hande 10, shaffte 9, sawless 69. Nouns of the weak declension have mostly -e in all cases of the singular, but demess 75 is genitive and, before the caesura, lem 77, dative, beside leome 57, lem 107, 163 accusative: a pl. n. is wawenn 151. The minor declensions are represented by fet pl. a. 10, mann s. n. 20, manness s. g. 172, manne s. d. 30, mann s. a. 134, menn pl. n. 76, pl. d. 49, 56; nahht s. d. 46, nihht s. a. 57; moderr s. d. 1; child s. n. 4.

Adjectives which in OE. end in e retain that termination throughout, as bliþe 85, cweme 152, eche 19, 100, 103, milde 82, riche 5, 112, 165, soffte 85, vnnorne 4. Instances of weak inflections are s. d. m. laþe 165, lefe 34, rihhte 49, starrke 75, s. d. f. brihhte 77, s. a. m. laþe 32, 73, 123, s. a. neut. rihhte 89, rume 14: strong inflections are few, s. d. f. fulle 90, hefennlike 8, 173, s. a. m. gode 153: all others are uninflected in the singular. The plural ends in -e, glade 127, gode 147, hallȝhe 69, laþe 31, 66, 126, cwike 15. Adjectives used as nouns are not inflected. mycel in the strong declension is mikell, s. d. f. 131, s. a. f. 93, s. a. neut. 61, in the weak, miccle s. d. f. 33 (myclan), s. a. neut. 120 (mycle). āgen gives aȝhenn 3, 54 without inflection. OE. ān is an n. m. 114, a 172, aness g. m. 170, an d. f. 2, a. m. 49, a. f. 3. Comparatives are bettre, mare 145, lasse 39; superlative, mast 169.

The personal pronouns are uss, tu, after t, 34, þe. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 3, ȝho f. 2, itt neut. 28 (with asse mf.); d. himm m. 17, 23; a. 2, itt neut. 29 (with sæm m.); pl. n. þeȝȝ 130, teȝȝ, after t, 52; d. a. þeȝȝm. Reflexives are himm 10, 173, þe sellfenn 44, 45, himm sellfen 19, 35: definitive, himm sellf 53: possessives, ure 4; hiss, as general form for the singular, 1, 3, 16, 34, 47, 54, but hise g. m. 155; pl. a. hise 22; here 50, heore 56, teȝȝre, after t, 32. The definite article is þe, te, after t, 25, 126: þatt (ꝥ), tatt, after t, is demonstrative adjective 13 or demonstrative pronoun 26; its plural is þa adj. 56 and pron. 22. The compound demonstrative is s. þiss 6, pl. þise. The relative is þatt, tatt, after t, 13, 27; þatt 30, 36, = in, on which, þurrh whatt 137, 144, by that by which. Interrogative is whillc 152 (hwelc); its correlative is swillke pl. a. 69: ilca is illke s. n. 13, 152, a. 97, 118. Indefinites are mann 29, 36, 38, 169; whase 154, whas 90, whoso; illkess 161, every; iwhillc 134, 161; aniȝ pl. g. 157; all s. n. neut. 30, d. neut. 64, 94, a. m. 32, f. 9, neut. 14, but alle s. d. f. 6; pl. alle n. 128, alre g. 169, alle 64, 71, all 122, alle d. 172, a. 5, 9, 22: all 168 is apparently s. n. = everyone.

Infinitives end in -enn, except sen 40, fon 36: of the second weak conjugation are follȝhenn 107, forhoȝhenn 149, lofenn 110, lokenn 156, makenn 5, pinenn 36, ræfenn 89, sammnenn 48, tacnenn 47, þankenn 120. The dat. inf. is not inflected, to berenn 29, tunnderrstanndenn 109, to sen 116, forr to kiþenn 92, for . . . to makenn 112. Presents are s. 3. beldeþþ 79, bitacneþþ 100, and nineteen others; contracted, birrþ 3, 44, seþ 84, stannt 158; pl. cumenn 70, haldenn 22, lufenn 23, stanndenn 117, waken 66, wiþþrenn 150: subjunctive s. 3. gife 174, seo 91. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. laȝȝ 16: I b. s. 3. comm 26, 30, 55: I c. s. 3. wand 2, warrþ 3, 20, 42; pl. 3. sungenn 131: IV. s. 3. shop 9, toc 60, 82; pl. 3. unnderrstodenn 135, wokenn 46, 56 (form from wacan, meaning from wacian): V. s. 3. let 10. Participles past: I a. ȝifenn 17: I b. borenn 1, 97, cumenn 92, utnumen 53: I c. wundenn 7, wurrþenn 33, 48: IV. V. waxenn 138: V. forrdredd 88, forrdredde adj. pl. 59, 83, offdredde 74. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. leȝȝde 2, seȝȝde 92. Participles past: bitacnedd 81, ekedd 129, leȝȝd 13, sett 68, 146. Minor Groups: witenn inf. 3, witt 2 s. imp. 34, wisste pt. s. 83, wisstenn pt. pl. 128, 139; shall pr. s. 134, shollde pt. s. 47, 94, shollden pt. pl. 50, 96; muȝhenn inf. 142, maȝȝ pr. s. 40, 152, 171, muȝhenn pr. pl. subj. 80, mihhte pt. s. 36, 137; ben inf. 7, iss pr. s. 63, 151 (apparently with pl. nominative), niss 91, sinndenn pr. pl. 74, 169, be pr. s. subj. 28, si 3 s. imp. 132, wass pt. s. 1, wærenn pt. pl. 58, 76, 127, wære pt. s. subj. 17, 138, 172; wile pr. s. 88, wollde pt. s. 5; to don dat. inf. 32, doþ pr. s. 29, 109, missdoþ 157, don pp. 61, 118.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are afell 28, aȝȝ 44, baþe 10, fra 67, gætenn 52, griþþ 133, laȝhenn 44, lahȝhre 43, mec 85, occ 117, sahht(nesse) 140, skerrenn 88, skill (læs) 27, summ 27, takenn 40, till 49, (inn)till 18, þeȝȝ 74, þeȝȝre 32, þohh 28, usell 4, usell(dom) 24, and the suffix in (modiȝ)leȝȝc, (gredit)leȝȝc 167; possibly also bandess 10, come 148, deȝeþþ 41. French is gluter(nesse) 167; long i in Crist shows new borrowing from French.

Dialect: East Midland bordering on the North; a mixed dialect, which possibly accounts for the wavering in the representation of eo, ēo. The large Scandinavian element in the vocabulary and the absence of u in final syllables (372/34) point to the East; the representation of ā + w, the development of c, g, and perhaps the uniform appearance of ā as a in this thirteenth-century text, show Northern influence. Lambertz has noted so many correspondences between the phonology of Orm and that of the Rushworth gloss on the Gospel of S. Matthew as to make it probable that they belong to the same dialectal area. The Northern border of Lincolnshire was most probably the place where the Ormulum was written.

Metre: For the scheme of the Septenarius see p. 327. Orm’s verse is monotonously regular; every line has its fifteen syllables exactly counted out and ends in x́ x; the caesura comes after the eighth syllable; the rhythm is iambic without substitution. For the sake of this uniformity he does violence to the natural accent in Niþþrédd 35, Bisscópess 51, Enngléss 69, sahhtnésse 140, drihhtíness 171, though Schipper regards such cases as examples of ‘hovering accent,’ wherein the stress is distributed equally over the two syllables having the word-accent and the verse-accent,—a spondee rather than an iamb. Elision takes place regularly before an initial vowel or h, sonẹ, leȝȝdẹ 2, vnnornẹ, wrecchẹ 4, heffnẹ 12, mihhtẹ 36, wolldẹ 54, wilẹ 88, seȝȝdẹ 94, whasẹ 154, &c. Sometimes e is not written, as in whas 90; crasis is found elsewhere in he̋t (= he itt), ȝhőt (= ȝho itt), þűtt (= þu itt), and similar combinations.

Introduction: The author of the Ormulum speaks of himself under two names in ‘Þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum Forrþi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte,’ Preface 1, 2, and ‘Icc wass þær þær I crisstnedd wass Orrmin bi name nemmnedd,’ Dedication 323, 4. The former was a fairly common name in the Scandinavian districts of the North; in the latter, not found elsewhere, he has probably added, as befitting the ritual occasion, the Latin termination īn from īnus, as in Awwstin (= Augustinus). In the same way, as Bradley suggests, he has taken the termination of Ormulum from Speculum, as often occurring in titles of devotional books, like Speculum Laicorum, Conscientiae, Sanctorale. He tells us that he wrote at the request of his brother Walter, who was, like himself, an Augustinian Canon; his purpose was to paraphrase and expound, for the benefit of unlearned English folk, the Gospels of the Mass throughout the year. His exposition is drawn for the most part from S. Bede, and particularly from his sermons and commentaries, and to a small extent from S. Gregory the Great. Traces of his acquaintance with S. Isidore and Josephus, through Hegesippus, have been found by Sarrazin.

Nothing further is known of Orm, but Bradley has made it probable that he was an inmate of Elsham Priory in North Lincolnshire (Dugdale, vi. 560). The contention of J. Wilson that he was identical with Orm, brother of Walter, Prior of Carlisle between 1150 and 1170, would be very attractive, if it were not for the philological difficulty, for the Ormulum is undoubtedly written in the Midland dialect, and must be dated about 1210.

This extract gives ll. 3662-4009, in Holt, i. pp. 126-38.

1. Forrþrihht anan se, lit. Straightway forthwith as, i.e. as soon as. Orm has ‘forrþrihht se, anan se, sone swa, son se, forrþrihht summ, anan summ,’ all with this same meaning, and forrþrihht summ, immediately, ii. 42/11404. Orm’s expletives are a feature of his dreary style; in his dedication he says that he has set ‘maniȝ word | þe rime swa to fillenn,’ that is, to make up the number of syllables required for his metre; he makes extensive use of all, 112/3, 16 &c. Beside anan, Orm has the primitive onn an, continuously, without a break.

2-18. The original of this passage is, ‘Et pannis eum involvit et reclinavit eum in praesepio . . . parvulus natus est nobis, ut nos viri possimus esse perfecti. Qui totum mundum vario vestit ornatu, pannis vilibus involvitur, ut nos stolam primam recipere valeamus. Per quem omnia facta sunt, manus pedesque cunis adstringitur, ut nostrae manus ad opus bonum exertae, nostri sint pedes in viam pacis directi. Cui coelum sedes est, duri praesepis angustia continetur, ut nos per coelestis regni gaudia dilatet. Qui panis est Angelorum, in praesepio reclinatur, ut nos quasi sancta animalia carnis suae frumento reficiat,’ Bede, v. 234.

2. ⁊ = annd; see 115/114.

3. uss birrþ, we ought: a favourite expression of Orm.

5. heffness ærd, heaven’s region: a phrase suggested by middellærd.

9. shaffte, creatures: OE. gesceafta.

10. baþe belongs to fet ⁊ hande.

12-14. This section diverges in form from those before and after it, as also from the original. The subject of filleþþ is Þatt illke child. heffness rume riche, the wide kingdom of heaven: perhaps suggested by ‘ut amplitudinem nobis supernarum sedium tribueret’ of Bede’s Sermon, vii. 300.

16. all alls = all alse, alswa, quite as.

17. Swa summ, so as, just as if: summ is OEScand. sum: more usually the phrase means, just as, 112/27, 113/47, 55. Variants are ‘all swa summ,’ O. Introd. 43; ‘all all swa summ,’ 114/76; ‘all all swa se,’ O. Dedication, 281. fode: the ass represents the Gentiles, of whom Bede says, ‘plurimi . . . coelestibus eius (= Christi) quaerebant alimoniis ad perpetuam crescere salutem,’ vii. 300.

19. And give himself as everlasting food there to us with angels.

21. to ȝernenn, &c., to be content with a humble lot.

27. stunnt ⁊ dill: comp. ‘⁊ stunnt ⁊ stidiȝ, dill ⁊ slaw | to sekenn sawless seollþe,’ O. i. 344/9885.

28. afell, strength. O. has also a pp. afledd, endowed with strength, ‘Forr cnapechild iss afledd wel,’ O. i. 274/7903; opposed to ‘unnstrang.’

30. þatt, when: so þe 15/84, þa 15/93. comm . . . to manne, was incarnate: comp. 36/117, 114/97; ‘þe becom to mannum mid iudeiscum folce,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 60/89; ‘hu hi to mannum comon,’ AS. Hom. ed. Assmann, 26/44; ‘Hwarto was he aure iscapen te manne,’ VV 113/14, regularly with pl. dat.; contrast ‘ic ðe to men gebær,’ I bore thee as a man, Ælf. Lives, ii. 78/175.

31. laþe gastess, hateful spirits, i.e. false gods: ‘in asino autem exprimit populum gentium, qui sordibus idololatriae semper manebat immundus,’ Bede, vii. 300.

33, 34. þurrh ꝥ . . . þurrh ꝥ, inasmuch as, whereas . . . thereby, as a consequence; propter quod . . . propter id: so 115/114, 116. O. is fond of these formal correlatives: comp. ‘forr þi . . . Forr ꝥ,’ 113/48.

35. niþþredd, lowered, humbled: OE. geniþerod, pp. of niþerian. wannsedd, diminished: OE. wansian. Comp. ‘⁊ illc an lawe ⁊ illc an hill | Shall niþþredd beon ⁊ laȝhedd,’ O. i. 321/9205; ‘Aȝȝ niþþreþþ Godess genge, | ⁊ cwelleþþ hemm ⁊ wannseþþ hemm,’ id. 279/8032.

36. o ꝥ hallf ꝥ, in that part of his nature in which: see 46/292.

39. ȝet lasse, still lower: ‘qui modico quam Angeli minoratus est,’ Heb. ii. 9.

43. lahȝhre inoh, sufficiently lower, i.e. much lower.

45. lætenn, &c., think very meanly: comp. 44/260.

46-53: suggested by, ‘Apte autem satis hoc superna est providentia dispositum, ut nascente Domino pastores in vicinia civitatis (eiusdem) vigilarent, suosque greges a timore nocturno vigilando protegerent. Oportebat namque, ut cum magnus pastor ovium, hoc est, animarum nutritor fidelium, in mundo natus est, testimonium eius nativitati vigilantes super gregem suum pastores darent. . . . Nam et futurum (iam) tunc erat, ut per orbem universum electi pastores, id est, praedicatores sancti, mitterentur, qui ad ovile Dominicum, videlicet sanctam Ecclesiam, populos credentium cogerent,’ Bede, vii. 301.

46. wokenn, kept watch: comp. 113/56.

48. forr þi . . . Forr ꝥ, for that reason . . . because: like ‘eone es ferox, quia habes imperium in beluas?’ Terence, Eun. iii. 1. 25.

49. rihhte læfe: see 89/28.

52. ȝemenn . . . gaetenn: comp. 114/68, 115/125: synonyms, the former English, the latter Scandinavian.

53. utnumenn hirde: ‘princeps pastorum,’ 1 Pet. v. 4.

56. wakemenn, watchers.

57. lihht ⁊ leome: often in O.; comp. 114/70, 77, 115/107; ‘Ah swuch leome ⁊ liht | leitede þrinne,’ SK 1582. leome is flame, a bright and flashing light. With 57-70 comp. ‘Bene autem vigilantibus pastoribus angelus apparet, eosque Dei claritas circumfulget. Quia illi prae ceteris videre sublimia merentur, qui fidelibus gregibus praeesse sollicite sciunt, dumque ipsi pie super gregem vigilant, divina super eos gratia largius coruscat,’ Bede, v. 235.

63. þessterrnesse: comp. ‘Þiss þessterrnesse iss hæþenndom | ⁊ dwillde inn hæfedd sinness,’ O. ii. 303/18855.

64. Inn—sinne, in sin of all kinds; comp. 114/71, 116/157, ‘O fele kinne wise,’ O. i. 123/3573, and see 132/9 note.

67. stanndenn inn: comp. 116/158; ‘Affterr þatt he beoþ fullhtnedd, | Birrþ stanndenn inn to þeowwtenn Crist,’ O. ii. 43/11434, where Mätzner says it = perseverare: in Specimens it is translated, continue. Orm is, in his literal way, translating L. instare, to press on, to be zealous, a meaning which suits well here and elsewhere: the phrase is peculiar to him.

71. god innsihht, ‘recta sapere,’ ‘a right judgement in all things.’

72. hiss þeww, to his servant.

74. þohh swa þehh, notwithstanding: OE. þēah, yet, was reinforced by the addition of swā, swā þēah meaning even so yet: to this in Orm is prefixed the Scandinavian þoh, although. See Björkman, 73.

75. starrke, rigid, stern: ‘se hearda dæg,’ Christ, 1065.

76-91: this passage is mainly a repetition of O. 20/657-80, which comments on the appearance of Gabriel to Zacharias, S. Luke i. 11: it is drawn from Bede’s Commentary: ‘Trementem Zachariam confortat Angelus: quia sicut humanae fragilitatis est spiritalis creaturae visione turbari, ita et angelicae benignitatis est paventes de aspectu suo mortales mox blandiendo solari. At contra daemonicae est ferocitatis quos sui praesentia territos senserit ampliori semper horrore concutere, quae nulla melius ratione quam fide superatur intrepida,’ v. 220.

78. hihht, joyful expectation.

79. frofreþþ . . . beldeþþ, comforts . . . encourages, a favourite combination: comp. O. Dedication, 237; i. 20/662.

82. Toc, betook himself, began.

89. shetenn inn hiss herrte: Holt translates, ‘shut up, harden,’ wrongly connecting shetenn with OE. scyttan: it represents scēotan, meaning, to shoot into his heart, to inflict a deadly wound: the expression was suggested by such places as ‘þæt hi magon sceotan þa unscyldigan heortan dygollice,’ = ‘ut sagittent in obscuro rectos corde,’ Ps. x. 3 (Thorpe), and ‘þine flana synt swyþe scearpe on þam heortum þinra feonda,’ id. xliv. 7.

90. whas is for whase, whoso. itt is formal nominative; the whole expression is equivalent to, Whosoever is armed. Comp. 116/154; ‘Whasumm itt iss þatt illke mann | Þatt hafeþþ tweȝȝenn kirrtless,’ O. i. 324/9291; ‘Whatt mann se itt iss þatt wepeþþ her,’ id. 196/5666; ‘ꝥ iss ꝥ,’ 116/157.

91. rihht, adv., utterly, at all: ‘Rihht all swa summ,’ O. i. 39/1188, means, precisely as.

93. o godess hallfe, on God’s behalf.

97. borenn . . . to manne: see 113/30 note.

98-102: ‘notandum quod Angelus qui in noctis utique vigiliis pastores affatur non ait, hac nocte, sed hodie natus est vobis salvator. Non aliam scilicet ob causam, nisi quia gaudium magnum evangelizare veniebat. Nam ubi tristia quaeque nocturnis temporibus gesta vel gerenda significantur, ibi saepe nox vel adiungitur, vel etiam sola nominatur,’ Bede, v. 235.

100. all: see 112/3.

104-7: ‘Neque enim frustra Angelus tanto lumine cinctus apparuit, ut claritas Dei pastores circumfulsisse . . . dicatur . . . sed mystice praemonuit, quod aperte postea monuit apostolus dicens, Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit,’ Bede, v. 235.

107. follc, dative.

108-12: ‘Hoc est non tantum humilitatis eum et mortalitatis, sed et paupertatis habitum suscepisse pro nobis. Quia cum dives esset, pauper factus est pro nobis, ut nos illius inopia ditaremur,’ Bede, v. 235.

109. wrecche, poor, of lowly condition. doþ uss, causes, gives us to understand: comp. 209/405; ‘us gedyde nu to witanne Alexander,’ Orosius 126/31 (= ‘nobis prodidit Alexander’).

111. Off . . . wollde, because of the fact that he was willing; off governs the clause, þatt he wollde: so, ‘writen uppo boc . . . off þatt he wisslike ras,’ O. Dedication, 161, 167, written in book concerning the fact that &c.

114-20: ‘mox multitudo militiae coelestis advolans, consono in laudem creatoris ore prorumpit, ut sui sicut semper obsequii devotionem Christo impendat, et nos suo pariter instituat exemplo . . . Deo statim laudes ore, corde et opere reddendas,’ Bede, v. 235.

116. Thereby it was given us to see and understand full well in that incident.

119. herrtess tunge: see 56/51: apparently, with sincere and heartfelt praise.

120. god is acc. of the thing for which thanks are to be given. Comp. 132/11; ‘þonkien hit ure drihten,’ OEH. i. 5/29.

121-6. ‘Et bene chorus adveniens Angelorum militiae coelestis vocabulum accipit, qui et duci illo potenti in praelio, qui ad debellandas aëreas potestates apparuit, humiliter obsecundat. Deus . . . ad tutelam nostram constituit exercitus Angelorum,’ Bede, v. 235, 6.

123. Alls is shortened alse, as. ȝæn . . . gast: see 114/66, 73.

127-9: ‘Glorificant Angeli Deum pro nostro redemptione incarnatum, quia dum nos conspiciunt recipi, suum gaudent numerum impleri,’ Bede, v. 236.

132-5: ‘Gloria in altissimis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis,’ S. Luke ii. 14.

133. griþþ ⁊ friþþ: a frequent combination in O.; the words are synonyms, one Scandinavian, the other English: see 19/57 note.

136-8: that the angelic host was to be made up to its full number by the addition of holy souls, by which addition honour and glory in God’s presence should be as though it were increased, if indeed it were capable of increase. The explanation of this passage is helped by the parallel place, ll. 143-5: ‘Ȝiff—mihhte’ corresponds to l. 145. ‘quos infirmos prius abiectosque despexerant [Angeli], nascente in carne Domino iam socios venerantur,’ Bede, v. 236.

140. soþ sahhtnesse: see 84/50.

146-51: ‘qui cum pacem hominibus poscunt, exponunt et quibus, videlicet bonae voluntatis, hoc est eis qui suscipiunt natum Christum, non autem Herodi, pontificibus et Pharisaeis caeterisque antichristis, qui eius nativitate audita turbati sunt, eumque quantum valuere gladiis insecuti. Non est enim pax impiis, dicit Dominus,’ Bede, v. 236.

149. Forrhoȝhenn &c., despise and reject.

151. wrihhte, merit, lit. thing done: OE. gewyrht, from wyrcan: a dat. pl.: comp. ‘⁊ he wass flemmd ⁊ drifenn ut | All affterr hise wrihhte,’ O. i. 286/8239, id. 147/4283.

154. itt: see 114/90.

155. hise þannkess, wilfully, of his own free will: see 10/167.

156. himm lokenn, keep watch over himself: see 4/20, 78/85.

158. stannt . . . inn: see 114/67 note.

165. flocc, company: a favourite word of the author’s: comp. 113/49, ‘þe laþe gastess flocc,’ O. i. 226/6546; ‘summ hæþene flocc,’ id. 344/9875.

167. modiȝleȝȝc, with same meaning as modiȝnesse, l. 165, but with Scand. suffix, leikr, leiki in Icel. forming abstracts. There are a good many instances in the MS. of -nesse corrected into -leȝȝc. greditleȝȝc: so MS., but the correct form is grediȝleȝȝc, as elsewhere in Orm.

170. hewe, form, appearance.

173. hefennlike: ‘Angeli corpora in quibus hominibus apparent, in superno aëre sumunt solidamque speciem ex coelesti elemento inducunt, per quam humanis obtutibus manifestius demonstrentur,’ Bede, viii. 294. f. 95 v ends with kinde, l. 174 is added on the margin, and the two leaves following are missing.

Literature: ... Orrms Doppelkonsonanten
Ormms

111. ... ‘writen uppo boc
text unchanged; text cited has “writenn”

XVI. SAWLES WARDE

Manuscripts: i. Bodleian 34, Oxford (B); on vellum, 165 × 120 mm.; written in one hand throughout about 1210 A.D. Its contents are S. Katherine f. 1 r; S. Margaret f. 18 r; S. Juliana f. 36 v (see p. 139); Hali Meidenhad f. 52 v; Sawles Warde f. 72 r (old foliation f. 76 r). It has lost two leaves after f. 80, which is very faint and defective. Entries in fourteenth-century hands connect it with Ledbury, Godstow, and Magna Coworne (Much Cowarne) in Herefordshire. The text is printed from this manuscript up to its end at 127/4.

The writing is sometimes difficult to decipher; the letters are often crowded and hesitating, a, e, o are sometimes hard to distinguish. Doubts are permissible in the following cases, hwen or hwon 118/24, ihaten or ihoten 37, hondon or honden 51; in sent 55, the last letter wavers between t and d; in ȝemelese 56, ȝ appears to have been corrected out of g; after mei 60, there is a half-formed c; under the second o of preoouin 72, there is what looks like a casual pen mark, not a dot of erasure; in seoueuald 287, d is corrected out of t, or the reverse.

ii. Royal 17 A 27, British Museum (R); on vellum, 160 × 117 mm.; early thirteenth century. Has all the pieces in B except Hali Meidenhad, with the addition of an incomplete copy of the Oreisun of Seinte Marie (printed in OEH i., p. 305). This manuscript supplies the end here from 127/4.

iii. Cotton Titus D 18, British Museum (T). See p. 355.

Editions: Morris, R., OEH i. 244-267 (with translation); Specimens, 87-95 (part only); Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, 8-15; Wagner, W., Kritische Textausgabe . . . mit Einleitung, Anmerkungen und Glossar, Bonn, 1908.

Literature: Bartels, L. (see p. 450/23); Einenkel, E., Ueber die Verfasser einiger neuangelsächsischer Schriften, Leipzig, 1881, continued in Anglia, v. 91; Konrath, M., ES xii. 459; Stodte, H., Ueber die Sprache und Heimat der ‘Katherine-Gruppe,’ Göttingen, 1896; Vollhardt, W. (see p. 269/19); Williams, Irene F., Anglia, xxix. 413.

Sources: SW is a free expansion of chapters xiii, xiv and xv of the fourth book of the treatise, De Anima, ascribed to Hugh of S. Victor (Rouen ed., 1648, vol. ii. pp. 207-9). The imaginative detail is mostly due to the English author: contrast, ‘Et qui veniunt cum illa?’ Memoria: ‘Mille daemones ferentes secum libros grandes et uncos ferreos et igneas catenas’ of the original with its equivalent 119/68-75. The gruesome picture of 119/86-121/140 is mainly derived from the Visions literature.

Phonology: (1) of B. The following should be compared with the account of the MS. A of the Ancrene Wisse on pp. 357-62; explanations of abnormal forms offered there are not repeated here. Oral a is a, habben 41, makid 39; a before nasals and lengthening groups is o, from 25, lonc 58, fondin 224, inȝonge 32; þen, þenne, hwen, hwenne are the usual forms, but þeonne 138 by analogy of heonne: and is ant 9, man indefinite is me 45, possibly mon 25. æ is mostly e, ed 98, gledd 208, but ea in feader 116 (4 times), forbearneð 103 (forbærnan), glead 201 (3), gleadschipes 306, 307, leatere 103, nease 96, 112 (næs-), reaðliche 21, smeale 70, wearliche 4, weattres 100, and a in blac 58, 110, war 195, 332, warliche 39, 178, warre 142, warschipes 42 &c., and habbe 61, 112, 220. e is e, bereð 70, herien 320, spekeð 8; before lengthening groups, ende 106, engles 239, but rikenin 86, stude 46 (3), hwuch 6 &c., swuch 93 (4). Umlaut e is ea in beast 332 (but best 64), formealte 104 (Anglian mæltan), smeal 275, spealie 303: from *swolgian descend forswolheð 91, forswolhe 152. i is regularly i, blisse 136, ȝimmes 245, but wiit 200; before lengthening groups, binden 71, bringe 113, but u in wule 42 (7), wulleð 289: in welcume 227, an early instance of this spelling, the adverb wel has been substituted for the original wil. o is o, bodi 323, bigotten 316; before lengthening groups, bold 129, word 73, but a in nalde 7, walde 6 (3), wrahtte 74 (descended from an older form with a): dehtren 202 is an umlaut plural: greot 93 for grot RT (grot, particle) is due to confusion with grēot, grit. u is regularly u, cume 7, stunde 207, tungen 114, once o in comme 60, and i in kimeð 69, 138. y is u, arudden 120 (*āryddan), brune 83, ȝuldene 170, sunderlepes 280; mycel is muchel 11, muche 105.

ā is a, ban 131, ouergað 270; before two consonants, gast 323, tadden 95, but e through loss of stress in se 17 &c., (hwam) se 276, (hwider) se 275, ase 91, beside stressed swa 120 &c., alswa 230, and u in wumme 133: ohwider 25 is probably influenced by nohwider (nō): ea in easkeð 75, 215, easkest 68 comes from a form with ǣ. ǣ₁ is ea (33 times), deale 105, ear 44, ȝeað 151, leasten 108, but e in flesch 99 (5), lest 54, lesten 178, sumdel 137, 284, þen 158, 212, mostly before two consonants. ǣnig is ei 42 (4), but eni 113; ǣlc is euch 16 &c. ǣ₂ is e (45 times), bere 23, dede 19, dreden 166 (5), ferliche 67 (3), þer 27, 150, were 124 (9), and eo in leote 40; ea appears only in deadbote 75, fearlac 62, heale 242, ileanett 35, 202, offearen 56 (4), reades 296, ?readien 81, reade 142, readeð 177, þear 246, 331. ē is e; ī, i, but u in bluðeliche 80 (*blȳþe); ō is o, but eo in iseoð 229 (beside soð 75, 179, 293, isoðet 257); ū is u without exception; ȳ is u, cuðen 241, fure 71; before two consonants, lutlin 327, but stele 114 represents the earlier stǣli, similarly the derivative istelet 126.

ea before r + cons. is a in igarket 339, ȝarowe 260, swarte 70, 89, and before lengthening groups, hardi 56, inwarde 72, inwardliche 247, towart 81 (4), warde 1 (3), wardi 141, warneð 34, warne 155, warni 42, warnin 63, 140, unwarnede 157, mostly after w, but ea in heard 116 (7), ofearneð 135, as well as hearm 117, hearmin 290, and e in þerf 171. The i-umlaut is e, derne 296, ferd 151. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, al 12 &c., fallinde 178, forwalleð 104; before lengthening groups, bald 183, bihalde 40, bihalden 57 (5), calde 104, halden 46 &c., half 143 (4), talde 114, but ea in wealdent 226, eo in feole 54. eo before r + cons. is generally eo, feor 40, heorte 163, steorren 267, and before lengthening groups, eorðe 84, ȝeorne 201, but e in derueð 90, 103 (possibly representing dierfan), hercneð 218, werc 74, werkes 64, and o in dorc 130 with accent shifting. To the wur group belong iwurðen 26, iwurden 298, iwurðeð 93, 148; wyr words are deorewurðe 203, wurse 102, 105, wursi 164, wursin 328, wurð 156, 181, 194, wurðe 40: warpe 43 is Scandinavian; istirret 245 a ME. formation. eo before l + cons. is seen in seolf 27 &c. ea, the u- and å-umlaut of a, is seen in eawles 126, gleadeð 310, gleadien 223, 270, gleadunge 283 (4), heatel 128, heateð 109, meaðen 99, neauele 98, and analogically in feareð 18, igleadet 214, heatieð 111, but it is wanting in bale 93, 129, care 150, carien 162, 166, cwakie 131, cwakien 325, waker 53, 57, 142 (Vesp. Ps. wæc(c)er), wakien 7 (Angl. wæcian, Bülbring, § 231). eo, u-umlaut of e, is represented in heouene 146 (3), heouenliche 243, but wordes 251, world 169 (7), worldlich 170 after w. eo, å-umlaut of e, is seen in abeoren 125, breoken 8, 28, freoteð 96, speoken 61, feole 306, weole 161, weoleful 245; eo, the u- and å-umlaut of i, in cleopeð 38, icleopet 36, hweonene 60, 65, neomen 317, neome 328, neomeð 311, seoðen 213, seoueðe 284, seouenfald 282, 287, þeose 97, unweotenesse 179, and by analogy, neome 147, bineome 11, but hare 18 (3), suster 43, 207. ea after palatals is a, schal 21 &c., schadewe 148, 231, schape 122, but e in schekeð 132 (i-umlaut), eo before nasal, scheome 117. ie after ġ is e, forȝet 25, 167, ȝef 27, ȝeueð 87, 164, ȝelden 301, ȝeldeð 213, ȝelpeð 188. ȝef is ȝef 6, 14, gef 12. ie after č is e, chele 101; after sć, i in schilde 233 (scildan), e in scheld 159. eo after sć is u, schulen 178, 224, 320, schulde 158 (R₁ has scylde subj.), schunien 177. eom is am 62; heom, ham 45, 87.

ēa is generally ea, beateð 48, deaðes 62, deaðlich 58, eauraskes 97, but e in ec 64, echen 95 (perhaps representing īecan), etscene 240, eðeliche 157, 193, ȝe 77, 216 (Anglian gǣ), gret 70: its i-umlaut is e, alesen 242, alesnesse 294, here 22 (5), herunge 16, (an)lepi 313, (sunder)lepes 280. ēo is generally eo, beon 10, biheolt 262, breoste 98, deopre 296, þeosternesse 89, but þosternesse 86 and schute 160, with shifted accent: hēo is ha 40; the i-umlaut is wanting, deore 31, 144, þeoster 246, neod 211 (see p. 288, last line). Palatalization is wanting after ġ in forȝeme 54, ȝemeð 168, ȝeme 177, ȝeme 147, 311, ȝemeles 18, 56; after sć in schene 233, 268, schenre 287. gīet is ȝet 239.

a + g is ah, drahen 72, sahen 201, mahen 22: islein 116 is geslegen; sei 280, seist 279, seið 6, 61 come from forms with æ; dreaien 206 represents *dreagan. æ + g is regularly ei, dei 29, feier 209, feierleac 272, iteilede 90, mei 10 &c., meiden 243, seide 66, but mahe 290, 332. e + g is ei, aȝein 20, eie 23, eilin 290, wei 170, but isehen 77 (6). i + g, h is ih, nihe 251, diht 10, sihðe 16 (4), unwiht 5, but flið 158 (WS. flihð, Rushworth₂ has flīð): freineð 65 is from a form with æ or e (R₁ has frægnast, Li, fregna). The spirant has disappeared in monie 307, 314, murie 283: final ig is i, buri 129 (from dat. byrig), dreorinesses 131, moni 29, seli 280, unseli 121. o + g, h is oh, bohte 28, 237, untohe 23, untohene 13, untoheliche 18; dehtren 35 has umlaut e. u + h is uh, bituhhe 133; y + h, uh, tuht 46, tuhte 23. ā + g, h is ah, ahen 4, ahne 184, 305, wahes 32, ah 165. ǣ₁ + h is ah, bitaht 144, 149, but ǣ₁ + g, ei, keis 34, eiðer 102, 111. ī + g, ih, wiheles 155; in sti 186 the spirant has disappeared. ū + h is uh, buhsam 241. ea + h is ah, mahte 84 (5), but iseh 118 (6); the i-umlaut is seen in almihti 324, unmihti 181, 191, niht 29; lahhinde 213 comes from an Anglian form in æ. eo + g is seen in tintreohen 264 with eo, å-umlaut of e; the form is characteristic of the group. eo + ht is iht, brihte 269, rihte 14 &c., rihtwise 193, but fehte 160 has Anglian e. ie + h is seen in bisið 332. ēa + g, h is eh, ehnen 51, heh 225, neh 329, but tah 11 (3). ēo + g is eh in drehen 105, dreheð 167, but liht 87, lihtschipe 283, lihtliche 263. īe + h, lihteð 69, ilihtet 214, but hest 48 (Anglian hēst), nest 41 (Angl. nēst). ā + w is aw, cnaweð 55, cnawen 293, cnawlechunge 292, nawt 7 &c., nawiht 183, sawles 1, 27, snawi 100, but noht 149 (nōht), nowðer 171 (nōwþer), sehe 228, isehe 118. ī + w, elheowet 58 (Anglian hēow), speoweð 91 (with w-umlaut). ēa + w is aw, schaweð 240, schawede 265, ischawed 258, schawere 233, but þeaw 30, unþeaw 32, unþeawes 334, heaued þeawes 36. ēo + w is mostly eow, tocheoweð 93, reowðful 120, treowe 157 (trīewe), treoweliche 78, 206, but fowr 36 (3), trowðe 78.

In deorewurðe 149, eðeliche 193, euenin 83, husebonde 34 (but husbonde 38), huselauerd 9, 17, husewif 20, 205, leatere 103, steuene 133, sunegin 179, wrecchedom 85 a glide e has been added, a final e to ine 337, inwarde 72, ofte 18. e is lost in echnesse 108, i in unwerged 251, 318 (wērigod): a occurs for o in anan 105; o is levelled to e in lauerd 4, sikere 107, sikerliche 171, sikernesse 188, sunderliche 308, te 71 &c., lost in wordes 251 (werod). u is e in durewart 39, it is lost in world 169 &c. The prefix æt is ed, edwiteð 123, et, etstont 158; be is bi, bisetten 64, bigineð 1, bihinden 92, biwiten 5; ēaþ is et in etscene 240; ge is generally i, icwiddet 257, ifindeð 156, ihal 91, iwis 137, unimete 125, but it is omitted in bere 23, schape 122, monge 102, schad 176, unrude 71 (but unirude 125), wissunge 31. The suffix in herunge 16 is noteworthy. þǣr is syncopated in þrin 79, þrinne 53, þrof 33, trof 331, þrute 41.

Metathesis of r is seen in wernches 5, wrahhte 74, eauraskes 97 (forsc). rr is simplified in feor 40. ll is simplified in feole 54, tele 79, 228, and finally in ful 82, godspel 4, wil 10. m is doubled in comme 60, mm simplified in grimfule 122. nn is simplified in bigineð 1, moncunnes 242, n is lost in raketehe 71; the prepositions in, on are reduced to i, o, except before a vowel or h or when stressed, as in 316; for n, m appears in þrumnesse 234. p is inserted in inempnet 244. f is usually u between vowels or vowel and liquid, biuoren 59, deouel 171, froure 35, seoluen 117, vuel 19, but deoflen 69 (4), otherwise it is f, fondin 224, hefde 113, seolf 27. t is doubled in bigotten 316, bitternesse 130, ileanett 35 (but ileanet 202), wrahtte 74, lost in best 64, beast 332, added in lustnið 61, loftsong 283. For t, d occurs in ed 98; tt is simplified in wit 8 (but wittes 16). For d, t is often written finally, ant 9, dret 50, durewart 39, etstont 158, feont 33, heart 165, hiderwart 139, hundret 335, lont 130, ontswereð 66, somet 21, þusent 69, towart 81, wealdent 226, but ð in iseið 280, lauerð 8, schenðlac 124; d is doubled in gledd 208, dd is simplified in midel 174 (but middel 45, 170). Initial þ becomes t after t, tah 12, te 9, tis 106, 152, tu 68, after d (possibly miswritten for t), te 98, trof 331: final þ becomes t before t, limpet 154; for þ, d appears in blideliche 248, deorewurde 301, iwurden 298, makid 39, makied 255, oder 19, sod 293, swide 208. s is doubled in gasstes 30 (gāst), but gastes 122, rihtwissnesse 175 (wīs); for ss, sc appears in iblescede 221: sć is regularly sch, schad 176, schal 21, scheome 117, schilde 233, schunien 177. The stop c is usually k before e, i, biloke 204, blake 110, keis 34, kimeð 69, þonkeð 201, c in other positions, blac 58, moncunnes 242, þonc 20: ah 26 is Anglian ah, WS. ac. č is ch, chele 101, echen 95, echnesse 108 (a new formation from eche), euch 16, hwuch 6, ich 61, ilich 97, licomlich 173, pich 104, rechelese 13, sechen 32, smeche 88 (but North. smeke 88), stench 84, tocheoweð 93, þulliche 162 (but þulli 326, 327). čč is cch, dreccheð 90. cw is preserved, cwakie 131, cwemen 20, cwic 84, acwikieð 105, but quoð 139 &c. Palatal g is written ȝ, forȝeme 54, ȝarowe 260, ȝe 137, ȝe 159, ȝef 6, 14 (but gef 12), ȝef 27, ȝelden 301, ȝelpeð 188, ȝeorne 201, ȝet 239, ȝimmes 245, but igarket (no breaking). The guttural stop is written g, bigineð 1, gulteð 18, bigoten 259, 316, unwerged 251, but ȝ in aȝulteð 48, ȝeað 151, inȝonge 32, 41, 146 (comp. Northumbrian ġeonga, ġionga, Bülbring, § 492, anmerkung 1, and hiniong[a]e, Sweet, Oldest E. Texts, p. 149), ȝuldene 170. For the spirant after l, r, h appears in folhin 12, 336, folheð 275, halhen 278, forswolhe 152, forswolheð 91, sorhe 85: myrigþ is murhðe 253, 255, murðes 219. hl is reduced to l in leane 58, leor 58, 231, lust 261, lustnið 61, anlepi 313, sunderlepes 280, hn to n in nesche 162, 167, hr to r in remunge 99. Initial hw is usually preserved, hwen 68, hwer 17, hwet 60. h is added in unwhiht 151, doubled in bituhhen 168, bituhhe 133, 169.

(2) Of R. The principal divergences from B are noted. a before nasal: unþeonkes 42 (comp. ‘feondeð,’ SM 10/7). æ: the spelling ea for e is used only in smeale 70, wearliche 4, otherwise e occurs, except in latere 103, neose 96, 112 (nosu): similarly ea for umlaut e is absent in best 332, formelte 104, smel 275, spelien 303. o: grot 93. u: com 60 (cwōm), cumeð 69, 138. y is regularly u, as in B. ā: swā stressed and unstressed is so, but once swa 234; eskeð 75, 215, eskest 68. The representation of ǣ₁ is divided between ea and e, each 28 times: ǣ₂ is e 50 times (lete 40); the exceptions are hear 132, heale 242, hileanet 202, offearen 56 (4), offeared 54, 211, reade 142, reades 296, rodien 81 (reoden T). ī: bliðeliche 351. ea (breaking): hard 116 (7), harm 117, herdes 183, þearf 171, weldent 226. eo: hercni 349, darc 130. The u-, å-umlaut of a is e in gledeð 310, gledien 223, 270, gledunge 308, 310, 312, medeð 99 (for meðen), neuele 98, igledet 214, and is wanting in fareð 18, hatel 128, hateð 109, hatieð 111. å-umlaut of e: to speokene 347. u-, å-umlaut of i: seððen 213, unwitnesse 179. eo after ġ: ȝuheðe 383. ēa: deð 171, dedlich 58, adie 269, eðsene 240, greạt 70. īe: fleme 343. ēo: þeosternesse 86, þreohad 372. a + g: dreien 206. æ + g: feirlec 272. i + ht: unwiht 151. ē + g: tweien 342. ō + h: þohtes 360. eo + g: tintreon 264.

r: wrenches 5. n: in 108, 319, on 29. f: under fon 57. t: et 98. d final is seldom altered to t, dred 50, dureward 39, hard 165, hideward 139, lond 130, toward 81, 127, but heauet 59: other spellings are onswereð 66, 281, schenlac 124, gled 108, middel 174. Initial þ is often unaltered after final t, þu 79, þrof 331 (but it is lost in ant e 372), so final þ in limpeð 154. Normal þ appears in bliðeliche 248, makieð 255, makeð 39, oðer 19, soð 293, swiðe 208; for þ, d in beod 15. s: gastes 30. c: ecnesse 108. g: ȝef 12, iȝarcket 339, biȝeoten 316 (but bigoten 259), agulteð 48, guldene 170, strencðe 153 (5), strencðen 164, strenðe 343. h: unwiht 151, hearen 98, her 94, hileanet 202, hearneð 135, hure 144, er 58, is 28, wilinde 135.

(3) Of T. a before nasals and lengthening groups is o, but fram 25 (5) is invariable. æ is a (45 times including nase 96, 112), exceptions are hefde 116, hefden 256, hweðer 101, forbearneð 103, readliche 21, smecche 88, wrecchedom 85. e: rekenen 86, best 332, smal 275, spelie 303. i: wile 42 &c. (but ichulle 81), wilneð 289. o: grot 93. u: cumeð 69, 138. y is u, except winne 161, 173 (but wunne 166, 169). ā: ai 53 (7), a Scandinavian word, leað 153 (? lǣþo, or miswritten for leið, OWScand. leiðr), askeð 75, 215, askest 68, owhwider 25 (comp. ‘ouhwuder’ AR 172/3, ?influence of ōwer). ǣ₁ is ea, in close agreement with B; sumdeal 284, but lasten 108, 178. ǣnig is ani 42, 135, 192. ǣ₂: also as in B; lete 40, rodien 81, þer 246, 331, trinne 86. ē: fearreden 269. ī: bliðeliche 80, huinen 17 (comp. OWScand. hjûn). ō: isoð 229, sweote 291 (‘swoete’ Vesp. Psalt., Sweet, OET. 217/13). ȳ is u, written ui in fuire 71, fuir 83, 87 (but fur 103). ea (breaking): wearnið 34, wearne 155, wearnen 63, unwearnede 157, hard 116 (5), hardes 163, 172, harm 117, harmen 290, þurf 171; i-umlaut, dearne 296, ferd 151. eo: isterret 245, self 27 (6), seluen 5 (3), but seolf 8. The u- å-umlaut of a is wanting, except in eawles 126; for heatel 128 heates is read. The absence of this umlaut points to Northumbrian or W. Saxon. eo, u-umlaut of e: heuene 220, 325, heuenliche 243, but heouene 146; after w, woredes 251, world 108 (7), worldlich 170. eo, å-umlaut of e: breke 28, breken 8, freten 96, speken 61. eo, u- å-umlaut of i: nime 147, 328, binime 11, nimeð 311, siðen 213, clepeð 38, iclepet 36, seuenfald 282, seuefald 287: for hweonene B 60, 65 T has hweðen, hwenne; hore 122. ea after sć, schome 117. ie: ȝef 27, ȝiueð 87, 164, ȝiue 371. ȝif 6, 12, 14. ēa: dedes 62, gledred 71; ȝa 216, ȝea 77 (possibly Scandinavian), great 70. ēo: biheld 262, depre 296, deulen 69, iseð 89, 94, seð 257, ned 211, þeosternesse 86, ho 40. æ + g: dai 29 &c., mai 10 &c. are the regular forms, but mei 303, so feir 209, 239, feirleic 272. e + g: aȝain 20 (Angl. ongægn), aȝaines 34, 153, but to ȝeines 196. ea + h: mihte 113, 118, 162, but mahte 84, 232. eo + g: tintrohen 264. ie + h: bisihð 332. ā + w: noht 7. ī + w: speweð 91. ēa + w: scheaweð 240, scheawde 265, ischeawet 258, scheawere 233. ēo + w: treowðe 78; treweliche 78, 206.

r: wrenches 5. m: com 60. n: in 99, 108. f: biforen 59, þer fore 150, þurn 225, under fon 57. t: blend 87, at 98. d: dred 50, dureward 59, atstond 158, feond 33, hard 165, hiderward 139, hundreð 97, 335 (OWScand. hundrað), lond 130, 256, heauet 59, onswereð 66, 281, somen 21, þusend 69, þusand 114, 119, þusanð 138, toward 81, 127, schendlac 124, glad 208, middel 174. þ: bliðeliche 248, limpeð 154, makes 39, makieð 255, swiðe 208. s: gastes 30. c: cumeð 69, þoncheð 201, long 58, swing 289, smecche 88, euh 58, hwucse 72, stinc 84, ecnesse 108. ȝ: ȝif 12, ȝarket 339, biȝoten 316, unwerched 251, agulteð 48, guldene 170. h: unwiht 151.

Accidence: (1) Of B. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. þinge 84 has added e. Gen. -es, cunnes 90, deaðes 62, contracted weis 162, 236: d. -e, dome 261, flesche 270, hame 25, with all nouns which have vowel ending in the s. n. as bale 93, chele 101, in others the inflection is more frequently wanting, deað 222, flesch 99, and generally in words of two syllables, as finger 325, godspel 4, heaued 59, lauerd 207; wa 86 is indeclinable. In the s. a. deale 105, inȝonge 32, 41 (but inȝong n. 146), mete 45, 47 have added e; bere 23 is gebǣre; sune 235 represents sunu. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, eauraskes 97, engles 239, deaðes 119, duntes 125: neuters, with the exception of þing 178, 297, schape 122 (gesceapu), have taken the masc. termination, þinges 89, werkes 64, wittes 16, wordes 251, wordes 64, or have joined the weak declension, deoflen 89, 91, studen 240, wepnen 159: genitive is smeche 88; datives have mostly -es, eawles 126, gleadschipes 307, but bisocnen 277, colen 104, deoflen 69, 139, wepnen 162, 184, and siðe 97, 138, 335 (without n). The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in the s. n., este 173, cnawlechunge 292, and many other derivatives in -ung, schadewe 148, but meað 37, 43 (once masc. in OE.). Gen. -e, helle 95, nease 96, but murðes 219, sawles 1: dat. -e, alesnesse 294, bisne 4, worlde 108, 136, 260, but ferd 151, half 160, 238, luft 186, sti 186 (stīg), world 108, 110, 147, 169 are not inflected: acc. -e, blisse 221, froure 35, but ferreden 269, fulst 225 (fylst), half 143. Pl. n. is hondon 51; d. blissen 267, pinen 90, 127, sunnen 70, wunden 240, dreorinesses 131; a. pinen 263, sahen 201, strengðen 164, sunnen 124, cunreadnes 261, estes 197, keis 34, runes 296. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular, -en throughout the plural. The minor declensions are represented by uet pl. d. 260; mon s. n. 8, monnes s. g. 9, 15; boc s. d. 72, s. a. 70; buri s. n. 129 (from dat. byrig); niht s. d. 29; feader s. g. 237, s. d. 241, s. a. 116; moder s. a. 116; dehtren pl. n. 202, pl. d. 35, 195; suster s. a. 43, sustren pl. n. 202, pl. d. 207; feont s. n. 33, s. d. 158; wealdent s. n. 226.

Adjectives which in OE. end in e retain that termination in all cases. Weak inflections are s. n. m. ȝuldene 170, rihtwise 193, neut. blake 110, willesfule 205, s. d. f. swarte 89, s. d. neut. ferliche 102, s. a. m. willesfule 44, f. brihte 269: strong inflections are s. d. f. inwarde 72, s. a. f. longe 254: swote s. n. m. 275, neut. 291 (swōt) has conformed to swete. All other adjectives are uninflected in the singular. Those in -ig lose g, anlepi 313, eadi 243, hali 234: lȳtel is lutle s. a. f. 235; lutle s. a. neut. 328, lut pl. n. 187, few people, are used as nouns; mycel is mostly muche, but muchel s. d. neut. strong 166, muchele weak 300, pl. a. 314: āgen gives ahne s. d. f. 305, pl. d. 184. The plural ends in -e, ȝarowe 260, wakere 57, 142, misliche 127, unmihtie 191; exceptions are n. ful 239, hal 93, ilich 97, hardi 56, lusti 318, d. eadi 269, mislich 20, seli 280, snawi 100, a. unseli 121, wurð 194. OE. āna is ane 200; ān is an, a, s. g. anes 311, d. ane 207, a. 216: nān is nan, na, s. g. nanes 317, pl. n. nane 274. Adjectives used as nouns are rarely inflected, as heardes s. g. 163, 172, nesches 172, uuele pl. n. 224: comparatives regularly end in e, brihtre 287, deopre 296, earre 103, leatere 103, wurse 102, but grisluker 97; of superlatives earste 36, forme 195, leaste 115, 118, measte 115 have weak inflection.

The personal pronouns are ich, me, we, ure 181, us, þu, tu after t, þe, ȝe, ow. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 6, ha f. 10 &c., hit neut. 13; g. hire f. 11; d. him m. 35, hire f. 42, a. hire f. 8 (with hus neut.), 11, 33 (with þeaw m.), 43, 87, hit neut. 10, 85; pl. n. ha 89 &c., heo 93, 274, 276; g. hare 18; d. ham 55; a. 13. Reflexives are me 190, him 54, hire 180, 205, ham 94, me seolf 189 (possibly definitive), me seoluen 117, us seolf 191, 193, us seoluen 5, him seolf 27, him seoluen 109, 309, hire seoluen 182; definitive are seolf 8, 228, him seolf 277, him ane 200; possessives are mi s. 80, 116, min 163, 196, mine pl. 164, 234, ure 4, þi s. 78, þin 319, his 5, hire 12, hare 51, 122. The definite article is þe, te after t; inflected forms are þet s. n. neut. 33, 214, þen s. d. m. 158, s. a. m. 212, þet s. a. neut. 248; the instrumental is þe 11, 142. Þet is used demonstratively 35, 103, 104, þet ilke 89, 105, 256; the article is also used pronominally, þeo þe, those who 48, 49, 56, 247, those which 178, one who 180, þeo, those 15. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þes m. 6, tis 106, þis neut. 8, 53, 124, tis 26, s. d. þis m. 318, þisse f. 136, þeos 146, þis 110, neut. 9, 102, 137, 198, 199, s. a. þes m. 118, þis neut. 284, 285, tis 152; pl. n. þeos 17, 202, d. 24, 101, 207, 285, þeose 97, a. þeos 140. The relatives are þe, þet; þet . . . hire 10, = whom, þet te 154, = what. Interrogatives are hwam 39, hwet 60 (4), hweðer 101, hwuch 6 (6), hwucche pl. n. 14; its correlative is swuch 93, 135, 255, swucche pl. n. 194: ilca is ilke 105 &c.; þyllic, þulliche pl. d. 162, þulli s. d. 326, 327. Indefinites are hwam se s. a. 276, hwet se s. n. 172, hwuch se s. a. 72; me 45, 68, 87, 165, 275, mon 25; an 252; sum 54, summes s. g. 162, 236, summe pl. n. 14; eiðer 102, 111; oðer 37, oðres s. g. 109, 112, oðre s. d. 252, pl. d. 52, 285, pl. a. 277; euch 108, euchan 49, 109, euchanes s. g. 252, eauereuchan 307; eni 113, ei 42, 135, 192; nawiht 172, 183, noht 149; moni 20, 29, 166, monie pl. n. 307, pl. a. 314, ma 167; feole 306; al s. n. 12, alles s. g. 90, 197, 264, al s. d. 74, 155, s. a. 105, 116, 117; alle pl. n. 13, 114, 214, alre pl. g. 181, alle pl. d. 30, 46, 281, pl. a. 33, 40, 297, mid alle 211.

Verbs in -an have infinitive -en, abeoren 125, bihalden 233, 236, and thirty-five other instances, or -e, bringe 113, 173, cume 7, here 22, munne 303, neome 328, those in ian, mostly of the second weak conjugation, have -ien, carien 162, 166, gleadien 270, herien 320, schunien 177, þolien 7 (6), wakien 7, readien 81 (ME. formation from read = rǣd), or -ie, spealie 303, þolie 235, or -in, amurdrin 32, blissin 270, eilin 290, euenin 83, folhin 12, 336, fondin 224, grapin 87, hearmin 290, lokin 232, 254, lutlin 327, openin 285, rikenin 86, sunegin 179, warnin 152, wursin 328, and ME. wontin, or -i, wursi 164: contract verbs are biseon 122, fleon 158, seon 305, underuon 312, unwreo 285. The dat. inf. is inflected in to cumene 265, to witene 50, 150, 226; other forms are forte binden 71, forte warnin 140, forte . . . halden 57, for . . . to drahen 72, forte breoke 28, to alesen 242, to seon ⁊ to cnawen 293 (virtual nom.), to warnin 63, to . . . makie 325. Presents are s. 1. cume 76, 220, cwakie 131, demi 185, iseo 150; 2. cumest 76, easkest 68, seist 279; 3. cleopeð 38, limpet 154, makid 39, and seventy-four others; contracted, about one-fourth of the total number, bisið 332, bit 246, flið 158, forȝet 25, 167, halt 180, 195, 205, hat 45, let 26, 212, sent 55, sit 48, 225, 237, wit 52, and nine others, passive hatte 62; pl. 1. habbeð 191, witeð 144, drede we 155; 3. aȝulteð 48, edwiteð 123; of the second weak conjugation, acwikieð 105, heatieð 111, herieð 317, makied 255, wunieð 272, 320, but ofearneð 135 and liuieð 287, werieð 143; meallið 90, seoð 257, 295, iseoð 89, 94: subjunctive s. 1. habbe 61, understonde 285; 3. bihalde 40, bineome 11, cume 23, 65, 144, comme 60, feole, forȝeme 54, forswolhe 152, fortruste 54, leade 65, leare 45, leote 40, reade 142, rihte 14, 141, schute 160, seche 60, slepe 25, tuhte 23, werie 141, chasti 11, loki 39, wardi 141, warni 42; pl. 1. demen 191, 193, halden 198, þonkin 200, neome we 147: imperative s. 2. etstont 158, let 209, sei 280, tele 79, 228, warne 155; pl. 2. hercnið 218, lokið 67, lustnið 61, neomeð 311, þencheð 115, understondeð 218. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 1. iseh 118 (5), biseh 249, 3. ȝef 27, quoð 315; pl. 1. speken 44; subjunctive s. 1. isehe 118, 2. sehe 228: I b. s. 1. com 139: I c. subj. s. 3. bigunne 299: III. subj. s. 3. forbude 13: V. s. 1. biheolt 262, lette (weak form) 28. Participles present: I a. sittende 278: I b. cuminde 40: IV. lahhinde adj. 213: V. fallinde adj. 178; past: I a. isehen 77 (6), ispeken 335: I b. ibore 136, icumen 55: I c. bigunne 112, iborhen 276, formealte 104: II. iwriten 70, untohene adj. pl. 13, untohe adj. s. 23, fulitohe adj. s. 9: III. bigoten 259, bigotten 316, biloke 204: IV. islein 116: V. bihalden 57, ihaten 10, 37, 220, underuon 57, ofdred adj. 145. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hefde 113, talde 114; 3. bohte 28, luuede 241, schilde 233, sende 223, wrahtte 74; pl. 3. deiden, liueden 266. Participles present: libbinde 270, sechinde 151; ME. formations are fikelinde adj. 147, smorðrinde adj. 88; past: bitaht 144, 149, ibet 74, igret 256, ilihtet 214, ischawed 258, iseid 328, iseið 280, unwerged 251, icleopet 36, icwiddet 257, offearet 54, 211, unwerget 318, and thirteen others in -t, besides irobbet 26, istirret 245; others used as adjectives are elheowet 58, fordemde pl. 133, forrotet 99, forwerede pl. 114, iblescede s. weak 221, pl. 250, isette pl. 252, istelet pl. 126, iteilede pl. 90, unwarnede noun pl. 157, offruhte pl. 222. Minor Groups: witen inf. 137, 305, wat pr. s. 176, nat 66, witen pr. pl. 295, 297, nuten 101, wiste pt. s. 6; ah pr. s. 165, ahen 1 pr. pl. 4, pr. pl. 300; con 1 pr. s. 81, 329, pr. s. 64, cunnen pr. pl. 187; þerf pr. s. 171, þurue we 1 pr. pl. 145, 225; schal pr. s. 21 &c., schulen pr. pl. 178, 224, 320, schulde we 1 pt. pl. 158; mei 1 pr. s. 81, pr. s. 10 &c., me[i] 327, mahen 1 pr. pl. 22, 2 pr. pl. 137, 305, mahe pr. pl. 274, pr. s. subj. 290, 332, mahte 1 pt. s. 113, 162, 232, pt. s. 84, 118; most 2 pr. s. 285, 316; beon inf. 10 &c., am 1 pr. s. 62, is pr. s. 8, nis 18, bið 146, aren pr. pl. 107, 256, beoð 13, 56, 159, 202, beod 306, beo pr. s. subj. 26 (8), beon 1 pr. pl. subj. 142, 198, beo we 193, beon pr. pl. subj. 104, wes pt. s. 205, weren pt. pl. 94, 114, were pt. s. subj. 127, 136, 210, 253, nere 121, 136, were pt. pl. subj. 124, ibeo pp. 331; ich chulle 1 pr. s. 81, wule pr. s. 145, 193, 325, wulleð pr. pl. 289, wule pr. s. subj. 42, 210, 323, walde 1 pt. s. 119, pt. s. 6, 12, nalde 7; to donne dat. inf. 142, 185, to don 288, 324, to do 189 (virtual nom.), do 1 pr. s. 190, 197, deð pr. s. 182, doð pr. pl. 49, 267, do 2 s. imp. 154, idon pp. 300, ido 53, 117; gan inf. 21, 316, ȝeað pr. s. 151, ga we 1 pr. pl. 171, ouergað pr. pl. 270, ga 2 s. imp. 315, pr. s. subj. 10, 47.

Among adverbs may be noted á 105 (4), áá 53 (3), ever, distinguished by accent from a 227, ah! hweonene 60, 65, interrogative, earþon 74, previously, unmundlunge (unmyndlinga) 68, unexpectedly, in ME. apparently only here and once in AR; among prepositions, bituhhen 168, bituhhe 133, 169, extension of OE. bituh, BH 133/33, which comes also in SK 1515, ‘bituhe’ AR MS. A, 204/20, ‘bituhhen,’ id. 358/11, fore 27, 276, on behalf of, in both places separated from the word governed and put at the end of the sentence.

(2) Of R. This is substantially the same as that of MS. B: some forms from ll. 339-373 are here noted. Nouns: neut. bodi s. d. 369, limen pl. n. 364; fem. sawle s. n. 369, neod 349, sondes s. g. 346, murðes 342, lefdi s. d. 355, sonden pl. a. 357. Adjective comp. lessere 345 (lǣssa), an early instance of the double comparative; T has lesre. Pronoun: incker dual g.: indef. oðer s. d. 363, noðres s. g. 347.

(3) Of T. It differs from B mainly in the verbal inflection. Forms with i are few, euennin inf. 83, fondin 224, lutlin 327, openin 285, sunegin 179, wursi 164, mellið pr. pl. 90; in the pr. s. -es and -eð alternate, warnes 348, wilnes 286, bides 59 (hat B), fares 25, haues 144, makes 39, slepes 25, spekes 8, wites 52 (wit B), fleoð 158 (flið B), beoð 146, beð 24, in the pr. pl. -en and -eð, habben 191, beon 14 (6), freten 96, ȝelden 213, hatien 111, iwurðen 93, snicken 96, sweren 21, beoð 17 &c., speweð 91: arn 256, schuln 340, þurn 225 are syncopated. Beside ha, she, ho occurs 12, 40, 181; man 165 is indefinite. The suffix of the verbal noun is regularly -ing, cnawlechinge 292, gretinge 213, hechelinge 100. For aðet B, R 104, it has til ꝥ, for mid B, mit R 28, wið.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are ai T 53 &c., aren 107, drupnin 222, etlunge 310, far (lac) 341, 363, fear (laic) T 341, (feir) lec R 272, feoloh(lukest) 270 (OWScand. félagi), flute 349, flutteð 100, ȝa T 216, ȝea T 77, hird 65, hundreð T 79, keiseres 261, lahe 193, 259, 271, lane 202, meoke 198, nowcin 163 (4), tidinges 140, til T 104, trust 184, vmben 207, wan 129, warpe 43, varpeð 341, wengen 143, 340, witer(liche) 78, witer(luker) 285, wontin 135 (OWScand. vanta), wontreaðes 129, wondraðes R 129, wandreðes T 129, þicke 86 (OWScand. þykkr), probably baðe T 23, iburst 151, lustnin 217, possibly froden T 95, ȝetteð 247 (Björkman 109), ȝeieð 134 (OWScand. geyja) influenced like ȝoulen by ȝellen (Björkman 69). French are archangles 249 (possibly Latin), apostle 157, castel 31, chasti 11, chere 213, icheret 209, cruneð 49, cunestable 38, 200, cunfessurs 266, enbreuet 73, false 147, falsi 163, fol 19, feh 149, 204, grace 160, iordret 252, irobbet 26, leattres 71, liun 151, meistre 44, meistreð 33, meoster 189, 252, mesure 174, meosure 45, patriarches 255 (possibly Latin), poure 259, preoouin 72, prophetes 255, semblant 19, seruið 247, 250, tresor 27 (3), treosor 369, tresures 339, tresorers T 339, trone 244, 260, turnes 182, ?turneð 206, aturnet 209. A Latin borrowing is martyrs 262.

Dialect: MS. B bears a close resemblance in all dialectal criteria to MS. A of the Ancrene Wisse; its Anglian peculiarities are somewhat more pronounced. MS. R differs from MS. B in its representation of ǣ₁ and in the narrower range of its u-, å-umlauts; it is somewhat more Southern than MS. B. MS. T, in the same hand as the copy of the Ancrene Wisse, is of the mixed character described on p. 373, but the Southern element is more extensive here.

Style: Sawles Warde has been divided by its latest editor into one thousand and seventy-two half-lines of ‘rhymeless Layamonic verse,’ with three hundred and sixty-two varieties of scansion, nearly two hundred of which are each represented by a single line. Much ME. verse, the Proverbs of Alfred, the Brut, the Bestiary for example, is, like Sawles Warde, written continuously, but its verse character is always definitely indicated by its punctuation, in Layamonic verse by a half- or full stop at the end of the half-line and a full stop at the end of the line. But, as Luick has shown, Sawles Warde has a prose punctuation of natural pauses in reading, of clause and sentence, a contention which may readily be tested by the texts in the present book, which reproduce the manuscripts in this detail. Thus the punctuation of Sawles Warde which has been adduced as an indication of its verse character is evidence to the contrary.

Some specimens of the verse with the editor’s scansion are: ‘téacheð us þùrh a bísnè,’ 117/4: ‘Þis hús þe ùre láuèrd | spékeð òf, is sèolf þe món,’ 117/8: ‘þe éarèste is Wárschìpe | icléopet, ànt te óðèr | is gástelìch Stréncðè,’ 118/36: ‘Wárschìpe, þet àa is wáker, | ìs offéared, lèste súm | fortrúste hìm ant fèole oslép,’ 118/53: ‘hwuch só he mèi préouìn | þùrh his bóc, þèt is ón | euch súnnè ibréuèt,’ 119/72. Now Bartels points out that in Layamon’s verse there is no enjambment and no beginning of a clause in the middle of a half-line. Furthermore, there is no rhythm in these lines which remotely resembles either the recitative of Layamon’s alliterative line or the syllabic measure of his rhymed lines. But the fatal objection is the absence of alliteration or rhyme, for without one of these or a combination of the two there is no verse at all in Middle English; they are of the essence of its form. For Orm is an eccentric and absolutely isolated; his verse would be recognizable by his contemporaries as such only in virtue of the rigid uniformity of its rhythm.

Sawles Warde is written in the same rhythmic prose, and by the same author, as AR and the other pieces mentioned on p. 373, including the Wohunge of Ure Lauerd (OEH i. 269-87) and the Ureisun of God Almihti (id. 200-3). The evolution of this style is easily followed. The writer began his literary career with his memory well stocked with alliterative formulae and other phrases, derived in some small measure from the pre-Conquest literature, but mostly from a body of popular poetry which is represented by isolated pieces like the Worcester Fragments. His first writings, SJ and SM, are overloaded with them, and they have impressed their peculiar movement more or less on the stretches of prose which link them together. Accordingly many passages in SJ for example approach much more nearly to verse than anything in Sawles Warde. Take at random 143/68-72:—

sei me hwi þu forsakest; þi sy ant ti selhðe.

þe weolen ant te wunnen; þe walden awakenen.

ant waxen of þe wedlac; þet ich reade þe to.

hit nis nan eðelich þing; þe refschipe of rome.

ant tu maht ȝef þu wult; beon burhene leafdi.

ant of alle þe londes; þe þerto liggeð.

This has the right swing, and its slightly faulty alliteration could easily be mended, yet Saint Juliana is not verse. In SK, HM, AR, and SW we can observe a gradual and progressive diminution of this borrowed matter, but the verse cadences persist to the end.

Introduction: Einenkel, in the preface to his edition of Saint Katherine, claims to have proved that Saint Juliana and Saint Margaret were written by one author, Saint Katherine by another, and Hali Meidenhad by a third. His proof rests largely on the untenable assumption that a Middle English author, whatever the length of his literary career, or the changes in his environment, or the nature of his subject, by reason of his unbending ‘individuality’ did not vary in his vocabulary, phrases, or turns of expression. So if words in sufficient number occur often in one writing and seldom or not at all in another, if the percentage of the foreign element is not similar, if the synonyms for abstract notions like joy and sorrow, luck and mishap are not the same, the compositions must be the work of different authors. Of far other significance are the unity, not uniformity, of style which pervades the whole group in orderly and natural development, the unity of subject, that is, the praise of virginity and its superior virtue over other states of life, the recurrence of a considerable number of characteristic words, phrases, and constructions found seldom or never outside the group, the presence throughout of a pronounced Scandinavian element testifying at least to a common dialect of origin.

As has already (p. 376) been suggested, this literature is best understood as a product of the Gilbertine movement. The lives of the female saints, of whom two resist marriage and the other says of Christ ‘He haueð iweddet him to mi meiðhad,’ were suitable reading for the Gilbertine nuns, and the anchoresses, for whom the Ancrene Wisse was written, had a copy at least of Saint Margaret. Hali Meidenhad was probably occasioned by the affair of the nun at Watton, one of Gilbert’s foundations, which is related by Gilbert’s friend, Ailred of Rievaulx, in what is one of the most extraordinary revelations of the mediaeval clerical mind on the subject of the single life: it shows us the younger nuns of Watton far outdoing in ferocity their exemplar Saint Juliana, and helps to the understanding of the sentiment in Hali Meidenhad, which is so distasteful and even revolting to modern feeling that some have thought it impossible that the author of the mild wisdom of the Ancrene Wisse could have any part in it. But it must be observed that much of the abusive language about the married state in Hali Meidenhad is not original, some of it is as old as S. Jerome, and no one is so likely to have written the treatise as the enthusiastic founder of an order of nuns.

The writer has already used the main idea of the allegory in the Ancrene Wisse (M 172, 271). The parallelism pointed out in the note on l. 82 of Sawles Warde is another indication of common authorship; it is not like a borrowing, nor can it be accounted for by independent use of the curt Latin original. Finally, the passage 125/268-278 in glorification of the ‘feire ferreden of uirgines in heouene,’ SK 2309, which is an addition of the author’s, strikes the dominant note of all his works.

The Latin original of Sawles Warde was again adapted by the writer of the supplement to the Ayenbite of Inwyt, pp. 263-9, presumably Dan Michel of Northgate; his version is much closer to the original, and he does not seem to have been acquainted with that of his predecessor.

1. With the title comp. ‘Mid alle cunne warde (= custodia) . . . wite wel þine heorte, uor soule lif is in hire; ȝif heo is wel iwust,’ AR 48/5; ‘þonne se weard swefeð, | sawele hyrde,’ Beowulf, 1741 (with Holthausen’s note).

2. Si &c.: S. Matt. xxiv. 43: V has ‘veniret’ with S. Luke xii. 39.

3. a bisne: a forbisne T.

5. to is omitted by R: to witen T: comp. ‘To wyten vs wyþ þan vnwihte,’ OEM 72/4; ‘ihereð hu ȝe schulen witen ou wið þes deofles wieles, þet he ou ne biwrenche,’ AR 224/20, and see 48/299 note. þe unwiht of helle: so HM 41/19; ‘of þe laðe vnwiht þe hellene schucke,’ id. 41/35.

6. þes lauerd: þe husebonde RT.

8. hire: so all MSS.; the writer is thinking of the allegory rather than of his grammar. With breoken comp. 62/20. mon &c.: R has, mon . in wið þe monnes wit iþis is þe huselauerd . , T, mon . Jnwið . þe monnes wit iþis hus is te huselauerd. Kluge, adopting the text of B, punctuates þis hus, . . ., is seolf þe mon inwið; þe monnes wit i þis hus is þe huselaverd; while W, omitting ‘i þis hus,’ which does not fit into his metrical scheme, has þis hus, . . . , is seolf þe mon . inwið þe monnes wit is þe huselauerd. In both cases ‘inwið’ is adverbial, as at 130/57, and the sense yielded is intelligible. But it diverges strangely from the original, ‘Pater iste familias animus potest intelligi, cuius familia sint cogitationes et motus earum, sensus quoque et actiones tam exteriores quam interiores. . . . Domus est conscientia, in qua pater iste habitans thesauros (see 118/27) virtutum congregat, propter quos ne domus effodiatur, summopere vigilatur,’ V 207 e, 208 a. All three writers appear to have been contending with a faulty archetype: the original may have been:—

þis hus þe ure lauerd spekeð of · is seolf þe mon

nes inwit; wit i þis hus is þe huselauerd,

where the first line is actually that found in R: the division of mon-nes would readily give rise to the corruptions of all three MSS. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt the Latin is translated, ‘Hous . is inwyt|in huychen þe uader of house woneþ . þe hord of uirtues gadereþ,’ 263/24. For inwit comp. ‘wiðinnen us suluen, ure owune conscience, þet is, ure inwit,’ AR 306/1, 206/5. When the writer afterwards speaks of the house of the body, 127/369, he is using a familiar expression, for which there is nothing corresponding in the Latin original. wit is Reason = animus rationalis: the contest between it and Will is also in HM 15/23-36; the embodiment of the latter as the ‘fulitohe wif’ is due to our writer.

10. ꝥ—hire, whose guidance if the household (hus = familia) follow: see 46/292 note. diht &c.: see 66/120 note.

11. chasti, discipline, restrain: comp. ‘Hwil þi wit atstond ⁊ chaisteð þi wil . . . ne harmeð hit te nawiht,’ HM 15/26.

13. hit: see 1/10: ha RT.

16. wittes, senses: comp. ‘hire fif wittes . sihðe ⁊ heringe . smecchunge ⁊ smeallunge ⁊ euch limes felunge,’ HM 13/25; AR 48/8, 116/25.

17. hwer—ȝemeles: ‘Nam si vel parum a sua sollicitudine torpuerit,’ V 207 e.

18. feareð untoheliche, behaves in unruly fashion. gulteð ilome: see 34/91.

19. ifol semblant, in foolish demeanour: comp. ‘ȝif þu makest ei semblaunt oðer eni luue lates touward unðeauwes,’ AR 90/17. Inwið &c.: following on the division made in ll. 14, 15, we might have expected here something like, Þeo wið innen beoð þohtes.

20. in, busied about, intent on such a great variety of purposes to please Will. For in, of aim, object, comp. ‘He only, in a general honest thought | And common good to all, made one of them,’ Shakspere, Julius Caesar, v. v. 71. It might also be regarded as, in the shape of.

21. hit might be impersonal, that things shall go on to her liking, but comp. l. 10.

22. iþþlen can hardly be a mistake for ifelen (Specimens): it is possibly for iðolien. R has felen, T fele. nurhð, noise: comp. 129/47 note: ‘His laðliche nurð ⁊ his untohe bere makeð þe to agrisen,’ HM 31/22; ‘nurð ne kimeð in heorte bute of sum þing ꝥ me haueð oðer isehen oðer iherd,’ AR Corpus MS. where MS. Nero, ed. Morton, 92/3, has ‘noise’; ‘leaueð ower nurð . ant oþer ladliche bere,’ SM 21/20. The word is not found outside this group. T has murð, as at 118/22, but R with ‘murhðe’ there has correctly nurð here.

23. a þet: see 72/179 note. hit: RT have correctly wit. eie . . . luue: comp. 72/200. With tuhte, discipline, comp. ‘tuhten ne chasten þi meiden uor hire gult,’ AR 268/21.

24. for, because of the untrustworthiness of: analogous to 104/175. for hwen ꝥ, if on occasion, when: see 72/192 and comp. ‘for hwen þat he cheas hire,’ HM 15/11. Its use appears to be restricted to this group. slepe . oðer ohwider fare R; slepes oðer owhwider fares T.

26. let ham iwurðen, lets them have their own way, abandons them to their own devices. Comp. ‘ure Louerd let us one iwurðen oðer hwules ⁊ wiðdraweð his grace,’ AR 230/27, 288/23; ‘Heo let heom alle i-wurþe . þat beoþ so swyþe stronge,’ OEM 89/32; SK 791.

28. forte breoke . . . abuten: see 74/229 note. efter: see 7/53. ꝥ is acc. after bohte, with lette it means, for which: comp. 44/252, 263. With lette &c. comp. 144/84.

29. moni þeof: ‘Fur autem non unus est sed multiplex, quia singulis virtutibus singula vitia insidiantur,’ V 208 a.

30. gasttes: comp. 15/79; ‘ȝewerged gastes . ⁊ unþeawes . ⁊ unwraste lahtres,’ OEH i. 243/7.

31. castel: so T, but R has chatel, property, possession. All the MSS. have ‘castel’ at 123/203.

32. hire, the corresponding vice. OE. þēaw, un-þēaw are masculine.

33. heaued: ‘Principalis tamen fur diabolus intelligitur. Contra quem et eius satellites pater idem (si tamen non negligens fuerit) domum suam forti custodia muniens, prudentiam in primo aditu constituat,’ V 208 a. meistreð, acts as leader to.

34. keis is evidently translation of satellites, guards. ‘Item satelles dicitur quia adheret alteri ad eius custodiam,’ Catholicon. But W explains it of those who hold the keys of office.

35. froure: so T, comfort, support; comp. 18/19. But fowre R is better.

36. heaued þeawes, cardinal virtues. V mentions only three of these here, but Temperantia (= Meað) afterwards takes part in the dialogue. Warschipe is Prudentia: gastelich strengðe is a translation of the Spiritus Fortitudinis of the very ancient Confirmation Prayer; VV has more literally ‘gost of strengþe,’ 83/22: V has Fortitudo only.

38. cunestable, chief officer: an early instance of the word in English.

39. durewart: comp. ‘Þe ȝeteward . þet is wittes skile,’ AR 270/26: in VV she is ȝeapnesse, ‘on of ðe holie mihtes ðe wel cunne ⁊ wel muȝe ðo gaten ⁊ ðo duren wel bilokin of ðis holi temple,’ 99/22. þe: so R, but ꝥ T: relative with subjunctive of purpose, like the Latin, ‘quae discernat quid sit admittendum, quid vitandum, quid excludendum.’

40. of feor, from a distance; explained in NED under afar, as an analytical form = OE. feorran, adv., from far. The latter is sometimes treated in ME. as a noun and combined with prepositions of, on, from: comp. 118/55, 198/31: oferrum in Minot vii. 70 is on + dat. s. neut. of feorr, adj.

42. warschipes: for the construction, see 10/167. R has warschipe, showing confusion of gender. The subject of warni is warschipe contained in the preceding genitive; see 6/18. fore, adv., previously, comp. 121/140; ‘Ah wel ich warni þe uore,’ SJ 47/15.

44. ꝥ . . . speken: see 81/77.

45. mete: so T, but meðe R: comp. 122/174. uueles: so T, faults of excess and defect, extremes: ‘muchel ⁊ lutel,’ 122/169. R has þinge, which perhaps points to an original uuele þinge. for ꝥ—halden, lit., for that is in every place (i.e. under all circumstances) virtue and disciplined conduct in the observance; which is practically, for the observance of that moderation is under all circumstances virtuous conduct. So ‘ꝥ ich demi riht ⁊ wisdom to donne,’ 122/185, the doing of that I judge to be proper and wise. This use of the gerundial infinitive is frequent in AR, comp. ‘ne beo þu nout Gius fere ne Gius make uorte birlen him so,’ 114/15, by pouring him out such a drink. With halden comp. ‘Al so me tempreð an baþ . . . also deð ðis haliȝe mihte alle ðes mannes ðeawes ðe hes luuiȝeð ⁊ healden cann,’ VV 107/18.

46. ꝥ nan &c., that none of them in any case should, in opposition to her, with excess overstep moderation: wid vnmeoð is duplicated in ouer mete.

48: ‘Iustitia sedeat in medio, ut sua cuique tribuat,’ V 208 b.

49. efter his rihte, according to his deserts.

50. his: RT have correctly þis, and after is, his. Comp. the corresponding passage 127/356-8, where efter ꝥ he is is varied by ‘efter ꝥ him limpeð to,’ and nimed . . . his warde to witene by ‘fondeð . . . his warde te witene.’ This household, each in his own department, undertakes the care of his charge. R omits to witene. With warde . . . witene comp. 74/231; ‘þet he wite ⁊ wardie ou,’ AR 174/24: similar combinations are ‘werieð ⁊ witeð,’ 121/143, 122/192; ‘wite ⁊ werien,’ 123/203, 136/147, 149/169; ‘wardi ⁊ werie,’ 121/141.

52. of þe oþre, of the other servants. wit is contracted 3 sing. pr. for witeþ, takes care; T has the equivalent in his dialect, wites: comp. ‘swuchne wardein, þet wit ⁊ wereð us euer wið þe unseiene gostes,’ AR 312/8. R reads ant euchan al swa as of þe oðere wið ꝥ wit onont him . ne schal &c.; wið ꝥ wit is an evident mistake for wit ꝥ. onont him, so far as he is concerned: see NED under Anent; the final t is possibly due to Scandinavian influence (Björkman, 20), and the second o to the analogy of such pairs as hwenne, hwonne, þenne, þonne. Comp. 70/161 note.

53: ‘His ita dispositis, introducere debet prudentia aliquos nuntios, qui aliqua narrent, quae ad exercitationem valeant,’ V 208 b.

54. fortruste him appears to mean, be over confident, the prefix implying excess: the word occurs here only.

55. in, adverb. of feorren: see 118/40 note.

58. elheowet, of strange colour: apparently here only. T has blac ille heowet, which looks like a popular derivation of an uncommon word.

59. þuncheð ꝥ stont: see 7/52 note. biuoren, as a preliminary, as the first thing to be said: comp. ‘vore,’ 118/42. RT have biuoren ham, which is rather pointless.

61-3. lust: ‘se respondit non aliter quicquam dicturum, nisi summum fiat silentium. Quo impetrato sic incipit. Ego sum timor mortis et mortem vobis venire nuncio,’ V. In AR 306, fearlac binds the sinner condemned in Reason’s court. munegunge, ‘Memoria mortis,’ V.

64. bisetten, employ, expend (NED i. 817, comparing bestow): arrange, dispose would better suit wordes, but not werkes.

67. ah—hwenne, but be always expectant of that time: comp. ‘deað þet we beoð siker of ⁊ unsiker hwonne.’ AR 144/13.

68. unmundlunge, unexpectedly: vnmunidlinge T. hwen—weneð: comp. ‘er me lest wene,’ AR 178/12, and often; ‘þer we lest wenet,’ OEH i. 7/26; SJ 44/3.

70. of, with, filled with records of sins: comp. ‘Vre Louerd hefde ifuld him of his þreatunge,’ AR 156/3; 121/130; 201/61 note. See 36/101.

72. preoouin, convict: a rare absolute use. preouin R, preouen T.

73. ꝥ . . . on, on which: see 1/3 note. enbreuet, enrolled: comp. ‘vor nis non so lutel þing of þeos þet þe deouel naueð enbreued on his rolle,’ AR 344/10; ‘in iames ant imembres bokes ibreuet,’ SM 16/31. OF. embriever: n for m is Anglo-French: T has embreuet: ibreuet in R is pp. of *breuen, enroll.

74. lif siðe: see 2/27.

75. soð schrift: see 88/183, 80/52, and comp. ‘healen ham wið soð schrift ⁊ wið deadbote,’ HM 15/1, 21/24. hire: so RT: see 13/34 note.

77. ha seið warschipe: comp. 119/79, 80, 215/23; ‘An oðer stede he seið godd,’ VV 81/2; ‘he seið seint Jame,’ AR 10/14 and often; in all cases the name of the person thus added in explanation of the pronoun has been previously mentioned. Analogous are 192/504, 194/602.

78. ofte ⁊ ilome: see 32/47. Nu . . . þenne: see 60/8 note. for þi trowðe: see 94/26, and note in l. 80, the common ‘omi trowðe.’

80. efter: comp. 36/119; ‘Vor efter þet me icnoweð his muchele godnesse . . . efter þet me luueð hine more oðer lesse,’ AR 92/13: in the next line efter—con means, to the best of my ability and knowledge.

81. tellen: RT omit. þer towart, lit. in that direction, i. e. concerning that matter: mostly used in local sense as ‘buhen þertoward,’ SK 1473. In l. 83 it means thereto. readien, discourse: rodien R, reoden T: W reads reordin.

82 ff. The details in this and similar descriptions, as VV 17-19, are ultimately derived from the Visions literature; see Introduction to piece X. The main divisions here correspond exactly to those in AR 144; ‘þe seoruwe of helle, þer bihold þreo þinges—þe untaleliche pinen þet no tunge ne mei tellen (comp. 119/85)—þe echenesse of euerichon, þet lesteð wiðuten ende (comp. 120/106-8)—þe unimete bitternesse of euerichon’ (comp. 120/108-112).

82. [wid]: supplied from T, not in R. ‘Infernus latus est sine mensura, profundus sine fundo, plenus ardore incomparabili (‘uneuenlich’), plenus foetore intolerabili (‘unþolelich’), plenus dolore innumerabili’ (‘untalelich’), V 208 d. wið ute grunde: comp. 40/178.

83. uneuenlich: comp. ‘al so ase heo (blisse) is unefenlich to alle worldes blissen, al so heo is untalelich to alle worldliche tungen,’ AR 410/11. R has unwerilich.

85. ne mei &c.: comp. 46/285, 126/303; ‘ne mahte hit na mon rikenin ne tellen,’ SJ 50/4.

88. smeke: smoke RT. smeche forcuðest, vilest of fumes, but RT have smecche, of flavours (smæcc); comp. ‘þreaste smeorðrinde smoke ut smecche forcuðest,’ SM 9/6. The adjective is everywhere else used of moral worthlessness; comp. 26/253.

90. alles cunnes pinen: see 81/80.

91. ase deoflen: R has as þe deoulen, which is preferable.

94. For bute bote T has unbotelich, a rare word, but ‘unboteliche lure,’ HM 17/25. The combination of bote and bale is very common; see Minot i. 4 note. as—weren belongs to hal. ful—grure, and unmistakably they see themselves terrible and awful. grisle . . . grure: comp. 56/40, 120/122, 121/131; ‘þet grisliche word ⁊ grureful ouer alle,’ AR 306/5; ‘grislich ⁊ grureful uorto biholden,’ id. 242/12.

95. froggen: T has froden: see 46/273 note.

96. The omission of þe would improve the grammar of this passage by giving a verb for helle wurmes, tadden ⁊ froggen.

97. eauraskes, water-frogs: eaureskes R, eafroskes T.

99. eauerȝete, at any time yet: comp. ‘al þe wo ꝥ nu is ⁊ euer ȝete was,’ AR 52/12. In ‘For falshede euer ȝite heo souhten,’ Castel off Loue, 342, it represents Fr. tut tens. remunge &c.: ‘Ibi est fletus et stridor dentium (S. Matt. xxii. 13 altered), ibi transitur a frigore nivium ad calorem ignium, et utrumque intolerabile,’ V 208 d. Comp. 42/231-6, 76/25.

100. hechelunge: apparently here only: Morris translates ‘chattering.’ If it is connected with ME. hechele, a tool for heckling flax, grating or gnashing is a more likely meaning.

102. monge, mixture, alternation of extremes.

103: ‘Ibi omnes comburuntur . . . nec consumuntur,’ V.

104. forwalleð, ‘tortures by boiling,’ NED; apparently here only: comp. 43/222.

106. unhope, absence of hope, of any prospect of release: ‘ibi nulla spes boni,’ V 208 d. A rare word, differing in meaning from wanhope: comp. ‘in desperaunce, þet is, in unhope ⁊ in unbileaue forte beon iboruwen,’ AR 8/17. See 46/289.

108. iwa: in wa RT.

109. heateð: ‘Omnis, qui est in eo, odit se et omnes alios,’ V. T has, hateð oðer . ⁊ ter teken him seluen, and in addition thereto (tō ēacan).

110. blake: ‘bestia nigerrima sicut corvus,’ Visio Tnugdali, 36/4.

114. tungen of stele: Virgil’s ‘ferrea vox’; ‘isene stemne,’ Wulfstan, 215/2; ‘teþ and tunge . of stel imaked,’ OEM 154/268.

116. hefde a mon &c.: comp. ‘Testis mihi Deus est, quia, si viderem quempiam hominum, qui me et omnes caros meos omnibus damnis, iniuriis et laesionibus et extrema leti sorte affecisset: si, inquam, tam immanissimum hostem meum illis suppliciis, quae vidi, deputatum conspicerem prolixius cruciandum, millies, si fieri posset, pro eius ereptione temporalem mortem appeterem,’ Visio Monachi de Eynsham, ed. Huber, Rom. Forschungen, xvi. 663/25. The date of the Visio is 1196 A.D.

117. al þe ende, the whole: ende, portion, as in OE. micel ende, nan ende appears to show in this solitary place the same development of meaning as lot, portion in the colloquial use, ‘the lot,’ ‘the whole lot.’ Morris translates ‘remnant,’ but that is a late meaning of the word: W, starting from the meaning, region (see 127/344), explains, the whole circle of my kin.

120. ut þrof, out of that place: comp. ‘arudden mi sawle ut of þine honden,’ SM 6/21: but aredden is usually followed by of alone, as, ‘to aredden of helle,’ OEH i. 203/16.

121. Some distinction is apparently intended between iseon (seon RT) and biseon (all MSS.) such as that between, to be within sight of, and, to gaze upon.

122. grimfule ⁊ grurefule: the first word is rare and the combination apparently without parallel.

124. schenðlac, disgrace: schenlac R, schendlac T: a word found only in AR, SK, and here.

125. ⁊ hure þolien, and especially to bear: in a normal sentence we should look for something like, but it is still worse to endure. unirude: unrude RT: see 188/389.

126. mealles: melles RT, beetles, clubs: comp. ‘þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen ham mit tes deofles bettles,’ AR 188/4; ‘Þarfor þe devels salle stryk þam þare | With hevy melles ay,’ Hampole, Pr. of Consc. 7047. dustlunges: only here; the parallel place, 58/68, fixes its meaning as flingings, hurlings: ME. dusten, to fling, is a word characteristic of the group. R has reade . hare dustlunges as, T reade Hare dustlunges as, a better division, but requiring ⁊ before hare.

128. grure &c.: comp. ‘greden ai ⁊ granen iþe eche grure of helle,’ HM 47/12; ‘ðær is ece gryre . . . þær is wanung and granung,’ Wulfstan 114/4, id. 209/15, 18. heatel, full of hate, cruel; OE. hatol. R has hatel, T Heates.

129. wontreaðes: wondraðes R, wandreðes T: see 58/76. With bold, dwelling place, comp. ‘bold of eche blisse,’ OEH i. 273/10.

132. For schekeð R reads sorheð. me . . . me are dat. pronouns, like ham 120/96: comp. 80/47. rueð: runeð T, ruueð R; the first two seem to be mistakes for the last, which may represent a simple form of which ruffle is derivative, with meaning, to stiffen, stand up in disorder. W reads riseð. of, at; indicating source or cause: see 160/184.

133. wumme: see 2/13. ‘Nulla ibi vox, nisi vae, vae, vae habent, vae sonant,’ V 208 e.

135. ofearneð: if the prefix has any force, it means, thoroughly, fully. hwilinde: the OE. adj. are hwīlen, hwīlendlic, hwīlwende.

136. ȝef ꝥ: R omits ȝef: T has ȝif without þet. ‘Bonum erat ei, si non esset natus homo ille,’ S. Mark xiv. 21.

140. fore: see 118/42.

141. rihte . . . reade: comp. 141/50, 147/158.

142. Read beo[n] we, let us be.

145. he: ha RT.

146. deore: ‘pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors Sanctorum eius,’ Ps. cxv. 15.

147. fikelinde, deceiving: comp. ‘þis fikele world ⁊ frakele,’ HM 7/34; ‘eorðe ðet is fikel ⁊ fals,’ OEH i. 200/24. false: fahe RT., variegated.

148. wurðeð: so T, wurcheð R.

151. iburst, bristled, and metaphorically, enraged: elsewhere said of the boar, ‘burst bar,’ SJ 68/13, ‘iburst bar,’ id. 69/16; ‘al was heora gristbatinge; al swa wilde bares eȝe. | Whil heo weoren blake; ⁊ ladliche iburste,’ L 1886; ‘comeþ þe maister budel brust ase a bore,’ Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 104/51. sechinde: R adds inȝonge, which is superfluous, but not senseless; comp. 118/32.

152. tis, for þis after ant, cannot mean ‘thus,’ Morris: the meaning is, this much I can do, warn you against his malice . . . but I have no power against his force.

153. of, for, against. T has of his leað for hise wrenches ich con . Ah i ne mai &c.

154. ꝥ te, what: R has only ꝥ, T reads ꝥ te limpeð to.

157. eðeliche, morally poor: usually as applied to persons, it means, in humble circumstances. T reads eðeliche ⁊ wake · vnwearnede ⁊ unwepnede of treowe bileaue; preserving the original.

158. Etstont: here with dat.; it takes wið 122/182; aȝeines 126/324.

159. alle &c., our weapons are all given us by his favour. Fortitudo in the Latin quotes ‘induite vos armaturam Dei,’ Eph. vi. 11.

160. he, the adversary.

161. towart, against: comp. 126/333; ‘weorreð ⁊ warpeð eauer toward tis tur,’ HM 5/18. weole ⁊ wunne: a frequent combination in this group: comp. 143/69, 95; AR 198/30; SK 1501; HM 9/8, also ‘For al þe weole and þe wyn . þat riche men fede,’ OEM 91/22. este: comp. 72/187; ‘al hore wil ⁊ flesches eise ⁊ este,’ AR 220/6.

162. summes weis, in some respects: comp. 140/30; HM 9/32; at 124/236 it appears to translate aliquantisper, for some time. Similar phrases are ‘þisses weis,’ AR 186/25, ‘eueriches weis,’ id. 218/12.

163. na þing heardes: like Lat. nihil duri: comp. 122/183; ‘Wat dostu godes among monne,’ ON 563. With heardes comp. 113/37.

165. For both things, i. e. for both the rigour of adversity and the absence of bliss, it behoves one to feel dread. heart: hard RT.

167. ma þah, still more.

168. forȝemeð ham: comp. 22/137.

170. ȝuldene: comp. ‘Þe middel weie of mesure is euer guldene,’ AR 336/23. guldene RT.

172. hwet se &c., whatever be the case when hardships are concerned, I am not at all afraid of prosperity. For this use of of, comp. ‘Hwen þus is of þe riche . hwat wenes tu of the poure,’ HM 9/16. Morris translates, ‘Whatever may be of hardships I dread’; which involves an impossible ellipsis and the mistake of making ‘of heardes’ partitive depending on ‘hwet.’ In this text that would require ‘heardes’ without the preposition: comp. 122/163, 183.

173. ne of licomliche estes R.

176. schad is usually followed by of, as at 130/81, but Orm 6228, 9 has ‘bitwenen.’ Comp. ‘scadwisnesse,’ 92/121; ‘ȝescod,’ 14/74.

178. fallinde, perishing: B-T quotes ‘Ðis lif is lǽnlic and feallende,’ Thorpe, Anc. Laws, ii. 400/16.

179. þurh unweotenesse, if she sins, it will not be for lack of knowledge. Comp. ‘I þine soule, oðer two—sunne ⁊ ignorance; þet is, unwisdom ⁊ unwitenesse,’ AR 278/6.

180. After nis T adds ha. siker of, free from anxiety about; as ‘sikernesse’ in l. 188 is confidence. as þeo þe &c., as being one who thinks herself weak, like Lat. quippe quae: comp. 128/1.

181. ⁊: so T, but R has correctly to, in.

182. onont, as regards, so far as she herself is concerned: Lat. quoad. etstonden wið: see 121/158. turnes, cunning devices: comp. ‘aȝein þes deofles turnes ⁊ his fondunges,’ AR 78/27. deð—wise: comp. ‘þenne doþ we as þe wise,’ OEM 79/228.

185. deð: this superfluous use of do is common in AR. ‘ne seið hit nout ꝥ heo biheold wepmen; auh deð wummen,’ 54/19; ‘Auh þe treowe ancren þet we efneð to briddes; nout we þauh; auh deð God,’ 130/30, and often. Comp. 85/105: different is ‘do’ used to avoid the repetition of a verb as at 49/304, 86/141. to donne: see 118/45.

187. T omits halden.

189. T has the better reading, to do riht ⁊ riht for to demen, which is supported by 122/197: R to don riht ant riht fon ⁊ demen; ‘fon riht’ is a strange expression, which may mean to exact justice at the hands of others. ich deme &c.: Morris translates, ‘and I deem myself so that I, through myself, may do it (sin) not.’ The meaning is, My duty is to behave justly and to judge justly, and, in my own case, I judge that I do not perform that duty by my own unaided powers.

190: ‘Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum desursum est, descendens a Patre luminum,’ S. Jas. i. 17.

191. Nu . . . þenne: see 60/8.

192. werien . . . witen: see 118/50. halden: habben T.

193. demen &c., to have a poor and humble opinion of ourselves. Comp. ‘leoten ham lahe ⁊ eðeliche,’ HM 43/29. Ne beo—swucche, even if we be not at all such, belongs to the preceding sentence.

199. of, in respect to; it comes near in meaning to, in spite of these merits. OE. fordēman is constructed with for, dēman with be, ymbe.

200. him ane is definitive qualifying god: comp. ‘he him ane is to herien,’ 130/75.

201. þonkeð . . . of, thank on account of, for: comp. ‘Gode ðanciað mid godum weorcum his gifa,’ Cura Past. 318/3; ‘þet þu luuie þine drihten . . . ⁊ him þonkien alles þinges,’ OEH i. 39/25; but ‘þonkien hit ure drihten,’ id. 5/29.

203. on helpe, as a help: comp. 123/226. wite &c.: see 118/50.

206. dreaien: see 74/233: dreien R, drahen T. treowliliche is a scribe’s mistake for treowliche, as in R, treweliche T.

207. Vmben: not ‘for,’ Morris, but After. On the other hand, ‘umbe stunde,’ AR 344/27, means, at times; ‘eauer umbe stunde,’ HM 33/30, at all times.

209. freolich, goodly, charming, properly, of gentle upbringing: for the combination with feier, comp. 129/23, 138/22. ‘Alius nuntius venit pulcher et hilaris, qui videtur afferre bona,’ V 208 c. aturnet, attired: see 68/146.

210. ꝥ—neod, we should have much need of that: the construction in this expression is dat. of the person needing, nom. of the thing needed, as in ‘Muchel is us þenne neod . . . sod scrift,’ OEH i. 11/1; ‘Þu seist þet te nis no neod medicine,’ AR 178/15; ‘Þe holie man is ned ꝥ he [bie] festned on his holinesse,’ OEH ii. 57/31: see also 62/24.

211. mid alle, utterly: the phrase translates L. penitus in SK 658.

214. ilihtet, alleviated, freed from depression: comp. ‘þet ich beo ilihted of hore heuinesse,’ AR 356/5. ham þuncheð is parenthetic.

215. schimmeð, shines: a form found also in SJ, SM: schimereð T.

217. lustnin: T has lustin ꝥ helden us swa stille hwil fearlac us agrette, which corresponds to ‘Si nos, dum timor et memoria mortis loqueretur, tacuimus, iustum est ut te loquente multo magis taceamus,’ V 208 c.

219. munegunge: see 119/62. liues luue: ‘desiderium vitae aeternae’; comp. ‘ꝥ he hire liues luue luueliche leareð,’ HM 3/11.

220. ꝥ, in which, where.

222. drupnin, to be dejected: a Scand. word; see Björkman 177, 208, durcnin, the reading of R, is for drucnin, a variant of the other: comp. ‘⁊ dearede al adeadet, | druicninde ⁊ dreori,’ SK 2020. See Minot, i. 9 note.

224. fondin ⁊ ifinden, experience and discover.

229. ȝe iseoð: ȝoi isoð T.

230. alswa: R omits. aȝein, in comparison with: comp. 124/246, 264; ‘euerich worldes sauur is bitter þer aȝeines,’ AR 102/26, id. 112/10. In l. 232 it means toward, in the direction of (from the place opposite): comp. ‘Ben ðese hangen ðe sunne agen,’ GE 4075.

231. sunne—schadewe: comp. ‘te sunne were dosk ȝif hit to þi blisfule bleo mihte beo euenet,’ OEH i. 269/26 (Wohunge); ‘Iesu al feir . aȝein hwam þe sunne nis buten ase a scheadewe,’ id. 200/9; HM 39/32; AR 100/4.

233. schawere, mirror; OE. scēawere. T has scheawere, R schadewe. The idea was possibly suggested by ‘per speculum in aenigmate,’ 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Comp. ‘Ȝe schulen, ase ine scheauware, iseon ure Lefdi mid hire meidenes,’ AR 92/26.

235. an, one; not ‘and,’ Morris: the expression translates individua Trinitas.

236. summes weis: see 121/162.

237. blisful: wunderful R.

238. rixleð: the absence of a connecting word is perhaps due to the original Latin: ‘Aliquantisper tamen intuitus sum Dominum Iesum Christum in dextera patris sedentem, in aeterna vita regnantem, quamvis super omnem creaturam adeo speciosum, ut in eum desiderent Angeli prospicere, ad haec (? adhuc) tamen vulnera passionis, quibus nos redemit, in corpore suo habentem, patri pro nobis assistentem,’ V 208 d.

239. ful . . . to bihalden, sated with gazing: a peculiar use of the, historically, dative infinitive as a genitive: comp. ‘sead . . . to iseonne,’ 133/30; ‘upo hwas nebschaft þe engles ne beoð neauer fulle to bihalden,’ HM 39/32: NED quotes under date 1607, ‘full to provide,’ fully occupied in providing. Sometimes ‘of’ is added, as 52/388; ‘Hit bieð sume þat non imeðe ne cunnen of hem seluen to feden,’ VV 139/23. In OE. the dat. inf. is often used to translate the Latin gerundive in the genitive, as ‘swa mycel getydnes ⁊ gelærednes to sprecanne’ = ‘tanta dicendi peritia,’ Bede, ed. Miller, 362/27. For ich iseh R has is, T iseh.

240. etscene: eðsene R, edscene T.

243. heouenliche, heavenly ones: T adds weoredes: comp. l. 251. ‘super omnes ordines beatorum Angelorum . . . exaltatam,’ V.

244. in, on.

245. istirret: isterret T. weoleful: meinful R, powerful.

246. þear ich iseh as, I saw where: usually the words are not separated: comp. 127/342; ‘he is ase buruh wiðuten wal, þer ase uerd mei in oueral,’ AR 74/6: so ‘þider as,’ whither, 126/334. For ase, where, comp. 125/272, ‘ine Jerusalem, ase he wunede,’ AR 172/2.

248. þa, when. R has after mahte, na mare of hire iþolien; T reads, mihte of hire na lengre þolien.

249. biseh to, looked upon, beheld: comp. 3/45; ‘Ða biseh ure drihte mildeliche to hire penitence,’ OEH ii. 145/9, and the similar ‘belocest to,’ 13/36; ‘hwa bihalt to þeo þet beoð of lowe liue,’ AR 276/26; ‘iseh towart’ = intuitus sum 124/254; ‘on to biseonne,’ 136/137. But ‘to . . . bisihð’ 134/81 means, looks up to, like ‘hwon ȝe habbeð touward me eien oðer honden,’ AR 76/16: ‘biseon to’ 136/134, look after, provide for, as in ‘Bisih to me lauedi briȝt, | Hwenne ich schal wende heonne,’ OEM 160/18. T omits ⁊—archangles, probably taking ‘þe oðre þe beoð buuen ham’ to mean the archangels. The Latin is, ‘Sed hanc admirabilem claritatem matris et filii diu ferre non sustinens, converti aspectum meum ad illos beatorum spirituum ordines, qui ante Deum assistunt.’ Probably the author meant by ‘þe oðre’ the four and twenty elders and the four beasts in perpetual adoration about the throne (Rev. iv. 4-11).

251. unwergeð: unwerched T. Nihe wordes: see 16/138: T has woredes, R ord`r´es, corrected out of wordes.

253. onsihðe: see 64/55.

255-8: ‘miro exultantes gaudio, qui eam quam olim a longe salutaverant patriam obtinent, qui ea quae in spiritu praeviderant completa conspiciunt,’ V 209 a. See Heb. xi. 13. ꝥ, because.

256. For igret, greeted, OE. gegrētan, R has igreiðet, prepared.

259. poure: ‘de pauperibus et de infirmis tam gloriosos tamque sublimes factos,’ V. T of poure, R `ꝥ´ poure `weren´; omitting on eorðe. bigoten, drenched, perfused: comp. ‘Eall ic wæs mid blode bestemed | begoten of þæs Guman sidan,’ Dream of the Rood, 48; ‘ꝥ ha al were bigoten of þe blode,’ SJ 27/6.

261. alle cunnes ledenes: RT have the usual alles: the MS. has alleṣ, where the dot may be only a casual resting of the pen: see 81/80, and comp. l. 264.

264. talden to, esteemed: for ‘to’ T has of, which is the usual construction, comp. 164/256, ‘telleð lutel þerof,’ AR 200/12, but ‘to’ at 129/30; ‘tellest herto lutel,’ AR 100/20. aȝeines: see 123/230.

266. haliche: read haliliche with RT.

267: ‘fulgent quasi stellae in perpetuas aeternitates,’ V 209 b, from Daniel xii. 3. wlite: ‘Regem in decore suo vident,’ V from Isa. xxxiii. 17. The writer omits any reference to monks, to whom the last clause of this sentence, ‘ꝥ—ehnen’ (Rev. vii. 17), is applied in the Latin. It is significant that he greatly expands the passage which describes the maidens; which should be compared with AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 42/460-72 (Ælfric, de Virginitate), HM 19/9-15.

269. ferreden: comp. ‘i þe feire ferreden | of uirgines in heouene,’ SK 2309. ilikest towart engles: so, ‘þu ofearnest meiden to beo engle euening iþe heȝe blisse of heuene,’ HM 13/5; ‘to singen wið engles hwas felahes ha beoð,’ id. 19/8, 21/31.

270. feolohlukest, best fitted as associates and equals to rejoice and be glad with them. An isolated superlative of felaȝlich: comp. ‘wunderlukest,’ 34/88; ‘wurðlukest,’ L 25496. The comparative adv. is more common: ‘dimluker,’ 56/43, ‘creftluker,’ 131/88, ‘greatluker,’ 70/157, ‘monluker,’ 66/110, ‘oðerluker,’ 38/149, 86/135, ‘witerluker,’ 125/285: in AR ‘ȝeorneluker,’ ‘gledluker,’ ‘wisluker,’ ‘uestluker,’ 234/5, 7, 8, 9; ‘wunderluker,’ OEH i. 93/28. For u in these forms see Bülbring, §§ 420, 421. ouergað: see 22/143.

271. flesches lahe, desires of the flesh: lahe is custom, habit; its use was perhaps suggested by ‘Video autem aliam legem in membris meis . . . captivantem me in lege peccati,’ Rom. vii. 23. cunde, natural propensities: comp. 160/209; ‘heald þin cunde,’ follow nature, OEH ii. 31/6.

272. as, where: comp. 124/246. There should be a full stop at wunieð, as in RT.

274. R omits þe—singen. The arrangement in T shows how the mistake arose from the similar endings of two lines:

na tunge tellen. Alle ha singeð

ꝥ ter beoð. Ah hare song ne

mahe nane buten heo singen

Se swote smal ham folheð hwi.

hare song: ‘Nam cantabant canticum, quod nemo alius poterat dicere,’ V 209 c, from Rev. xiv. 3 (altered).

275. smeal: smel R, smal T. ‘Sed odor in regione earum tam suavis erat, ut omnia aromatum genera exuperet,’ V.

277. aȝein &c., to receive their petitions. ꝥ alle &c.: ꝥ alle þe oðer `he´ walden sittinde ihereð R, ꝥ alle þoðre halhen sittinde him hereð T.

279. Ah nu &c.: ‘De singulis beatorum Ordinibus mira disseris, quaesumus ut quae sit eorum in communi actio edicas,’ V 209 d. The stop should come not after setnesse, but after sunderlepes, as in T; R puts it after sumhwet, which is tolerable. setnesse, OE. setness, properly ordinance, arrangement, is here by extension, order, class: R has the isolated tosetnesse, corresponding to an OE. *tō-setness, division into classes, which is probably the original word. The sense is, Well, thou hast now spoken so admirably about each class of the blessed severally, tell us somewhat as to what bliss is common to all alike. W explains setnesse as = swetnesse.

282. lengðe: ‘Vivunt, sapiunt, amant, gaudent, laudant, veloces sunt, securi sunt,’ V 209 d.

283. In T murie by punctuation goes with ‘loft song,’ which is OE. lof-song, Lauds, hymns of praise; see 126/318.

287-330. The messenger proceeds to explain the nature of the seven blisses. The scribe marks off each section with a special capital, but has omitted one at ‘her,’ 126/317.

287. brihtre: comp. ‘seouesiðe schenre þen þe sunne,’ HM 41/2; AR 100/4; SK 1665; SM 23/13; a phrase of this group. See Ælf. Lives, i. 538/820.

288. buten—swinc: ‘current et non laborabunt,’ Isa. xl. 31.

289. in a steal, in one station, condition: contrasted with man’s state on earth, ‘numquam in eodem statu permanet,’ Job xiv. 2, ‘never continueth in one stay.’ R has stel.

290. wið ute wonunge: ‘sine diminutione.’

291. hare lif &c.: ‘Vita eorum visio et cognitio beatae Trinitatis,’ V, quoting further S. John xvii. 3. R adds ‘in’ after is.

295. nebbe to nebbe: ‘tunc autem facie ad faciem,’ 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Comp. ‘secheð earst upon hire nebbe to nebbe,’ HM 17/7; ‘cristes wille bo us bitwon. | neb wið neb for him to son,’ OEH i. 61/109. wise &c.: ‘Sapiunt consilia atque iudicia Dei, quae sunt abyssus multa,’ V 209 e; partly from Ps. xxxv. 7.

296. R has godes runes ant his reades ꝥ. Comp. 1/5; ‘Godes derne runes ⁊ his derne domes,’ AR 96/3; ‘his derne runes ⁊ his heouenliche priuitez,’ id. 154/2; ‘þe deopschipe ⁊ te derne run,’ SK 1333.

297. sea dingle answers to ‘abyssus’: dingle is not otherwise known till the seventeenth century: see NED s.v. ha seoð &c.: so, ‘Alle þeo ine heouene iseoð ine God alle þing,’ AR 96/1.

298. hwi ⁊ hwerto: ‘Sapiunt causas et naturas et origines omnium rerum,’ V. R omits.

300. bi ham idon, acted towards them, dealt with them: comp. 80/58. R omits ham.

301. deorewurðe: muchele R. milce is dat., hwet acc. after ȝelden. R omits ase muchel.

302. R omits al, se muchel is not in RT and is not original: the correlatives are ‘Se gleade’ . . . ‘ꝥ ne mei.’

303. munne: comp. ‘⁊ monie ma murhðen | þen alle men mahten | wið hare muð munnen | ⁊ tellen wið tungen,’ SK 1697-1700, and 119/85.

304. Euchan—ahne: comp. ‘ylc blissæþ on oðres gode ⁊ on oðres murhðe, swá on his aȝene,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 120/11; AR 282/14-17.

306. ase—alle, as many gladnesses as all the saints in heaven are many: ‘tot gaudia habent quot socios,’ V. R omits alle.

308. hwen, since.

310. of: see 110/272. wið uten ei etlunge, beyond all estimate: comp. ‘wiðuten eni etlunge,’ HM 39/35. eilunge R, a scribe’s error.

311. Neomeð &c. The Latin of this passage is clear enough: ‘Si ergo cor uniuscuiusque vix capit suum gaudium, quomodo capit tot et tanta gaudia? Ideo dicitur, Intra in gaudium Domini tui: non intret gaudium Domini tui in te, quia capi non posset,’ V 209 b. If hu be read for ꝥ in l. 313, it gives a similar turn of expression and sense. As the text stands, it means, Now then note that, even if the heart of any one man can never find room for its own joy taken separately (so great beyond measure is the bliss of the individual) yet it does receive into itself so many and great joys [of others]. That is the meaning of our Lord’s saying, ‘Enter into the joy of thy Lord’ (S. Matt. xxv. 21). You must enter into the joy, it does not enter into you, for you cannot take it in. Such verbal ingenuity is common in scriptural interpretation at this period. nu þenne, now, that being so; see 60/8 note.

312. iseide, meant, taken: for this use of seggen, see 56/46. T omits, B is defective here.

313. þe: þen R, te T. ꝥ would in a modern sentence come after ‘ȝeme,’ l. 311.

316. blisse: hus R. bigotten: see 124/259: biȝeoten R, biȝoten T.

317. neomen: in the absolute use of betake itself, proceed: see 213/539: in is a mere repetition of the preceding ‘in’: comp. 143/67 note. her of begins the expansion of ‘laudant’: it does not refer to what precedes, but means, for the reason given in the following verse, ‘Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine; in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te,’ Ps. lxxxiii. 5.

318. lusti, finding pleasure: ‘sine fastidio.’ songes: read songe, as in R.

321. Comp. ‘Alle þeo ine heouene schulen beon ase swifte ase is nu monnes þouht, ⁊ ase is þe sunne gleam, þet smit from east into þe west, ant ase þe eie openeð ⁊ tuneð; . . . tet bodi schal beon hwar so euer þe gost wule in one hondhwule,’ AR 94/21.

322. tuneð &c.: ‘In momento, in ictu oculi,’ 1 Cor. xv. 52: ‘as tu turnest þin hond,’ HM 25/12.

324. etstonden: see 121/158.

325. ȝe: Ȝea T. makie to cwakien: for the dat. inf. of purpose, comp. 128/370; ‘he wæs . . . geneded to onfonne þa ðegnunge biscophades,’ Bede, 368/17. The construction has its equivalent in an object clause, as ‘makeð ham ꝥ ha beoð,’ 131/101.

327. The writer has neglected the translation of ‘de tali velocitate’ after blisse. ꝥ hit &c.: ‘quod nullum finem, nullam diminutionem, nullum detrimentum habebunt,’ V 209 b. me is miswritten for mei; mai T.

329. nower neh, nowhere near, falling far short of the reality; a phrase of this group, comp. ‘Nis hit nower neh gold al ꝥ ter schineð,’ HM 9/15; ‘ne schaltu nower neh | se lihtliche etsterten,’ SK 2094. R reads, Ah nower neh ne neh al; ne ꝥ ich iseh . ne ne con ich al tellen: T, Ah nower neh ne seh ich al . ne þat ȝet ꝥ ich seh ne con ich half tellen. Both are quite intelligible, R is nearest the original. W emends, ah nowðer ne seh ich al, | ne þet ȝet þet ich iseh | ne con ich half tellen. The Latin is, ‘Neque enim ut vidi dicere, neque ut sunt videre potui.’ ȝet, even.

331. efter þi sihðe, in accordance with what you saw: ‘vera vidisse, vera narrasse te intelligimus,’ V 209 c.

332. bisið him, takes heed to himself.

333. towart: see 121/161.

334. þider as, to the place where: see 124/246. þider þer T.

335. an, for ant: ⁊ RT. blisse . . . bale; comp. ‘in blisse buten euch bale,’ SK 1755; ‘my blysse, my bale ȝe han ben boþe,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 12/373. R has wið uten balesið.

336. folhin, to follow after, or to practise, does not suit the context; but fonden T, to experience, gives a good sense and a characteristic combination: see 123/224. R has folhen an finden. hwet &c.: ‘Quis ergo nos separabit a charitate Christi? . . . Certus sum enim quia neque mors neque vita . . . poterit nos separare a charitate Dei,’ Rom. viii. 35, 38, 39.

337. halden us þeonne, keep us away from him: comp. ‘halde we us from uniwil,’ OEH i. 69/264. þeonne, not ‘then,’ but thence, therefrom: contracted from þeonene, OE. þanone: usually meaning from that place and seldom applied to a person as here.

339. haueð: the subject is he contained in the preceding ‘his.’ tresures: a mistake for tresurers: tresorers T: possibly the earliest instance of its use.

340. under his wengen, i. e. if we have his protection: from ‘protegar in velamento alarum tuarum,’ Ps. lx. 5: similar expressions in Pss. lvi. 2, lxii. 8, xc. 4.

341. warschipe: T has rihtwisnesse, with the Latin, where Justitia pronounces judgement (comp. l. 350) and Fortitudo executes it (l. 343), while Temperantia says what is translated in ll. 349-52.

342. þer as, where: see 124/246. murðes: murhðes T.

343. nu ut quod strenðe is omitted by T.

344. ende: see 96/34. Nu nu quoð fearlaic . T.

345. lessere &c., inferior in importance to that of mirth’s messenger; so Morris, taking sondes as s. gen. balancing ‘mi’ after þen. T has sonden.

346. unbihefre: see 91/108. licwurðe ne icweme: comp. ‘Hesteres bone þe cwene was þe kinge Assuer licwurðe ⁊ icweme,’ AR 146/7, 120/25, 326/13.

347. ow: T adds quoð meað.

349. þah with nu, nevertheless at this time, on this occasion. T has, flutte nu þah fearlac.

351. ‘Forsitan tu admitteris si Desiderium vitae aeternae aliquando loqui cessaverit,’ V 209 d.

352. stutteð, ceases: a word characteristic of the group: comp. ‘þa ne cuðen ha neauer stutten hare cleappe,’ AR 72/14 (Corpus MS.); ‘Stute nu þenne ⁊ stew þe, | ⁊ stille þine wordes,’ SK 1529; ‘Wið þis ꝥ ha stutte stoden þe cwelleres,’ SJ 64/12; ‘stute nu ant stew þine unwittie wordes,’ SM 6/2: it is mostly used of cutting short a discourse: cognate with Du. stuiten (Franck), G. stutzen.

353. ituht efter, disciplined in conformity with: similarly don efter, l. 355, to behave in subservience to: comp. 106/197.

355. T has, se ful itohen ⁊ don al as ham luste ase wil hare lafdi ⁊ nawt ase wit ham tuhte; lustneð &c.

356. fondeð &c., each one, owing to those two messages which they have heard, and (owing to) that which the four sisters have taught in addition, ever strives, in discharge of his office, to keep his watch and to guard faithfully against the entrance of each vice.

357. þurh: R has the contraction þ with oblique stroke through the lower part of the staff here and at 128/371, not ꝥ. ꝥ fowr: to fowr R.

358. for, against, with ‘witene’ and ‘warden.’ warde &c.: comp. 118/50.

359. ant—treowliche: T omits.

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

361. þe islep: ꝥ iþe slep of ȝemles T. For ȝemeles comp. 54/10, 17. hire: his T. ‘Sic debet quisque torporem suum excutere,’ V 209 d.

362. efter þeos: after þe tidings of þe T. biseon to, gaze up to: comp. 124/249: with on, 120/122. Here V ends.

364. T reads his hinen. efter, in accordance with that which: after þat his wil T.

365. ꝥ is: þe wise T. tuhten ⁊ teachen: comp. 47/272: in Specimens connected with ‘wule,’ ‘as Wit . . . will discipline and instruct’; by Morris made to depend on ‘husebonde,’ both wrongly. They depend on ah, l. 360, which governs the whole series of infinitives ‘te þenchen,’ ‘awecchen,’ ‘biseon,’ ‘To habben,’ ‘leaden,’ ‘tuhten ⁊ teachen,’ ‘witen,’ l. 368: one ought to train and teach (himself and his servants, l. 363) that Wit should always go before.

366. teache: T has the correct reading, drahe. dihteð ⁊ demeð, arranges and decrees to be done. The combination is uncommon, but comp. ‘al ich wule dihten | þe domen of mi kinedom,’ SK 1460 (MS. Titus); ‘he dihte feole domes,’ L 7221.

367. þer fore: not in T; it is a blundering anticipation of the two words following.

370. te fleon: see 126/325. ontent, inflames: comp. 70/168; ‘þe hali gast | þe, in furene tungen, | ontende þe apostles,’ SK 1402; ‘Ontend me wiþ þe blase of þi leitinde loue,’ OEH i. 185/6. T has ontenden.

372. feder &c.: fader ⁊ te hali gast an godd i þrehad rixleð ai bute ende T. ant e sune is a strange mistake: comp. 88/190.

374 ff. are not in T. iohan is the copyist: comp. 74/237, 75/209; ‘Ant he ꝥ her least on wrat swa as he cuðe,’ SJ 79/18. He may have been the author of the doggerel which follows.

377. swa, accordingly, i.e. by reading it.

381. ꝥ lif, such a life.

384. Þet means that, in conjunction with 381, so that, with 382. Johan was a good scribe, and a poor poet.

Sources: ... ‘Et qui veniunt cum illa?’
illa.

Phonology: (1) of B.
of B. misprinted as plain (not spaced)

greot 93 for grot RT (grot, particle)
R. T.

ea before r ... schulde 158 (R₁ has scylde subj.),
comma missing

a + g ... (R₁ has frægnast, Li, fregna)
reference “Li” unexplained: Lindisfarne glosses?

tintreohen 264 with eo, å-umlaut of e
e misprinted as plain (non-bold)

... The stop c is usually k before e, i,
“e” and “i” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

Sweet, Oldest E. Texts, p. 149
OE. Texts

Dialect: ... its u-, å-umlauts;
“u” and “å” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

8. hire ...
all punctuation in this paragraph printed as shown

... the embodiment of the latter
later

28. forte breoke . . . abuten:
... abuten;

73. ... ibreuet in R is pp. of *breuen,
* breuen,

116. ... tam immanissimum hostem
immannissimum

157. ... T reads eðeliche ⁊ wake · vnwearnede
anomalous mid-dot unchanged

331. ... vera vidisse, vera narrasse
narasse

XVII. SAINT KATHERINE

Manuscripts: As for Sawles Warde. The text of this extract is from the Royal MS.

Editions: Morton, James, The Legend of St. Katherine of Alexandria, Abbotsford Club, London, 1841 (text from MS. Titus D 18, with variants from the Royal MS.). Hardwick, Charles, An Historical Inquiry touching Saint Catharine of Alexandria: to which is added a Semi-Saxon Legend, Cambridge, 1849 (text from MS. Titus). Einenkel, Eugen, The Life of Saint Katherine, London 1884 (text based on the Royal MS. with readings of all the manuscripts, the Latin original and an English translation): also as Appendix to The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Katherine of Alexandria, Roxburghe Club, 1884.

Literature: (1) Of the present version. Einenkel, E. (see p. 493/7); *Stodte, H. (see p. 493/9); Victor, Otto, Zur Textkritik und Metrik der frühmittelenglischen Katharinenlegende, Bonn, 1912; Luick, Karl, Anglia, Beiblatt, xxiii. 226-35 (review of Victor’s dissertation); Bartels, L. (see p. 450/23). (2) Of the Legend in general. Knust, H., Geschichte der Legenden der h. Katharina von Alexandrien und der h. Maria Aegyptiaca, Halle, 1890; Varnhagen, H., Zur Geschichte der Legende der Katharina von Alexandrien, Erlangen, 1891; id., Zur Geschichte der Legende der Katharina von Alexandrien, Erlangen, 1901.

Source: The most widely spread of the Latin lives of the Saint, called by Varnhagen the Vulgata, and printed opposite the English text by Einenkel. Varnhagen’s tract dated 1891 gives a good account of all the Latin versions and their sources.

Phonology: This is of the same type as that of MS. A of the Ancrene Wisse and of MSS. B, R of Sawles Warde. Noteworthy are cang 88 with a for a before a lengthening group, and therefore a loan-word; wastum 24 with a for æ after w; icuret 25 participle of ME. curen, derivative of cyre; dale 33 from dāl, not dǣl; medschipe 79 (gemǣdd pp.); teeð 64 with doubled vowel for length; roðeren 21 (reoderen B) from hrȳðer through ruðeren L 8106 (roþere O); awariede 48, 82, wariet 67 without i-umlaut of ea; horte 38 French writing for heorte; steðeluest 24 u-umlaut of a; woorld 97 probably miswritten for weorld (weorlde B); hersumin 49 representing *hēarsumian without umlaut; storede 4 French writing for steorede from stēoran without umlaut; scheop 73, 80, 103 (scēop). Dreien 12 is dragan with å-umlaut of a; for plohen 36 see 360/19; slaht 67 is Anglian slæht; seheliche represents *gesegenlic, Li has geseen; rewfule 55 has ew from ēow. A glide e is added in halewunde 78, ludere 69; e is lost in ȝeinde 54, wettres 93; e is u in halewunde 78 (hālwende) through an intermediate i; o is u in þrittuðe 15. In ȝurinde 54 r has been lost, d is t in wurðmunt 73 (wurðmund T); ð in cweðen 45 is from the singular; ð is lost in wurgin 19, wurgið 93 (wurðgin B, ME. derivative of wierðig); ȝ is written for g in ȝeinen 60 (OWScand. gegna); initial h is lost in lowinge, ludinge 48, remes 55.

Accidence: This has been sufficiently described in the texts mentioned above. Noteworthy is heoren 85, perhaps the earliest instance of the form with n added from min, þin.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are bule 21, crokes 43 with its derivative crokinde 87, euene 20, ȝeinen 60 (keinen T), (god)lec 98, 101, hap 62, keisere 60, lates 35, menske 45, witer(liche) 96: possibly hird 53, ȝeinde 54. French are lay 55, mawmez 21, mawmetes 48: possibly cang 88, crauant 45.

Dialect: As for Sawles Warde.

Style: What has been said about the arrangement of Sawles Warde in Layamonic verse applies to Einenkel’s distribution of SK in Otfridic verse, which Trautmann, the discoverer of Otfrid’s verse in England, afterwards recognized as Layamon’s. It produces such strange divisions as, ‘þet an engel ne com | lihtinde, with swuch | leome, from heouene,’ 666-8; ‘He haueð iweddet him to | mi meiðhad mit te ring,’ 1507, 8; ‘to habben ant to halden þe | cwic, þen to acwellen þe,’ 1867, 8; ‘ant heo duden; drohen hire | wið uten þe burhȝetes,’ 2173, 4, and such rhythms as, ‘hwet he warpe a word aȝein ow,’ 643; ‘for hwas nome ich underneome,’ 765; ‘ant kénest of ow álle óf þe créft,’ 814; ‘ant cweðe ham al sker up,’ 867, with many others. There is a parallel to SK in the OHG. Himmel und Hölle printed as verse in MSD i. 67. It is described by Einenkel (p. xxi) as ‘a poem which, curiously enough, is in its unrhymed form unique in O. H. G., and forms the only perfect analogy to our three legends and to numerous other Old and Middle English poems of the same class,’ while Steinmeyer (MSD ii. 162) is of opinion that to treat it as verse and so create an unique rhymeless poem in the earliest German literature is a very doubtful proceeding.

Introduction: This is the first version of the Legend extant in English. It was followed by six other redactions in Middle English, all in verse: they are enumerated and traced to their originals in Varnhagen’s tract of 1901.

1. Maxence: a mistake of the Latin original and of its source, Simeon Metaphrastes, for Maximinus, as correctly given in the Menologium Basilianum (Hardwick, p. 11). Galerius Valerius Maximinus was raised to the rank of Caesar by his uncle, the Emperor Galerius, and made governor of Syria and Egypt in 303 A.D. He died in 313. See 138/16. as, as being: comp. 122/180, 131/103, 139/15, 141/49, 142/57, 145/105, 108.

2. hehest i rome: comp. 140/32.

3. þurh: the usual prep. is bi, as ‘ðe ferden al bi fendes red,’ GE 2921: ‘be his witena ræde,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 106/591. hwiles: hwile BT, which is grammatically correct; but comp. ‘umbehwiles,’ l. 5 (where BT have again hwile); ‘sumehwiles,’ AR 272/28; ‘oðer hwiles,’ HM 33/31.

4. refschipe: comp. 143/71.

5. comen: subject hi, contained in preceding ‘him’: see 6/18. Similarly warð, l. 10.

7. walde: for omission of gan, see 2/2.

9. of him siker, secure so far as he was concerned, fearing no danger from him. of his cume: comp. 94/24.

10. lei into, appertained to, was subject to; comp. 143/72: a charter expression: B-T quotes ‘ælc ðara landa ðe on mines fæder dæge læg into Cristes cyrcean,’ Kemble, iv. 232/8: in modern dialect it means, to border on.

11. wedwulf: ‘repentina rabie incitatus’: comp. ‘þe þurs Maxence, | þe wed wulf, þe heaðene hund,’ SK 1858.

14. Oleast, at last, as a final resort: the prefix is on: comp. ‘a last,’ Castel off Loue, 457, AR 18/15.

15. tintreo: comp. 144/98, 145/119. tintreohen B, tintrohen T. The first form which occurs five times in R corresponds to OE. tintrego, pl. of tintreg: the others to tintregan, pl. of tintrega.

16. okine seotle: comp. ‘set in kineseotle,’ SK 722.

18. iþe tun does not mean ‘in the town,’ Morton, but, in the court, the enclosure in which the temple was built. The Latin is ‘ad templum deorum suorum.’

20. bi his euene, according to his ability, means: ‘iuxta possibilitatem suam’; comp. ‘efter hire efne,’ AR 126/31; ‘mys motinde men alle by here euene,’ Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 110/38. OWScand. efni: Einenkel points out that it has taken the place of OE. hæfen, as in ‘Be his agene hæfene,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 582/28. to wurgen: wur`d´gede B.

21. mahte: so B; mihte T.

22. Add full stop after briddes.

23. ȝung of ȝeres: comp. 139/23; ‘ȝung of ȝeres ase he was,’ AR 158/17; ‘ȝunglich of ȝeres,’ SK 545. twa wone of twenti: ‘duo de viginti’: see 52/368 and comp. ‘Abraham on wane of an hundred told,’ GE 1028. feier ⁊ freolich: comp. 123/209, 138/22. o wlite &c.: comp. ‘schan al of wlite ant of wastum,’ SM 2/34: similarly, ‘O schene nebschaft | ⁊ schape se swiðe semlich,’ SK 1446.

24. steðeluest goes closely with ‘of treowe bileaue’; not ‘steadfast within, of true faith,’ Morton: comp. ‘stalewarde ⁊ kene ine treowe bileaue,’ AR 272/6. OE. staþol-fæst usually takes on, like ‘a þanke unstedefeste,’ 44/241. ‘speciosa valde, sed quod pluris est religiosa fide.’

25. icuret clergesse, a choice female scholar: comp. ‘Sum is clergesse, ⁊ sum nis nout,’ AR 6/12.

26. of, from: comp. ‘Þah ich beo in alle | of se earliche ilearet,’ SK 858.

27. wisliche: see 18/16.

28. herd: OE. heord, flock: not ‘custodia,’ Einenkel, which is OE. heorde. It does not fit the context, and eard B points to an original erde, dwelling-place, ancestral home. Morton took herd to mean hearth, hall. com of &c.: com hire of burde B, com hire of burðe T, came to her by birth: Victor quotes ‘⁊ tat com þe of burðe,’ OEH i. 273/27.

30. telleð wel to: see 124/264.

32. kepte . . . of: like ‘let of,’ 44/260; ‘tellen of,’ 164/256; ‘Hold it of wel litel pris,’ Floriz, 350: ‘nichil cum mundo habere commune decreverat.’

34. in, upon.

35. lasteles lates, blameless gestures, bearing.

36. lihte plohen apparently answers to ‘puellares iocos,’ and Morton’s ‘trifling amusements’ seems preferable to ‘frivolous plays,’ Einenkel. luue—songes: sotte songes Nalde he nane ronnes BT.

37. leornin refers to ‘songes,’ lustnin to ‘runes,’ talk; see 102/159.

39. to leaf ⁊ to lare, to belief and to learning: comp. ‘ꝥ tu were iset ȝung | to leaf ⁊ to lare,’ SK 384. underueng: undernom B, undernam T.

41. underneomen, ‘entrap,’ Morton, a translation which suits also ‘me to underneomene,’ SK 652, but is hard to parallel elsewhere, the usual senses being to receive (in one’s mind), to reprehend. Perhaps the writer had in mind OF. susprendre, to catch in one’s words; ‘ut eum caperent in verbo,’ S. Mark xii. 13. The Latin has attemptassent.

42. wrenchen . . . ut of þe weie: a phrase characteristic of this group: Einenkel quotes ‘mahen wrenchen sum rihtwis of þe weie,’ SJ 43/5; ‘tu ne maht . . . me . . . wrenchen ut of þe weie,’ SM 4/25. crefti crokes, crafty devices; a figurative use of croke, hook: comp. 131/87, 148/141; SJ 35/5; ‘Mast he cuth o crafte and crok,’ CM 700, 740.

43. ȝeincleppes, blows in return, counter strokes; apparently only here: ȝeincleappes B, ȝainclappes T.

45. crauant, vanquished: comp. ‘he is crauant ꝥ me wende to ouercumen,’ SM 11/19. cweðen . . . up, yield, resign: comp. ‘al ich forsake her | ⁊ cweðe ham al sker up,’ SK 866: possibly an imitation of L. abdicare.

47. burde boldes: burðe boldes T: it corresponds to ‘in palatio patris,’ and may mean, ancestral mansion; it occurs only here: at l. 439 is ‘buriboldes,’ = palatium. murhðe: murð T, nurð B, which is doubtless correct: see 118/22.

48. towart, in the direction of.

49. Comp. ‘gleowinde of euch gleo,’ SK 1667; ‘ꝥ euch mon ah to hersumin | ⁊ herien in eorðe,’ id. 352; 131/84.

51. were is subjunctive in a dependent question: contrast with ‘wes’ in preceding line. sone so, as soon as: comp. 94/18: ‘Þe child him answerde | Sone so he hit herde,’ KH 199, where MS. L has the alternative ‘so sone.’

52. of: comp. ‘þat he of þe holy gost · so vre heorte a-tende,’ OEM 52/548, but ‘wið’ is usual, as at 70/168. wod—walde: similar expressions are frequent in this group: comp. 130/81; 146/121; ‘þet wod he walde iwurðen,’ SJ 66/7; ‘for neh wod he walde iwurðen,’ SM 7/34.

53. hwuch as, those whom: less common than the equivalent ‘hwich þat.’ For a similar use of as, comp. 72/192.

54. ȝeinde ⁊ ȝurinde: comp. ‘⁊ he to rarin reowliche · to ȝuren ant to ȝein,’ SJ 49/4; ‘þe heaðene hundes ȝellen | ⁊ ȝeien ⁊ ȝuren on euch half,’ SK 2013. wið rewfule remes: comp. 141/39.

57. hire: heo BT; both are necessary and in besides: read, þen heo in hire heorte iwundet inwið: comp. 139/28; ‘Nes þis meiden nawiht | herfore imenget | in hire mod inwið,’ SK 607; ‘Constu bulden a burh | inwið i þin heorte,’ id. 1642. Einenkel reads heo and says that ‘heorte’ is instrumental.

58. wraðe: the usual meaning, angry, is unsuitable: the word is connected with OE. wrīþan, to twist, OHG. reid, ‘curled’, and crooked, perverse, would give a good sense here and in such places as ‘iboren owraðe time,’ SJ 57/3; ‘to wraðer heale,’ 141/64.

60. þah: so all three MSS. Einenkel reads þa, and translates, ‘as she was alone (to strive) against’; rather, when she singly should be against, &c. If any alteration is to be made, ꝥ for þat would be preferable, but þah, even if, as in ‘ꝥ we ne cunnen | ⁊ tah we cuðen, | ne nullen ne ne duren,’ SK 1322, gives a quite sufficient sense.

61. hef, lifted: comp. ‘tu schuldest þin herte heouen þiderward as tin heritage is,’ HM 25/34; AR 86/5.

62. hap, good fortune, success. wisliche, truly.

63. wepnede: ‘sumentes scutum fidei,’ Eph. vi. 16; ‘induti loricam fidei,’ 1 Thess. v. 8.

65. rode taken: see 17/145.

66. itend of lei: comp. 130/52; ‘al þe cwarterne, of his cume | leitede o leie,’ SK 671; but, ‘leitinde al on leie,’ id. 1651; ‘þe halwende lei | of þe hali gast,’ id. 1401. bimong: see 66/97 note.

67. deoulen, dat. pl., deouele BT, dat. sing. to lake, for a sacrifice.

69. ludere stefne, dat., as in ‘þa cleopode he hludre stefne,’ BH 181/18; but ‘⁊ ȝeide lude steuene,’ SK 2033; ‘ȝeiden lude stefne,’ SJ 64/12.

71. ȝeld, tribute, resumed in ‘hit,’ l. 72.

72. driueð: comp. 60/11.

73. ⁊ al walt: omit al and ⁊ after wisdom, with BT.

75. he him ane, he and only he: see 123/200 note.

76. þah—þolie, though he be long-suffering; ‘longanimiter ferens,’ Heb. vi. 15.

78. halde, keep: comp. ‘haldeð his heastes,’ SK 1788; ‘heaste halden,’ HM 5/28.

80. wið is adverbial and repeats ‘þurh’: see 62/24 note, and add, ‘vor vuel ꝥ ter kumeð of hit,’ AR 52/2; ‘þu ꝥ dest eni þing hwarof þer mon is fleschliche ivonded of þe,’ id. 58/22. The repetition of conjunctions is also found as in, ‘nis he fol chepmon þet, hwon he wule buggen hors oðer oxe, ȝif he nule biholden bute þet heaued one?’ AR 208/6; of pronouns, as ‘ꝥ þe muð ne mei uor scheome, þe liht eie spekeð hit,’ id. 60/6. B omits wið. þen = þen ꝥ.

81. schad: see 122/176. wit ⁊ . . . wisdom: see 22/142. wurðen &c.: see 130/52.

82. forð: se uorð B, se forð T: se being wanting in this text, the following ꝥ must mean, so that.

83. unwitlese: so B unwitelese, but T witlese, senseless, the meaning required. wuneð in: the idea that idols are inhabited by demons is as old as Porphyry: it is frequently expressed in the legends: comp. 145/118; SJ 22/14; CM 2303; SK 553; ‘praecipio tibi, daemon, qui in eo [ydolo] latitas, ut simulacrum istud comminuas,’ Legenda Aurea, ed. Graesse, 39/2; ‘In hoc ydolo quidam daemon habitabat,’ id. 540/30.

84. hereð &c.: see 130/49.

87. fint: ‘malorum omnium inventor diabolus.’ crokinde creftes, comp. 129/42: not ‘crooked crafts,’ but either, perverting devices, or more probably, devices by which he hooks his victims; the idea of both words being pursued in ‘keccheð’ and ‘creftluker’: for the termination of the latter, see 125/270.

88. cang: see 58/82.

89. ꝥ he makeð, by his making.

92. sunne &c.: the Latin has only ‘elementis mundi’; perhaps the author had in mind, ‘Nam solis lunaeque simulacra humanum in modum formant, item ignis et terrae et maris: quae illi Vulcanum, Vestam, Neptunum vocant,’ Lactantius, de Origine Erroris, ch. vi (ed. Spark, 143/5).

95. bute ꝥ ow þuncheð, but by your thinking, lit. but that it seems to you; the explanation of ‘þing.’ schulen: so B, but T has correctly sehen.

97. B reads, ant of nawt ant i.

98. of: comp. 83/5.

99. ha ꝥ walden, must mean, they desired that. But BT have correctly he ꝥ walde.

100. þurh cunde, by reason of their nature.

101. makeð &c.: see 126/325. in eche, eternal: T omits in, but the phrase occurs again 149/182, SJ 79/14.

103. as in sum time, as conditioned by time: comp. 128/1. BT have ham for as.

104. ꝥ . . . in, in which. ne does not negative the clause: it continues and emphasizes the negatives of the principal sentence: see the quotations in note on 25/241.

Style: ... unique in O.H.G.
O. H. G.

while Steinmeyer (MSD ii. 162)
MSD.

47. ... ‘in palatio patris,’
close quote invisible

XVIII. THE ORISON OF OUR LADY

Manuscript: Cotton Nero A 14, British Museum. See p. 355.

Editions: Morris, R., OEH i. 191-9 (with translation), and Specimens, 129-32 (part only); Zupitza-Schipper, AE. Lesebuch, ed. viii. 106-10.

Literature: Kölbing, E., ES i. 169; Lauchert, F., ES xiii. 83; xvi. 124. Marufke, W., Der älteste englische Marienhymnus, Leipzig, 1907; Vollhardt, W. (see p. 269/19).

Phonology: This section should be compared with the account of MS. N of the Ancrene Wisse, pp. 363-5, the copy of which is by the same scribe as the Orison.

Oral a is a, hauest 9, uare 119; a before nasals is o, mon 74, nome 126, hwon 112, 119, but me 45; a before lengthening groups is o, londe 16, ilong 96, but and 4: þeonne 118 is influenced by heonne. æ is regularly e, et 90, gled 54, hedde 144, nes 68, once ea, sead 30, and a in habbe 82 (4 times), hwat 106, was 88 (4). e is e, aleggen 133, seggen 158; before lengthening groups, engles 27, schende 92, but i in siggen 134, siggeð 72, 73: in seoruwe 60, 89, 120 eo represents œ, i-umlaut of o. i is i. o is o, uorst 38, hopie 110, note 88; before lengthening groups, gold 34, nolde 143: þene 93, 127, 169 is LWS. þæne: on without stress is a 9. u is u, kume 117, unne 164; before lengthening groups, bunden 123, murnen 44. y is u, agult 82, muchele 14 (7), sunne r. w. wiðinnen 92; before lengthening groups, guldene 45, 52, welsprung 72 r. w. þing, but chelle 45: king 57, kinestol 25 have the usual i. ā is o, holie 126, loðe 93, one 21, but a adv. 129, a art. 150; before two consonants, wost 145: nenne 131 represents nǣnne. ǣ₁ is divided between e (15), clenenesse 163, er 66, techen 48; before two consonants, euer 54, lefdi 2 (5), neuer 30 (3), and ea (10) in cleane 42 (3), todealen 95, deale 154, heale 6 (3), healen 124, leafdi 170: ilch 81 is OE. ylc. ǣ₂ is regularly e, uorbere 106, greden 155, misdeden 156, were 105, but a in hwar 106. ē is e, greten 152, swete 17, but eo in steoren 45, weopen 44 represents umlaut œ̄, and idreaued 58, 82, from drœ̄fan, descends in form from drǣfan. ī is i, arine 127, bliðe 116, hird 51, but u in hwule 12, 153, swuðe 14 (6), wummon 23, wummen 19. ō is o: ū, u: ȳ, u, kuðe 118 r. w. siðe, fulðe 94 r. w. dweoluhðe, luðere 123, luðernesse 107, schrude 139 r. w. wide, ischrud 51.

ea before r + cons. is e, der 158, erme 64, ert 158, 160, herm 36, ȝeruh 132, but ȝeirkest 49. ea before l + cons. is a, al 4 &c., uallen 111, ualuwen 39, schalt 149: the i-umlaut is seen in wille 46 (wiell). eo before r + cons. is eo, eorðe 159 r. w. wurðe, ueor 94, ȝeorne 80, 103, heorte 4 (5); to the wur group belong wurðie 7, wurðeð 21, wurð 122, wurschipe 13: beornen 104, wurðe 138, 160 are without umlaut. eo before l + cons. is u in suluen 64, 66, 100. The u- and å-umlaut of a is wanting in kare 120, iðauien 142; it may possibly account for e in were 71, comp. helwearum VP 29/4, Sodomwearena VH 7/62. eo, u-umlaut of e is eo, dweolðe 148, dweoluhðe 93, heouene 77 (3), heoueriche 24, 150. eo, å-umlaut of e is eo, ueole 9. eo, å-umlaut of i is o, hore 22, 42. ea after palatals is a, schal 45, and e, ȝef 100. ie after ġ is i, ȝiue 162, ȝif 102, 126, ȝiuest 34 (3), uorȝiuenesse 110, 132, but e in forȝelden 135. EWS. gief is ȝif 42, 84. eo after sć is u, schulen 41, 43; ie after sć, i, ischild 120. eom is am 112, 113, ham 98; heom, ham 56.

ēa is ea, deað 36, leasung 75, read 53, but e in ek 87, ec 159, edmodnesse 79, isched 88; its i-umlaut is e, aulem 94, alesed 15, ȝeme 163, ȝemeð 42, ȝeme 121, ihere 84, but dreameð 27, without umlaut. ēo is regularly eo, beon 113 &c., biseon 134, deoflene 15, leoue 2 (10), but looue 100, 170, apparently for lōue; the i-umlaut is e, onsene 27. ēo after g is eo, ȝeomer 40: gīet is ȝet 109.

a + g is aw, drawe 128, 141. æ + g is ei, dei 50, feier 137, mei 31, but daie 8, dai 166, fawe 142 (fagen). e + g is also ei, awei 94, pleie 62, reine 58 r. w. kwene. i + g final is i, holi 70, i 97, 106, moniuold 61, murie 27. i + ht is iht, wiht 31, 47. u + g is uw, muwen 65. ā + g gives ow, owen 13, owune 112; ā + h, ouh 7. ō + h is ouh, auouh 119, brouhte 86, inouh 62. ū + g is uw, buwe 3. ie, i-umlaut of ea, + ht is iht, miht 133, nihte 8. eo + ht is also iht, briht 19, uihte 60; the i-umlaut is seen in bisihð 81. ēa + g gives ei, beie 3, beien 18. ēo + ht is iht, liht 5, lihtliche 133, 135. ēa + h is seen in þauh 82, 105. ā + w, bloweð 37, soule 5, snou 38, but iseie (? gesǣge). ēo + w, kneon 3, kneouwunge 136, reoweð 101, þeoudome 98.

Swā is so 53. For e, u is written in owune 112; for o, e in heouene 77, sumer 39: e is added in clenenesse 163, heuede 108, heuedest 107, neuere 143, but neure 111; e is lost in hird 51; the suffix ing is ung in gretunge 135. on is weakened to a 9. u is added in dweoluhðe 93, muruhðe 61, seoruwe 60 (3), þuruh 122 (3); comp. ‘seluðe,’ AR 354/4.

Metathesis of r is seen in spert 140; rr is simplified in der 158; ll in wil 62; mm in ȝimstones 55. n is lost in i 50, o 96, 114 and medially in heoueriche 24, 150. bb is simplified in sib 60. f is generally preserved in combination with other consonants, deoflene 15, efter 76, lefdi 2; before u, ful 35, fulðe 94; finally, ȝif 126, lif 6; initially after a word ending in a voiceless sound, fawe 142, feier 137, fif 102, forboren 109, forȝelden 135. Otherwise it is u, v, uorst 38, aulem 94, auouh 119, iureden 38; exceptions are hefedest 143 and the contract hedde 144. t is added by inadvertence in þuruhtut 70; tt is simplified in biset 55: þ is omitted in wurschipe 13, wurchipe 130. After þet, þu becomes tu 72, 84, 91, but vort þu 64, þet þe 73, 74, bit þe 132, et ðe 90. ts is represented by c in milce 79 (3): bletsung is blescinge 162. ss is simplified in blisful 19. Initial sć is sch, gledschipe 14, schende 92, but wurðscipe 141, wurchipe 130; medially it is ssc, englissce 167, ssch, wassche 139. c [k] is k before e, i, u, ȝeirkest 49, sike 97, kinescrud 34, kunne 9, c before o, com 36, icoren 67, in other positions it is indiscriminately c or k, Cristes 1, krune 55, kneon 3, licame 163, kare 120, woc 40, ek 87, ec 159. č is ch, eche 35, techen 48, stenches 44; čč is cch, drecche 148, wrecche 130, but arechen 47: cw is kw, kwene 57, but once queadschipe 42: cg is gg, aleggen 133, seggen 158. Palatal g is written ȝ, ȝef 100, forȝelden 135, ȝimstones 55: the prefix ge- is preserved as i, ilong 96. The stop g is doubled in singges 8. For h, ch is written in ðurchut 142; h is added in ham 98, dweoluhðe 93, ȝeruh 132 (as at AR 394/12), lost in is 126, licame 163, arine 127 (ahrīnan), lefdi 2, ringes 34, but hw is kept in hwar 106.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune 57 represents sunu, gome 62 has lost final n. Gen. -es, deaðes 120, kunnes 92, but heoueriche 150 is not inflected: dat. -e, daie 8, deaðe 90, reine 58, siðe 101, wille 46; no exceptions. In the a. schrifte 152 has added e. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, engles 27, beies 34, but were 21: neuters are þing 71, kneon 3. Genitives are kunne 9, meidene 21, þinge 76; weak forms are deoflene 15, englene 16 (4); there are no datives. The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in the s. n. a., kwene 57, ore 73, sorinesse 36, bene 84, except sib 60, help 116 (often m. in OE.). Gen. -e, helle 44, 104, soule 5: dat. -e, blisse 16 (5), fulðe 94, honde 15, mihte 7. Pl. dat. are honden 32, misdeden 156, wunden 102; a. heorte 18, wunden 124. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in all cases of the singular, except lefdi 2 (6): plurals are n. blostmen 37, d. wrecchen 63, uote 155. The minor declensions are represented by mon s. n. 74, wummon 23, men pl. n. 13, ureondmen 166, wepmen pl. a. 20, wummen 19; nihte s. d. 8, 59, niht s. a. 50; moder s. n. 1, 67; ureondes pl. a. 33.

Adjectives which in OE. end in a vowel have -e throughout, eche 35, 39, 62, 120, swete 17. Of the weak declension are s. n. leoue 2 (5), looue 100, 170, d. erme 64, fule 94, heie 66, 165, holie 126, leoue 125, a. englissce 167, leoue 26, 76, loðe 93. Strong inflections are s. d. m. guldene 45, s. d. f. hwite 51, s. a. m. fulle 65, s. a. f. fulle 110, gode 121: iliche 23, 68 is gelīca. The plurals of all adjectives end in -e, holie 71, hwite 37, luðere 123, reade 37; exceptions are gled 54, sead 30, hwit, read 53; gold-ring 34 is an OE. combination. mycel is s. n. muchel 79, s. d. muchele m. 14, f. 89, 140, neut. 49. āgen gives owune 112. ān occurs once as a 150; āna is one s. d. m. 125, f. 21: nān is s. n. no 23 (9), non 24, 39 (pronominal), 47 (before heorte), 40, s. g. neut. none 92, a. m. nenne 131. Adjectives used as nouns are god s. a. neut. 49, muchel 151: superlatives are best 129, leouest 76.

The personal pronouns are ich, i 97, 106, me, we, us, þu, tu 72 (4), after þet, þe. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. hit neut. 63, a. 11; pl. n. heo 30 &c., d. ham 29, a. 15. Reflexives are mi suluen 100, ðe suluen 64, 66: possessives, s. n. mi 6 &c., min 6, 96, 158 (pronominal), g. mire f. 5, mine 5, 157, mines neut. 2, d. mine m. 117, mire f. 75, mine 7, 107, mine neut. 126, a. mine m. 152, f. 135, mi neut. 133, min 4; pl. mine n. 166, d. 156, a. 3: s. n. þi 25 (3), þin 24 (7) before vowel or h, 157 (predicative), d. ðine m. 26 (4), ðire f. 149 (5), þine 18 (8), þin 27, ðine neut. 89, a. þine m. 116, f. 31 (3), þi neut. 30; pl. þine d. 32, 155, a. 33: is 126: ure 18, 86: hore 22, 42. The definite article is s. n. þe 53 &c., g. þes 100 (pronominal), d. ðe m. 90, þere f. 85, 88, a. þene m. 93, 127, 169; pl. g. þer 24 (for þere). The compound demonstrative is s. n. þes m. 78, d. þisse neut. 64, 119, a. ðesne m. 167, 170. The relative is þet 23 &c., once þe 41; ðet 12, during which; interrogative is hwat 106; indefinites are me 45; ilch s. d. m. 81; sume s. d. m. 101; ueole pl. g. 9; s. n. al 5, g. alle neut. 93, d. m. 42, f. 7, a. al m. 100, neut. 48 &c.; pl. n. alle 13 (6), g. alre 76, a. alle 19.

The infinitives of the second weak conjugation end in -ien, iðauien 142, karien 43, luuien 17, except ualuwen 39; others, 32 in number, end in -en, but without n are deale 154, singge 8, þonkie 12, wurðie 7, iseo 165: to biseonne 137, to iseonne 30 are dat. infinitives. Presents are s. 1. beie 3, hopie 110, liuie 12, offrie 4, þonkie 11, wene 111, wurðie 146; 2. ȝiuest 34, ȝeirkest 49; 3. hateð 145, likeð 29, wurðeð 144, contracted bisihð 81, bit 80, 132, let 56, spert 140, wurð 68, 122; pl. 3. bloweð 37, wurðeð 21: subjunctive s. 1. habbe 116, 156, iðeo 121, 130; 2. bringe 169, ȝiue 162, kume 117, kuðe 118, makie 91, schrude, wassche 139, werie, wite 147; 3. arine 127, derie 148, drawe 128, drecche 148, habbe 82, ihere 84, schende 92, to-drawe 141, unne 164; pl. 1. kumen 66: imperative s. 2. auouh 119, aulem 94, ȝeme 163, haue 159, ȝif 102, 126, ischild 120, iþench 100, nim 121, þole 127. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 1. ȝef 100; 2. iseie 105: I b. 3. com 36; subj. s. 2. uorbere 106: I c. s. 3. funde 170 (weak form): IV. s. 1. uorsoc 99; 2. stode 90. Participles past: I b. forboren 109, iboren 23, 68, ibroken 151, ikumen 112, inumen 107: I c. bunden 123, iholpen 9, isungen 167: III. icoren 67, uorloren 74, 108: V. isched 88. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. heuede 108, wreðede 101; 2. heuedest 107, 143: subjunctive s. 3. brouhte 86, hedde 144. Participles present: liuiinde 40 adj.; past: agult 82, alesed 15, biset 55, ibrouht 10, 98, idreaued 58, 82, ischrud 51, isend 16. Minor Groups: wot 1 pr. s. 103, wost 2 pr. s. 145; ouh 1 pr. s. 7, owen 1 pr. pl. 18, owe we 17, owen pr. pl. 13; kunne 1 pr. s. subj. 134; der 1 pr. s. 158; schal 1 pr. s. 104, schalt 2 pr. s. 149, schal pr. s. 45, 95, schulen pr. pl. 41, 43; miht 2 pr. s. 133, mei pr. s. 31, 74, muwen 1 pr. pl. 65; mote 1 pr. s. subj. 165; beon inf. 74, 113, to beonne dat. inf. 29, 138, am 1 pr. s. 112, 113, ham 98, ert 2 pr. s. 5, 158, 160, is pr. s. 25, nis 23 (4), beoð pr. pl. 52, beo 1 pr. s. subj. 23, 116, pr. s. subj. 122, 129, 138, pr. pl. subj. 166, was 1 pt. s. 106, pt. s. 88, nes 68, were 2 pt. s. subj. 105; wulle 1 pr. s. 12 (3), wule 113, wult 2 pr. s. 121, 133, 142, wule pr. s. 142; don inf. 13, do 152, dest 2 pr. s. 149, doð pr. pl. 41, 56, dude 1 pt. s. 106.

Noteworthy are the adverb þereuore 63, 83, an early example of the meaning, that being so, and the prepositions anunder 32, OE. anunder (Morsbachs Studien, l. 171), ine 104 (4), onuppe 25 (comp. ‘anuppon’ 77/46).

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are laste 69, lasten 123, lune 126, wonteð 73, possibly trust 125. French are cherite 161, ciclatune 51, krune 52, ikruned 52, lai 167, paradise 10, 49, 108, seruise 50, seinte 17, seynte 1, trone 22. Latin are cherubine 25, lilie 53, munuch 169, rose 53, seraphine 26, all OE. borrowings, except the last. The inflectional -e of cherubine, seraphine appears to be quite isolated.

Dialect: The Orison in its present form agrees substantially with the copy of the Ancren Riwle in the same manuscript; both are in the dialect of the scribe, that of the Middle South. But the Midland i for y, ȳ is attested by the spoilt rhymes þing : welsprung 71; wiþinnen : sunne 91; kuðe : siðe 118; schrude : wide 139, which also point to an original filðe : dwilðe 94 (the forms dweoleð, dweoluhðe, dweolðe are found only in this manuscript), and chille : wille 45. There is nothing else in the rhymes to help to a nearer localization of the author: it can only be said that his dialect was Midland.

Metre: This is in dispute. Schipper sees in it a mixture of septenaries, alexandrines, and alliterative verse. He regards l. 28, pléieð and swéieð and síngeð bitwéonen as the only indubitable example of the last, but first half-lines have two accents only in, to þé ich búwe 2; and þónkie wúlle 12; ne wéopen ne múrnen 44, 72, 77, and second half-lines in, þi uéir to iséonne 30; mid gúldene chélle 45; mid énglene wílle 46, 52, 70. The alexandrine is a French verse of six stresses equally divided into two half-verses by a caesura; the ending of each half-line may be masculine or feminine; each half-line may also take a prelude. The scheme of the verse is accordingly (x)x́xx́xx́ (x) || (x)x́xx́xx́(x). Such is held to be the rhythm of nís no | wúmmon i|bóren || þét ðe | béo i|líche 23; þíne | blísse ne | méi || nó wiht | únder|stónden 31, where the stress on ‘þet’ and ‘no’ is forced. It is found necessary to employ all the licences of English prosody in scanning this foreign metre, which moreover in its native form is never mixed with other metres, and rhymes, not in couplets, but only in ‘laisses’ or fours. Scanned as septenaries are, biuór|en ðín|e léo|ue súne || wiðín|nen sér|aphíne 26; þú ham | ȝíuest | kíne | scrúd || beíes | and góld|ringes 34. But a line like vor heo neúer ne beoð séad . þi ueír to iséonne 30 may be scanned as an alliterative long line as marked, or as a septenary, vór heo | néuer | né beoð | séad || þi uéir | tó i|séonne, or as an alexandrine, vor heo neú|erne béoð | séad || þi uéir | tó i|séonne. On the other hand, Kaluza refuses to admit such an admixture of metres: he regards the poem as written throughout in septenaries. So the first line is to be scanned, Crístes | mílde | mód|èr || séynte | Már|íè. The unstressed syllable in a foot is often wanting; sometimes all the syllables of a word are stressed, as in the first half of l. 55, Mid bríht|e ȝím | stòn|ès. It is very artificial and unconvincing.

The matter is complicated by the fact that the Orison is only a copy, probably a copy of a copy, perhaps one of a succession of copies. A scribe dealing with an older text was generally little concerned about the form and much about the matter and the transcription of its language into his own dialect and idiom. That the text of the Orison has suffered from this preoccupation is evident from the rhymes; it is fairly certain that the author wrote lefdie 2, 11, 17, 170, sorinisse 36, mildheortnisse 78, 149, 164, edmodnisse 79, luðernisse 107, rene 58, leste 69, leasinge 75, gretinge 85, þas 100, seggen 134, and it may be inferred that alterations, including substitution of words, have been made within the verse. But even taking this into account, it is very doubtful whether the poet meant to write syllabic verse at all. Rather his metre exhibits the alliterative long line in the last stage of its dissolution, in which systematic rhyme has largely displaced the older and once essential elements of the verse. If rhythms occur, which can with some violence be forced into the moulds of purely syllabic verse, they are not of the author’s express purpose; precisely the same phenomenon is seen in Layamon (464/5). Moreover the alliterative element is considerable; the poet starts with two perfect lines, and ll. 60, 94, 101, 115, 153, 157, 171 have each three alliterating words; l. 3 is up to the Layamonic norm, and there are twenty-seven others equally good. But the development of the verse towards rhyme is complete and no longer, as in Layamon, occasional and for the most part imperfect (464/16).

Introduction: The author speaks of himself as a monk and of his composition as an English lay, as though it were an original production. He shows acquaintance with the earlier English literature, his manner is English, and the French element in his vocabulary is remarkably small. The highly conventional character of his language makes it difficult to speak with any confidence of his reading, but he would find much of it in his service books, and he was probably acquainted with Adgar’s Mary Legends and the long series of Orationes ad Sanctam Mariam Virginem with the Psalterium S. Virginis of S. Anselm (ed. Gerberon, pp. 276-87, 303-8), the enthusiastic promoter of the cult of the Virgin Mary in England. For the same reason it is impossible to give much weight to the series of parallels from the writings of S. Edmund of Pontigny (Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1234-40), by which Marufke has sought to prove his authorship of the Orison.

In ureisun of the title, both pretonic and tonic u are characteristic of early Anglo-French: ei is historic spelling, and at this time alternates in AF. with phonetic e.

1. Comp. 134/67; ‘O mater alma Christi charissima,’ York Brev. ii. 182; ‘virgo singularis: inter omnes mitis,’ id. ii. 477; ‘La duce mere al Salueur,’ Adgar 131/39.

2. mi leoue lefdi: comp. ll. 11, 17, 63, 115, 170; ‘ma douce dame,’ Wright, Lyric Poetry, 55/1.

3. buwe . . . beie: see 143/84.

6. Comp. 134/96, 136/153; ‘te spem meam singularem, te salutem computo,’ Guibert of Nogent, De Laude S. Mariae, 6; ‘Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve!’ l. 2 of Salve Regina; ‘Ki est salu, ueire esperance | A tuz Crestiens, sanz dutance,’ Adgar 107/845; ‘Þu art hele and lif and liht,’ OEM 160/11. mid iwisse: see 32/40.

8. bi daie &c.: comp. 133/50.

9. aueole kunne wise, lit. in fashion of many kinds, i.e. in very many ways: comp. 62/30, 114/64, 151/20; ‘a vele kunne wise,’ OEM 39/53, 44/241; ‘Aþre cunne wise,’ id. 38/33; L 1717. OE. fela, much, many, is an indeclinable noun followed by a genitive case, and this construction is occasionally found in EME., as at 27/300, 34/70 (76/19 is ambiguous), but generally in ME. fele, many, is pl. adj. or pronoun of all cases, as nom. 15/83, 16/115, 18/2; gen. 85/105; acc. 30/9. For the expression with wise, comp. ‘on ælches cunnes wise,’ L 8072; ‘on aiȝes cunnes wisen,’ id. 25778; ‘an almes monnes wisen,’ id. 19641: the genitive is, of course, equivalent to an adjective, as in ‘a seolcuðe wisen,’ id. 27835; ‘on moni are wisen,’ id. 555.

11. hit: see 115/120.

13. Comp. ‘Ceste Dame deit hoem loer | E mult seruir e honurer, | Ki rent as soens si bon luier, | Ke cors e alme lur uelt saluer,’ Adgar 225/65.

15. of: see 52/394.

19. Comp. ‘Marie, ki fu si bele, | Vnke si bele ne uit pucele,’ Adgar, 22/75; ‘gaude gloriosa: super omnes speciosa,’ York Brev. ii. 493.

21. were Björkman (Archiv cxxii. 398) takes as a scribe’s mistake for wered; comp. ‘He gesceop tyn engla werod,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 10/12. But comparing 134/71, it is more probable that it represents OE. wara, waru, as in Lundenwaru, in an extended sense of, host, company: possibly influenced in form by OWScand. -veri, -verjar.

22. blostme: comp. ‘Leuedi, flour of alle þing,’ OEM 195/28.

23. Comp. 134/68; ‘nis non maiden under sunne | þe mei beo þin eueni[n]g,’ OEH ii. 256/43: ‘Sancta maria, non est tibi similis orta in mundo in mulieribus,’ York Brev. ii. 491.

25. Comp. 124/243; ‘Exaltata est sancta dei genetrix: Super choros angelorum ad celestia regna,’ York Brev. ii. 477; ‘atque in regni solio sublimata post Christum gloriosa resedit,’ id. ii. 492; ‘Tibi thronus regius ab angelis collocatur in aula aeterni regis,’ Sermon of Fulbert of Chartres, in S. Augustini Opera V², 246.

26. wid innen, surrounded by.

28. sweieð, make melody. bitweonen: see 148/6.

29. Comp. ‘Kar li angele funt nuit e ior | Son plaisir, par grant amur,’ Adgar 165/287.

30. See 124/239. sead . . . to iseonne: see 76/17. For ueir as a noun, beauty, comp. 139/27; ‘þe mone ⁊ þe sunne wundrieð of faire · swo fair is ure louerd ihesu crist,’ OEH ii. 19/29.

32. Comp. ‘Tuit est en sa main atachie | Li ciels e li munz ensement,’ Adgar 165/282.

33. riche: see 19/34.

34. Suggested by such places as, ‘Tulitque annulum de manu sua, et dedit eum in manu eius: vestivitque eum stola byssina, et collo torquem auream circumposuit,’ Gen. xli. 42; Esther vi. 8. beies, crowns; comp. 133/55 note, or less probably, collars, armlets; comp. 202/194.

35. Comp. 50/360.

36-40, 59-62. These passages describing the joys of Paradise have many analogues in the earlier literature. Kölbing, ES i. 169, thought they were borrowed directly from the OE. Phoenix: he compares with l. 38, ‘Ne mæg þær ren ne snaw, | ne forstes fnæst . . . | wihte gewyrdan,’ Ph. 14, 15, 19; with l. 37, ‘is þæt æþele lond | blostmum geblowen,’ Ph. 20; with l. 39, ‘Wintres ⁊ sumeres wudu bið gelice | bledum gehongen,’ Ph. 37, 38; with l. 36, ‘Nis þær on þam londe laðgeniðla | . . . ne se enga deað,’ Ph. 50, 52, and he might have added, ‘ne feallað þær on foldan fealwe blostman,’ Ph. 74. For similar descriptions comp. Grau, G. (Morsbachs Studien, xxxi), p. 130; Pseudo-Cyprian, De Resurrectione Mortuorum, ed. Hartel, iii. 316/193-268; De Die Iudicii (attributed to Bede), 128-47; Christ, 1650-65; BH 65/16-22, but the parallels between the text and the Phoenix are remarkable.

36. þer ðe, where: comp. ‘ȝet doð þer þe heo beoð,’ OEH i. 9/9.

37. hwite ⁊ reade: lilies and roses; symbols of virgins and martyrs: comp. Be Domes Dæge, 18/286-9.

39. ualuwen: see 29/6.

43. swinken, be distressed: comp. 134/97, and see 40/194 note.

44. stinken, smell, perceive: comp. ‘wrieð hore fulðe so ꝥ heo hit ne muwen stinken,’ AR 86/17.

45. steoren &c., cense with golden censer: probably suggested by Rev. viii. 3. chelle: OE. cylle, vessel; only here in ME.

46. mid englene wille, ‘with angels’ joy,’ Specimens; comparing OWScand. vili. But this use of ME. wille for state of felicity is at least rare, and besides something more concrete is needed to balance ‘mid guldene chelle’; wille represents OE. wiell, wiella, fountain, with allusion to the ‘fluvium aquae vitae’ of Rev. xxii. 1, and to such places as ‘Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus salvatoris,’ Isa. xii. 3; ‘torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos,’ Ps. xxxv. 9. The sense then would be, and pour out for them eternal life by means of the water of Paradise. The writer uses englene vaguely for, of Heaven; comp. ll. 16, 70.

47-50. An application of 1 Cor. ii. 9 already in Adgar, ‘Certes, nul ne poet escrire, | De cuer penser, de buche dire | Les biens de la Dame uaillante, | Ki de tuz biens est puissante, | Ke as soens fait chascun ior, | Vers cels, ke el’ ad puint d’amur,’ 224/7. See 46/285, 119/85. With l. 50 comp. ‘Nostre Dame serui nuit e ior, | El soen seruise out grant amur,’ Adgar 117/27.

51. ciclatune, originally a fine silken stuff of Persian origin, usually red. Almeria, in Spain, was the seat of a flourishing manufacture of this stuff in the twelfth century. Comp. 140/37.

53. Comp. ‘eall heora neb-wlite wæron swilce rose and lilie,’ Ælf., Lives i. 536/780.

55. Comp. ‘þær se beorhta beag brogden wundrum | eorcnanstanum eadigra gehwam | hlifað ofer heafde,’ Phoenix 602.

58. Comp. ‘Þær ne hægl ne hrim hreosað to foldan | ne windig wolcen, ne þær wæter fealleþ | lyfte gebysgad,’ Phoenix 60.

60. uihte, variance: ‘gewindagas,’ days of strife, Phoenix 612. Comp. also, ‘sib butan niþe,’ Christ 1660; 70/158 note.

61. teone ⁊ treie: see 24/208.

62. For Gleobeames, harps, gleodreames is suggested in Specimens, with a reference to Beowulf, 3021, ‘gamen ⁊ gleo-dream,’ sport and social joys. inouh goes with gome. liues wil, joy of life.

63. long hit þuncheð: comp. ‘ne biþ him wynne hyht, | þæt hy þis læne lif long gewunien,’ Phoenix 480.

64. For vort, see 72/179 note.

67. Swete: comp. ‘Bidde we ure lauedi | swetest alre þinge,’ OEM 166/81. icoren: comp. ‘Mildest quene ant best icorn,’ E. E. Lyrics, ed. Chambers and Sidgwick, 90/41; ‘Of þe he makede his moder · vor he þe hedde ycore,’ OEM 38/22, 88/37. The expression comes from the service books, ‘praeelecta ut sol,’ York Missal ii. 20; ‘Ista est speciosa electa a domino,’ York Brev. ii. 540.

69. Comp. ‘moder unwemmed ⁊ maiden clene | swich in world non oþer nis,’ OEH ii. 255/3; ‘Virgene en l’emfantement, | Deuant e apres ensement,’ Adgar 225/53.

70. reste, abode.

71. were: see 132/21.

72. liues welsprung: apparently suggested by ‘quoniam apud te est fons vitae,’ Psalm xxxv. 10. In the York Breviary she is called ‘puteus aquarum viventium,’ ii. 480.

74. Comp. ‘Ki fu refuse u cumfus, | Ki unkes out fiance en uus?’ Adgar 107/825.

75. A word has dropped out after soule. In Specimens, leome is supplied, in Zupitza-Schipper, liht, as in l. 5.

79-81. Comp. ‘Duze Dame tresimple e coie, | Plein de misericorde e de uertu, | E de grant grace, mere Jhesu; | Mult tost mustrez uostre duzur | A checun dolent pecheur. | Mult se poent en uus fier, | Ki uus uolent merci crier,’ Adgar 26/243, 38/17, 65/64.

80. of helpe . . . missen, fail to obtain help: comp. ‘Þu hauest ymyst of fayrhede,’ ON 581, 825; ‘Hi wenden to wisse | of here lif to misse,’ KH 121 note.

81. to: see 124/249. milce ⁊ ore: comp. 135/102; ON 1083, 1404.

82. agult, offended; a transitive use; the word is usually followed by to, wið, toward, of the person; comp. ‘ne ne warien hwon me agulteð to ou,’ AR 186/2.

84. ȝif þi wille is: a common tag: comp. 77/60; ‘ȝef hit were þin wille,’ L, MS. O 20815; ‘ȝef þi deore wil is,’ SJ 37/9; ‘mi swete leuedi, her mi bene | ⁊ reu of me, ȝif þi wille is,’ OEH ii. 255/7.

85. gretunge: the first of the five joys of the Virgin; see OEM 87/1-8, as l. 87 refers to the greatest of her sorrows: comp. ‘Bidde we seinte Marie | for hire milde mode. | For þe teres þat heo wep | for hire sone blode,’ OEM 190/93.

93. loðe: comp. 46/283. kunnes: see 81/80. dweoluhðe: also at 136/148 in a similar context, for delusions, deceptions practised by the devil: see AR 224/12, and comp. ‘et ideo prae ceteris | volo te precari, | ne sinas me daemonis | dolo defraudari,’ Mone, Lat. Hymnen ii. 108/85.

94. fule fulðe: comp. 29/33.

95. to dealen: comp. Rom. vii. 39.

96. ilong, dependent: comp. 135/114; ‘Þæt wæs swiþost on ðæm gelong þæt Hasterbal swa late fleah,’ Orosius 198/26: ‘is seo bot gelong | eal æt þe anum,’ Christ 153: ‘On hire is al mi lif ilong,’ OEM 158/1; ‘ꝥ is long on felefelde iuele lastes,’ OEH ii. 71/31: in mod. English, along of. See also ‘bilong,’ 200/112.

97. wel ilome: see 32/47.

98. þeoudome, bondage: comp. ‘ic em in þine loue bende,’ OEH ii. 256/35.

101. sume siðe, at one time, in former days: comp. ‘giet sume siþe,’ Christ 318, yet one day.

102. fif wunden: comp. ‘Þat we moten to him cume · for his wundes fyue,’ OEM 57/696; ‘He make vs clene and bryhte | for his wundes fyue,’ id. 87/23; Minot i. 91.

103. þet is explained by the noun-clause, l. 104. wel ȝeorne and ‘ful ȝeorne,’ l. 145, appear to mean, very accurately, very well. Mätzner quotes in support, ‘Me awaiteð ou, þet wute ȝe ful ȝeorne, wiðuten,’ AR 174/15, which might be punctuated otherwise.

105. stille, silent: comp. 36/112.

106. þauh, and yet.

107. wreche inumen, taken vengeance: different is the sentiment in ‘Sunful ich am an wrecche. | Awrec þe nu on me leuedi. | Er deþ me honne fecche. | Do nim þe wreche ich am redi,’ OEM 162/42.

109. ȝet, further, longer.

111. uallen &c.: comp. 80/47.

112. hwon, since, seeing that. hine, household servant: comp. ‘Eyez merci, quar en mon vivant | Serroi vostre lige serjaunt,’ Lyric Poetry, ed. Wright, 56/13; ‘E sa duce mere e chere | Pitusement fist sa preiere, | K’il eussent de sun serf merci,’ Adgar 5/44; ‘Vne nuit, par auisiun, | Vint la Dame a cel son barun,’ id. 56/7; ‘swete leuedi of me þu reowe; ⁊ haue merci of þin knicht,’ OEH ii. 255/15; ‘ic crie þe merci, ic am þi mon,’ id. 256/23.

115. longeð: impersonal construction, with acc. of person: comp. ‘Loð is me þis eorðliche lif . ⁊ me longeð to criste,’ OEH ii. 149/29.

117. Comp. ‘Bi-sih to me lauedi briȝt. | Hwenne ich schal wende heonne,’ OEM 160/18; Anglia i. 391/45; and elsewhere.

120. kare, anxiety about; practically, fear: comp. 121/150.

123. þuruh, tightly. bunden: see 81/67.

125. Comp. ‘Dame! En uus sule ai ma fiance,’ Adgar 101/649; ‘Apres Deu ne ai autre refui,’ id. 106/818.

126. lune, rest, occurs only here in ME.; for the word in modern dialects see EDD s.v. lown, quiet, shelter, which is Northern and North Midland: the solitary instance recorded for Hampshire is probably a stray. Dan. luun; OWScand. logn: see Björkman, 250.

127. þet he me arine: a clause instead of an infinitive; comp. 126/325; analogous is 151/21.

129. so &c., so that whatever happens may ever be the best for me: comp. ‘And he þat haueþ þis rym iwryten . beo hwat he beo | God in þisse lyue . hyne lete wel iþeo,’ OEM 57/697.

132. to bote ȝeruh, ready to make amends: comp. ‘sunbote,’ 80/58; ‘deadbote,’ 119/75.

134. biseon to me: see 124/249.

136. swinc . . . sor: comp. 40/194.

140. spert: comp. 89/44.

141. to drawe: tear in pieces, destroy: comp. ‘ichot þe cherl is def, þe del hym to drawe,’ Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 177/34. Morris explains ‘entice me (to sin),’ referring to the glossary to Hampole, Prick of Conscience, where the word so explained is ‘drawe.’

142. wule: supply, to-drawen me.

144. Nor that any man that honoureth thee should have gladness: he resumes no mon ꝥ þe wurðeð; comp. 77/39, 138/12: similar are, ‘Þe wreche peoddare more noise he makeð to ȝeien his sope,’ AR 66/17: ‘ꝥ þe muð ne mei uor scheome þe liht eie spekeð hit,’ id. 60/6.

147. wite &c.: see 118/50.

148. dweolðe: see 134/93.

149. dest: supply witen ⁊ werien.

150. schalt can hardly mean, ‘shalt give,’ as Morris translates: some word such as delen has dropped out after me: comp. ‘to pore men dalt his dale,’ Sir Amadas 43. aueir dol, a fair, handsome, portion.

151. Comp. ‘De cest e d’el uus frai dreit, | Selunc ceo que uus sui forfait,’ Adgar 163/221.

153. lif . . . heale: comp. 132/6.

156. vort: see 72/179 note.

157, 8. Adgar has similar uses of lovers’ language: ‘Ne ia, Dame, uus ne larrai; | Kar espuse prise uus ai. | Ja ne larrai uostre amistie, | Ne uostre amur,’ Adgar 163/213, 162/178-85.

160. al so, even as; not ‘as much as,’ Morris.

163. The line lost after this may have been something like, and ek mine soule vor þine eadmodnesse.

164, 5. Comp. ‘Pur amur de la Dame chere, | Ki nus duinst la seinte Deu grace, | E Deu nus duinst ueer sa face,’ Adgar 40/98.

166. ureondmen, friends: a rare word, which occurs again in OEH ii. 183/23; CM 20242.

170. bi, concerning.

Metre: ... nó wiht | únder|stónden 31
wiht|únder

and góld|ringes 34
text unchanged: error for “rínges”?

But a line like vor heo neúer ne beoð séad . þi ueír to iséonne 30
text unchanged: errors for “néuer” and “uéir”?

or as an alexandrine, vor heo neú|er ne béoð
text unchanged: error for “néuer”?

6. ... Adgar 107/845; ‘Þu art
107/845; | ‘Þu

9. ... i.e. in very many ways
“i” in “i.e.” invisible

XIX. SAINT JULIANA

Manuscripts: i. Bodleian 34, Oxford (B). ii. Royal 17 A 27, British Museum (R): for descriptions see p. 492. In this life R is abbreviated, as Einenkel shows; the joints are often visible.

Edition: Cockayne, O., Þe Liflade of St. Juliana (parallel texts with translations). E. E. T. S., O. S. 51.

Literature: Backhaus, O., Über die Quelle der mittelenglischen Legende von der heiligen Juliane und ihr Verhältnis zu Cynewulfs Juliana, Halle, 1899; Einenkel, E., see p. 493; Stodte, H., see p. 493; Stratmann, F. H., ES iv. 94 (emendations).

Phonology: This has been sufficiently described at pp. 493-9: a few forms call for comment. (1) in R. a: þeauien 102 has å-umlaut. æ: awakenin 55 (āwacenian), pal 36, hauene 135, if descended from hæfen, have a for æ; ea appears in breas 118, feader 3. e: heolen 43, speoken 59, toteoren 63, weolen 54, seotel 114 have å- or u-umlaut of e; sutelin 98 descends from swutol with u-umlaut of i and loss of w as in suster; hatterliche 91 is elsewhere in SJ heatterliche, probably representing u-umlaut of *hator; comp. hatol, hetol; unweommet 28, 120, 133 shows rounding of e to [ö] between labials; bitild 36, OE. beteldan, comp. ‘tilden’ 82/110, ‘bitillen,’ L 27852, perhaps owes i for e to tilian; sulliche 48 comes from syllic. i: neomen 45 has å-umlaut of i. y: unduhti 18 represents dyhtig. ā: lechnunge 23 follows lǣcnian, the OE. noun is lācnung. ǣ₁ is e in lefdi 7, erndunge 8, unmeð 17, wreððen 78, wreððede 46, and a in wraðði 42 instead of the normal ea; the adverb eisweis 68 (also in SM 13/26, MS. R, but eanies weis, MS. B) corresponds to ǣniges weges. ǣ₂ is exceptionally ea in forreadeð 96, reade 55; leoten 63 is imitative of words with umlaut like beoren, eoten (Bonner Beiträge, xv. 128). ea before r + cons. is a in harmen 107; the i-umlaut is e in merrið 104, sumchere 21 (cierr): the i-umlaut of ea before l + cons. is absent in afal 137, which is in form āfeallan, fall, in meaning āfiellan, fell; for healden 118 see 359/7. eo before r + cons. is a in darc 122, perhaps the earliest instance of this spelling; the i-umlaut is seen in iȝirnd 34, firsin 86 (but see Bülbring, § 187 anm. on Anglian firr). For ȝeouen see 359/34; geond is ȝont 35. ēa is e in les 75, but lease 135, e in ȝet 93 descends from gēt beside the normal gēat; the adverb gēara is ȝare 83. The i-umlaut of ēo is seen in derure 90; strupen 91 descends from *strȳpan; hei[e]nde 17, as if from *hegan; the Anglian form is hēan. a + g: for dreihen 122, see 360/13. æ + g: in fehere 104 (fægerra) the spirant is retained; comp. ‘feȝerest,’ L 29485, but feire 53. e + g final: tintreg is tintreow 98. sy 54, with y written for i, represents sige; ‘syge’ in L 17409. ȳ + g: druifot 137, with ui for long u. ea + h: waxen 55, iseh 22. eo + h: mix 96 (Anglian). ēo + g: lihinde 7.

duheðe 18 represents duguð: e is added in fuheles 63, liðeri 92: m is lost in limel 67 (lim mǣlum), f in leowinde 95 (lēofwende); t occurs often for final d, after mit for mid or miþ, þin becomes tin 52. For the stop c, ch appears to be written in senchtest 137. The loss of g in list 43 is OE. (līst for ligst). h is added in selhðe 54; nest 129 is Anglian nēst, WS. nīehst: es 100 has lost initial h, so im in ichim 85.

(2) in B. Many of those noticed in R occur in B also; other forms in B only are, chearre 166 (cierran), see 359/4: neolechin 43 represents a by-form nēolǣcan, while nehlechen R 31 comes from the normal nēahlǣcan: lattow 170 is OE. lāttēow. ch in wlech 151 (wlæc) is due to the influence of wlæce (Björkman, 148).

Accidence: (1) of R. were 79 has added e in the nom. cun s. d. 11 is exceptionally without inflection, comp. cunne 19. fetles 97 is a contracted plural; OE. fǣtels, pl. fǣtelsas, occasionally fǣtels. aldrene 14, dahene 117 are weak pl. gen. The dual pronoun occurs in inc pl. d. 107. urne 119 is pt. s. subj. from irnan. The contracted þrof 59, the prepositions ine 16, bimong 132, for which see 398/97, are characteristic of the group.

(2) Of B. burhene 72, folkene 57 are possibly weak pl. genitives, like aldrene, dahene above, but they are more probably adjectives formed on the analogy of words in -en, like cristen, from nouns. For leoflukest 82, see 125/270.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are bistaðet bisteaðet, crokes, derf, feolahes, lahe, lufte, liðin, menske; probably ihondsald, lustnin, truste; possibly ȝeien, hauene, keiser: in R only, baðen, derfliche; possibly trukeneð: in B only, feolahscipe, ilated, menskin, witere. French are ciclatun, furneise, leuns liuns, maumez mawmez, misspelt mawmex 144/97, purpre, rente, seinte: in R only, cumseð (commencer), serui, tur (MS. reading 140/36), uie: in B only, cendals, eoli.

Dialect: See p. 503.

Introduction: For style and authorship see pp. 504-6. The author states, 139/7, that he translated from a Latin source. The Life of S. Juliana, printed in Acta Sanctorum under Feb. 16th, is pronounced by Backhaus not to be the immediate source of SJ, because when compared with it the English shows considerable omissions, additions, and divergences. Yet SJ stands in about the same relationship to that Latin text as SK does to what is generally regarded as its original and as Sawles Warde does to the treatise of Hugh of S. Victor (p. 493). The author of these pieces is no mere translator, but an adapter who weaves other matter into his free imitation of his originals. He was apparently unacquainted with Cynewulf’s Juliana. Grau (Morsbachs Studien, xxxi. 157) shows that the earlier writer also introduces ideas into his poem which had been used by him in other works.

S. Juliana never attained in England to the popularity of her associates, S. Katherine and S. Margaret, but there is another life in rhymed septenaries printed as an appendix to Cockayne’s edition of SJ from MS. Ashmole, no. 43 (c. 1310), and a third in the Scottish Legendary, ascribed by the editor to Barbour, the source of which is the Aurea Legenda; it is printed in Barbour’s Legendensammlung, ed. Horstmann, ii. 190.

The references are to B, unless R is prefixed.

3. feader . . . of frumscheft: OE. ‘fæder frumsceafta,’ Christ, 472.

5. glideð, proceeds: comp. ‘þe hali gast · ꝥ glit of inc baðen,’ SM 21/33; ‘⁊ te hali gast, hare beire luue, | þe lihteð of ham baðe,’ SK 1772. unagin: found here only; it appears to mean, without beginning: OE. unāgunnen with that meaning occurs in ‘on unagunnenre Godcundnysse and on ongunnenre menniscnysse,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 292/16: perhaps the ME. form has been influenced by angin, beginning. euch godes ful, full of every good: contrast ‘euches cunnes gode,’ 141/58.

6. lideð ⁊ lusteð: comp. ‘Lusteð me . . . ⁊ liðeð ane hwile,’ SJ 73/14; ‘God make alle soon blithe, | Who so wil lystne and lithe,’ K. Alisaunder 5750.

8. wið þon þat, in order that.

R 7. lif hali, holy of lif: comp. ‘to summe oðre lif-holie monne,’ AR 346/4; OEH ii. 51/10, 133/10.

9. lihnide is probably a miswriting of lihinde as in R, lying, deceptive: ME. lihen, OE. lēogan, but it is possibly a pp. of ME. lihnen, OE. līgnian, to deny. eche: supply lif.

11. of munne, commemorate: usually transitive in this sense as, ‘þis meiden þe we munnid wes marherete ihaten,’ SM 2/13, but comp. ‘His deope wounden bledeth fast, | Of hem we ohte munne,’ Lyric Poetry, ed. Wright, 112/22.

12. i Nichomedese burh: ‘in civitate Nicomedia’: the adjectival termination is Anglo-French -eis as in Hispaneis, L. Hispanensis: the scribe has ‘Nichomedesse,’ 77/9: ‘iþe Nomecuðe burh Nicomede inempnet,’ 79/9. In Sammlung AE. Legenden, ed. Horstmann, 51/628, Ianuesse means Genoa; Arimminence 20/784, Rimini; Iponence, 79/1046, Hippo.

13. heascede, insulted: comp. OE. hyscan.

R 12. of—deaðe, more than any other heathen he drew cruelly to death those that were Christians: ham represents the real object, ‘þeo ꝥ cristene weren’: see 136/144: the Latin has, ‘qui et ipse erat persecutor Christianorum.’

15. as þeo ꝥ, as being one to whom: for as, see 128/1; for ꝥ = to whom, 46/292. ilenet: the ME. texts often confuse lǣnen and lēven, to permit.

17. schupte: see 2/2. wealdeð: comp. 34/84; ‘weldinde ⁊ wissinde | alle worldliche þing,’ SK 933, 1780; L 5279.

R 16. redegunge (= redeȝunge) appears to be pres. part. of ME. rǣdien, to discourse (119/81); for ȝ, comp. ‘heriȝinge,’ OEH i. 5/1. But it is possibly a miswriting of ‘redunge’ as in B, which corresponds to L. lectio.

19. Maximien: see 128/1 note.

20. heriende ⁊ heiende: a favourite phrase with this writer: comp. 149/180; SJ 41/5, 55/10; SK 459, 1041.

R 18. unduhti duheðe, ill-spent splendour; because used for the glorification of idols: probably the original reading. In Specimens translated ‘unworthy body of retainers.’

23. riche of rente, with a large income. ȝunge mon of ȝeres: see 129/23.

24. wel, on good terms: comp. 138/21.

25. iunne, bestowed; generally said of conferring a favour, but ‘þe þe ufel unnen,’ L 28117, means, who inflicted harm on thee.

27. utnumne feire, exceptional beauty: see 133/30; but R 22 means exceptionally beautiful and charming: comp. 123/209; ‘se unimete feier,’ 124/239.

28. in wið in: see 130/57.

30. lechnunge, healing, medicine: a rare word, found in the Ureisun of God Almihti, OEH i. 202/16.

31. wið ute longe steuene, ‘without a long tale,’ Brock. But it seems preferable to connect the noun with OE. stefn, time, giving the sense, without long delay, much the same as ‘efter lutle stounde’: the repetition is quite in the manner of the writer; comp. ‘doð hire biliue to deað buten abade,’ SJ 73/3; ‘Anan þrefter sone com a seli wummon,’ id. 77/9.

R 25. For omission of the subject ha, see 6/18. hire unwilles, to her sorrow, an adverbial genitive: unwil is the opposite of ‘wil,’ joy, pleasure, 133/62. A similar adv. phrase is hire unwil in 141/36; comp. ‘min unwil hit is; to don al ꝥ ti wil is,’ SM 13/3. For the construction see 10/167, and 165/263.

37. truked = trukeð from trukien is the usual form; see 72/183: the derivative trukeneð R 26 appears to be quite isolated.

38. daheðes is apparently genitive of *daheð, daȝeð, noun derivative of ME. daȝien, to dawn, used adverbially, at dawn. In R 27 euch deis dei means at daylight (dawn) of each day: it is apparently without parallel. The Latin has ‘per singulos dies.’

39. reowfule reames: see 130/55. wissede, would direct: pt. subjunctive.

R 30. summes weis, some while, as at 124/236, corresponding to summe hwile in B.

42. lihten se lahe, descend so far: comp. 176/20, 199/79, 206/306; ‘loke þenne her bi hwa se of hire maidenhad lihteð in to wedlac; bi hu moni degrez ha falleð duneward,’ HM 23/24; ‘liht to ure lare,’ SK 1011.

44. hehest i Rome: comp. 128/2. heh reue: ‘praefectus.’

46. lette: supply as subject, Keiser.

R 35. ⁊ te riche riden in, and to ride in his domain: an addition necessitated by the mistake in ‘tur.’ tuhen: the subject heo is to be supplied.

47. ouertild, canopied.

48. purpres ⁊ pelles, purple cloths and rich stuffs: a frequent combination for gorgeous clothing: comp. ‘ischrud ⁊ iprud ba wið pel ⁊ wið purpre,’ SK 1449; here used of a canopy. ciclatuns: see 133/51. cendals: sendal is a thin silken stuff, mostly red.

49. As þe ꝥ: comp. 128/1.

50. rihten ⁊ to readen: comp. 121/141; 147/158.

54. iswechte is explained in Specimens as pp. wearied, descending from OE. geswenct, geswenced, pp. of geswencan: the disappearance of n would be difficult to account for; it might be due to the analogy of þencan: in any case the word is for iswecht + te, thyself. wreaðe &c.: see 34/86.

56. leauen þe lahen: comp. ‘ant leaue alle þe lahen ꝥ tu list inne,’ SJ 24/3.

57. folkene froure: comp. OE. frōfor-gāst; ‘folkes froure’ (of the B. V. M.), OEH ii. 255/2; ‘Vroure ⁊ hele folkes fader heouenliche drichte,’ id. 258/5; ‘þe hali gast moncunne froure,’ SM 18/18; ‘folkes feader,’ 149/173, 19/33; ‘froure moncunnes,’ L 9075. folkene as gen. pl. appears to be quite isolated; the usual ME. form is folce, OE. folca.

58. igret, magnified: OE. grēatian: ‘greaten’ is in AR 128/1.

59. windi of, turned away from, done with: comp. ‘windi (wundi R) of wisdom,’ devoid of wisdom, SK 376. Comp. MHG. wendic, wendec.

R 47. droh him, put him off, like L. trahere: apparently without parallel in this meaning.

61. Efter ꝥ, notwithstanding the fact that. In R, it means practically, when.

63. him: see 13/34 note.

64. to wraðer heale, to perverse fortune: see 130/58, and comp. 145/109; L 29556; ‘to ufele hele wes ic iboren,’ OEH i. 33/24; ‘Godere hele þu hit scalt iseon,’ id. 57/44; ‘to goderheale þin he hit þoleð,’ HM 29/10.

67. For ‘fon on,’ to handle a matter, to proceed, comp. 143/85, 97; 157/135; ‘⁊ he bigon to fon on | þisses weis towart hire,’ SK 1863. If the punctuation of the MS. goes for anything, the second on is an otiose repetition of the first, and the meaning is, proceeded gently at first to try if &c., as at l. 85. Such repetitions are not uncommon in this group: comp. 126/317; ‘Hef up forði, mid treowe bileaue ⁊ mid herdie, up þine þreo uingres,’ AR 290/29; ‘sitteð al stille, ꝥ hwon he parted urom ou, ꝥ he ne cunne ower god,’ id. 64/20. But in Specimens on to lokin are connected, proceeded at first ‘fairly (= kindly) to look upon her.’

69. sy . . . selhðe: comp. 147/157; SJ 24/13; ‘isi ant iselhðe,’ SM 23/13. sy: OE. sige, victory; in this phrase it must mean something like, prosperity. weolen &c.: comp. 121/161.

70. awakenen: see 54/24.

R 55. inoh, fully, quite: see 62/41.

71. refschipe: ‘praefectura’: at 128/4, the imperial dignity.

72. liggeð: see 128/10.

73. luuien ⁊ leuen: a stock phrase of this group: comp. 142/66, 145/104; ‘ileueð ⁊ luuieð,’ AR 410/11; also 180/135, 194/590.

R 57. as þeo þat: see 128/1.

75. ich—is: comp. 90/73.

76. for, before: I call to witness Apollo; comp. 145/101: somewhat different is ‘for mi lif,’ 145/106, upon my life, staking my life on the fulfilment of my promise.

78. haldest her on, perseverest in this determination; comp. ‘hald hardiliche | on ꝥ tu hauest bigunnen,’ SK 677; ‘ȝif me hit halt eure forþ in on,’ ON 356.

79. toluken &c.: comp. ‘⁊ leoten toluken þi flesch | þe fuheles of þe lufte,’ SK 2092; ‘þer ase wilde deor limmel to luken ham,’ SJ 79/5; 34/83.

81. aȝein þe, in reply to thee, answering thy oath by Apollo and Diana: the stop after aȝein is to be disregarded. ich swerie &c., I call Christ to witness: the acc. after swerien is perhaps without a parallel, but it gives a sense somewhat different from that which would be gained by the insertion of bi or to.

83. i leitinde leie, in flashing flame: comp. ‘for al þe cwarterne, of his cume | leitede o leie,’ SK 671; ‘⁊ i þe reade leie, | ⁊ i þe leitinde fur,’ id. 1360; ‘⁊ leitinde al on leie,’ id. 1651. The full stop after leie and the following capital obscure the structure of the sentence—though I be burnt alive, I will not &c.

84. þe, dat.: comp. ‘buhð him ase he bit,’ AR 288/24; ‘all we sal him bu,’ CM 16712; ‘þe lauerdes leofmon ꝥ (= to whom) alle kinges buheð,’ HM 5/24. her onont, as regards this matter. Þreate &c.: see 34/86. buhe ne beien: comp. 132/3; SJ 27/10, 43/9; ‘buhsume ⁊ beisume,’ SK 1787.

86. leoftede is translated in Specimens, ‘flattered,’ and derived from OE. lyfettan, which is hardly possible: leotede luueliche, made affectionate gestures, behaved affectionately, would give a known combination: comp. ‘wið luueliche lates,’ SM 14/4; ‘ȝif þu makest ei semblaunt, oðer eni luue lates touward unðeauwes,’ AR 90/17; ‘mid leofliche læten,’ L 19396; 110/273, but the weak forms of læten are not elsewhere found before the fifteenth century.

88. wið þerean ꝥ is explained in Specimens as for wið ꝥ þerean, the last word being taken with wenden as, in respect of that matter; but that seems very improbable, though the order of words is often strange enough in this piece. Stratmann suggested that þerean is a mistake for þen, which does not account for the corrupt form. Possibly the scribe had before him, wið þē (= þen) ane ꝥ, on the sole condition that: see 72/192 note. wið ꝥ in R 70 means, on condition that.

89. do, join.

91. To soðe: see 90/73.

92. Vnwurð, despicable: see 26/258.

R 75. ꝥ . . . to, to whom: see 1/3.

95. him: dat. with lihen; acc. with leauen: comp. for the former, 29/2, 191/474; ‘Iff iosephus ne legeð me,’ GE 1281: the combination is uncommon. weole &c.: see 121/161.

96. wa . . . wontreaðe: comp. ‘wurðe him wurst of wa ⁊ of wontreaðe,’ SJ 27/12; ‘hauest ifunden weane þrin ⁊ wondraðe riue,’ HM 9/4; AR 156/4. See also 58/76.

R 77. wa . . . wunne: the repetition of the latter word is probably a scribe’s mistake for weane: comp. ‘ah al þe weane | ⁊ te wa wente,’ SK 1166, 2104.

R 79. Me: a word characteristic of the Katherine-group and frequent in AR, where it has been misunderstood by Morton: it wavers between conjunction and interjection, ‘well! but,’ and often introduces a question which offers an objection, or applies what has been said, like, ‘well then’: comp. AR 310/17; SK 325, 589; SM 6/19, 7/22. Its origin is obscure; if another guess may be hazarded, it is perhaps Anglo-French mes (F. mais, L. magis), which was used in contemporary French in much the same way.

98. ꝥ . . . to, to whom.

99. se forð, so far: comp. ‘ert ibrouht so uorð ouer,’ AR 294/7; ‘to uorð,’ too far, id. 294/14: see also 64/85. letest lutel of: see 44/260.

100. ꝥ ich wite, so far as I know.

103. lette lif: see 118/28.

104. ꝥ me of þuncheð: see 30/10. luuie . . . leue: see 143/73.

105. as: see 121/1; similarly 145/108.

106. laðin &c., his love shall be hateful to thee: so, ‘ꝥ te schal laði þi lif,’ HM 9/2.

108. as on ernesse, as a foretaste: probably the first occurrence of ernes. besmen: so, ‘beateð hire bare bodi wið bittre besmen,’ SM 5/19; ‘mid besman swingan,’ Orosius 68/11. Before ꝥ something like, ꝥ þe wule of þunchen, has dropped out. As the reading of R, which means, that it shall turn to misfortune that you were woman, is plainly an attempt to mend a faulty original, it may be concluded that the omission belongs to an earlier stage of the transmission. For to wraðerheale see 141/64.

111. Here the scribe became confused: his original had probably, ꝥ ti wil is wurch þu, but he began with wur, and erasing it forgot to add it at the end. Then he omitted het before swiðe, and tried to mend matters by changing leggen into leggeð, but forgot strupen. bliðeliche, gladly, is strange.

113. liðeri, should be in a lather: comp. ‘ꝥ hire leofliche lich | liðerede al o blode,’ SK 1542; ‘leiden swa luðerliche on hire leofliche lich; ꝥ hit . . . liðerede o blode,’ SM 5/20.

115. beaten &c.: see 34/86.

118. fetles, vessels, i.e. dwellings; comp. 131/83.

119. heien ne herien: see 139/20. teone ne tintreohe: comp. ‘ne schal þe na teone | ne tintreohe trukien,’ SK 402, 623, 1503, 1795. With timbrin comp. ‘to timber trey and tene,’ Minot vi. 2 note.

R 101. allescunnes: see 81/80 note.

120. sutelin, be made plain: comp. ‘isuteleð ⁊ ischeawed,’ AR 154/2; ‘sutel ⁊ eðcene,’ id. 154/22; ‘for sutel is ⁊ eðsene,’ SK 381.

125. þeauien ⁊ þolien, permit and suffer: comp. ‘þauieð ant þolieð,’ SM 15/19; ‘þatt Godd ne þole nohht | Ne þafe,’ Orm i. 188/5456. mucli: comp. ‘þi lauerd godd it þoleð him to muccli þi mede,’ HM 47/16. muchelin, R 102, is a form characteristic of the group. mede . . . murhðe: comp. 147/157; ‘mi murhðe ⁊ mi mede,’ SK 2350.

126. eauer se goes with mare.

128. drehen . . . derf: for the combination, characteristic of the group, comp. ‘ꝥ hit ne sem . . . ꝥ ich derf drehe,’ SM 5/31; ‘abeore bliðeliche þe derf ꝥ tu drehest,’ HM 17/31; ‘hwen ha schulen | þe derf of deað drehen,’ SK 2392; ‘to deaðe | deruest þing to drehen,’ id. 2100.

R 106. willes, spontaneously: so, ‘willes ⁊ woldes,’ AR 6/26; ‘willes wiðuten neode,’ id. 242/19; ‘willes ⁊ waldes,’ HM 27/2.

131. Þet, because.

134. bicumen, arrive, come: comp. 175/434.

135-7. wei—forð is a parenthesis (alas for your fates that ye were born in the world and brought forth), and so is awei—weren in R 111; comp. ‘Wa me þære wyrde, pæt min wynn alæg,’ Psalter (Thorpe) 373/5. For se, which can only mean so, to must be substituted, and if ȝe schule is retained, it must be regarded as a mere repetition of the preceding ‘ȝe schulen,’ due to the parenthesis. to wraðer heale in R 111 goes with sinken; in B its position is ambiguous: probably in the original it belonged to the parenthesis, and the right order in R is, to wraðer heale, sinken ow: for the reflexive, see 13/34 note. For sar . . . sorhe see 52/374.

141. ehsihðe: a word characteristic of the group: comp. SM 17/27; SK 2315; ‘eihsihðe,’ OEH i. 209/28. In the passage here omitted, Eleusius tries to win her over, but neither suasion nor scourging shake her resolution.

142. festnin &c.: comp. ‘to festnin ham | in treowe bileaue,’ SK 1985; 180/143.

143. isoðe bileaue: see 89/28: R 116 without it gives a poor sense. don . . . ut of dahene, put out of life: the expression is common: comp. ‘þat we haue done him of daghe,’ CM 4168.

144. As brune is everywhere else a noun (see 119/83), of must have fallen out after it here. wallinde bres: comp. 60/103.

145. healden, pour, as at 72/197. Brock translates, ‘hold.’

148. þer . . . in, in which. The writer had in mind the second lection in the Breviary for the feast of S. John ante Portam Latinam (May 6th), ‘in olei ferventis dolium missus: ex quo tamen divina se protegente gratia tantum liber exiit a dolore corporis: quantum alienus erat a corruptione carnis,’ York Breviary, ii. 277.

149. liues lauerd: OE. līf-frēa; ‘auctorem vitae,’ Acts iii. 15. him, for himself.

151. wod þa, then mad; the text seems defective. With R 121, comp. ‘to weden ⁊ to wurðen | ut of his ahne witte,’ SK 1257; 130/52.

157. murhðe . . . mede: comp. 145/125. sy . . . selhðe: comp. 143/69. ꝥ . . . efter, after whom.

158. al, completely, qualifies bisteaðet ⁊ bistonden, circumstanced and beset; a combination characteristic of the group: comp. ‘ich iseo me . . . bistaðed ant bistonden as lomb mit wed wulues,’ SM 3/24; AR 264/24. Riht . . . read: comp. 121/141.

161. nestfalde, nearest: apparently here only. NED compares OE. nēahfeald.

162. mine—hearmen: ‘et inimici hominis domestici eius,’ Mic. vii. 6, S. Matt. x. 36. inhine does not occur elsewhere, but its meaning, ‘household servant,’ is assured by the Latin imitated. In R 130 heanen makes no sense, perhaps heanende is to be read.

163. anes: see 74/207 note.

164. wil cweme apparently answers to OE. wel-gecwēme, which is quoted in B-T. as a gloss on beneplacitus in Spelman’s Psalter cxviii. 108, cxlvi. 12.

165. ilated se luðere, so wickedly mannered, behaved. ilated is a new formation from lat, usually pl. lates, looks, manners: see 129/35. In Specimens translated, ‘visaged so horribly.’

167. Al, if not a mistake for Als, goes with ham.

168. wid, against: see 48/299 note.

169. wite . . . were: comp. 118/50 note. witere, make wise, teach. In R 134, ant witen is to be altered into ant were.

170. liues lattow, life’s guide: OE. lātþēow, lāttēow.

171. hauene of heale: ‘salutis portum,’ see 5/12 note. In R 135 with lestinde, understand lif.

173. ⁊ tu, thou too, even so do thou &c. folkes feader: see 141/57.

174. to drif, drive away; usually means, drive asunder, dispel.

176. ȝet goes with iseon.

177. schrenchen ⁊ schunchen, deceive and terrify: an uncommon combination. of, out of, from: comp. ‘wrenchen sum rihtwis of þe weie,’ SJ 43/5.

178. wið, see 82/118, 117/5.

179. crefti crokes: see 129/42. crechen, scratch; if it be a form of cracchen: in NED said to be for crochen, catch with hooks or claws, from F. crocher: comp. ‘crefti crokes,’ 129/42; ‘crokinde creftes,’ 131/87.

180. iheiet ⁊ iheret: comp. 138/17.

Edition: ... E. E. T. S., O. S. 51.
E.E.T.S., O.S.

Phonology: ... u-umlaut of i
i misprinted as italic instead of bold

neomen 45 has å-umlaut of i
a-umlaut

ǣ₁ is e in lefdi 7
æ₁

Anglian nēst, WS. nīehst
W.S.

XX. THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE

Manuscripts: i. Jesus College, Oxford, E 29 (J); see p. 285. ii. Cotton Caligula A 9, British Museum (C); see p. 450. They are copies of a common exemplar X, which was probably taken directly from the poet’s original. X was written by two scribes; the work of the first is represented in ll. 1-353 of the present selection; that of the second in ll. 354-437; the former was accustomed to French scribal methods. The writer of C was a mechanical copyist and not at home in English, consequently he reproduces X with tolerable accuracy. The scribe of J was more independent (see p. 293).

Facsimile: Of J. The Owl and the Nightingale, ed. J. E. Wells.

Editions: Stevenson, J., Roxburghe Club, London, 1838; Wright, T., Percy Society, no. xxxix, London, 1843 (text of C); Stratmann, F. H., Krefeld, 1868 (critical edition); *Wells, J. E., Boston, 1907 (parallel texts with notes); Gadow, W., Palaestra, no. lxv, Berlin, 1909 (text of C with variants of J).

Literature: Borsch, J., Ueber Metrik und Poetik der altenglischen Dichtung The Owl and the Nightingale, Münster, 1883; *Breier, W., Eule und Nachtigall, Halle, 1910, completed in Morsbachs Studien, no. xxxix, Halle, 1910; ES xlii. 306, 408; Ebisch, W., Zur Syntax des Verbs im altengl. Gedicht Eule und Nachtigall, Leipzig, 1905; Gadow, W., Eule und Nachtigall, Berlin, 1907 (completed in edition as above); Kenyon, J. S., Journal of English and Germanic Philology, xii. 572-92; Koch, J., Anglia, Beiblatt, xxi. 227-40; Noelle, H., Die Sprache des altengl. Gedichts von der Eule und Nachtigall, Göttingen, 1870; Sherman, L. A., A Grammatical Analysis of the OE. Poem The Owl and the Nightingale, Transactions of the American Philological Association, vi. 1875. Wells, J., Anglia, xxxiii. 252-69; Modern Language Notes, xxv. 108, xxvi. 139-41.

Phonology: (1) of C. The spellings of (a) ll. 1-353 and (b) ll. 354-437 are distinguished, when they show a characteristic difference. Significant rhymes are recorded. Oral a is a, fare 422, tale 3; a before nasals wavers between a (10 times) and o (14), can 126, vram 119, man 334, mani 399, þan 22, 24, þane 39, wanne 308, bigon 13, con 199, from 154, monnes 254, moni 355, nome 405, þonkes 70, won 240, wone 243, wonne 38, exceptionally þenne (þænne); a before lengthening groups is o, honde 400, onde 297, longe 45, tonge 112, but andsuare 105, answare 55, 277; and is and 4, an 7 &c.; man, indefinite, me 32; ferden 432 r. w. uerde, descends from fēran. æ is regularly a, bare 56, 106 r. w. answare, glad 312, hadde 275 r. w. iladde, smal 73 r. w. al. e is e, bet 21, hen 291; before lengthening groups, ende 386, felde 357: (a) suich 283, suiche 134 is from a form in i, (b) swucche 354, swuch 374 from one in y: a diphthong has developed in imeind 18, 306 (gemenged, comp. 451/25). i is i, bile 79, chirche 339, is 388 r. w. wis, (a) wile 141 r. w. sckile; before lengthening groups, bringe 311, linde 393, but wsome (= ysome) 136, (b) wulle 373, nulleþ 407, wuste 10 r. w. custe, neltu 106 (nelt), wolcumeð 318, with o written in this text for u from e by labial influence, comp. wulcume L 8528 &c., grulde 98 (*gryllan). o is o, bodi 73, horne 234, word 45, wolde 128, nolde 115, but walde 370 r. w. scholde; þane 414 is LWS. þane, wan 334, hwan: on prep. is reduced to an 239 and often to a 20 &c. œ, i-umlaut of o, still lingers in seorhe ON 1599. u is u, cumeþ 298, luueþ 188, wunest 254, but o in lo`u´ue, where `u´ was possibly meant as a correction of o, ouerkome 386, wode 322 r. w. rude, woning 403, in which o is associated with m, n, w; u before lengthening groups is u, dumb 294, tunge 194, but tonge r. w. iþrunge. y is u, kume 314 (perhaps with [u] from cuman), murie 261, vuele 63, stude 410 (styde) r. w. mide, muchel 404, muche 413 (mycel); before lengthening groups, cunde 88, hurne 14; but unrounded in þincþ 430, þincþe 46, þinche 262, wirche 340; wrchen 286 is probably French writing for wurchen.

ā is regularly o, bore 286, hoten 192, swo 76, 381, so 52, 289, 415, o 249, 331, þos 95, but a 45, 104, 112, an 4, 80, Portesham 434, swa ON 1577, wa 425, þeos 413 (þās); before two consonants o, wostu 334, but axest 325, 329, hattest 191. ǣ₁ is regularly e, brede 130, ledeþ 216, sprede 315 r. w. mede, þen 386, but þare 28 &c., þan 156 (3); before two consonants e, fleshe 83, ileste 257, meshe 84 (*mǣscan), neuer 60, but iladde 276, wranne 360. ǣ₁ is elsewhere sometimes ea, eauer ON 922, deale ON 954, bileaue ON 1688. ǣ₂ is also e, forlete 36, rede 425; before two consonants, oferd 277, but a in lat 194 (4), lateþ 372 (3), ofdrad 387, þar 16 &c., þareafter 271, þareuore 210, whar 64, war 392, uareuore 203, 333, these pronominal forms probably come from shortened ǣ: before two consonants, fnast 44, raddest 115, misraddest 116. ē is e, breme 158, kene 212; before two consonants, dest 49, 237 r. w. preost, spedde 435, but dost 307, dostu 174, 289, doþ 112, 238 with o from the plural. ī is i, wile 155, pipe 22, suiþe ON 376; before two consonants, þriste 127 r. w. liste, wisdom 399, but (a) suþe 2, 12, 111 from swȳþe with absorption of w, comp. such from swuch. ō is o, brode 93, ilome 49, noþeles 105, but neoþeles 357 (15 times in Layamon, see 452/8); before two consonants, blostme 315, softe 6. ū is u, kuþe 332, tukest 63, hule 4 &c., but houle 428, a French writing. ȳ is u, hud 120, lutle 356, þuuele 214 r. w. foȝle, but litle 419, þe 19, 34, 401, forþe 69, vorþi 65, hwi 407, whi 106, wi 174 (hwī).

ea before r + cons. is a, areȝ 285, ȝare 171 r. w. aiware, hardeliche 280, þaref 146, but eardingstowe 28; the i-umlaut before a lengthening group is e in uerde 433 r. w. ferden: cierm is chirme 221 (see Bülb. 187 anm.) but bichermet 215. ea before l + cons. is a, al 8 and the numerous forms of eall, hale 2 r. w. dale, schaltu 165; before lengthening groups o, which descends from Anglian unbroken lengthened a, as in Layamon 452/15, bold 233 (3), boldeliche 279, biholde 71, holde 3 (4), wolde 367, but once belde 358: without umlaut are falt 37, halt 32. eo before r + cons. is o, for 328, vorre 243, horte 37, 43, rorde 227; before a lengthening group, ilorned 172; but daisterre 244 r. w. vorre: forbernest 297 is from bærnan; wyr words are worse 219 r. w. mershe, worste 10, worþ 283, wrs 34, elsewhere wurs ON 793, wrþ 256, unwrþ 255, elsewhere wurþ ON 769. eo before l + cons. is seen in sulue 69. The u-umlaut of a is wanting in hauekes 207 (3). eo, u-umlaut of e gives houene 335, 346 r. w. steuene, 350. eo, å-umlaut of e is seen in feole 415, but uele 20, and fale 365, auale 410 (feala). eo, u- and å-umlaut of i is o (for eo) in honne 66 r. w. kunne, hore 216 &c., noþerward 100, soþþe 240, but (b) heore 418. ea after palatals is a, schal 143, ȝaf 55, 105, aȝaf 95, before nasal, schame 50 (3), but schome 123. ie after g is e, biȝete 344, uorȝete 343, underȝete 124, ȝeueþ 419, but ȝiueþ 416, ȝiue 410. ie after sc is i in schille 98, 364, e in schelde 356 r. w. felde. gef, EWS. gief is ȝif 51 &c., ȝef 429. eo after sc is o, scholde 371 r. w. walde, sholdest 54, short 73, but Anglian schulde 390 r. w. wule. eom is Angl. am 126, 212, nam 387, heom, hom 62, 94.

ēa is regularly e, blete 57, dreme 230; before two consonants, cheste 133 r. w. unwerste, but earen 254, unneaþe ON 1605, dreim 21 (a scribal error). The i-umlaut is e, grettre 74, ȝeme 345, ihere 180 r. w. fere, iherde 2, ihert 406, but ihire 228. ēo is (a) o, a French writing, blo 108, 319, bon 198, 342, bo 107 (9), boþ 75 (4), flo 33 (4), flon 106, floþ 214, ho 19 (13), hom 353, iso 243, isoþ 302, lof 159 (3), oftoned 190, so 34, swore 73, tone 50, prostes 351, þo 26, 155, þos 41 (4), holde 12, hold 100, athold 270, bihold 30, but the corrector has added e in preost 238 r. w. dest, weode 236; (b) eo, beo, beoþ 378, 418, heo 360 (9), heom 407, 408, but ho 368. The i-umlaut is seen in atfliþ 37 (Angl. flīþ), þuster 154 (3). gesīene is isene 122, 211 r. w. kene; gīet, ȝet 225. ēo from ō after g is o in ȝomere 293 r. w. sumere, ēa from ā after sc, e in schede 153.

a + g is aȝ, draȝe 209. æ + g is ai, dai 89 &c., vaire 15 &c., mai 141 (4), fawre 138, miswritten for fayre, but ei in seide 9, 289, 424, 265 r. w. rede, 325 r. w. dede, rhymes which indicate sede 33, 173 representing sǣde as the original form, so ised 273 r. w. red is gesǣd. e + g is ei, aȝein 431, pleie 169, wei 224, under this head come seist 50 (4) from segst, seiþ 132 from segð, seie 173 from sege: aȝen 7, 314 is agēn, snailes 87, snægl. i + h is iȝ, adiȝte 242, wiȝt 312, or ih, diht 399; for iht, ist is written in mist 78: final ig is i, bodi 73. o + g is oȝ, itoȝen 368. u + g is uȝ, fuȝele 64 r. w. vuele, but the spirant has been absorbed in fuelkunne 65; foȝle 213 r. w. þuuele, is a French spelling. y + h is unrounded in hiȝte 208, hiȝteþ 314. ā + g is oȝ, oȝe 195, þroȝe 196. ǣ₁ + g is ei in eiþer 9, 141, but aiþer 7, aiware 172. ǣ₂ + g is seen in iseȝe 303. ō + g is oȝ, boȝe 15, woȝe 120. ō + h is oȝ, broȝte 150, noȝt 58 (nōht), roȝte 305, þoȝte 269, but oh in brohte 369. u + h is uȝ, þuȝte 21, ofþuȝte 275. ea + h is eȝ, iseȝ 29, ouerseȝ 30; the i-umlaut is iȝ, miȝt 64, 177, miȝte 42, 411, miȝtest 192, niȝt 89, but mihte 392. eo + ht, ariȝt 278, briȝter 108, viȝte 128, riȝt 76, riȝte 120 r. w. liȝte 398, but riht 379, unrihtfulnesse 385; bituxen 390 represents WS. betux: the i-umlaut gives isiþ 285, but isoþ 302 without umlaut. ēa + g, h is (a) eȝe 304 r. w. iseȝe, neȝ 44, þeȝ 48, but þoȝ 220, (b) þeg 367, þah 422. ēo + h is (a) iȝ, liȝte 119 r. w. riȝte, (b) ih, lihtlich 402, 417; the i-umlaut is seen in fliȝst 89, 183, fliȝt 132, 224, atfliþ 37: dīegel is diȝele 2. ā + w is ow, crowe 220, croweþ 251, snov 308, asnowe 291, owel 80 (*āwul), but nawt 383; clawe 109, 110 is probably clawe. ī + w, howe 108 (Anglian hēow). ō + w, bigrowe 27, -stowe 28, but nouþer 375 (nōwþer). ēa + w, gleu 149, unþeu 150, but sewi 107. ēo + w, eu 436, ower 379, tro d. 316, representing occasional dat. trēo.

In bisemar 104 a appears for e, in svikel- 118, 119 e for o, in munekes 347 e for u, in gladur 19, uairur 108, u for e, but gladdere ON 737. ā is o in oferd 277, elsewhere aferd 288. e has been added in areȝ 285 (earg), areȝþe 282, arehþe 359, bareȝ 286, bisemar 104, hardeliche 280, narewe 68, steuene 345, 363, þaref 146, lost in warni 246, as already in OE. warnian; houẹneriche 335, houẹneliȝte 350, represent heofon-rīce, heofon-lēoht, similarly þornewode 322, þarẹuore 210, warẹuore 203, 333. The prefix in atschet 44 is oþ; be- is regularly bi-, bigrede 220, bitelle 199; a in adun 164 is of; the prefix ge- is fully preserved as i-; the suffix -hede, 118 &c. is *hǣd.

w is written u in suiche 134, 283, tuengst 112, but more frequently v, sval 7, tosvolle 101; it stands for wu in wrchen 286, wrs 34, wrþ 256, unwrþ 255, for wi in wle 284, for uu in wl 31, wle 35 (fūle); in wole 8, as Breier explains, the original had uuele (yfele), the copyist took uu as w and read wole (fūle). Metathesis of r is seen in unwerste 134; rr is simplified in for 328. n is lost in þane 39 &c., wane 298, 352, ope 124, on is often reduced to a, adwole 420 &c.; nn is simplified in hen 291, kun 332. For f initial, f, u, v are used indiscriminately, faire 114, vaire 15, fiȝt 132, viȝte 128, for 328, vorre 243, foruorþ 276, for 32, uor 19, vor 43, vram 119, from 62; it is once w in waste (fæst), and w = uu in wl 31, wle 35; between vowels f is regularly u, buue 164, auale 410 beside fale 365, touore 371, similarly eure 251, cliure 78 (3), sulue 67, but v in eve 41, over 64, f in afere 177, aferd 288, ifare 278, oferd 277; in other positions it is commonly f, efne 229, stefne 230. t is lost in blosme 16 as already in OE. blōsma, nel tu 106, doubled in sittest 89; for t, d is written in ad 241; tt is simplified in wit 420. For d, t is written in ihert 406; d is mostly omitted in an 7 &c., beside occasional and 4, 294, also in answare 55, 277, as rarely in OE., but andsuare 105; spene 121 is a new back formation from the pt. tense and pp. of spend (NED); dd is simplified in bed- 240, midel- 349. For þ, d appears in haued 123, lodlich 32 (3), t in witute 139, 200, bigredet 67, biledet 68, hatiet 186, schuniet 185, singet 152, wit 56, 222; dostu 174, 289 is a compendium for dost þu, similarly axestu 329, wenestu 219. sć is sch, schal 143, schende 210, bischopen 404, schuniet 185, but occasionally sh, shal 258, ishote 23, mershe 220, and once s, sewi 107. The stop c is regularly k before e and i, unker 107, loki 56, also in kon 326, kume 314, kun 332, kunne 144, kuþe 332, and ck in eck 130, haueck 219, otherwise c, cunne 47, 48, cuþe 360, hauec 223, spac 274: cc is ck, flockes 216, þicke 17, 308; it is simplified in stoc 25: (b) ah 357 (6) is Anglian ah, but (a) ac 83 (6). cw is (a) qu, quaþ 143, but (b) cwaþ 372 (5). č is expressed by ch, chirche 339, ich 1, swuche 354, unwrenche 125, ilich 232, 234, but ilike 113 r. w. biswike. čč is cch, recche 60, wrecche 251, but reche 58; čǧ is gg, alegge 272, hegge 17, 59 (*hecg), legge 164, segge 18. Palatal g is written ȝ, ȝare 171, ȝaf 105, areȝþe 285, murȝþe 257 (3), areȝ 285, bareȝ 286, folȝeþ 223, isuolȝe 102, unwroȝen 118, but arehþe 359, ibolwe 101. ng appears in lengþe 130, strengþe 129, but strencþe 356 (Horn, Beiträge, 60). h has been added initially in his 404, hunke 376, hure 141, and dropped in abbe 130, is 281. hr is r in rise 19; hl, l in lud 6, luste 99; hw is hw in hwile ON 1591, wh in what 60, but otherwise w, aiware 172, wat 141 &c., wan 334, wile 6 (3), wa 425, wo 152, wonne 38, wone 243, won 240, wider 342.

(2) Of J. Mainly a record of divergences from C. a is more frequently o before nasals, grome 49, lome 375, mon 334, 355, and before lengthening groups, ondsware 105, onsware 55. Beside hwanne 121, 308, hwenne occurs 38 (4). ewel 80 takes its initial vowel from æl. æ is e in hedde 102 (3), queþ 372 (3), wes 1 (7). e, sweche 354, but such 374, suche 134 (swylc). i is often written in French fashion y, especially in conjunction with m, n, u, h, myne 51, ynne 208, clyures 111, fyht 132; willaþ is wille 373; welcometh 318 has wel substituted for wil; with cleures 84, 206 comp. ‘cleafres,’ AR 102/5, ‘claures,’ Corpus MS. o, wolde 370. u, tunge 37, vnne 382, but schonyeþ 185, vowele 213, a French use. ā, hwo 425, no 202, meaning nor, but naþeles 105, 357. ǣ₁ dayrewe 244, wrenne 360 (3); eoch 231, euche 151, euych 187 descend from ylc, comp. 288/8; meysse 84 (*mǣscan), vleysse 83, with ǣ before sć, may, in this text, be French spellings, but comp. 428/6. ǣ₂ is with fewer exceptions e, efne 239, let 194 (4), leteþ 372 (3), ofdred 387. ē, dome 426 is misspelt for deme. ī, swiþe 2, 12, swyþe 149. ȳ, hwy, with y written for i. ea before r + cons. is e in erdingstowe 28. eo before r + cons. is eo, veor 328, veorre 243, heorte 37, reorde 227, steorre 244, ileorned 172. ie, bichirmeþ 215. No umlaut in heuene 346 r. w. stefne, heueryche 335, fele 415, but veole 20. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, heonne 66, heore 216 &c. neþerward 100, seþþe 240. ea after palatal and before nasal, schome 50, 374, schomye 117. ie after g is regularly e, yeue 410, yeueþ 416, 419. gief is if 283 &c.: heom, heom 62 &c. ēa, eren 254, drem 21; the i-umlaut, ihere 228. ēo is mostly preserved, fleo 33, heo 33, heolde 51, leof 159, preostes 351, teone 50, but he 19, holde 12, lesen 267, prest 238, swere 73.

The new diphthongs have reached a more advanced stage in which w displaces ȝ; y is used extensively for i. a + g, drawe 209, mawe 138. æ + g, day 89, vayre 15, but seyde 9, iseyd 273. e + g, ayeyn 7 (3), pleye 169, seyþ 132, snayles 87, seist 50. i + h, adihte 242, bitwihen 390 (betwih), myht 78. i + g, unwryen 118. o + g, itowen 368. u + g, vowele 64, fowel 65, muwe 62. ā + g, owe 195, þrowe 196. ǣ₁ + g, eyþer 9; ihware 172 is OE. gehwǣr. ō + g, bowe 15, wowe 120. ō + h is ouh, brouhte 156, 369, þouhte 269, roughte 305, but þoutest 113. ū + h, þuhte 21, of þuhte 275. ea + h, iseyh 29, ouerseyh 30; the i-umlaut, myhte 42, nyht 252. eo + h, ariht 278, brihter 108, vyhte 128, ryht 76; the i-umlaut, isihþ 285. ēa + g, eyen 75, 100, eye 304, neyh 44; þēah appears as þeih 367, þeyh 137 &c., þey 287, þah 422 (stressed), þe 48, 220. ēo + h, lyhte 119, ryhte 120; the i-umlaut, flyhst 89, flyhþ 132; dīegel is dyele 2. ā + w, snouh 308, nouht 58, nowiht 256, noht 183. ī + w, hewe 108. ēo + w, eure 379, treo 316.

i is levelled to e in chireche 339, clerekes 340, 347, mureþe 257, murehþe 336, 343; in gretture 74, u appears for e; e is inserted in bolewe 101, swikedom 119.

w stands for u in hw 46, 435; it is written for wu in wrche 340, wrse 219, wrste 10, wrþe 278, and for we in wre 159; it is u in suych 283. Final n is omitted in a 241 &c. f is v in ivi 27. d is written for t in bid 319; it is doubled in gladdre 19. For þ, t is written in wit 57, h in bihouhte 155. sć is s, sarp 79, atset 44, sende 210, sc, biscrycheþ 67, scrichest 179, scort 73, sch, schewi 107, scholdest 54, schulle 320, mersche 220. Beside sweche 354 are such 374, suche 134. Final c is written k in spak 279, 288; cc is kk in þikke 308; cw is qu in iqueme 427. nyk 202 (OE. nič) is a Midland form, and probably due to Scandinavian influence; ic is ic 245 (7) beside ich 1 &c.; ilyche 113 r. w. biswike. Palatal g is very regularly written y, yaf 55, 105, ayaf 95, yomere 293, voryete 343. After l, r, g passes into the spirant w, bolewe 101, foleweþ 223, iswolwe 102, amorewe 310, moreweninge 361, sorewe 309, but arehþe 282 (areh + þe). g is lost initially in if 260 &c. h is lost in þoutest 113. hw is generally preserved, hwan 334, hwar 64, hwi 204, hwile 158, ihware 172.

Accidence: (1) of C. Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. a. bile 79, 205, griþbruche 377, kume 314 (possibly d.), hete 123 have their OE. vocalic ending; songe 259 is a scribe’s mistake for song; bodi 73 has lost final g, eve 41, final n. Gen. -es, fuȝeles 259, speres 355: d. -e, boȝe 15, bore 286, daie 352, houene 346, sumere 1, 294, wintere 293, but adai 89 (3), aniȝt 89, 175, awinter 290; with loss of final consonant, amorȝe 310, eue 239 (3), iui 27; OE. are blo 108, 319, (Portes)hom 395, tro 316; king 371 is miswritten for kinge. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, snailes 87, tunes 348, but cliuers 111, 206, fuȝele 64 (see note): neuters are ibere 178, þinge 225, wiȝte 87, 160, and with masc. termination, wiȝtes 309, wordes 134, unwiȝtis 174. Genitive is cunne 20; datives have mostly -e, foȝle 213, rise 19 (3), songe 82, stude 410, þinge 312, 415, þuuele 214, vnwrenche 125, volde 72, worde 114 (7), but craftes 329, cliures 84, toppes 306, bischopen 404. The fem. nouns of the strong declension have -e in s. n. a., answare 55, 277, blisse 298, 346, eardingstowe 28, godhede 267, skentinge 324, stefne 233, unrihtfulnesse 385, cheste 133, sorȝe 309, but hen 291, insiȝt 151, woning 227, 403, so ME. grucching, luring 301: þuster 154, 186, 188 is neuter. Gen. -e, worlde ON 476: dat. -e without exception, blisse 335, brede 130, ME. pipinge 232, 253, see 397. Pl. d. is dede 188, 406; a. blisse 311, clawe 109, tale 193, tide 26. Nouns of the weak declension have -e throughout, s. n. swore 73, mose 69, d. deme 426, frogge 85, eȝe 304, wise 20, but uo 281, a. daisterre 244, grame 49, ȝeme 345, but dairim 244, iuo 359: pl. n. blosme 16, eȝene 75, d. fere 179, but earen 254. Minor declensions: uote pl. d. 51; man s. n. 210 (3), monnes s. g. 254, 304, men pl. n. 302, manne pl. d. 365, menne 368, men pl. a. 246; boke s. d. 266; mus pl. n. 87; niȝt s. n. 250, middelniȝte s. d. 241, but aniȝt 89, 175, niȝt s. a. 247, 252, niȝtes pl. n. ON 523; childre pl. d. 419.

Adjectives which in OE. end in -e have e in all cases, breme 158, grene 18, isene 122, 211, murie 261, þicke 17, riche 413, similarly those in -a, lame 375, unwille 300, but hoked 79 has lost e, while ope 124 has vocalic ending by loss of n, and fastrede s. n. m. st., r. w. unrede, has added e. Those in -ig lose g, holi 339. Otherwise the nom. is unchanged. Datives have -e in all genders, str., gode 223, riȝte 170, 200, 212, wk. faire 317, 319, fule 93, 295, olde 163, so acc. m. f. str. stronge 205, vaire 15, bolde 288, schille 98, 364, but stif 205, lodlich 32 before vowels, unwrþ 255, wk. gode 414, longe 247, but ful 94: wrecche s. a. m. wk. 251 has taken the form of wrecca sb. (Breier). The acc. neut. is uninflected, god 131; wole 8 is corrupt. mycel is s. n. muchel 404, s. d. muchele ON 1217: āgen has lost n in oȝe 195. The pl. of all adjectives ends in -e, n. brode 75, isome 378, d. belde 358, smale 213, a. gode 206, scharpe 109, but scharp 206 before a vowel. OE. ān is s. n. m. on 25, 238 before vowel, 82, 330 (pronominal), o 331 (num. adj.), f. a 112, an 80 before vowel, s. d. m. one 2, 15, &c., f. ore 17, 393, 397, one 14, 235, neut. one 1, 236, s. a. m. one 102, a 94, o 249 (num. adj.), f. one 4, 155, 324, an 4, one 403 (num. adj.), neut. a 45, 104. nān is s. n. m. no 210, f. 146, s. d. m. none 168, 387; as adv. na more 169 (3). Adjectives used as nouns are wise s. n. m. 132, pl. d. 181, bare s. d. 106, s. a. 56, gode s. d. 338, ille 299, longe 45, vuele, wroþe 63 (see note), blete s. a. 57, woȝe 120, 154, worste 10, but god 245. Comparatives have -e, betere 330 (3), grettere 74, mildre 418, worse 219, but briȝter 108, gladur 19, icundur 85, uairur 108.

The personal pronouns are ich, i 353, me, unker dual g., of us two 107, we, hure pl. g., of us 141, us, þu, (speddes) tu 125, þe, hunke 376 (see note), ȝe, eu. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 21 &c., ho f. 19, 368, heo 360, 372 &c., he 97, 274, 279, hi 141, hit neut. 28, d. him m. 167, hire f. 104, him neut. ON 682, a. hine m. 392, hi f. 29, 30, 32, hit neut. 92, pl. n. hi 10 &c., ho 66, 76, heo 418, 434, 435, d. hom 94, heom 408, a. hi 420, hom 62 (possibly d.), heom ON 930: reflexive are hi 155, heom 407; definitive, sulue 69. Possessives are s. n. mi, before vowel or pronom. h, min, d. mine m. 46, mire f. 384, mine 59, 245, neut. 83, 218, a. m. 36, 242, f. 196; pl. mine; s. n. þi, before vowel or h, þin, d. þine m. 58, þin 117, þire f. 307, 383, þine 40 (6), neut. 88, a. m. 119 &c., þin 249, þine f. 194, þin neut. 121 (before vowel), þi ON 104; pl. þine, but þin pl. n. 75, 113 before vowel; his 188, is 281, his neut. 267; hire 26; ure 298; ower 379; hore 216, heore 418; unker 423, 425, 426. The definite article is s. n. þe m. 132, þo f. 26, 155, þe 13, 29 &c., þat neut. 10 &c., þe 352, g. þas m. 254, þare f. 28, d. þan m. ON 125, þen 386, þe 322, 371, þare f. 31, 397, þe ON 96, þan neut. ON 133, þe 56, a. þane m. 414, þe f. 13, þat neut. 8, 10; pl. n. þe 315. The article is also used demonstratively as adj. þat 5, 8 &c., þare 96, as pronoun, þat 82, þan 156, 405. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þes m. 195, þos f. 41 (3), þeos ON 1667, 1707, d. þis neut. 437 (the metre requires þisse), a. þos f. 133, þis neut. 156 (4); pl. n. þos 348, þeos 413, d. þisse 432, a. þos 95, þeos ON 1653. The relatives are þe ON 1346, þat 10, 144; meaning to which 187, that which 78, 115, 174. Interrogatives are wa 425, wo 152, wat 141, 271, 353, what 60, (to) wan 334, wuch ON 1378 and the correlative suich n. s. m. 283, swuch s. a. f. 374, suiche pl. n. 134, swucche pl. d. 354. gelīc is ilich s. n. m. 232, 234; gelīca, ilike pl. n. 113. Indefinites are me 32 &c., man 341; sum s. a. f. 6, summe pl. n. ON 1648; eiþer 9, 141, aiþer 7; oþer s. d. f. 54, s. a. 7, s. a. f. 326, oþeres s. g. 9, oþer pl. n. 160, pl. a. 225; ech s. n. m. 231, neut. 312, eche s. d. m. 151; eurich s. n. m. 150, f. 257, neut. 185, g. m. 304; eni s. a. f. 326, neut. 338; moni s. n. m. 355, mani s. a. m. 399, manie 398, monie pl. d. 72, a. 193; uale s. d. m. 410, uele pl. g. 20, fale pl. d. 365, feole 415; al s. throughout, except all s. d. f. 129, alle s. a. f. 247; alle pl., except alre g. 10.

The infinitive ends in -e, singe 39 (5), wirche 340 and 40 other instances; exceptions in -en are losen 267, singen 327 before vowel or h, abiten 77, smiten 78 at end of line, hoten 192, speten 39, wrchen 286; the second weak conjugation has -i, liki 258, sewi 107; contract verbs are flo 284, 319, flon 106 before vowel. The dat. inf. is not inflected, to biholde 71, for teche 408, [for] ȝiue 410, to seche 402 (virtual nominative): no examples in -en. Presents are s. 1. abbe 130, adiȝte 242, kep (ich) 110; of second wk. conj. warni 246, wndri 184; of contract verbs, iso 243, so 34; 2. axest 325, singest 247 (3), passive, hattest 191, axestu 329, wenestu 219, ME. clackes 81; with -ist, singist 175, wenist 231; seist 50 (4) represents segst; syncopated forms are telst 226, tuengst 112, wenst 47, the metre requires woldẹst 84, hauẹst 109; a contract verb is fliȝst 89, 183, fliȝst(e) 283; 3. blisseþ 313, croweþ 251 and 17 others, singet 152, schuniet 185; syncopated forms are numerous, abid 421, berþ 281, bit 319, 323, demþ 420, diht 399, falt 37, fiȝt 132, halt 32, helpþ 127, lat 224, liþ 308, lust 168, 169, singþ 339, telþ 256, þincþ 430, worþ 283, writ 399, þincþe 46 (= þincþ þe); seiþ 132 represents segð; contract verbs are atfliþ 37, fliȝt 132, 224, isiþ 285, isoþ 302; pl. 3. bigredeþ 215, habbeþ 309, 406, bigredet 67, biledet 68, haued 123, floþ 214: subjunctive s. 1. holde 59, schilde 57; second wk. conj., loki 56; 2. clawe 110, wepe 182; 3. bitide 52, uorȝete 343; pl. 1. lete 133, ute 422, fo 135; 3. bigrede 220; imperative s. 2. hud 120, stond 431, loke 122, schamie 117, seie 173, flo 33; pl. 2. fareþ 379, lateþ 372 (3), lusteþ 372. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. aȝaf 95, ȝaf 55, 105, iseȝ 29, ouerseȝ 30, quaþ 143, 145, sat 15, 101, spac 274, 288; pl. 3. seten ON 1102; subj. s. 3. iseȝe 303: I b. s. 3. com 361; pl. 3. bicome 434: I c. s. 3. bigon 13, song 20 (4), sval 7, warp 45; subj. s. 3. wrþe 278: II. s. 3. abod 41: III. s. 3. atschet 44: IV. s. 3. stod 25: V. s. 3. athold 270, bihold 30, hold 100, let 8; pl. 3. holde 12; subj. s. 1. holde 51. Participles past: I a. awreke 198, bispeke 381, underȝete 124: I b. ibore 334: I c. ibolwe 101, ibred 367 (breden), isuolȝe 102, iþrunge 38, tosvolle 101: II. itoȝen 368: II, III. vnwroȝen 118: III. ishote 23: IV. ifare 278: V. bigrowe 27, bihote 388, iholde 366, ofdrad 387. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. iherde 3; 2. raddest 115 (weak form), þoȝtest 113, speddestu 125; 3. broȝte 156, hadde 102, sede 33, seide 9; pl. 3. spedde 435, ferden 432: subj. s. 3. roȝte 305. Participles past: acoled 161, aferd 288, ihert 406, iladde 276 (lǣded), ilorned 172, imeind 18, 306, ised 273, oferd 277, oftoned 190. Minor Groups: an 1 pr. s. 382; can 1 pr. s. 126, 436, con 199, kon 326, con pr. s. 415, cunne 1 pr. s. subj. 47, kunne pr. s. subj. 144, kuþe pt. s. 332, cuþe 360; þaref pr. s. 146; wot 1 pr. s. 61, wostu 2 pr. s. 334, wot pr. s. 151, ?wte 2 pr. s. subj. 318, wiste pt. s. 103, wuste pt. pl. 10, nuȝte ȝe 2 pt. pl. 394; schaltu 2 pr. s. 165, schal pr. s. 143, shal 258, shulle 1 pr. s. subj. 320, 323, sholdest 2 pt. s. 54, scholde pt. s. 371, schulde 390; mai 1 pr. s. 184, miȝt 2 pr. s. 64 (3), mist 78, mai pr. s. 141, muȝe 1 pr. pl. 138, pr. pl. subj. 62, miȝtest 2 pt. s. 192, miȝte pt. s. 42, mihte we 1 pt. pl. 392, miȝte pt. s. subj. 411; mote 1 pr. s. subj. 52; bon inf. 198, bo 146, beo 378, ?be 296, am 1 pr. s. 212, icham 126, nam 387, art 2 pr. s. 38, nart 285, is pr. s. 34, his 404, nis 162, boþ pr. pl. 75 (5), beoþ 418, bo 2 pr. s. subj. 127, pr. s. subj. 107 (4), bo 1 pr. pl. subj. 137, 2 s. imp. 197, beoþ 2 pl. imp. 378; was 1 pt. s. 1, were pt. pl. 16, pt. s. subj. 21, nere 22, weren pt. pl. subj. 76, were 305; wille 1 pr. s. 198, wilt 2 pr. s. 121, nel tu 106, wile pr. s. 170, wle 284, wulle ȝe 2 pr. pl. 373, nulleþ pr. pl. 407, wille 2 pr. s. subj. 77, pr. s. subj. 144, wile 141, wille pr. pl. subj. 222, wolde 1 pt. s. 128, nolde 115, woldest 2 pt. s. 84, wolde pt. s. 70, walde 370; don inf. 115, do 374, 1 pr. s. 245, dest 2 pr. s. 49, 237, dost 307, dostu 174, 289, deþ pr. s. 359, doþ 112, 2 pr. pl. 377, pr. pl. 113, misdoð 413, do we 1 pr. pl. subj. 424, do 2 s. imp. 431; gon inf. 170, goþ pr. pl. 221.

The adverb aiware 172, widely, OE. ǣghwǣr has added e; B-T. quotes ǣghwāre from Lye. Adverbs and prepositions in -an have -e, abute 16, bute 403, buue 164, honne 66 (heonane), soþþe 240, vorre 243, ine (innan) 266 (3), upe (uppan) 351, touore 426, witute 139, but bituxen 390: mid 18 (4) and mide 411, oft 36 and ofte 81 occur.

(2) Of J. The few divergences are briefly indicated. Nouns: eyen pl. n. 75, song s. n. 259; adjectives: vuele s. a. neut. wk. 8, iliche s. n. f. str. 235, o a. s. f. 403, non s. d. m. 168, icundere s. n. neut. 85 (unmetrical), beter s. n. m. str. 330, 331. The pronoun of the first person is often ic 245, 385; vr pl. g. 141; heo s. n. m. 23, 280, 375, 394, he s. n. f. 19, hi pl. n. 76, my s. a. m. 36, þi s. a. m. 264, þin s. d. m. 125, þine s. d. f. 383, eure s. d. m. 379; þe s. n. f. 26, þon s. d. neut. 350; þisse s. d. neut. 437, þeos s. a. f. 133; oþres s. g. 9, 11. Tellest 226, biholdeð 30, helpeð 127 are not syncopated; wenest 231, hateþ, luuyeþ 186, abit 421; wite 2 pr. s. subj. 318, unwryen pp. 118 (wrigen), vnne 1 pr. s. 382, beo inf. 198; beon pr. pl. subj. 137. Noteworthy are muchele adv. 413, ne conjunction 74, than.

Vocabulary: French are acorde 137, afoled 162, castel 131, certes 412, clerkes clerekes 340, 347, fals 166, gente 160, granti graunti 157 (the latter Anglo-French), grucching 301, ipeint 76, kanunes 347, maister maistre 147, 421, pes pays 373 (the former phonetic, the latter traditional spelling), plait plaid 5, 380, plaidi 140, plaiding 12, rente 410, schirme 222, possibly crei 251. Scandinavian are ilete lete 281, 358, 35, ille 299, lah(fulnesse) 384, nai 202, skentinge 324, sckile 142, þoȝ 220, wronge 152, possibly wailawai 176 and wise 54, if it means song. Noteworthy is the large number of expressive words bearing a popular stamp, such as clackes, clechest, crempe, galegale, misrempe, snepe, spale, totose, ȝollest, ȝoȝelinge.

Dialect: The poem was presumably written in Dorsetshire and so in the dialect of the Middle South; the evidence of the rhymes confirms this. But in its present form there are considerable traces of Anglian influence, and these, as appearing equally in both manuscripts, may be set down to the transcriber of their common exemplar or to one of his predecessors.

Metre: The short rhymed couplet, in its original French form, has regularly eight syllables, with masculine ending or nine with feminine ending. But the Anglo-French poets, like Chardry, whose Petit Plet, ‘estrif mut delitus’ is in both our manuscripts, allow themselves more freedom, and the form of the verse in ON is varied by all the licences of native English prosody. The types are i. masculine ending, eight syllables, four stresses, iambic rhythm, as, þat plaít | was stíf | and stárc | and stróng 5; so 7, 8, 29, 30, 43, 44, 174, 176, 183-185, 248, 250, 252, 256, 260, 338, 353, 394: i a. the same, but with trochaic beginning, as, Mé is | þe wúrs | þat ích | þe só 34, 149, 319: i b. seven syllables with light syllable wanting in first foot, as, þíd|er fúnd|eþ eúr|ich mán 337: ii. feminine ending, nine syllables, four stresses, iambic rhythm, as, þat ál|re wórst|e þát | hi wúste 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 27, 35, 36, 40, 45, 46, 55, 56, 67, 69, 72, 82, 93, 95, 96, 99, 105 and 104 other lines: ii a. the same with trochaic beginning, as, wénst þu | þat ích | ne cún|ne sínge 47, 38, 52, 78, 80, 98, 121, 122, 215, 222, 225, 244, 295, 302, 304, 318, 325, 334, 342, 349, 352, 406, 417, 424: ii b. eight syllables with light syllable wanting in first foot, as, ánd | me schíld|e wít | þe bléte 57, 70, 71, 87, 91, 110, 117, 131, 147, 148, 217, 378. The unstressed element in a foot is doubled in i. þi bód|i is shórt | þi swór|ẹ is smál 73, þu chát|ẹrest so dóþ | on ír|ish préost 238, Hit lúu|eþ þúst|er and hát|iet líȝt 186, þat þín|e píp|inge nís | ilích 232: i a. Grétter|ẹ is þin héu|ed þán | þu ál 74, Cértes | cwaþ þe húl|e þát | is sóð 412: i b. þát | ho sóng | hirẹ a bís|emár 104: ii. Eurich þíng | mai lós|en hís | godhéde 267, Me lúst|e bet spét|en þán|e sínge 39, 62, 317, and þúȝ|te wel uúl | of þár|e húle 31, 425, þoȝ crów|e bigréd|ẹ him bí | þe mérshe 220, þe níȝt|ingál|e bigón | þe spéche 13, 116, 154, 187, 253, 262, 266, 354, þe wér|ẹ icúnd|ur to ón|e frógge 85, alsó | ho hád|dẹ one frógg|ẹ isuólȝe 102, Þo quáþ | þe húl|e wo schál | us séme 143: ii a. wénes | tu þat háu|eck bó|þe wórse 219, álle | þat ihér|eþ þín|ẹ ibére 178, Schíld þin|e svík|eldom vrám | þe líȝte 119, 234, 359; ii b. Hó | ne míȝt|e no léng | biléue 42, 264, 347, þár | þo v́l|e sóng | hire tíde 26. The light syllable is missing in i. and mák|ẹst þine sóng | só | unwúrþ 255, He wún|eþ át | pórt|es hóm 395, Ich síng|e bét | þan þú | dést 237, vor suích | worþ bóld | ȝif þú | flíȝst 283, 284: ii. On mé | hít | is wél | iséne 211, Ich wót | þat þú | árt | unmílde 61, 303, 390, wel fíȝt | þat wel flíȝt | seíþ | þe wíse 132, werẹ aférd | ho spác | bóld|e tále 288, Bet þúȝt|e þe dreím | þat hé | wére 21: ii a. Nís he | vor þé | nóȝt | afóled 162, Bít me | þat ích | shúll|e sínge 323. Inversion of the accent is fairly frequent, as i. Þat ích | shúlle | to hír|e fló 320, An díht | and wrít | máni | wisdóm 399, He náu|eþ bút|ẹ óne | woníng 403: ii. Ne hélpþ | nóȝt þat | þu bó | to þríste 127, 392, 408, 425, Þo stód | on óld | stóc þar | bisíde 25, 32, 199, 372, 381, 422, vor hír|e lú|uẹ óne | skentínge 324, 396. Synizesis takes place in monie 72, 193, 398 (pronounce monye), schamie 117, schuniet 185, hatiet 186, murie 261, unmurie 262, lilie 317. The e of a middle syllable after the stress in a trisyllabic word suffers syncope; certain instances are, sumẹre 1, 327, diȝẹle 2, oþẹres 9, 11, vuẹle 63, fuȝẹle 64, hauẹkes 207, chatẹrest 238, wintẹre, ȝomẹre 293, sumẹre 294, betẹrẹ 330, 331, 401, steuẹne 345, 363, houẹne 346, 350, also warẹuore 333, morẹȝeninge 361, probable are narẹwe 68, eȝẹne 75, svikẹdom 123, as avoiding a three syllable foot. With regard to -est, -eþ of the sing. present, the only certain examples of syncope are woldẹst 84, cumẹþ 298, in all other possible cases there is the alternative of a three syllable foot. But taking into account the preponderance of forms syncopated by spelling, and the dissyllabic norm of the foot in the French verse which served as model, it seems more likely that the poet scanned þretẹst 83, hauẹst 109, speddẹstu 125, schirchẹst, ȝollẹst 179, miȝtẹst 192, wenẹst 195, bicumẹþ 207, wenịst 231, singẹst 247, 310, 175, crowẹþ 251, singẹþ 292, forbernẹst 297, cumẹþ 298, hauẹþ 356, nullẹþ 407: similarly werẹn 76, ovẹr 64, euẹr 421 are probable. What has been said about syncope applies also to the relative spheres of elision and hiatus. The letter which suffers elision is weak, mostly inflectional, final e before an initial vowel or pronominal h, presumably also before an inorganic h as in hule; there is no elision in the case of such words as me 38, 164, we 133, he 303, ope 124. It certainly takes place in Bet þúȝt|e þát | he wér|ẹ ishóte 23, and in the same position in 50, 63, 75, 77, 81, 123, 125, 137, 160, 161, 168, 177, 178, 181, 236, 257, 277, 281, 308, 315, 336, 346, 364, 397, 428, alsó | ho hád|dẹ one frógg|ẹ isuólȝe 102, þát | ho sóng | hirẹ a bí | semár 104, Þo húl|ẹ one wíl|e hí | biþóȝte 155. Hiatus, which is the maintenance of e under the same conditions, is certain in ll. 28, 31, 92, 140, 163, 168, 173, 227, 268, þat þẹ húl|e hád|de hír|ẹ iséd 273, 289, 305, 344, 386, 409, 418, 425. In all other cases the choice lies between a three syllable foot with hiatus and a two syllable foot with elision; the latter is probably to be preferred.

The few lines which are metrically faulty are easily amended, Ilóm|e þu dést | me múch|ẹle gráme 49, þu cúþ|est þát | þu árt | unwíȝt 90, þu féd|ẹst on hóm | a fúl|ne fóde 94, 107 MS. J is correct, þan þú | mid áll|e þín|e stréngþe 129, 164 MS. J is correct, þat hé | for þé | fálse | dom déme 166, Ne maí | no mán | þarẹuór|ẹ me schénde 210, vor þí | ich lóþ | am smál|e fóȝle 213, 235 MS. J is correct, Ích | do gód|e mid mín|e þróte 245, and éu|re seíst | þin ón|e sóng 249, Ac nó|þẹles spác | he bold|elíche 279, þu fár|est ál|so dóþ|þe ílle 299, To uór|e þe kíng|e þáh | heo schólde 371, An dó | þan kíng|e swúch|e scháme 374, þeos rích|e mén | múchel | misdóð 413, 437 MS. J is correct. Peculiar in rhythm are, and mák|ẹst þine sóng | só | unwúrþ 255, þat he míȝt|ẹ héom il|óme | be míde 411. The rhymes are generally correct, but kunne : honne 65, cunde : schende 209, foȝle : þuuele 213, ȝomere : sumere 293, stude : mide 410 are inexact. The poet was all the same a very skilful metrist.

Introduction: There has been a wide difference of opinion as to the time when ON was written, but the weight of recent authority is in favour of a date somewhere about A.D. 1220. The references in the poem to passing events are mostly vague or obscure; only the passage ‘þe king Henri | Jesus his soule do merci’, ON 1091, 2, which can refer to no other than Henry the Second, fixes a superior limit of A.D. 1189. It would equally appear to exclude the reign of Henry the Third, for, as ten Brink concedes, such an indefinite expression would hardly be used when another Henry was on the throne. It is further arguable that its use points to a time when the death of the king was recent. Again such a reference as that to the minstrel go-between saved by the intervention of King Henry the Second from the vengeance of a wronged husband would be to a recent event. Furthermore, it would give point to the expression, ‘ȝet nis he (i. e. the king) nouþer ded ne lame’, 171/375, if it were referred to the good peace kept by the Justiciar Hubert Walter, during Richard the First’s absence from England in A.D. 1194-8. These external considerations, slight though they be, are in favour of the end of that reign as the date of the composition of the poem. The stage of development reached by the language may be held to support this view. Our manuscripts are copies of a copy, probably not far removed from the original poem. That copy is primitive in the fullness of the inflections, the extensive preservation of grammatical gender and the form of the new diphthongs.

Of the author nothing is known. A certain Johan of Guldeuorde is recorded in a copied note in MS. J as declining to sing more, but any connexion of his with ON cannot be determined. If the author were the Nicholas de Guldeuorde mentioned in the poem, it would lend a characteristic spice of humour to the excellent testimonial which he gives himself (157/147-170, 173/389-401). His name indicates that he was a native either of Guildford in Surrey or of Guldeford near Rye in Sussex. What sort of court he presided over cannot be determined; he may have been bailiff of the hundred court, or steward of a manor, or commissary for the neighbouring Abbotsbury. The attempt made by Gadow to identify him with a certain Nicholaus Capellanus, who appears in the diocese of Salisbury in A.D. 1209, 1220, is not convincing.

The poem is in the favourite débat form of the contemporary French literature. The Owl is the Cleric, living a secluded life under a strict rule, the Nightingale is the Minstrel, amateur of the open air and vagabond freedom, the Wren is a poet, like Philippe de Thaün, who has gained a secure place at Court. Though he tries to hold the balance even, the author’s secret sympathies are with the Nightingale; he had been himself sometime a wandering scholar.

Read 150/16 þat, 152/57 wit, 154/104 bysemar, 160/183 nyht, 160/185 vych, 160/191 quaþ, 166/289, 167/289 Þule, 167/310 eue, 168/336 Murehþe ilyche, 168/339 holy.

The references are to C, unless J is prefixed.

1. sumere, summer, adj. s. d. agreeing with dale; a summer valley. Gadow compares OE. sumer-lida and similar compounds. But Stratmann explains it as s. d. f. of sum, certain.

2. diȝele: comp. ‘on ænne swiðe faire stude. | in ane dale deope; diȝelen bihælues,’ L 26933. ‘North of Portisham is a valley now called Mystecomb, formed by Hampton and Ridge Hills, and on the east side of the former are some pits, where the hundred courts were formerly held and hundred silver paid,’ Hutchins, Dorsetshire, i. 556. Was this the scene of the ‘plait’?

5. starc: comp. ‘þat fiht was swiþe strong; swiþe starc and swiþe lang,’ L 4170, MS. O.

6. among, at intervals, at times: comp. 152/81; ‘þar was weping strong; þar was gredinge among,’ L 23563, MS. O, and see KH 1527 note. Similarly ‘bitweonen’, 132/28; ‘And also cussed his feet amyd’, CM 14015, MS. T.

7. sval, was puffed out with anger, like L. tumeo. Rare in this absolute use; for a common expression comp. ‘þin heorte in wið þe swelleð of sar grome,’ HM 31/27: see also 155/101.

11. hure and hure: see 15/91 note.

J 13. þo speke, then to speak: the scribe had before him þo speche, the speech, þo representing OE. þā, s. acc. f. of se, usually þe in these texts. Mistaking þo for the adverb, meaning then, he altered speche into speke, spoiling the rhyme. (Breier, 125.)

14. breche probably represents OE. bræc, brec, which occurs in the boundaries of charters and appears to mean land left untilled among cultivated fields, such as would be covered with underwood; it would go well with hurne in its dialectal meaning of ‘a nook of land projecting into another parish, district or field.’ The phrase would then mean, in a corner of a spinney, just the position where the nightingale would feel safe; see 153/59, 60. Mätzner takes the word to mean fallowland; there is a dialectic breck, mostly northern and not recorded for the south and a literary word break, given in NED under date 1674, with that meaning. beche in J is generally identified with Layamon’s bach, bæch, valley, but Kenyon holds that it represents OE. bēce, beech, if so, hurne must have its secondary sense of hiding place.

J 16. þat: a scribe’s mistake for þar.

17. ore: OE. ānre, s. d. f.: hegge is descended from a strong fem. *hecg, but it is treated as masc. at l. 59, perhaps by confusion with OE. hege. waste: written for vaste, that is, faste (comp. ON, J 796), which Breier takes for an adverb qualifying þicke, very thick. But there is no evidence in ME. for the adverb, except with verbs and participles. It is an adjective, secure, safe, as in ‘wel he makede his castles; treowe ⁊ swiðe uæste,’ L 11897; comp. 153/53, 56-60, 157/130, 131, or possibly, dense.

18. Tall grasses and green flag plants grew up through the hedge.

19. rise, boughs; comp. ‘blisse was among þe rise,’ ON 1664.

20. auele: see 132/9 note.

21. he: see 135/127 note.

22. þan, than that.

26. hire tide, her hours; see 163/230 note, and comp. ‘Gif preost on gesetne timan tída ne ringe oððe tida ne singe, gebete þæt,’ Liebermann, Gesetze, i. 382/36.

27. ⁊: comp. 81/82 note. bigrowe, overgrown: comp. ‘mid iui grene al bi-growe,’ ON 617.

30. ouerseȝ, looked down at from her higher position: comp. 34/75.

31. þuȝte: impersonal; supply hire from the subject of the preceding sentence: wl is predicative adjective.

35. lete, behaviour, i.e. hooting: comp. 165/281, 171/358.

37. atfliþ, takes flight, deserts me: comp. ‘expavit cor meum et emotum est de loco suo,’ Job xxxvii. 1. Mostly with acc., but comp. ‘leste þe heorte etfleo ⁊ wende ut,’ AR 50/19. falt, folds, collapses: comp. ‘and þi tunge foldet,’ PRL 250/3, 249/2; OEM 101/4 and see 2/19 note.

38. when you thrust yourself on me. Comp. ‘Bruttes him þrungen to; þræfliche swiðe,’ L 27796.

39. Me luste bet, it would please me better.

40. of, by reason of, as the result of.

41. fort: comp. 163/248 and see 72/179 note. for in J is due to the scribe who avoids the unusual word; comp. 162/248, 166/310.

42. bileue, hold in, keep still; a somewhat forced sense.

44. atschet, shot out, drove out of her body; its subject and that of warp in the next line is heo, contained in the preceding hire: comp. 98/71. The editors, however, treat fnast as the subject, but in the only other place where the verb occurs, ‘Ah þah mi lif me beo at-schote,’ ON 1623 it is transitive.

45. warp, sent forth; see 13/45.

48. writelinge, ‘trilling, singing in shakes and flourishes,’ Specimens; a meaning apparently deduced from the context here and ON 914, the only places where the word occurs. It may be a miswriting of wrixelinge or wriselinge; OE. wrixlian, to modulate, vary the voice, as in ‘Ic þurh muþ sprece monȝum reordum. | wrencum singe, wrixle ȝeneahhe | heafodwoþe, hlude cirme,’ Riddle ix (by some interpreted of the nightingale), Grein, iii. 189/1, to which Toller parallels ‘Vox mea diversis variatur pulcra figuris,’ Aldhelm, 252/27; ‘wrixleð woðcræfte . . . | beorhtan reorde,’ Phoenix 127.

49, 50. grame . . . tone . . . schame: comp. 40/165 note.

51. on, within the compass of, under.

52. May it so happen that I have the opportunity, a parenthesis; ⁊ in the next line is equivalent to and if.

54. wise may mean, song.

56. loki—bare, guard myself against the open, i.e. keep in my thicket, as at l. 59, 155/106. Other adjectives used as nouns are blete, l. 57, unsheltered place; woȝe ll. 120, 154, crooked conduct; harde, ON 459, 527, bitter weather, 703, difficulty; toȝte 703, puzzling situation. loki wit appears to be without parallel, but wiþ is common in conjunction with similar verbs, see 48/299 note; from is usual, 149/77 as with schilde, 153/62, 157/119.

63. tukest: the usual construction of this verb in OE. and ME. is seen in, ‘þa halgan . . . to ealre yrmðe tucode,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 494/106 (afflicted the Saints with every kind of misery); ‘ha tukeð ure godes to balewe ⁊ to bismere,’ SK 551. Whether to is to be inserted, or wroþe (which is a noun, ON 944) and vuele are to be regarded as adverbs, in any case the verb must have a direct object; over is probably a misreading of the common original MS. for oþer; comp. ON 1524 where J has correctly oþer and C over. The mistake would lead to the omission of to before wroþe. The sense then is, thou dost harass with evil and harm other small birds wherever thou canst. fugele as pl. acc. in rhyme can be supported by bridde : amidde, ON 123; wrenche : atprenche, id. 813.

67. bischricheþ, screech at; apparently only here. Comp. 160/215.

68. narewe, strictly, harshly; comp. 74/203 note. biledet, treat, like L. afficere; comp. ‘He iseyh hw ihesu crist. wes vuele biled,’ OEM 45/278; ‘And luþre heom biledeþ | Mid pykes and myd eaule,’ id. 83/329. The word appears to descend as to form from OE. belǣdan, to lead (astray), and as to meaning from OE. belecgan, to treat (ill), afflict, through the intermediary of their common pp. belēd. The expression is somewhat like ‘mettre à l’estroict, to put vnto the pinch,’ Cotgrave.

70. Hire þonkes, gladly; see 10/167 note.

72. in monie volde, lit., in many folds, that is, in many respects. The phrase seems to be a mistaken resolution of some such adverbial expression as *on manigfealdum; in ME. on manyfolde, bi manifold are found, as well as many a folde. A natural extension is seen in, ‘ne uint he red in one (none J) uolde,’ ON 696.

76. Riȝt swo, just as if; comp. 155/98, 163/222.

78. cliure, claw: six times in ON, only once again in ME., see ES xxxi. 7, 17. ‘clifra, ungularum,’ OE. Glosses, ed. Napier, 135/5341, 148/458.

80. owel: see 58/67 note.

J 81. euer among: see 148/6 note.

83. to: the construction appears to be quite isolated, for þrēatian, þreatien take the acc. of the person or thing threatened. The simple dat. is seen in, ‘swiþe hii gonne þretie; Arthur þan kinge,’ L 20341, MS. O. Comp. ‘escade to,’ 77/44 note.

85. Lit. It would be more natural to thee in respect of a frog, i.e. A frog would suit you better. to one frogge is the virtual subject of were. The same construction is implied in ‘Ov nas neuer icunde þarto,’ ON 114. Different is ‘Ne lust him nu to none unrede,’ 159/168, for lusten has a prepositional construction (see 52/383 note), while icunde has not. For the usual construction of icunde, see 3/32 note.

86. cogge: probably for cog-stone, a stone propped up at the edge.

88. cunde . . . riȝte: datives singular.

90. on should be omitted, it is unmetrical and, no doubt, due to un- in the following word. unwiȝt, hideous.

92. Bi, with reference to; see 4/30, 13/18, and comp. the similar use of ‘on’ in l. 94.

94. In them (i.e. in their case) thou rearest a very foul brood. For on hom comp. 161/211 note.

100. noþerward, downward: comp. 56/51.

101. to svolle &c.: comp. 149/7; ‘heorte to-bollen ⁊ to-swollen,’ AR 282/8.

104. a bisemar, a mockery, but ‘a bisemere,’ ON 1311 means in mockery.

106. bare: see 152/56.

107. þare: so the MS.; Wells thinks it a scribe’s mistake for ware representing hwæþer, but C has elsewhere only hwaþer, wather, hweþer, weþer, and the interrogative pronoun is apparently not contracted. Probably the scribe has left out the first syllable and has been influenced in writing the second by bare in the preceding line.

109. The nightingale answers.

110. Ne kepich noȝt &c., Nor do I care for your clawing me, i.e. I would rather that you did not claw me.

112. tonge, pair of tongs.

113. so—ilike, as those like you do, after the manner of your kind.

118. svikelhede, attempt at deception: apparently only here and at ON 838.

120. And conceal your wickedness beneath an appearance of righteousness. For the combination comp. ‘myd wowe ne myd ryhte,’ OEM 49/412; ‘þat is woh ⁊ na wiht riht,’ L 4333, 5043, 6373; ‘Man mai þer of et inoȝ | Al wiþ riȝt and noȝt wiþ woȝ,’ Heuser, Kildare-Gedichte, 146/62.

J 121. The second þu is a scribe’s mistake for þin.

125. unwrenche, evil tricks; comp. ‘For þine fule sunnen | ⁊ for þin uniwrenche,’ OEM 174/93, and for the rhyme 29/2.

127. to þriste: see 30/17.

128. liste . . . strengþe are often contrasted, ‘Betere is liste þen luðer strencðe’, AR 268/27; ‘hit wes ȝare iqueðen | þat betere is liste; þene ufel strenðe. | for mid liste me mai ihalden; þat strengðe ne mai iwalden,’ L 17209.

130. on brede . . . lengþe goes with god, good in all dimensions, in every respect: comp. ‘A fairer child neuer i ne siȝ, | Neiþer a lingþe ne on brade,’ Sir Beues 536, with Kölbing’s note.

132. ‘Wel fyht þat wel flyþ,’ Hendyng, Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 291/77; ‘Mieuz vaut bone fuie que mauvaise atente,’ Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 64; ‘þu most turne þe rug ȝif þu wult ouercumen ⁊ wið fluht fehten,’ HM 17/28.

133. lete awei, give up, drop; comp. 50/348 note.

135. fo we on, let us proceed; comp. 143/67.

136. wsome: miswritten for ysome, concordant, peaceable, which is adj. as at 171/378: Kenyon points out that the word-order is idiomatic. In J, some, concord, is a noun; comp. 70/158 note.

137. at one acorde: the phrases at accord, in accord and with one accord are all found, but this combination is at any rate rare: a similar tautology is seen in ‘Two dogges and one bone | Maye never accorde in one,’ Rel. Ant. i. 233.

140. foȝe, fitness, decency: OE. fōg, a joint. Kock (Anglia, xxv. 323) translates, ‘reason, reasonableness, justice and moderation.’ Wells compares G. mit Fug und Recht. The word does not occur elsewhere in ME.; soþe in J is a substitute for a word not known to the scribe.

143. us seme, reconcile us, settle our dispute. OE. sēman.

148, 149. Comp. 18/16, 30. In J 149, worde is faultily repeated from l. 148.

151. wot insiȝt in, has skill in: the usual verb is seen in ‘insiht he cuðe; a winde and a mone,’ L 30497.

153, 154. Comp. 157/120 and 161/186.

J 155. bihouhte appears to be a scribal error for biþouhte, which occurs in the same text in a similar line, ‘Ful wel myd rede hire biþouhte,’ l. 704. It can hardly represent OE. *behogode or *behogde, pasts of behogian, behycgan.

158. wile, at one time.

161. suþe acoled, made cold or grown cold. In J, nu þe may mean now for thee; Skeat takes it for nuþe, now: but the scribe had probably suþe in his original.

164. Should condemn me and give you the upper hand: legge goes better with adun than with buue. Comp. ‘That brynges me vnder ⁊ not above,’ Ipomedon 43/1428, 106/3681; ‘who so . . . may not come to his above,’ id. 1/5 with Kölbing’s note; ‘Leve thy resoun and bileve in the wondir | For feith is aboven, and reson is undir,’ Rel. Ant. i. 127.

167. him: see 13/34 and add ‘Þe ston hym hys of swiche grace,’ KH MS. O. 585; ‘For horn hym was so longe,’ id. 977. fastrede, steadfast of purpose.

168. to: comp. 52/383.

170. a, on.

171. ȝare, J ware: the same variation occurs ON 488, 860. ȝare is the better reading.

181. þinchest: a scribe’s mistake for þincheþ. snepe, foolish; apparently only here: now a Lincolnshire dialect word.

184. þar of: comp. ‘Þes meiden wes awundret swiðe of þes wordes,’ SJ 37/1; ‘þe sunne wundrieð of faire,’ OEH ii. 19/29. For of = at, see 121/132.

186. Comp. 159/154.

187. þat, to which: see 44/250, 257 note, 46/292 note.

188. to his dede, as accompaniment of his actions.

194. Let thy tongue have a holiday. spale: OE. spala, a substitute, spelian, to take the place of another, ME. spelien mostly means to use sparingly. A related word is spell, a neutral word with meaning like þroȝe l. 196, a stretch of time; so a spell of work, a spell of rest: in Somerset dialect it means relaxation, in Australia, cessation from labour.

200. riȝte soþe: comp. 156/140. spelle, long story; comp. 175/437.

202. nich ne nay, not I nor nay.

203. lust: imperative, as at l. 199; but Skeat, ‘I am pleased to tell,’ which would require me lust.

208. wune: miswritten for wunne as the rhyme shows. The original probably had ƿ̇unne, which the scribe of J copied as ynne.

209. me draȝe to, incline towards, act in accordance with. The physical sense, betake oneself, is seen in ‘þes duc mid his drihte; to þare sæ him droh,’ L 92, and intransitively at 32/47. Comp. also ‘heald þin cunde,’ follow thy nature, OEH ii. 31/6.

210. me, as in J, seems necessary as the object of schende, immediately before which it should be inserted.

211 is formal; comp. ‘on me hit is isene,’ ON 367; ‘On þe hit is wel eþ sene,’ OEH ii. 255/5; Minot viii. 79 note. on me, in my case; for this use of on, comp. 155/94; similar is bi, 4/30. hit represents l. 212.

212. vor riȝte cunde, it is purely because of my nature that I am so keen.

215, 216. Comp. 153/67, 68. to me ledeþ, lead against me, bring to attack me; comp. ‘Me þinkþ þu ledest ferde to me,’ ON 1672.

220. bi, near.

221. goþ: go might have been expected, as bigrede is subjunctive.

222. Riȝt so: comp. 153/76.

223. rede: dative.

225. me . . . of, about me; comp. 1/3. Þet in J is a mistake for ȝet.

227. woning: comp. 159/176, 182.

228. to ihire, to be heard, to listen to; comp. 159/180.

229. efne, uniformly, without trillings; comp. 153/48.

230. Mid fulle dreme, with good round volume of sound, in contrast with the nightingale’s thin shrill pipe, ll. 235, 236.

236. weode unripe, half-grown weed, like Milton’s ‘scrannel pipes of wretched straw.’

239-246. a riȝte time. The owl takes credit for singing, not all night like the nightingale, l. 247, but only to call the religious to their hours, an eue, Vespers (æfen-sang); bedtime, Compline (niht-sang); ad middelniȝte, Mattins with Lauds (ūht-sang); dairim, Prime (prīm-sang), ‘þærrihte upasprungenum dægriman dægredsang sy begunnen,’ Benedictine Rule, ed. Schröer, 32/22. S. Brendan in his wanderings came to the bird’s paradise where ‘þe foweles sunge ek here matyns: wel riȝt, þo hit was tyme, | ⁊ of þe sauter seide þe uers: ⁊ siþþe also prime, | ⁊ vnderne siþþe ⁊ middai: ⁊ afterwardes non, | ⁊ eche tyde songen of þe dai: as cristene men scholde don,’ Legendary, ed. Horstman, 225/223. note, employment, here divine service; comp. 74/210. The nightingale claims her share in this at ll. 347-353.

248. fort: see 72/179 note.

251. crei: found here only; it has been explained as crowing, or crying, it can hardly be connected with F. cri, but it may possibly be, as Breier suggests, connected with OE. crāwan. More likely it is an imitative word invented by the writer.

252. þat, so that.

256. A mixed construction combining (i) that one esteems nothing of thy song, values thy song at nothing, and (ii) thy song is worth nothing; with the latter comp. ‘nis noht wurð þratte; buten þer beo dede æt,’ L 26555, with the former 124/265 note; ‘Thei tolde right nauȝt of thyn awe,’ Laud Troy Book, 2178. of þar, thereof, of thy song.

258. wel unwreste, right feebly.

261. Be the song pleasing beyond all measure, ever so pleasing. ne does not negative the verb, but goes with and strengthens neuer; comp. ‘Ne beo he nefre swa riche, forð he scal þenne is dei cumeð,’ OEH 35/21; similarly 23/168, 43/225; ‘treouðe nefde he nane; to nauer nane monne,’ L 25471.

262. þat is not the correlative of so in the preceding line, which is a conditional clause; it is an illogical repetition of ‘þat’ in ll. 256, 258: the sense is, though the song be ever so pleasing, it must appear unpleasing, if it continues &c. For ne, see 25/240.

263. ouer unwille, ‘beyond what is desirable,’ Specimens, but in the glossary unwille is translated, displeasure. Wells takes unwille as an adverb qualified by ouer, ‘too unpleasantly.’ Probably ouer is written for ower which with unwille would form an adverbial phrase, against your will, or pleasure, representing OE. ūrum unwillum, the latter element being pl. d. of unwilla; comp. ‘ure gast biþ swiþe wide farende urum unwillum,’ Boethius 152/4. Similar combinations descending from OE. unwill are seen in ‘þe man . . . here wuneð on wanrede ⁊ þoleð his unwille hwile druie, ⁊ hwile wete,’ OEH ii. 123/5; ‘hire unwilles,’ 140/25; ‘hire unwil,’ 141/136, HM 31/32; ‘min unwil,’ SM 13/3: see 140/25 note.

264. aspille, waste.

268. unmeþe: comp. 118/47.

276. so foruorþ iladde, carried so far, i.e. she had said so much. foruorþ, lit. far onwards; but forþ comes to mean simply, far; comp. ‘uorþ ase ȝe muwen,’ AR 46/10; ‘ouer al ase forð as imei,’ SJ 47/6. With iladde comp. ‘Of ðis kinge wil we leden song,’ GE 699; ‘talewise men þe speches driuen,’ OEH ii. 193/27.

278. ifare, ‘conveyed,’ Specimens, as if a strong pp. from the weak verb ferian. But the writer has elsewhere (l. 1709) ifare as pp. of faran, and the sense yielded, ‘should not be presented, conveyed, aright,’ does not suit the context. Weorðan, wurðen are sometimes used with past participles of intransitive verbs, ‘Denum eallum wearð | æfter þam wælræse willa gelumpen,’ Beowulf 823; ‘swa hit agangen wearð | eorla manegum,’ id. 1234; ‘þa þat forme ȝer; wharð forð igan,’ L 4942; and similarly ‘þe arcebiscop ongan to tellende . . . hu hit gefaran wes,’ AS. Chron. ed. Plummer, i. 130/30: the natural meaning of ariht faran is, to fare well, to prosper, and the present phrase may well mean, that her answer might not turn out prospered, well.

281. berþ grete ilete, assumes a haughty bearing; comp. 151/35, 171/358, and for pl. 110/273, 129/35.

282. So that he do not, through cowardice, give up his case, give way. hit is a vague object; comp. 42/214 note.

284. svicst: see footnote: Wells adopts the correction of the MS. and reads vicst, fightest, and Breier thinks the original had fihst; in Specimens niswicst is read without reference, and explained, ‘ceasest not.’ The readings of the MSS. may be accounted for thus. The author probably wrote biswicst (comp. 155/114, ON 930), deludest by a show of fight; the copyist of the exemplar common to CJ, with iswiken (geswīcan), cease, in his mind, altered to iswicst; C copied that, but noting its unfitness emended it to vicst, spoiling the rhythm, while J rejected i and adopted swykst, deceivest.

286. He will make a barrow-pig of a boar, i.e. he will climb down, from a fierce animal he will become quite tame. The boar is typically fierce, ‘brem as a bare,’ Sir Degrevant, 1240.

298. cumeþ to londe, comes to dwell with us, like ‘Þa æstre wes aȝeonge; and sumer com to londe,’ L 24241 (‘to toune,’ MS. O). See KH 153 note.

299. þe ille, the evil one, the devil; in modern dialect, the ill man, the ill thief: comp. ‘wurse’ 98/81. Wells says ‘the evil man.’

305, 306. Nor would he mind though flocks (coarse felted stuff made of refuse of wool and cotton) were muddled up with fine carded wool and hair, that is, he would take a perverse delight in a confusion which would be troublesome to sort out. roȝte: pt. s. subj. appears to owe its time to wolde. With flokkes comp. ‘xv capella nigra . . . falsi operis et mixti de lana et flokkes,’ Munim. Gildh. Lond. iii. 433 (quoted in NED, s.v. flock²). Imeind bi: mengan, mengen mostly take wiþ, ON 131 or mid, 151/18, 38/142, ON 870; bi appears to be quite isolated.

310. fort: see 72/179.

312. for mine þinge, on my account: comp. ‘Ða ic þas stemne gehyrde and for minum þingum ongeat beon geclypode,’ Ælf. Lives ii. 32/485; ‘þat ich for þine þinge; mid sæxe me of-stinge,’ L 5033.

313. blisseþ hit can mean only, causes it to rejoice, comp. 14/50, 52. Alteration to hine would give a common reflexive use, rejoices; comp. ‘Ne mei nan mon . . . blissien him mid þisse wordle,’ OEH i. 33/29: hine would go with hiȝteþ also, as in ‘hyhte me myd my skentinge,’ ON 532; ‘ic . . . | ellen wylle | habban ⁊ hlyhhan | ⁊ me hyhtan to,’ Cod. Exon. ed. Thorpe, 456/19. J means, blesses my coming.

318. þat—wte may mean, that thou mayest know, but the reading of J gives a better sense, though you find fault with her action, and þat is probably a scribe’s mistake for þah.

320, 323. shulle: the ordinary construction of biddan where its object is expressed by a clause is þat with the subjunctive of the verb, as at 77/60, 141/39; ‘þa bæd he eaðmodlice þæt he hiene ne sende,’ Cura Past., 48/6; the insertion of shulle, which apparently does not alter the sense, is new; comp. ‘Ðeo apostles hine beden ꝥ he scalde suggen hwet þeo saȝe bicweðe,’ OEH 133/23.

327. sume: a mistake of the common exemplar for sumere, as Mätzner pointed out: comp. ‘vor sumeres tide is al to wlonc,’ ON 489.

328. Comp. ‘eorlum bringe | blisse in burgum,’ Grein, Poesie, iii. 189.

333. Comp. 161/203.

334. to wan, to what end, for what purpose: OE. tō hwan (hwon).

340. ginneþ . . . wurche, do compose, or, sing: for the periphrasis see KH 1277 note, Anglia xxix. 129. But Sweet translates ‘anginnað ðonne oftrædlice mare secggean,’ Cura Past. 66/3 ‘often try to speak more.’

341. bi, through the agency of.

342. Comp. 42/210, 48/326, 327. shal, must go: comp. 2/2 note. bon: inf. depending on shal.

345. And note from the church song.

348. wicke tunes, monasteries and other religious houses: OE. wīctūn, which translates L. atria, ‘introite in atria ejus,’ ‘ingangað on his wic-tunas,’ Ps. xcv. 8, xcix. 3: in form the ME. word is possibly influenced by wīce, office; wike occurs three times in ON.

349. to, at; see 163/241.

351. prostes: that is, seculars, upe londe, in their parishes, as distinguished from the clerks (l. 347), who are either monks or canons.

353. Repeated from ON 484. wat (hwat), as far as; an adverbial acc. of extent: comp. ‘wet we on þisse middelerd liuien,’ OEH 11/2, as long as; ‘also wat se we sinegen,’ OEH ii. 101/29, as soon as; ‘also wat swo þe þridde dageð,’ id. 103/26: see ‘alwat,’ 15/84, 215/26.

354 begins a paragraph with large initial in both MSS., but it goes with the preceding line ‘heo walde neoþeles ȝefe answere.’ The owl’s language was threatening. Comp. ‘Þe niȝtingale at þisse worde, | mid sworde an mid speres orde, | ȝif ho mon were, wolde fiȝte,’ ON 1067; ‘men weorreð mid þreo kunne wepnen, mid scheotunge, mid speres ord ⁊ mid sweordes egge,’ AR 60/14.

356. ⁊—schelde goes with orde.

358. ilete: see 165/281.

363. þah, not in J, is necessary to the sense.

365. awille, to their pleasure.

367. Added at bottom of leaf. awolde, in the woodland; for though by her place of birth she was weak in woodcraft, she had learnt wisdom from the men among whom she had been brought up.

369. þenne, thence.

371. Even if she had to speak in the king’s presence. Touore takes a dative: see 102/144 and read kinge with J.

373. Hwat: an exclamation, What!

374. þan kinge: correction by Stratmann: perhaps his is to be read for þis in the preceding line: comp. l. 377.

375. lame, crippled, unable to act: comp. ‘Debilis uel eneruatus lame,’ Wright-Wülcker, Vocab. 162/1.

376. Hunke: strange in form, as in meaning: we should expect inc, as Wells points out: we, J 377 is more consistent.

378. Lateþ beo, cease from your strife.

384. do obviates the repetition of an: comp. 122/185. lahfulnesse, loyal holding to her offer, ll. 145-147, contrasted with unrihtfulnesse, l. 385.

J 390. eu is, of course, a mistake for us.

391. An ȝef is clearly wrong, while ȝet in J, meaning moreover, gives a poor sense. The original may have been, ȝif, als ich wene, þat he wolde, if, as I think, he would be willing to act as umpire. Ȝif þat, if, occurs in ‘ac ȝif þat he forlost his wit,’ ON 693, where J rejects þat and spoils the metre: perhaps the avoidance of the construction has caused the corruption of the text.

394. nuȝte: in all probability the original had nuste. The scribes, being acquainted with the graph st for ȝt, ht (see KH 249 note), mechanically substituted the latter here. C, starting correctly from nuste, wrote nuȝte; J read the original as miste, which for him meant myhte. There is a similar trouble in the text of ON 1300, where for nustest C has miȝtest or mistest and J nustest, ‘very like mistest,’ Wells.

397. utlete: the passage to the sea, now represented by the Fleet between the Chesil Bank and the mainland. Portisham is now about three miles inland, near Abbotsbury, to the monastery in which place it formerly belonged (Dugdale, Monast. iii. 52).

400. þurh &c.: by his delivered judgements and by his writings; that they righted matters as far as Scotland is a playful exaggeration.

407. Why will they not betake themselves to counsel, that is, take counsel: comp. ‘þe traytours of Scotlond token hem to rede, | þe barouns of engelond to brynge to dede,’ Bödd. AE. Dicht. 133/225; ‘Þe Irise oft tok hem to red, | To ston þat douhti kniȝt to ded,’ Horn Childe, 214; ‘Cnihtes eoden to ræde,’ L 19238; Minot vi. 68 note.

409. for teche: see 40/180.

410. rente, income of any sort, here probably from church preferments. a uale stude, in many a place; another playful touch.

413. riche men, men in high place.

414. leteþ, neglect.

415. of . . . con: comp. ‘He couþe of wode ⁊ of ryuere,’ R. of Brunne, Chron. 4006, and contrast ‘Brennes cuðe on hundes; Brennes cuðe an hauekes,’ L 4895.

417. See 44/260 note.

418. litle childre: the appointment of well-connected boys to valuable preferments was an abuse of that time. Comp. ‘Si nepotibus suis paruulis [prelati] mille animas strangulandas tradiderint et dixerint adulatores quod bene faciunt, tales in curiis laudantur,’ Eudes de Cheriton, p. 262. It is frequently referred to in Grosseteste’s letters, as no. 17, 19, 26, 30 &c.

420. In this way their wit adjudges them in error, namely, inasmuch as Master Nicholas continues to endure such neglect. swo is explained by the clause which begins with þat. Wells translates, ‘So they condemn their intelligence [as] in error (foolish),’ but that is against the order of the words and syncopated pres. plurals are rare.

423. In J, þat is a mistake for þar.

425. rede, present, report.

428. al: acc. after telle. ende of orde, end from beginning, that is, from beginning to end; a strange expression, but not more so than ‘ord fram þan ende,’ L 15770, 22983. In OE. as now, ‘from ord oð ende forð,’ Elene, 590; ‘ord and ende,’ Ælf. Hom. ii. 220/34.

430. misrempe: only here and in ‘misrempe ⁊ misdo,’ ON 1353, where J substitutes ‘misnyme,’ and the scribe of C adds in the margin ‘steppe’ as a gloss on rempe. The simple verb occurs twice, ‘Oft mon biþ suiðe rempende,’ Cura Past. 149/12, corresponding to ‘praecipitata actio’ of the Latin original, and ‘þe Bretons sawe þer syde ȝede lowe | þey rempede þem to reste a þrowe,’ R. of Brunne, 3491, where Wace has ‘a une part se sont retret,’ 3160. The root of the word, as of OHG. rimpfan, G. rümpfen, F. rampe, a slope, OE. *hrimpan, Gk. κράμβος, Eng. rimple, rumple, appears to mean, crooked, out of straight, hence ‘rempende’ said of headlong action, ‘rempede,’ drew aside, ‘misrempe,’ to go crooked, out of the straight path, in this place, to act on the cross, be dishonest.

431. crempe, restrain, check; only here and in the compound forcrempeþ, ON 510: related to cramp, and ultimately to the word with which it here rhymes.

433. Absolutely without army or following; comp. ‘Ne scalt þu neuere þider faren; bute mochelere ferde,’ L 3678.

434. ꝥ: þat, until; comp. 72/179 note; ‘æuere heo uerden alle niht; þat hit wes dæi-liht,’ L 19200; KH 123 note. þer in J may mean where, but it is more probably a mistaken expansion of the original. For bicome see 147/134.

Phonology: ... þane 414 is LWS. þane
L.W.S.

ea before r ... gef, EWS. gief
E. W. S.

a + g ... liȝte 119 r. w. riȝte
liȝte

In bisemar 104 ... u for e
e misprinted as italic instead of bold

(2) Of J. ... eo, u- and å-umlaut of i
i misprinted as italic instead of bold

ēo is mostly preserved
eo

The new diphthongs ... of þuhte 275
ofþuhte

Accidence: ... OE. are blo 108, 319, (Portes)hom 395
319 (Portes)hom

Adjectives ... āgen has lost n
agen

Metre: ... þíd|er fúnd|eþ eúr|ich mán 337
text unchanged: error for “éur|ich”?

þe níȝt|ingál|e bigón | þe spéche
níȝt | ingál|e

He wún|eþ át | pórt|es hóm
pórt | es hóm

Þo húl|ẹ one wíl|e hí | biþóȝte
húl | ẹ

Read ... 160/185 vych
corrected by author from “160/186”

5. ... L 4170, MS. O.
L.

132. ... Hendyng, Böddeker, AE. Dicht.
Æ. Dicht.

167. ... KH MS. O. 585
KH.

239-246. ... the bird’s paradise
text unchanged: expected word “birds’”

298. ... (‘to toune,’ MS. O)
Ms. O

XXI. THE BESTIARY

Manuscript: Arundel 292, British Museum: on vellum, 200 × 130 mm.: late thirteenth century. Its miscellaneous contents, English, Anglo-French, and Latin, are described in Altdeutsche Blätter, ii. 141-148. The Bestiary is written continuously, but the initials of the lines and, in the long metres, of the half lines are mostly rubricated. In most cases the long lines are divided into half lines by a space and a stop, sometimes one or both are missing. At ll. 439, 493, two words are carried below the last full line of the folio. Final g of ll. 42, 43, 316, 317, 332, 333, 338, 339, 358, 359, 463, 464, 475, 476, 477, 478, 542, 543, 662 has a stroke or hook added, which appears to be merely ornamental: similarly the g of wrengðe 69, among 147, ðing 392, strong 509; h and b are much alike; ƿ is open at the top as in Genesis and Exodus. Latin headings are in red, some are on the margin, the others at the head of their sections. As will be seen from the footnotes, the manuscript was much corrected or altered over erasures, and that after it was finished, for the substituted words do not always fill the gaps left by the scraper. The first leaves of the exemplar were probably damaged at the lower margin, since defective or difficult passages occur at regular intervals, so l. 32, ll. 89-92, 120, 121, 143, 144, 173, 200, 201.

Editions: Wright, T., Altdeutsche Blätter, Leipzig, 1836, 1840, ii. 99-120; Reliquiae Antiquae, London, 1841, i. 208-27. Mätzner, E., Altenglische Sprachproben, Berlin, 1867, i. 55-75. Morris, R., An Old English Miscellany, 1872, 1-25.

Literature: (1) of the English Bestiary. Hallbeck, E., The Language of the M. E. Bestiary, Lund, 1905. Holthausen, F., Archiv, lxxxviii. 365-9 (emendations). (2) of the Bestiaries in general. A detailed bibliography will be found in Anglia, Beiblatt, x. 274-87, xii. 13-23, xiii. 18, 19, 236-9. The following will provide an introduction to the subject: Ahrens, K., Zur Geschichte des sogennanten Physiologus, Ploen, 1885; Carus, J. V., Geschichte der Zoologie, München, 1872; Land, J. N. P., Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. Physiologus; Lauchert, F., Geschichte des Physiologus, Strassburg, 1889; Mann, M. F., Französische Studien, vi. Heft 2, Heilbronn, 1888; Peters, E., Der Griechische Physiologus und seine orientalischen Uebersetzungen, Berlin, 1898.

Source: With the exception of the last section, the English poem is generally an adaptation of the Latin Physiologus, written in a variety of verse forms as the concluding line informs us, by one Tebaldus or Thetbaldus, who is variously described in the headings as Italicus, Senensis, Placentinus episcopus, and is identified by some with the Abbot Theobald who presided over Monte Cassino from 1022 to 1035. The poem is extant in a large number of manuscripts and early printed editions, the first of which latter with place and date is that of Antwerp, 1487. It will be found printed in Hildeberti Turonensis Archiepiscopi Opera, ed. D. A. Beaugendre, Paris, 1708, p. 1174, from which it is repeated in Migne, P. L., tom. 171, p. 1218, and also as Appendix i, p. 201 in An Old English Miscellany, ed. Morris. The text is very unsettled, apparently scribes and editors felt themselves free to rewrite it on occasion. The passages where the English adapter notably departs from his original are pointed out in the notes. He was, no doubt, acquainted with one of the older Latin prose versions of Physiologus enumerated by M. F. Mann in Anglia vii. 443-6; there is no positive evidence that he knew the Bestiary of Philippe de Thaün.

Phonology: Oral a is a, dareð 310, late 453; a before nasals is a, bane 370, man 194, ðan 157, ðanne 13, wan 386, wanne 10, wankel 446; a before lengthening groups is o, among 147, folde 33, fondeð 532, stonden 497, but gangen 110 (3 times), gangeð 153, 177, gangande 530, standen 531 with Anglian shortening; in gandre 532 d is inorganic; funt 93 (OE. fant) descends from OE. *funt, its use here possibly influenced by Anglo-Fr. funt. æ is mostly a (82 times), barlic 192, fast 161, fasteð 109, qual 598 r. w. al, togaddre 482, 525, ðat 3 &c., was 26 &c.; the exceptions mostly descend from OE. forms in e, or are due to analogy, defte 23 (gedeftan), dele 4 (comp. dell), festeð 438, festen 417, feste 143, 160 (comp. feste adv., Scandinavian influence is also possible), heruest 177 (herfest), meche 586 r. w. reche (gemečča, but make 574, 576, 578, gemaca), nese 3, 223 (næs-), resteð 178, 504 (restan), steppeð 6 (steppan), steppes 5 (stepe), weder 270, 521 (hweþer): togiddre 282 has e raised to i before a dental, wos 628 is *hwās with vowel from hwā. e is e, be 588, fel 109; before lengthening groups, felde 307, lengðe 437, trendled 606, but bi 4, 24 (bi); wilc 4, swilc 248, swilk 338, sille 449 (syllič) r. w. ille, represent forms with y; tetireð 318 (to-teran) has i from Fr. tirer, as in tireð 336, possibly helped by the contracted sing. 3, tyrþ; seie 613 (4) r. w. haliweie, seien 385 imitate other parts of the verb without c, similarly leigeð 272. i is i, biddan 101, is 384, 414 r. w. fis, 509 r. w. fuligewis, mirke 80 r. w. kirke, wile 71 r. w. bile, wille 607 r. w. stille; before lengthening groups i, finden 7, singeð 448, but es 183 r. w. gres, nes 518, merk 341 r. w. werk (due to labial influence), wulle 634, wullen 314. o is o, bodes 136, nos 303 r. w. gōs; before lengthening groups, hornes 236, sorgeden 559 (without i-umlaut), word 35, but forwurden 108, wulde 74 (4), wuldest 385 by consonant influence; ouese 362, eaves, is without i-umlaut, comp. ofesc, owisc and modern Essex dialectal oavis, but in Layamon eouesen. u is u, cumeð 40 &c., dure 134, wude 181, wune 281; before lengthening groups, bunden 443, hunger 306, but towrong 42 r. w. strong, with o before n, ðrist 231, 428 r. w. list (analogy of þyrstan, þyrstig). y is i, dine 646 r. w. wiðerwine, fille 373 r. w. stille, mankin 168, 243 r. w. win, 569 r. w. dim, pit 624 r. w. offrigt, stireð 11 (4), unride 389, 507 r. w. wide, 522 r. w. side, wirm 106 (4); before lengthening groups, birdene 289, minde 263 (3); but dede 171, elp 522 (3) (comp. OE. elpend), stereð 309, furg dat. with u from the nominative, hungren 428, hungreð 390 (analogy of hungor), sundren 577 (analogy of sundor), tunder 419 r. w. wunder (once ‘tunderi,’ Oldest E. Texts 570; comp. also OWScand. tundr), vuemest 639 (ufemest), come 664 r. w. nome. ā is regularly o, cof 124, invariably non 494 r. w. bon, no 148, on 490 (7) r. w. gon, 635 r. w. bon, one (āna) 579 (3), ston 66 r. w. on; before two consonants, bitokneð 152, golsipe 245, gost 214; but a, an frequently, anoðer 262 (unstressed shortened ā), atter 121, 241 with shortened ā extending from the oblique cases (Bülbring § 344), gast 435 r. w. stedefast, 640 r. w. vuemest, which Morsbach, ME. Gr., § 135, anm. 8 deduces from shortened a, nummore 208, 455, through loss of stress, comp. ‘wumme’ 235/21, 121/133. ǣ₁ is e, hete 56 r. w. wete, mene 248 r. w. ouerwene, rede 38 r. w. guðhede, stel 419 (stǣli), wete 190, 209; before two consonants, fles 114, 435, eure 402, neure 16, but haliweie 612, through association with hālig, most 501, moste 384 from māst, goð 66 (5) with o from the plural, oni 378 from ānig, ilk 82 (4), ilc 256, ilkines 180 from ylc. ǣ₂ is also e, dede 82 r. w. mede, forleteð 191, leteð 114, 658, let 156, sed 180 r. w. wed, 658 r. w. ned, slepen 452 r. w. waken, ðer 19 (17), ðere 207, 369, were 61 (8), weren 80 (4), wete 57 r. w. hete, 615 r. w. swete; before two consonants, neddre 107 (3), but lat 327, 328, lateð 271 r. w. wadeð, ðar 8 (7), ðore 81, 88 r. w. lore (þāra), wor 514 (5) from hwāra, wore 578 r. w. more, broken 242 in both of which o represents ā. ē is e, let 642, mede 84 r. w. dede, swetnesse 613; boke dat. 665 has the vowel of the nominative, doð 141 (8) the vowel of the plural. ī is i without exception. ō is o, but kam 29, 352, cam 564, te 107. ū is u without exception. ȳ is i, briche 293, 592 r. w. heuenriche, fir 123, ðirl 112; before two consonants, filðe 156, wissing 246.

ea before r + cons. is a, art 139, dar 647, narwe 113, sarpe 318; before lengthening groups, harde 499 (4), forðward 160, but e in ern 73, ernes 37, flerd 351, middelerd 352 and u in wurð 566 (wearþ) by confusion with the present tense. The i-umlaut is a in chare 457, char 519 (see 359/4), warmen 421, but derne 21, 75, dernelike 326. ea before l + cons. is a, al 116 &c., fallen 56, galle 654, half 460, salt 155; before lengthening groups o, biholdeð 365, kold 495, holdeð 573, olde 581, told 459, twifold 322, wolden 139, wolde 482, but the contracted? bihalt 520, biwalt 521 have shortened a; in helden 136 e is probably miswritten for o: the i-umlaut is a in falleð 58 (5), 526 r. w. calleð, e in elde 40, 108, elded 139, eldere 171, 241, unwelde 41, all before lengthening groups, welle 46, 253. eo before r + cons. is regularly e, berges 481, bergen 8, fer 265, herte 136 (3), stert 6, werc 340; before lengthening groups, erðe 20 (3) and its compounds. To the wur group belong forwurðes 138, forwurðe 196, wurðeð 59 and other forms of weorþan, wurði 346, wurðlic 173, but not forwerpen 257, werpeð 236. The i-umlaut is seen in hirde 33, 34 (hirde), tirgen 275 (not original); hertien 277 is very doubtful: a wyr word is wurdi 145, without umlaut. The u- and å-umlauts of a are wanting, bale 172, 379, care 563, but heuekes 664: o in noule 444 (*nafola, contrast ‘neauele’ 120/98) is ascribed by Morsbach, ME. Gr. § 87, anm. 4, to the influence of v, but a diphthong appears to have developed, the modern East Anglian dialectic word is nowle. The u- and å-umlauts of e are also wanting, forgelues 138, hert 218 (3), heuene 49 &c., werlde 106, fele 297, 463. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i is e, here 280 (5), senden 63, 441, seuene 50, 652, clepeð 221, leneð 510, 523, but limes 41 (3), niðer 4, 500, niðerward 444, siðen 227 r. w. swīðe, liuen 412: widue 578 is Anglian widwe, but wude 181 (*wiudu) has normal u (Bülbring § 264). ea after palatals is a, chaueles 397, sal 16 &c., sakeð 193, sadue 524 r. w. togaddre, but seftes 356; before nasal, same 193, 339, 346 r. w. name, and before lengthening group, o in sonde 431. ie after ġ is e, geld 338, gelt 316, bigeten 490, 494, forgeten 451, but giueð 291; after sc, also e, seld 130 (but scildan gives silden 34, sildeð 130), sending 339, seppande 356 (i-umlaut of ea after sc). EWS. gief is gef 274 (5), if 35 (9): if is used from l. 35 to l. 265 and once again at l. 578, gef, which is probably the author’s form, begins at l. 274. eo after ġ is u in gungling 543, guðhede 39, i in ging 162, gingen 259, gingid 238, after sc, u, sulde 123, suneð 193, sunen 210, 285 r. w. munen, sulen 203 (4). heom is hem 281 &c.

ēa is regularly e, ches 586, ded 26 (9), slep 635, lefful 585, queðsipe 298; the i-umlaut is e (Anglian), gemen 260, here 2 &c., leueð 85, nede 100 (9), nedeð 113, 164, remeð 527; before two consonants, bekneð 213. ēo is also e, be 21 &c., bet 213, bitwen 281, crepeð 111 (3), deuel 164 (5), der 322 r. w. her (4), undergede 568 r. w. manhede, wel 600 (Ang. hwēl, Bülb. § 217) r. w. wel; before two consonants, brest 117 (4), helde 173, but diuel 21, an early instance of this shortening, cripelande 111 from crypel; the i-umlaut is e, strenen 485, ten 109. gesīene is sene 356, gīet, get 62, 385 r. w. flet. ēa after palatals is e, ger 492 r. w. her, sep 34, 483.

a + g is ag, dages 607, drageð 6, sage 475, but daies 109, 635; mugen 323 has the form of the subjunctive mugon; sei 159 descends from sege, seieþ 347 from segeþ, seit 577 from segð. æ + g is divided between ai and ei, dai 29 (7), 582 r. w. ai, daies 109, 635, faier 629, lai 28, 633, mai 110 (9), maig 64 (3), mainles 110; breid 548, breides 344 (bregd), dei 216, 576, deies 309, meiden 23, 442, seide 191, 353, seid 549: fagen 394, 415 r. w. dragen is Anglian fagen; muge 126, 187 descends from LWS. muge. e + g is ei, weie 4; forbredes 138 comes from forbrēdan, agen 185, 457 from agēn: e + h is seen in hightes 135, 161, hightest 133. i + g: the spirant has been absorbed in lieð 15; final ig is i, mani 429, manie 441, wurði 346. i + h is ig, idigt 364, sigte 92, wigt 235. o + h is og, ðogt 501, 559, but forbroiden 108, not from -brogden, but -brōden, with a variation which perhaps mimics the alternation of the ME. infinitives breden (brēdan) and breiden (bregdan), see NED. s.v. broiden. u + g is ug, fugeles 308, mugen 503, 643, but the spirant has disappeared in fules 305, 312. y + h is ig, drigten 26 (3), fligt 43, 54, offrigt 625 (late North. fryhta). ā + g, h is og, og 263 (3), ogen 210 (4), ogt 623 (āht), but ovt 560 r. w. ðogt 577, out 521, forms due to the scribe: steg 639 (stāh) has borrowed e, as often elsewhere, from the third class of strong verbs. ǣ₁ + g, h is ag, agte 477, er, meaning or, 99 (9) is descended from ǣgþer, while er, before, 191 (4) is ǣr: neggen 122, negge 3 represent genēgan. ǣ₂ + g is seen in haliweie 612 (wǣg). ī + g: in sti 152 r. w. bi, g has disappeared. ō + g, h is og, inog 118, ðogte 354, nogt 122 (9), but nout 11, 593, 622 r. w. ogt, nowt 192, 214, forms due to the scribe. ȳ + g, drie 615. ea + h, ht is seen in magt (mæht) 426, magti 175, waxe 196, waxeð 124, waxen 445 (wæxan); the i-umlaut in migt 234, 532 r. w. wiht, migte 21 (3), nigt 47, but sloð 329 (WS. sliehþ) r. w. loð, corresponds to North. slāþ, influenced by OScand. slá. eo + ht is igt, brigt 55 r. w. fligt, figtande 128, rigt 52, rigten 102, rigteð 125, but sexe 50 (Anglian sex), bitwixen 293 (betweohs); without umlaut is seð 49 r. w. teð (WS. siehþ) as if from sēoþ. ēa + g, h is eg (Anglian), egen 16 (5), heg 18, hege 562; eilond 387, 414 (īegland) is from Anglian ēgland. ēo + g is also eg, fleges 366, flegeð 48 (3), legeð 350, 577; ēo + h, ligtlike 315; without i-umlaut are fleð 123, 165 (comp. flēð, Durh. Rit.), teð 48 r. w. seð, 274, but ligten 20, 289. ā + w is ow, ou, ov, knoweð 106, sowles 103, soule 158 (4), knov 133, but soge 386 as if from *sāhe, sawen 599, possibly miswritten for sowen. ī + w, appears in newe 60 (5), neweð 39 (5), newe 141, all from Anglian forms with ēo. ō + w: nowor 35 represents *nōwar, nōwer from nāhwǣr, nāhwār. ēa + w is seen in ðewes 143 and finally in deu 7: ēo + w in rewen 437, rewe 206, reufulike 528, speweð 116, finally in gu 549 (4): tre 508, 516, 524, 551 r. w. we, is Anglian tre(o): the i-umlaut is wanting in trewe 163, 589, untrewe 61, 96.

In syllables without stress o is levelled to e, wankel 446, hunger 203, siker 207, wunder 194, sumer 176, te 107. a appears for e in mereman 442, influenced by man. An e, generally unmetrical, has been inserted in deuẹles 436 (but deules 665), folegen 269, folẹgeð 431, 620 (but folgen 439, 643), fugeles 308, lagelike 573, steuẹne 561, husebondes 299, sineginge 149, wisedom 324, and i similarly in hardilike 177, fulịgewis 508 (comp. fuliwis 445), haliweie 612 (‘haleweie,’ L 23072), sinịging 256: e is omitted in biforn 62, 68, 268, but metre requires everywhere biforen. The prefix be- is bi-, bisetten 167: ge- is i in imong 476, it appears also in uniemete 459 (ungemǣte) with ie for i as in attrie 228, perhaps an Anglo-Norman interchange of these symbols. But ge- is generally lost, as in bodes 136, minde 263, vnride 389, unwelde 41. on- is a in among 147, to-, te in tetireð 318. redi 125 (3) is a ME. formation from gerǣde + ig, the termination in sille is -lic; -ung is ing, drowing 567, groning, woning 662, lesing 478.

Geminated final consonants are invariably simplified as web 363, coc 300, stoc 224, fel 109, hil 18, spel 335, den 8, fen 630, mankin 168, sin(ful) 82, win 244, char 519, dar 647, fer 265, pit 624; often too medially as rr, chare 457, dure 145; nn, wiðerwine 645, cune 148, cunen 457; þþ, siðen 41 (5); cc, fecheð 179, reche 585, meche 586. For w, u is written in sadue 524. r is doubled in warre 456; metathesis occurs in ðrist 231, 428. n is added in hauen 183, boðen 181, boden 525, doubled in drigtinnes 242, vnneðes 113, omitted in euelike 213, and frequent o for on. p is doubled in steppes 5, inserted in sampnen 484. f between vowels and vowellikes is u, rauen 311, geuelic 173, ouese 362, culuer 650, derue 205, once v in weveð 360 (but weueð 363), otherwise it is f. f is doubled in off prep. 104, 241, 264, 616, while the adverb appears as of 657. t is doubled in little 200, 432, beside litel 131, lost in beste 514, for it th is written in cethegrande 383: ts is sc in giscing 245, c in milce 151. d is doubled in togaddre 482, gaddreð 180, omitted in selcuðes 441, as already in OE. selcūþ and in sille 449, but already syllic in OE. For d, ð is written in ðon 328, faðer 13, queðsipe 298, seð 191, for þ, d in boden 525, broder 287, dede 31, 625, filde 160, lodlike 357, swide 360, swideð 54, dat 634, de 165, dridde 29, drowing 567, wurden 250, mostly due to the scribe’s failure to complete ð: þ is t in forsaket 81, wit 136: after voiceless t, s pronominal words begin with t instead of þ, tanne 216, tat 18, te 209, (at) te 134, 361, 586, ter 329, tin 161, tine 159, tis 73, 154, tu 133 (7), tus 77 &c., but de 192, once after d, tu 150. In forðward 160, ð has been wrongly inserted. sć is s, initially, sadue 524, sakeð 193, sal 16 &c., same 193 (3), sarpe 318, seftes 356, seld 130, sending 339, sep 34, seppande 356, silden 34, sinen 12, sipes 411, sonde 431, sop 356, sulde 123, suneð 193, sures 203, once sc, scrifte 159, once sk, skinbon 272, NED compares NFris. skenbiin, WFris. skynbonke; medially, golsipe 245, queðsipe 298, but ss in wissing 246 (*gewȳscung); finally, fis 383, fles 114, 435. The stop c is k before e and i and in combination with other consonants, forsaket 81, kinde 10, bitokneð 152, drink 158, but craft 111, in other positions mostly c, cam 564, uncuð 396, blac 598, swic 149, but kam 29, 352, unkuð 97, swik 344, suk 454, smake 3 (ME. formation from smæcc): cc is ck, necke 303. č is ch, chaueles 397, ches 586, erðchine 308, chare 457, char 519, briche 293, 592, eche 139, quenchet 256, riche 480, but ic 38 &c., sekeð 46, kirke 78, Scand. in form, kolde 486, kold 495, mirke 80, merk 341 (see Björkman 146), micle 536, mikle 542 (comp. OWScand. mikil), wilc 4, swilc 248, swilk 338, ilik 343, lic 662. čč is cch, dreccheð 88, feccheð 301, but fecheð 179, reche 585, meche 586 and fetchen 265, witches 427, early instances of tch, but ?wikke 468. cw is qu, qw, quenchet 256, qwemeð 190, queðsipe 298, quike 253. Palatal g is written g, bigeten 490, forgeten 451, gemen 260, geld 338, forgelues 138, ger 491, get 62, ging 162, gingen 259, gingid 238, giueð 291, gu 549, gungling 543, guðhede 39, undergede 568 (undereode); it is doubled in negge 3, neggen 122, lost in if 35 &c. The voiceless spirant is also represented by g, as in egen 16, ðogte 354, soge 386, furg 307, inog 118, ðurg 3: doubled in suggeden 559 (in Orm suhhghen), now dialectal, mostly Northern, sough, soo. h is lost in ire 183, added in heten 421: hl is l, lene 110, lepeð 230, lides 16, list 585, listen 74, louerd 19, lude 377; hn is n, necke 303; hr, r, raðe 317, rem 13, remeð 527, rewen 437; hw, w, wan 386, wat 95, weder 270, wel 600, wete 190, wilc 4, wile 648, wite 599, wos 628, wu 20 &c., and qu in qual (Northern).

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. a. dine 646, heuenriche 18, 292, hirde 33, bale 379, golsipe 245, se 404, tre 508, 516, wete 190, 209 have e corresponding to their OE. vocalic ending, bodi 172, sti 152 have lost final g; seppandẹ 356 and haliweie 612 r. w. seie have added e; mere 448 is shortened from meremenn. Gen. -es, bukes 330, foxes 314, sees 407, but heuenriche 558; brest 121, 160 is a composition form: dat. -e, bale 172, bile 70 and 15 others with vowel termination in the nom., hauen 183 has added n (nunnation, 457/11), dede 31, dele 4 and 31 others with inflection, of which ouese 362 is the only word of more than one syllable: without inflection are bodi 130 (3), drigtin 104, meiden 23, stel 419, der 322, 627, rem 13, 611 and 90 others mostly with long stem vowel or of more than one syllable; always o dei 576, bi dai 47 &c.; many examples are in rhyme as mod 249, 348, muð 395, ðogt 501, 559, wold 620. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, chaueles 397, witches 427, daies 109, fodredes 361; there are no weak forms: neuters are limes 41, 63, sipes 411, 417, 454, bodes 136, 213, lides 16, sep 34, 483, ger 491, 492, ðing 358: datives have -es, berges 481, breides 344, briddes 660, finnes 445, ðewes 143, ðornes 237, limes 131, wiles 297, but der 603. Of the fem. nouns of the strong declension mire 175, neddre 107, 129, same 193, widue 578 have e corresponding to their OE. vocalic ending in the nom., dede 468, 469, sowle 586 have added e, all others are without e, culuer 650, ned 142, woning 662 (the verbal substantives are rarely inflected in any case). Genitives are sinnes 158, sowles 103: birde 117 (comp. byrdtīd), erðe 630, helle 638 (comp. hellewīte), heuene 638 (comp. heuen 170), kirke 134, 586, soule 158 may be genitives, but are more probably composition forms. Dat. -e, birdene 289, filde 160, godcundnesse 644, manhede 567, migte 587, werlde 106, sineginge 149, stefninge 451, but blis 140, 638, hid 120, magt 426, migt 416, tunder 419, werld 201, and the verbal nouns lesing 478, reming 542, sending 339, swiking 477, wissing 359 are without inflection. In the acc. forðward 160, migt 234, 532, ned 659, stund 309, 408 and the verbal nouns billing 316, 338, foxing 333, giscing 245, drowing 567, siniging 256, tokning 463, wissing 246, 255 are without inflection, bote 150, guðhede 39, nede 100, 216, 280, soule 172, 478, steringe 451 with 27 others have e, besides fille 319, 373, forbisne 322. Pl. n. are fedres 56; dat. harmdedes 299, misdedes 151, sinnes 75; a. forbisnes 219, kindes 218, seftes 356 (sometimes masc.), sinnes 159, stefnes 448, agte 477. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in the nom., bane 370, sunne 12; d. make 576, erðchine 308; a. fode 64 (5), wille 330, but fod 207, licham 214 before a vowel: genitives are belles 541, huntes 548: pl. n. egen 44, 80, fleges 366, husebondes 299; dat. egen 16, 87; a. egen 55, willen 515. The minor declensions are represented by fet (steppes) pl. a. 5; teð pl. a. 318; man s. n. 73, mannes s. g. 148, man s. d. 444, a. 124, men pl. n. 305, sipmen 451, manne pl. g. 24, men ?pl. d. 144, manne 359, men pl. a. 428; boc s. n. 350, boke s. d. 38 (4); furg s. d. 307; gos s. a. 302; nigte s. d. 588, bi nigt 47, 150, o nigt 576, nigt s. a. 582; faðer s. n. 13, fader 30, s. d. 640; broder s. n. 287, s. a. 535; fend s. n. 349.

Adjectives which in OE. end in a vowel have -e throughout, briche 592, eche 139, minde 263, newe 210, softe 176, but swet s. d. neut. 231 (comp. swētnes, swōt) and merk s. d. f. 341 have lost e; those in -ig lose g, attrie 228 (with ie for i), droui 407, holi 642, redi 311, weri 511. Weak inflections are s. voc. cristene 133, d. rigte 70, sinfule 340, a. olde 210, 581: strong are s. n. f. bare 121, ilike 442, like 444, s. d. m. rigte 435, s. d. f. quike 253; others are uninflected in the singular: mikel s. n. m. 565 has d. mikle 542, but mikel 230, pl. n. mikle 433, 536: litel s. n. neut. 131 has s. a. f. little 200, pl. n. 432. The pl. n. has -e, kolde 486, leue, loðe 594, warre, wise 456; the exceptions are all predicative, fagen 394, 415, kold 495, siker 207, strong 63, twifold 471, uncuð 396, war 204, wod 250; dat. -e, iuele 343, wite 599, but dern 75 r. w. ern; acc. -e, erðliche 213, but brigt 55 r. w. fligt. ān as article unstressed is a 28, 46 &c., before consonants, an 391, 282 before vowels and h, twice 106, 596 before w, divided in a neilond 387, 414, while the numeral and indefinite pronoun is on 268, 530, (on) on 223, 635, one s. d. neut. 264; āna, alone, is one 579, 580, 622: nān as adj. is no 148, 444 &c., non 64 &c., none s. d. neut. 65, as pronoun, non 267, 271, 285, 494, 556, 597. Adjectives used as nouns with inflection are s. d. geuelike 214, 593, gode 65, nakede 165, pl. grete 400, sinfule 167, selcuðes 441, smale 399: nouns used as adjectives are flerd, fox 351. Comparatives and superlatives have -e, s. fairere 597, more 194, beste 514, firste 552, moste 384, swetteste 392, pl. eldere 171, 241, but best 667 r. w. nest, vuemest 639 r. w. gast, most 501 before vowel.

The personal pronouns are ic 38 (6), before vowel, h or palatal g, i 37 (5) before consonants, we, wes (= we es) 651, ur pl. g. 285, 661, vs, ðu, tu 133 &c., ðe, te 142, gu pl. d. 549, 575. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 2, 330, ge f. 175, 179, get (= ge it) 195, it neut. 29, 450, itt 601, d. him m. 5, 521, hire f. 184, 499, ire 183, a. him m. 13, 128, hire f. 299; pl. n. he 264, 625, g. her 556, d. hem 281, 546, a. 369, is 7, 137, 304. Reflexives are us 663, ðe 160, him s. d. 64, 103, 109, himself 65, hire 372, him s. a. 8 (13), hire 178, 365, hem pl. a. 413, 421, 484: definitive is himseluen 520: possessives are s. ðin 156, tin 161, ði, before consonant, 160, 478, pl. ðine 151, tine 159, ðin 477 before vowel; s. his 3 &c., pl. hise 16 &c., his, before vowel, 44, 55; hire 179, 496; vre 19 &c., here 280, 427. The definite article is ðe without inflection, te 13, 623, de 165, 192, atte 134, 361, 586: s. ðat 18 &c., tat 18, pl. ðo 432, 604 are demonstratives. The compound demonstrative is s. ðis 77, tis 73, pl. ðise 398. The relatives are ðe 19; it means, of which 621, during which 201, and ðat 13, it means, in which 517, on which 206, about which 191, that which 184, 470, dat, for whom, 634. Interrogatives are wat 127, 133, 170, wos 628, wilc 4; the correlative is swilc 248, swilk 338. Indefinites are wo so 335, 577; wat 95; man 2, 194, 221, 304; sum 461; oni 378; oðres s. g. 273, oðer s. d. 378, a. 267, pl. oðre 276 (6), oðer 603; an oðer 10, 262; ilk 82, ilc 256, ilkines 180; eurilc 257, eurilc 286; mani 429, pl. manie 441 (4), manikines 358; fele 297, 463; al 54 &c., all 211, pl. alle 5, 241.

Only three verbs have the infinitive in -e, biswike 327 r. w. dernelike, chare 457 r. w. ware, rede 38 r. w. guðhede, one or two in -ien, luuien 135, ?hertien 276, the rest, in number 111, of which 18 are of the second weak conjugation, end in -en. The dat. inf. is not inflected, its sign is to (31) or for to (6). Presents are s. 1. haue 549, mene 248, seie 557 (4); 2. hauest 137, forbredes, forgelues, forwurðes 138; 3. falleð 58 (4), wakeð 33, wuneð 401 (5) and over 200 others in -eð; hatieð 304, rotieð 311; forsaket 81, quenchet 256; atbrested 548, bekned 213, gingid 238, bilimpes 275; contract verbs, fleð 123, 165, teð 48 r. w. seð, 274, seð 49, sloð 329 r. w. loþ, contracted forms are abit 581 r. w. sit, bet 213, bit 195, 211, 370, 379 (read biteð in all these places), bit 330, bit 192 (read bideð), biwalt 521 r. w. bihalt, fet 214, 337 r. w. ket, 605, fint 209 (read findeð), flet 386 r. w. get, fret 319, 373 (read freteð in both places), gelt 316, geld 338, hitt 365, lat 327, 328, lið 11 (read lieð as in l. 15), seit 577, sit 520, 576, 580 r. w. abit, smit 391, underset 516 r. w. bet, stant 2; pl. 1. hauen 176 (3), wunen 201, haue we 295, fele we 552, haue 659; 3. beren 278, cumen 276 (4), haten 299, noten 488, sundren 577, waken 453; sen 413, ten 266, hatien 305, cume 536: subjunctive s. 3. fare 99, se 122, tide 499, but derie 186; pl. 1. bimene we 663, leue we 590, luue we 587, 590, seke we 207, wende we 588: imperative s. 2. bid 150, help 144, swic 149, herkne 506, newe 141, reche 585, sei 159, deme 145; pl. 2. hereð 45, muneð 575. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. lai 28, 633; subj. s. 2. soge 386; 3. sete 388: I b. s. 3. bar 24, kam 28, 352, cam 564; pl. 3. broken 242; subj. s. 3. come 22: I c. s. 3. wan 632, wurð 566: II. s. 3. ros 31, 637, steg 639: III. s. 3. ches 586: IV. s. 3. sop 356, stod 557: V. s. 2. hightest 133, hightes 135, 161; 3. fel 551, let 642, slep 635; ?subj. pl. 1. helde we 173. Participle present: V. gangande 530; past: I b. broken 137, forbroken 108: I c. bred 117, bunden 443, doluen 27, forbroiden, forwurden 108, towrong 42 r. w. unstrong: II. fordriuen 411, sinen 12, writen 572: III. forloren 69: IV. faren 589: V. IV. waxen 445: V. biholden 512, fallen 570, sawen 599. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. dennede 23, filstnede 30, seide 191, ðogte 354; pl. 3. remeden 561, suggeden 559, wuneden 493. Participles present: cripelande 111, figtande 128, secande 536; past: cloðed 124, cristned 134, elded 139, eried 308, herd 459, idigt 364, ikindled 10, lered 239, offrigt 625, seid 549, set 220, tokned 627, told 621, 628, trendled 600; inflected are cloðedẹ s. d. 166, forbisnede s. d. 464. Minor Groups: og pr. s. 263 (3), ogen 1 pr. pl. 210 (3), pr. pl. 653; can pr. s. 79, canne (= can he) 534, cunen pr. pl. 457, cune 2 pr. s. subj. 148, cunne pr. s. subj. 7 (3); dar pr. s. 647, dure 2 pr. s. subj. 145; salt 2 pr. s. 155, sal pr. s. 16 &c., sulen 1 pr. pl. 203, 292, pr. pl. 485, 594, sulde pt. s. 123; mai pr. s. 110 (9), maig 64, 400, 433, mugen 1 pr. pl. 323, 643, pr. pl. 503, muge pr. s. subj. 126, 187, migte pt. s. 21, 554, 556, migten pt. pl. 560; moten 1 pr. pl. 210, mote 2 pr. s. subj. 151; ben inf. 84 (4), to ben dat. inf. 263, 653, art 2 pr. s. 140, 162, is pr. s. 10, 662, es 183, nes 518, beð 313, ben 1 pr. pl. 34, 204, be we 205, arn pr. pl. 41 (11), aren 394, 415, ben 450, senden 63, 441, be pr. s. subj. 21, 615, ben 1 pr. pl. subj. 207, 293, be we 589, 655, ben pr. pl. subj. 282, be 2 pr. s. imp. 163, was pt. s. 26 &c., weren 1 pt. pl. 250, pt. pl. 80, 559, 625, were 2 pt. s. subj. 134, pt. s. subj. 61 (7), wore 578; wile 1 pr. s. 575, wille 37, wile pr. s. 71 (12), wille 34 (5), wulle 634, wilen pr. pl. 367, wullen 314, wile pr. s. subj. 4, 327, 328, wuldest 2 pt. s. 385, wulde pt. s. 553, 2 pt. s. subj. 74, pt. s. subj. 353, 354; don inf. 330, 531, ðon 328, fordon 354, to don dat. inf. 212, 515, 661, doð pr. s. 141 (10), do we 1 pr. pl. subj. 172, 205, 657, dede pt. s. 171, don pp. 663; gon inf. 155, 225, goð pr. s. 66 (5), gon pr. pl. 482, 491, 1 pr. pl. subj. 35, 254, go 2 pr. s. imp. 157, undergede pt. s. 568.

Noteworthy among adverbs are lic, equally, 662, nede, of necessity, 129 (nīede), ðer wile, whilst, 648, welle, very, 18 (also in Layamon, 29622), which seems to have added a superfluous adverbial e; among prepositions, mitte 454, 546, one 334, 388, onẹ 420; conjunctions, ⁊ (ant), meaning if, 2, er, or, 99 &c., wiles, whilst, 88 (4), wor so, wheresoever, 602 (4).

Vocabulary: The Scandinavian element is large: ai 46 (7), arn 41 &c., aren 394, 415, blast 541, bone 101, boðe 47, boðen 181, boden 525, brest 458 (OE. byrst would in this text be birst), brennen 249, brenning 229, brinneð 227, bro 598 (OWScand. brá), calleð 527, call(ing) 563, costes 284, derflike 313, feg 160, fro 31 &c., gapeð 390, gres 182, heil 59, ille 410, ill(ing) 317, ket 336, lage 15 &c., leiðe 357, oc 55, 159, or 76, 116, 119, rapelike 178, reiseð 13, reisen 553, renneð 178, scaðe 447, skemt(ing) 332, skies 50, swideð 54, takeð 71, til 12, ðeðen 364, ðog 21 &c., (un)skil 331, wille 35, wrengðe 69, wrong 62, probably hileð 318, vncost 148, wore 578, possibly fikeð 532, listneð 306 (comp. hlystan), liuenoðe 200, (o) twinne 195; influenced in form are atbrested 548, atbrosten 458, come 664, frame 323 (fremu), in meaning, onde 310. French are bec 42, capun 300, caue 186, cete 397, cul 604, dragunes 622 (‘draguns,’ P. de Thaün), gin 521, grace 104, haleð 184, leun 2, market 378, panter 596, poure 144, pride 247, prophetes 555, rime 572, robb(inge) 657, simple 655, spuse 587, tireð 336, turtres 572, uenim 116 (venin); pre-Conquest Latin is crede 98. The proper name Moyses 553 is the Vulgate form.

Dialect: The author of the Bestiary lived in East Anglia, sufficiently near its northern border to account for such rhymes as loð : sloð 328, 329, stedefast : gast 434, 435, vuemest (read -mast) : gast 639, 640. The large Scandinavian element also points to the northern part of East Anglia. How far he was responsible for the Northern or North Midland broken 242, offrigt 625, qual 598, sawen 599, senden 63, 441, soge 386, s as the regular and frequent representative of sć, as in sadue, sal, sarpe &c., the 2, 3 pr. s. in -es, bilimpes 275, forbredes, forgelues, forwurðes 138, higtes 135, 161, and the participles in -ande it is impossible to determine. But he certainly did not write gangande 530, secande 536, and transmission through a Northern or North Midland copy may accordingly be assumed. Our manuscript was written by a scribe of the Southern border of East Anglia. He has left his mark in a number of syncopated presents which spoil the metre and probably in the case of others where the full form is metrically admissible, in luuien 135, hatieð 304, rotieð 311, wulle 634, wullen 314, and probably in were 134 &c., since wore 578 r. w. more is the only form controlled by rhyme. He is also responsible for dede 171, stereð 309, æ + g as ei, dei 576, meiden 23 &c., for vuemest 639, daies 109, 635, out 521, ovt 560, nout 11, 593, 622, nowt 192, 214, occasional alterations without any systematic attempt at revision. We may perhaps venture the guess that the poem was written in Lincolnshire and copied in Essex.

Metre: Thetbaldus attempts a variety of metres, ‘temptans diversis si possem scribere metris;’ leonine hexameters for his Lion, Eagle, Siren, Onocentaur and Panther, leonine elegiacs for the Ant, Fox, Stag, Whale and Elephant, sapphics for the Serpent, catalectic dactylic tetrameter for the Spider, adonics for the Turtle. The English adapter emulates his versatility and moreover mixes different kinds of verse in the same article. In alliterative long line are ll. 1-24, 32-35, 106-151, 156-161, 164-166, 170-173, 175-179, 184-197, 199-204, 297-299, 304-315, 318, 356, 357, 360-370, 376-381, 441-448, 451, 458, 459. Of these the great majority are of the first kind described on p. 463, lines with alliteration only, as 2-8, 10, 11, 15, 18-21, 23, 106-111 &c. Of the second are 13, 16, 114, 134-136, 141, 150, 171, 173, 176, 185, 195, 312-315, 364, 370, 376, 379, 380, 459, of the third, 24, 112, of the fourth 12, 116, 118, 144, ?298, 305, 306, 362, 381, but groups of lines in this class, such as 26-31, 152-155 have attained to their full development as syllabic verse and are printed like the octosyllables and similar metres from which they are indistinguishable. Lines of the fifth class are discussed in the notes. They are numerous, indeed the parts written in alliterative verse are in much worse state than the rest of the text, probably because the scribe’s ignorance of the technique of the native metre gave him greater scope for alteration. The changes he has made are of the kind described on pp. 464, 465, prominent among them is the rearrangement of words, mostly in a prose order, which often results in the elimination of rhymes. These rhymes are mostly imperfect; inflectional as reiseð : makeð 13, drinkeð : neweð 118 &c., luken : egen 16, leuen : luuien 135, name : queðsipe 298, ouese : felde 362, or partial in correspondence of sound, as sinen : abuten 12, dure : were 134, herte : kirke 136, men : abuten 144, hulen : fules 305, wunder : hunger 306, mere : -mete 459. The most frequent alliterative combination is 2 + 1, as at 4, 15, 18, 19, 106-109, 113, 115, 117, 365 (hitt, hole, biholdeð) &c., it occurs in at least one third of the lines; next in number is 1 + 1, as in 5, 10, 16, 20, 21, 23, 34, 35, 110, 196 (forwurðe, waxe), 458 (atbrosten, brest) &c., 2 + 2 is seen in 111, 123, 160, 363, 367, 1 + 2 in 2, 11, 114, 128, 135, crossed alliteration in 3, 6, 148, 157, 161, 170, 203, 360, 445 (fis, fuliwis, finnes, waxen), 448, distinct alliteration in 147, 165.

The septenarius is the metre of ll. 205-216, 294, 295, 572-579, 585-594. For the structure of this verse, see p. 327; the following is a restoration and scansion of the passages in the Bestiary.

205 do wé | forðí | so dóð | ðis dér || ðánne | bé we | gléwe,

Ón ðat | daí ðat | dóm sal | bén || ðát it | ús ne | réwe.

Séke we | hére | sóules | fód || ðat wé | ben sík|er ðóre,

Só ðis | wírm in | wínter | ís || ðan gé | ne tíl|eð móre.

ðe mír|e sún|eð ðe bár|lic séd || ðanne gé | fíndeð | ðe wéte;

210 ðe óld|e lág|e we óg|en súnen || ðe né|we we mót|en séken.

ðe córn | ðat gé | to cáu|e béreð || ál get | bíteð o|twínne;

ðe lág|e us lér|eð gód | to dón || ant ús | forbéd|eð sínne:

It bét|eð ús | érðlich|e bódes || ant bék|neð héu|enlíke;

It féd|eð ðe líc|ham ánt | te góst || oc nógt | o géu|enlíke.

215 vre lóu|erd críst | it lén|e ús || ðát his | láge us | féde

nú in | érd ant o | dómes | deí || ant tán|ne we háu|en néde.

294 ðús is | úre | lóuerdes | láge || lúue|líke to | fíllen;

hérof | háue we | míkel | néd || ðat wé | ðar wíð | ne díllen.

572 In bók|e ís | ðe túr|tres líf || wríten | ál o | ríme;

wu lá|gelík|e ge hóld|eð lúue || ál hir|e líf|tíme.

géf ge | ónes | máke | háueð || fro hím | ne wíl|e séden:

575 múneð|, wímmen|, híre | líf || íc it | wíle gu | réden.

bi hí|re mák|e ge sít | onígt, || o deí | ge góð | ant flégeð:

wó so | séit he | súndren | ógt || i seí|e ðát | he légeð.

Oc if hér|e mák|e wér|e déd || ant gé | wídu|e wóre,

ðánne | flégeð ge | óne ant | fáreð || non óð|er wíl|e móre.

585 Líst ilk | léfful | mán her|tó || ant hér|of óft|e réche;

vre sówl|e át|te kírk|e dúre || chés hire | críst to | méche.

hé is | úre | sóule | spúse || lúue we | hím wið | mígte,

ant wénd|e wé | néure | fro hím || be daí|e né | be nígte.

ðog he bé | fro úr|e sígt|e fáren || bé we him | álle | tréwe:

590 non óð|er lóu|erd ne léu|e wé || ne lúu|e nón|e néwe.

léue we | ðát he | líueð | aí || úp on | héuen|ríche,

ant ðéð|en hé | sal cúm|en éft || ant bén | us ál|le bríche,

fór to | démen | álle | mén || oc nógt | on géu|elíke;

hise lóð|e súl|en to héll|e fáren || hise léu|e tó | his ríche.

The writer handles this metre skilfully; the stresses coincide generally with the natural accent and the rhymes are good. The variations from the norm of the verse are those described on p. 328, but in proportion fewer.

For the octosyllable see p. 564. In this metre are ll. 26, 27, 37-46, 48, 49, 54-59, 62-64, 68-71, 230-236, 238, 239, 250, 257-260, 262-271, 276, 278, 279, 281, 282, 284, 285, 288, 289, 292, 293, 322, 323, 325-331, 334-337, 341, 343-354, 359, 371, 372, 383-388, 390-402, 405-416, 419-424, 426-439, 454, 455, 463, 465, 466, 475, 476, 480-491, 494-496, 499-501, 508-511, 516-526, 528-533, 536-541, 546-549, 551-570, 580-583, 596-625, 627-648, 650-667. Of these some are to be emended, others are peculiar in scansion, as, ðo úr|e drígt|en déd | wás 26, ánt | his ég|en ár|en dím 44, His béc | is gét | bifór|en wróng 62, Bíll|eð tíl | his béc | bifóren 68, háueð | ðe wréng | ðe ál | forlóren 69, Ne háu|eð ðát | uením | non mígt 234, so hért | doð hís|e hórn|es ál 258, óc | on swímm|eð bí|forén || ant áll|e ðe ód|re fól|egén 268, 269, álle | ðe óð|re míd|e cúmen 276, bér|en him óf | ðat wát|er grúnd 278, ant bríng|ẹð us in sínn|ẹ ant tér | us slóð 329, ét|en ant drínk|en wíð | unskílle 331, máni | alsó | ðe fóx|es náme 345, wúr|ði árn | to háu|ẹn to sáme 346, dóð | ge hém | non óð|er gód 372, Céthe | gránde | ís a | gret fís 383, ðerforẹ óð|re físs|es tó | him drágen 393, wúneð | ðis fís | wið ðé | se grúnd 401, ne maí | it wún|en ðán | ðer ínne 406, aneí | lond he wén|en ðát | it ís 414, Of stón | mid stél|e ín | ðe túnder 419, wo só | him fól|ẹgeð fínd|eð sónde 431, ne cúm|en hé | nummór|e úp 455, Féle | men háu|en ðe tók|eníng 463, ðat wán|ne hír|e hárd|e tíde 499, slépeð | bi ðe tré | ál in | ðe sádue 524, ðán|ne cúm|eð ðér | on gángen 530, mánie | ant mík|le cúm|en sáken 536, ðis élp | he reís|en só | on stálle 547, Móy|ses wúld|e hím | up reísen 553, mígt|e hé | it nó | wigt fórðen 554, áft|er hím | prophét|es álle 555, ðo rém|ẹden he áll|e lúd|ẹre stéuẹne 561, hem tó | cam críst | urẹ héu|en kíng 564, ðre dág|es ál | he slép|en wílle 607, ðánne | áfter | ðe ðrídd|e daí 608, wið swét|nessẹ áls | ic ít | gu seíe 613, wor só | he wálk|eð ón | ðe lónde 617, wor só | he wálk|eð, wor só | he wúneð 618, ful wél | his lúu|ẹ he táun|ẹde mán 631, ðannẹ hé | was déd | in blód | ant bón 636, v́p | he rós | ant rém|ẹdẹ iwís 637, ínto | his gód | cundnéss|ẹ afín 644, it óg|en áll|e to bén | us mínde 653, gé | ne háu|eð in hír|ẹ non gálle 654, ðe wírm | ge lét|eð ant líu|ẹð bi séd 658, In wát|ẹr ge is wís | of héu|ẹkes cóme 664, In hól|ẹ of stón | ge mák|ẹð hirẹ nést 666.

Verses of three measures are ll. 28-31, 47, 50-53, 60, 61, 65-67, 152-155, 162, 163, 167 (two lines), 168, 169, 180-183, 218-229, 237, 241-249 (241, 242 originally four lines, see note), 251-256, 272-275, 277, 280, 286, 287, 290, 291, 300-303, 316, 319, 320, 324, 332, 333, 338-340, 358, 373, 374, 389, 403, 404, 417, 418, 450, 456, 457, 461, 464, 467-474, 477, 478, 492, 493, 497, 498, 502, 503, 527, 534, 535, 542-545. Noteworthy are, bó|ðe bi nígt | ant bi daí 47, so rígt|e só | he cúnne 52, ánt | he bíll|eð ðer ón 67 (anapaest in last foot occurs several times in this metre), ðis líf | bitók | neð ðe stí 152, ðát | tu sált | ðurg gón 155, aí | ðe sín | fúle || bisétt|en hé | wíle 167, gáddr|eð ílk|ines séd 180, bóð|ẹ of wúd|ẹ ant of wéd 181, of córn | ánt | of grés 182, ðat man clép|ẹð físi | ologét 221, He ðrág|eð ðe nédd|rẹ of ðe stón 222, wiðínn|ẹ he haú|ẹð brenníng 229, bi swílc | átter | i méne 248, drínk|en hís | wissíng 255, it quénch|et ílc | sinịgíng 256, on óðr|es lénd|ebón 273, gef hím | ðat téð | bifóren 274, ?ant hélp|en hím | to hérten 277, hélp|en him át | his néde 290, god gíu|eð ðér|forẹ méde 291, ge fécch|eð óft|ẹ in ðe tún 301, frét|eð hí|re fílle 319, ánt for his | sínful|e wérk 340, bute frét|eð hír|e fílle 373, ðis fís | ðat is ðús | unríde 389, tíl | it cúm|ẹð ðe tíme 403, ðat stórm | stíreð | al ðe sé 404, síp|es ón | to fésten 417, ant áll|e úp | to gángen 418, súm ðing | tókneð | bi ðís 461, ant wík|ke ís | herẹ déde 468, ?on wérld|e wún|en hér 493, ðat he múg|en rís|en wíð 503. Verses of two measures are ll. 317, 449 (mánie | ant sílle), 452, 460.

Common Metre consists of alternate octosyllable and three-bar lines arranged in stanzas of four lines, rhyming a : b : a : b. In this are ll. 73-104, 504-507, 512-515. Scan, ðó|re sát|anás | forsákeð 81, to ihés|u críst | him sélf | bitákeð 83, His múð | is gét | wél | unkúð 97, bídd|en bón|e gérn | to góde 101, ánt | his múð | ðus rígten 102, to dón | wel hís|e wíken 515. The stanza, ll. 89-92, is desperate.

Syncope of the middle vowel takes place in filstnẹde 30, heuẹne 49, 51, 562, 565, 639, seuẹne 50 (but seuene 652), sinịging 256, iuẹle 344, chauẹles 397, folẹgeð 431, 620, deuẹles 436, slumẹren 452, wunẹden 493, stedẹfast 509, suggẹden 559, sorgẹden 559, remẹden 561, steuẹne 561, taunẹde 631, heuẹkes 664: e is also slurred or lost in ouẹr 48, 629, 630, clepẹð 221, hauẹð 229, ogẹn 284, arẹn 394, forbisnẹde 464, bergẹs 481, cumẹð 543, oðẹ 549, makẹn 556, watẹr 664, makẹð 666; in many other cases there is the alternative of a three-syllable foot, as for instance, of an anapaestic last foot in 502, 604. Hiatus occurs in stille 28, golsipe 245, giuernesse 246, pride 247, 257, alle 264, 418, 540, nede 267, raðe 333, same 339, wulde 354, were 387, eure 402, ðanne 485, 511, name 489, wanne 499, helpe 538, 546, migte 556, oliue 583.

Introduction: Before the middle of the second century A.D., there appeared at Alexandria a Greek book, in which marvellous accounts of the nature and properties of certain animals, plants, and stones were used as allegorical and mystical illustrations of the dogmas of the Christian faith. The natural history element was an amalgam of popular conceptions and travellers’ tales, sheltering under the authority of ὁ Φυσιολόγος, the Naturalist, by whom the compiler probably meant Aristotle, and from whom the book itself was in later times called Physiologus. The didactic portion was a product of Alexandrian Judaeo-Christian theology, inspired by similar moralisations in the Septuagint and influenced by the pervading atmosphere of Egyptian nature symbolism.

In its primitive form the book is probably best represented by the version printed in Lauchert, pp. 229-270. It had an amazing success, it passed everywhere with the Christian faith and soon found translators into Ethiopic, Armenian, Syriac (more than once), and Arabic. There is evidence of a prose version in Latin as early as the fifth century; from Latin it passed into most of the literatures of Europe. But the metrical version of Thetbaldus appears to have driven out the older Latin versions, one of which, however, is the main source of the Anglo-Norman poem written by Philippe de Thaün on English ground about 1130 A.D.

1-35. Compare generally CM 18641-60.

2. ⁊ = ant, with the subjunctives here, smake means if; some explain it by supposing ellipsis of ȝif.

3. smel, sense of smell, power of smelling; Mätzner compares ‘Smel of neose is þe ueorðe of þe vif wittes,’ AR 104/17; ‘Þonne is þe hundes smel for-do,’ ON 822. Smake, perceive by smell; a rare transitive use; see 211/497 for the intransitive, give out a smell.

4. ‘Qualicunque via descendit vallis ad ima,’ T.

5. The second half line is short; read he self filleð.

6. [dun]: supplied in Specimens with a reference to l. 22.

7. deu: Holthausen suggests fen, mud, restoring the alliteration; comp. 195/630. he, the hunter.

8. driueð dun, hastens down; comp. ‘se ferliche ha driuen dun to þe eorðe,’ HM 21/20, ‘driue adun swireforð,’ id. 23/32; with ‘ðeðen,’ 187/364. bergen: Holthausen conjectures dernen, which is apparently not used in ME. of living things: possibly dennen should be read as in l. 25; the writer is fond of such repetitions. There is nothing in T. corresponding to this line.

10-13. ‘Natus non vigilat dum sol se tercio girat | Sed dans rugitum pater ejus suscitat illum,’ T.

11. lið: read lieð, as in l. 15.

12. Holthausen transposes, Til ðe sunne haueð ðries · sinen him abuten. But the inflectional rhyme is sufficient.

13. Transpose, his faðer him reiseð. makeð: perhaps remeð; comp. 193/540.

15. lage: a variant on ‘kinde,’ l. 10, characteristic, habit; comp. ‘þenne hafest þu þes hundes laȝe,’ OEH i. 25/4; ‘Ðe unwise man and forwened child habbeþ boðe on laȝe,’ OEH ii. 41/23, and see 20/63.

16. ‘Qui quociens dormit nunquam sua lumina claudit,’ T. ‘Crederis esse leo vigilanti semper ocello,’ Ruodlieb iv. 85.

17. This interpretation springs from, ‘Catulus leonis Iuda: ad praedam fili mi ascendisti: requiescens accubuisti ut leo, et quasi leaena, quis suscitabit eum?’ Gen. xlix. 9; see Honorius Augustod. 935 c.

18. hil: comp. ‘Twen heuone hil and helle dik,’ GE 281.

20. wu—liked, how (anticipating ‘hu,’ l. 22), when it pleased him; similar is ‘hu,’ 192/504. ligten: see 141/42 and comp. 199/79.

21. Comp. ‘ah þurh þe mon ꝥ he wes | ischrudd ⁊ ihudd wið, | he bicherde þene feont, | ⁊ schrenchte þen alde deouel, | ⁊ teschrapet his heaued,’ SK 1181. derne, cunning.

22. The missing half line may have been something like, to ðis dale niðer, as in l. 4.

23. dennede him, hid himself as in a den, suggested by den in l. 8; comp. ‘caldeliche dennet in a beastes cribbe,’ OEH i. 277/29.

24. to manne frame, for men’s benefit; manne is pl. gen., but the original reading was probably manne to frame with the usual dative: comp. 15/110; ‘naht him to mede ac hus to freme ⁊ to fultume,’ OEH i. 217/17; ‘folce to frofre,’ Beowulf 14: see 3/37, 85/107, 86/126, 110/295, 186/323, 187/360.

27. doluen, buried; comp. ‘Brend and doluen was ðat folc soth,’ GE 3685. so for also would improve the rhythm; comp. 177/33.

29. it: formal subject; comp. ‘Til hit sprang dai liȝt,’ KH 124 note: similar is 114/90.

30. filstnede, helped; a derivative beside the more common filsten; comp. ‘He badd hiss maȝȝstre fillstnenn himm,’ Orm i. 181/5236, 213/6170.

32. A half line is missing, something like, liues louerd so he is, corresponding to ‘mortis vindex’ in T. Comp. 147/149. vs—holden, to hold us to life, maintain us alive, save us from death; add to before holden; comp. ‘Butt iff þatt Godd himm hullpe þær, | ⁊ helde himm þær to life,’ Orm ii. 63/12033: similarly ‘þa alde; þe to fehte heom scolde halden,’ L 9458, the elders who had to keep them fighting. But this transitive use is rare.

33. wakeð, keeps watch. ‘Tu nos custodis, tu nullo tempore dormis | Pervigil ut pastor ne demat de grege raptor,’ T. This is the explanation of natura iii. hirde: some such word as wakeman 113/56 would restore the alliteration.

35. heren to, obey. OE. hīeran with this meaning takes the dative, ‘Ne mæg nan mon twæm hlafordum hieran,’ Cura Past. 128/23, but it is rare in ME. nowor wille, nowhere, in no case, never, astray; comp. ‘ðo fleg agar fro sarray, | . . . | In ðe diserd, wil and weri,’ GE 28/973, 5; ‘In a foreste þay were gone wylle,’ Ysumbras 157.

37. kinde is without rhyme and Holthausen suggests that a line like l. 263 or l. 653 has fallen out. T. has ‘Esse ferunt aquilam super omne volatile primam | Quae se sic renovat quando senecta gravat’: something like, ðe moste ðat on lift we finde, would correspond, comp. 188/384.

39. ‘renovabitur ut aquilae iuventus tua,’ Ps. cii. 5.

40. cumeð ut of elde, divests himself of old age.

41. Siðen, after, practically means when; comp. ‘Siðen ghe brocte us to woa, | Adam gaf hire name eua,’ GE 237, not ‘since,’ Mätzner. It is an adverb at l. 70 and nine other places, meaning afterwards. With unwelde comp. ‘Vn-welde woren and in win, | Here owen limes hem wið-in,’ GE 347.

42. wrong, awry; OWScand. rangr; comp. ‘⁊ all þatt ohht iss wrang ⁊ crumb | Shall effnedd beon ⁊ rihhtedd,’ Orm i. 321/9207; see also 177/62, 178/69, 70: al to is then altogether, exceedingly. But Mätzner assumes a participle *to-wrungen, which is without parallel. T. has, corresponding to ll. 61, 62, ‘Est autem rostrum quo carpitur esca retortum,’ but nothing here; with ll. 41-43 comp. ‘Solet dici de Aquila dum senectute premitur, quod rostrum illius aduncetur et incurvetur, ita ut sumere cibum nequeat et macie languescat,’ H. de S. Victor, ii. 417.

46. ‘Fons ubi sit quaerit qui nunquam surgere desit,’ T., from ‘fons aquarum, cuius non deficient aquae,’ Isa. lviii. 11.

48. ⁊ rubricated as though beginning another line. teð, proceeds; comp. 184/266, 274; ‘To-warde egipte he gunne ten,’ GE 1953.

50. seuene: he flies through seven to the highest, eighth, heaven; comp. ‘Eiȝte firmamenz þare beoth: swuche ase we i-seoth. | þe Ouemeste is þe riȝtte heouene: in ȝwan þe steorrene beoth. | for godes riche is þare a-boue: þat last with-outen ende | . . . | þare bi-neoþe beoth seoue firmamenz,’ SE. Legendary, 311/413.

52. as directly in front as he is able.

53. houeð, remains poised, floats; comp. 188/395, 189/409, Minot iii. 83.

54. swideð—fligt, burns all his wings; comp. ‘In dai swiþe noht sunne (MS. sinne) þe sal,’ Surtees Psalter, MS. E. cxx. 6 (= ‘Per diem sol non uret te’). T. has, ‘Tunc sibi sol ambas incendit (a. l. accendit) fervidus alas. | Et minuit grandes alleviatque graves.’

56. ‘ex calore poris apertis et pennis relaxatis subito descendens in fontem ruit,’ Bartolomeus Anglicus, lib. xii.

57. mide, therewith; comp. 212/513 and see 1/19 note.

58. grund, bottom, see 188/401.

59. heil ⁊ sund: comp. 184/279, 188/402; ‘Tel him ꝥ þou ert sund and hale,’ CM 5112; ‘hol and isunde,’ OEM 42/186.

61. If his beak were not crooked; not ‘unzuverlässig,’ Mätzner, but as artificers still use true, noun and verb, in various expressions, as ‘out of true,’ ‘to true up,’ &c.

62. biforn, in front, the upper mandible has curved over the lower, as S. Augustine explains, iv. 1. 839: it is mostly used with verbs of motion, as at 76/10.

64. tilen, procure; comp. 179/103, 182/199; ‘In swinc ðu salt tilen ði mete,’ GE 363.

65. with any benefit to himself. Comp. ‘Mare hit hem deð to herme þenne to gode,’ OEH i. 27/12; ‘hi þonne ne mihtan nawþer ne him sylfum, ne þære heorde . . . nænige gode beon,’ BH 45/14. ‘Vix valet ex aliquo sumere pauca cibo,’ T.

67. billeð: comp. 186/316, 334, 338; ‘ad petram elidit, immo comminuit et conterit,’ Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, 72.

69. wrengðe, distortion: derivative of wrong; apparently here only: see Archiv cxxvii. 47. Add al before forloren.

70. rigte, straightened.

75. sinnes dern would in any other context mean sins done in secret, but T. has ‘Est homo peccatis que sunt ab origine matris | Qualis adest (a. l. idem est) aquila, sed renovatur ita,’ which requires the sense of original sin not manifest in word or deed. This is clearer in Philippe de Thaün, ‘Pur general pechié (i.e. the universal sin of the human race) | Est enfes baptizié, | E quant il est levez | Cum aigle est renuvez; | Quant il est baptiziez | Dunc est rejuveigniez: | Vertu e veement | En baptisteire prent,’ 78/2115-22. The infant is old in inherited sin, in baptism he renounces Satan and becomes a Christian, then he learns priest’s lore, pater noster and creed: ll. 93-102 are simply variations on the preceding. ‘Nubes transcendit solisque incendia sentit. | Mundum cum pompis despiciendo suis. | Fit novus in Christo ter mersus gurgite vivo. | . . . | Os terit obliquum per verba precancia Christum,’ T.

78. nimeð: see 213/539.

79 goes with l. 78, he must betake himself to the Church, before he can find repentance; his eyes were previously too dim to see his guilt.

81. Transpose, ðore satanas forsakeð, and for l. 83 read to ihesu crist him self bitakeð: comp. ‘Ich wole ȝou nou bitake ihesu crist,’ E. E. Poems 106/165.

84. mede, reward, gives a poor sense; beten his nede would suit the context; comp. 184/280, ‘For he wende bete his nede,’ Rel. Ant. ii. 278/10; ‘er he bete þy nede,’ Lib. Desconus, 1582.

86. lereð &c., learns what the priest teaches, i.e. the articles of the faith.

88. dreccheð, tarries: comp. ‘ne wold he ðor | Ouer on nigt drechen nunmor,’ GE 1420.

89-92. This stanza is imperfect, ll. 89, 91 do not rhyme. The former is on an erasure. There is nothing corresponding in the original: it is probably due to the scribe.

89. to godeward: not toward God; ward is a mere tag, as at 179/115, 180/146, 184/259, 194/588; comp. ‘frommard,’ 58/66 note, 70/165; ‘efterward,’ 77/63 note. For the construction comp. 89/28, 96/58, ‘ich hopie to mede,’ AR 148/16; ‘hopieð to here michele wisdome,’ VV 67/13, 131/18; SJ 29/16; ‘forðæm hie gemunon ðone tohopan þe hie to ðæm gestrionum habbað,’ Cura Past. 344/1.

90. lereð: Emerson restores the rhyme by reading leteð; but ‘leten of’ is apparently always accompanied by an adverb of degree; see 44/260 note.

91. ðat apparently refers to ‘gode’ l. 89: in one edition of the Latin original ‘solis incendia’ is glossed ‘iusticie calores.’

93. funt fat: probably here only in ME. for the usual fantston, as at 85/101; CM 29200: OE. fant-fæt.

95. The punctuation of Mätzner and Morris, buten a litel; wat is tat? involves taking ‘litel’ as a little thing. The meaning appears to be, but a small something (= a slight imperfection) is that his mouth is still crooked. Comp. ‘And þeonne sum lutel hwat he mei leggen on þe,’ AR 346/22; ‘Ah ȝette me an hwet,’ SK 767.

96. untrewe, with double meaning, crooked and unfaithful.

97, 98. unkuð wið, unacquainted with, not knowing (insciens); comp. 191/469 and ‘uncuð . . . of,’ 188/396, apparently the only three places where the word has this meaning. Elsewhere uncuð with the dative means unknown (ignotus); comp. ‘hit is us uncuð ⁊ ungeliefedlic,’ Orosius 214/21.

99. Whatever he does, under all circumstances; comp. 34/86 note.

100. He shall find out what is wanting to him.

101, 102. ‘Os terit obliquum per verba precancia Christum,’ T. After bone, a word of one syllable has dropped out, probably gern.

103, 104. ‘Panis is est Christus, fit sine morte cibus,’ T.

105. With this section should be compared OEH ii. 199, which deals with the same subject.

106. o werlde, in the world: comp. 180/140.

107. te name, a predicative phrase: him has fallen out before it. Comp. ‘fox is hire to name,’ 185/298 = fox is for name to her; ‘him . . . se gemyndega papa Petrus to naman scop,’ Bede 405/31 (‘cui papa memoratus Petri nomen imposuerat’). Mätzner quotes ‘þam is to naman nemned Drihten,’ Psal. lxvii. 4 (Dominus nomen est ei). A curious variation is seen in ‘þat lond þat is to water nemned,’ OEH ii. 177/3. The usual ‘bi name’ is at 176/24. For the noun toname, comp. ‘Ðes wimman hadde ec on toname magdalene,’ OEH ii. 143/12.

108. A padded line; the last half was probably, ⁊ elde forwurðen.

109. him: see 80/47 note. ten: the bestiaries say forty.

110. lene: read megre; ‘jejunans macie perhorret,’ T. iuele, with difficulty; an early instance of the meaning. ‘Vix movens sese veniensque tandem,’ T.

111. craft . . . kiðeð: comp. ‘Who so kouth wele his craft þare might it kith,’ Minot v. 69 note.

112. ðat . . . on, in which: see 1/3 note.

113. Narrow the hole is, but he forces himself to go through it: comp. ‘Long silence ⁊ wel iwust nedeð þe þouhtes up touward þer heouene,’ AR 72/17. Nimeð: see 213/539 note. ‘Querit angustum lapidis foramen | . . . | Inde pertransit spoliatque carnem | Pelle vetusta,’ T.: ‘cumeð to ane þurlede ston ⁊ criepeð nedlinge þureh nerewe hole ⁊ bileueð hire hude baften hire,’ OEH ii. 199/25. Transpose him nedeð.

115. ward is merely expletive; see 178/89 note.

116. or, previously, before drinking; comp. ‘siðen,’ 118. speweð: the explanation is in 181/159, 160: comp. ‘heo schal speowen al ut þet wunder,’ AR 346/6; ‘þet is þet beste þeonne speowen hit ut anon mid schrifte to þe preoste,’ id. 240/6; 119/91, 92, mostly with ut. Read here, Oc he speweð ut or. al ðe uenim ðor; for or : ðor comp. GE 4033 with 3845.

118. Transpose, inog siðen drinkeð, making a rhyming line.

120. of . . . naked, stripped of, without: nacod takes the genitive. Read, Ðanne ðe neddre is newe. ⁊ of his hid naked: comp. 181/162.

121. An abridged line; read, ⁊ in bodi ⁊ in brest. bare of his atter. Comp. ‘helden ham cleane ai fra fleschliche fulðen ibodi ⁊ ibreoste,’ HM 23/1. For of comp. ‘bare of euch blisse,’ SK 845; Minot vi. 25 note.

123. Transpose, him fro. sulde, would be bound to, obliged to.

124. Read, . cof ⁊ kene: comp. ‘Biforenn kafe ⁊ kene,’ Orm 19962. In AR 66/13 ‘þe coue,’ wrongly translated ‘the chough’ means, the keen one; similarly, ‘þe luðere coue deouel,’ id. 66/14.

125. rigteð him: ‘Surgit in ipsum,’ T.

126. to ded maken may be a construction by analogy of don, bringen &c., but it is more likely that to has been wrongly repeated and should be omitted. forðen, further, effect; comp. 184/280, 192/533, 193/554; ‘for to forðen is fendes wil,’ GE 341.

127. wat if: elliptical for, what results if? as at 181/170, what matters it if? Transpose, wurðe war, be on his guard: comp. 9/122, 48/330, 203/204.

128. figteð: read fliteð, contends, offers resistance; comp. ‘Ierusalem ⁊ babilonie . . . fliteð eure ⁊ winneð,’ OEH ii. 51/10. fareð &c., advances fighting against him; ‘sequiturque multum,’ T. For on, comp. ‘hie alle on þone Cyning wærun feohtende,’ AS. Chron. ed. Plummer, 48/4; ‘for to finde me a freke to feȝte on my fille,’ Anturs of Arther, 15/27.

129. After siðen insert he seð · ðat, after he sees that he must needs.

130. ‘Negligit corpus, facit inde scutum; | Verticis vero tenet usque curam, | Ne moriatur,’ T. Comp. ‘Ðare næddre ȝeapnesse is ðat hie lið al abuten itrand, ⁊ hire heaued on midden, for to berȝen ðat heaued,’ VV 101/19.

131. litel—of, little he cares about, he does not much mind what happens to: see 8/84 note. bute, if only.

133-142 are based on ‘Fonte qui sacro semel es novatus, | Denuo peccans, silicernus extas. | Ergo sis semper imitator anguis, | Cum veterascis,’ T.

134. Atte kirke dure, at the font, placed symbolically at the entrance to the church: comp. ‘heore godfaderes ⁊ heore godmoderes scullen onswerie for hem et þe chirche dure ⁊ beo in borȝes et þe fonstan,’ OEH i. 73/29.

135. Transpose, on him to leuen. For leuen . . . luuien see 143/73 note.

136. For bodes, hestes should probably be read; comp. 130/78; ‘þe heste of hali chirche,’ OEH i. 85/18.

137-140. Re-arrange, If ðu hauest is broken. al ðu forbredes. | forwurðes ⁊ forwelkes. eche lif to wolden. | Elded art fro blis. so ðis wirm o werld is. forgelues: only here; it may be connected with OE. geolwian, and so mean, to spoil by becoming yellow, to fade. But it is suspect; possibly the original word was forwelkes, dost wither. There is nothing in the original to correspond with l. 138; the adapter had perhaps in mind ‘decidat, induret et arescat,’ Ps. lxxxix. 6. Eche lif to wolden, so far as the attainment of eternal life is concerned. Elded, severed by age, is the writer’s interpretation of silicernus. Silicernium, a funeral feast, is used in Terence, Andria iv. 2. 48, as an abusive term for an old man, hence L.L. silicernus, senex; but the Catholicon, citing this place in T., says ‘Item silicernus ponitur quandoque pro firmo et duro ut silex.’

141. Add at the end, him bi, meaning, in his own case. For the rhyme comp. ‘And manige of ðo greten forði | ðat he adden ben hard hem bi,’ GE 3207, 3208; for the use of bi, see 13/18 note.

142. See 123/210.

143-151. Based on, ‘Sit cibus parcus, minuantur artus. | Unde non mandis miseros (a. l. pauperes) juvabis | Penitens defle dominoque semper | dic miserere,’ T.

143. Feste &c. is explained, confirm thyself in steadfastness; but for this ethical sense festnen is used everywhere else (see 147/142) and of seems to be without parallel, though ‘steðeluest . . . of’ occurs at 129/24. The expression is rather pointless and corresponds to nothing in the ways of the serpent, while ll. 109, 110 are the only ones which have no interpretation in the ‘significacio.’ Furthermore the last half of the line is defective. Now l. 144 clearly represents the second line of the original quoted above, which means, from what you do not eat you will help the poor, and it depends for its point on the sparing of food enjoined in the preceding line of the original. Accordingly we should expect something in l. 143 to correspond to it, which as printed above means, let your food be sparing and your limbs reduced by bloodletting (minutio, see 66/103-105 notes). If the poet had before him, or misread his copy so, muniantur artes, he might translate, Feste þe of fastenes. ⁊ filste þe of þewes, that is, fortify thyself by fastings and help thyself by virtues. For he would find ars explained by Papias as bene recteque vivendi virtus . . . ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, id est a virtute. And the scribe by anticipating ste þe from the last half of the line might readily produce stedefastnesse.

145. wurði—loken, worthy to presume to look.

146. ward: see 178/89 note.

147. wið, in contact with, on: comp. 188/401, 201/148.

150. bote bid, pray for deliverance: for the usual combination see 179/201. With l. 151 comp. ‘bidden for heom deies ⁊ nihtes þet crist heom milcie of heore misdede,’ OEH i. 7/36.

152. sti is subject of bitokneð: ‘Signat hunc callem lapidis foramen. | Signat et christum petra, nam per ipsum | Fit novus quisque,’ T. Perhaps for tis, l. 154, we should read Christ.

156. Comp. 181/160. Let, permit it to escape, as in ‘þe king bigan to grete | ⁊ teres for to lete,’ KH 889. Transpose ðe fro.

157-160. ‘Cuius ad celsum veniendo templum, | Ut bibas sacrum beatumque verbum, | Evomas primum quod habes nocivum | Corde venenum,’ T.

158. A defective line; read drench · þi sinnes to cwenchen. Comp. 28/10; ‘swa bihoueð þe saule fode; mid godes wordes mid gode mode,’ OEH i. 63/153; ‘to cwennkenn oþre sinness,’ Orm 11652.

160. Omit brest. forðward: read forward, covenant of 180/133: the combination is formal; comp. ‘my forwarde with þe I festen on þis wyse,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 47/327; ‘Pepigi fedus cum oculis meis . . . Ich habbe ivestned, seið Job, foreward mid min eien,’ AR 62/23; ‘ꝥ ich þis forward wulle; fastliche halden,’ L 23607. After this there are eight lines in the Latin which are not represented at all in the English poem, which is only slightly dependent on the original for the rest of the section.

161. firmest, first of all, at the very beginning.

163. forðward, henceforth; at 81/90 it means, straight ahead.

164. Nedeð, presses on, vexes: comp. 179/113; ‘I me sellf all ah itt wald | Þatt deofell maȝȝ me scrennkenn, | Þurrh þatt I do min lusst tærto, | To don summ hefiȝ sinne | Þatt he me maȝȝ wel eggenn to, | ⁊ nohht ne maȝȝ me nedenn,’ Orm 11815, a passage which may have been in the writer’s mind here. But Mätzner suggests neggeð, comparing 179/122. Omit the second nogt, and in l. 165 transpose ðe fro.

166. cliuer, expert in seizing: the only ME. example of the word clever: noted by Sir Thomas Browne as an East Anglian word. See NED s.v. clever; the connection with clifer, claw, suggested by this use is illustrated by, ‘Hweðer þe cat of helle claurede euer toward hire ⁊ cauhte mid his cleafres hire heorte heaued,’ AR 102/4. With on comp. ‘gredi uppen woreld richeise,’ OEH ii. 195/1.

169. nið ⁊ win: comp. 183/244: ‘nið and strif’ is the equivalent in GE 373: nið usually takes to, ‘he haueð to us muchel nið,’ OEH i. 55/11, but see 197/11.

170. Comp. ‘he haueð leue to fonden mon,’ OEH i. 67/232.

171. Transpose, us for to deren: it is a rhyming line.

172. let us subject the body to pain: bale was probably suggested by ‘bote,’ 180/150. The meaning is made clear by, ‘lyued in penance hys lyueȝ longe | With bodyly bale hym blysse to byye,’. E. E. Allit. Poems, 15/476. Omit ðe before bale.

173. that (i.e. the soul) is equal to the head, that is, the head figuratively signifies the soul. But the Latin finally identifies the head with Christ, ‘Hoc caput dico quod habes in ipso | Principe christo,’ which is from ‘omnis viri caput Christus est,’ 1 Cor. xi. 3. helde might be subj. past from healdan, if we were to keep, but that would give a poor sense; and it cannot be from heldan (hieldan) incline, for that would require to: silde should probably be read; comp. 180/130; ‘Semper illesum caput est habendum,’ T.; the meaning would be, let us protect it as it deserves.

176. Transpose, weder softe: sen hauen ofte. softe, mild; comp. ‘ðis weder is softe,’ GE 3061.

177. Read, heruestes hete; comp. ‘Heruest, with the heite ⁊ the high sun, | Was comyn into colde,’ Destruction of Troy, 407/12465. hardilike: heardlīce, energetically; the glide i takes the place of the usual e.

178. renneð rapelike: comp. 187/368.

181. wed, weed, used, no doubt, for the rhyme: for a more usual expression, see 21/112.

182. Comp. ‘He deden on gres and coren deres,’ GE 3088, 3049.

183. ire is for hire. hauen, wealth; comp. ‘man hoh . . . loc to chirche bringen ⁊ wurðin þermide godes bord; alse his haue beð,’ OEH ii. 217/6: n has been added as to ‘boðen’ 181/181 and elsewhere in this text and GE. Lit., that is to her for wealth; which constitutes her wealth.

185. winter agen, to meet, resist, winter: comp. ‘Þe blake cloð . . . is þiccure aȝein þe wind,’ AR 50/15; ‘Ðat arche was a feteles good | set and limed agen ðe flood,’ GE 561. ‘Ut valeat brume fieri secura future,’ T.

186. Holthausen restores alliteration by substituting colde for winter.

187. hule, hut, shelter. Mätzner takes the former ðat as demonstrative, and divides bi liuen, that is meat by which she can live, quoting ‘mete quorbi ðei migten liuen,’ GE 573. More probably the former ðat has displaced mide (comp. 191/503), then mete is the object of tileð, procures.

188. Transpose, ðar tileð.

189. it: the book Physiologus; so 192/506; see 177/38, 183/221.

190. ‘Haec frumenta legit, si comperit; ordea spernit,’ T. finde ge, if she find: cleche for finde would restore the alliteration. corn, grain or seed, so OE. hwǣtene corn, corn hwǣtes, ‘granum frumenti,’ S. John xii. 24.

191. Omit al, and for forleteð read sedeð, sheds. ðat—seide, of which I have already spoken.

192. ‘She biteth not the barley to bear it about,’ Specimens. Mätzner also takes bit as biteð, eats, but explains beren abuten, about the barn. But bit, OE. bīt, is contracted form of bideð, endures, which is to be restored here: she cannot endure the carrying of the barley about.

193. but shunneth it and hurries away, as though it were a shame to have anything to do with it. sakeð: comp. 192/536; ‘nes þer nan biscop; ꝥ forð on his wæi ne scoc | na munec ne nan abbed; ꝥ he an his wæi ne rad,’ L 13245; ‘and with his batayle forth he schoke,’ Laud Troy Book, 4886.

195. Omit ðe corn, for bit read biteð (so too at l. 211), and transpose, otwinne biteð. al—biteð, she bites it all asunder. otwinne, on twain: comp. OWScand. tvinnr, double. ‘Sed ne de pluviis aspersum germinet udis, | Aut ea ne pereat, esse quod hinc nequeat, | Granum quod legit prudens formica bipertit,’ T.

196. Add wurþ before forwurðe: comp. ‘Ich schal mid one bare worde | Do þat þi speche wrþ forwurþe,’ ON 548. ne waxe &c., nor germinate so as to be lost to her.

200. Defective: ðis little wile. ðe we on werlde wunen appears to form a line: Long and liuenoðe are probably the first and last words of a line; the latter must be dative. The Latin original has ‘Nosque laboremus, fratres, dum tempus habemus;’ something too is wanted to balance ‘mikel ge swinkeð,’ 181/175, like, Longe þat we labouren . for ure liuenoðe. This conjecture assumes an earlier use of labour than any recorded.

202. of, off, away, adv. representing off ðis werlde; comp. ‘ær ic . . . of gewite,’ ‘prius quam eam,’ Psal. xxxviii. 16. winter: ‘tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.

203. harde sures, sore troubles; comp. ‘to put þe of peril · i haue ney perisched oft, | ⁊ many a scharp schour · for þi sake þoled,’ W. of Palerne, 4513; ‘ffull sharpe was the shoure (printed shoute), shent were þere mony,’ Destruction of Troy, 10069: the adjective in this sense is usually sharp; ‘hard shoure,’ Destr. of Troy, 11048 is a fierce attack, but ‘sorful scurs,’ CM 24602. Similarly, ‘weorre ⁊ weane baðe | ⁊ untidi wederes,’ SK 2599.

204. The line may be completed by, er we henne wende; see 22/117. The rest of this section consists of rhymed septenaries.

205. For derue read glewe, wise, prudent.

206. Transpose, us ne, and omit harde. So that we do not deeply regret our improvidence at doomsday.

207. For ure read here, for ðere, with Holthausen who cites 178/88, þore. For liues, soules should perhaps be read, as at 179/103.

208. For nummore read more.

209. After barlic add sed or corn. In the earlier bestiaries barley stands for heretical writers: Eudes de Cheriton, p. 247, explains wheat as good works.

210. Omit to. hauen moten, must have, is feeble and does not rhyme. Holthausen suggests hauen geten, have to observe: moten geten, must get, or moten seken, which makes up for an indifferent rhyme by its contrast with sunen, seem better. ‘Ipse novam legem colligo, non veterem,’ T.

211. get as at l. 195 would be better metrically.

212. Transpose, god to don, and, us forbedeð.

213. ‘Hoc est quod binas lex habet una vias, | Quae terrena sonat, simul et celestia monstrat. | Nunc mentem pascit, et modo corpus alit,’ T. The corrections bet, offers, and erðliche are due to Mätzner. bodes, not ‘biddings,’ Specimens, but teachings, information. bekned, points to, indicates, proclaims. The meaning of the original depends on the special use of lex, according to Papias ‘a legendo dicta lexis græce, latine locutio, id est quælibet syllaba uel uox, quæ scribi potest,’ hence the written word, here the ‘facts’ of natural history, useful to know for our bodily sustenance, but also charged with spiritual instruction. The ant, as the Latin puts it, ‘in suis factis res monstrat spirituales.’ The English version has obscured the sense by adding, without authority, l. 212, where lex is taken in its natural meaning of law. euelike, heavenly (teachings).

214. o geuelike, on an equality, equally: OE. ge-efenlic adj. here used as noun: comp. 194/593.

215, 216. ‘Nos utinam repleat, famis ut formido recedat, Tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.

216. The first half is short; add, in erd after nu.

217. Next to the Ant in T. comes the Fox and then the Hart.

218-221. ‘Cervus habere duas naturas atque figuras | Dicitur a phisio, cum docet inde, logo,’ T. How the hart renews its youth is again told in the Deposition of Richard the Second, 15/8-20, and there is a curious use of the fable in Nova Legenda Anglie, i. 254/23-29.

221. fisiologet: the termination is probably borrowed from the familiar donet, a Latin grammar; OF. donet.

223. ðurg his nese, by drawing in his breath, ‘spiritu narium,’ or as T. puts it, ‘cum naribus extrahit.’ on on, continuously; at 207/339, forthwith.

224. stoc . . . ston: ‘de caveis terrae, de latebrisve petrae,’ T. The translator uses a familiar combination.

225. it: the adder.

226. sweleð, miswritten for swelgeð, swallows: the scribe was probably led by ‘brinneð’ in the next line to think of the word which for him represented swǣlan.

227, 228. ðerof . . . of: tautology is frequent in this piece: comp. 184/260. The impersonal use of brinneð appears to be without parallel: the meaning is, that poisonous matter burns him afterwards.

230. ‘Estuat ad liquidas pergere fontis aquas,’ T.; estuat is glossed festinat, hence lepeð; comp. Psal. xli. 1. wið—list, displaying great prudence, wisdom: comp. ‘To the fischers hous þai went wiþ list,’ Gregorlegende, ed. Schulz, 52/1015.

232-238. ‘Quas cum forte bibit, his plenus toxica vincit, | Se juvenemque facit, cornua quando jacit,’ T.

235. non wigt, no whit, not at all.

236. er, before he recovers.

238. gingid him, renews his youth; comp. 184/259: a rare word, perhaps only here.

241-249. ‘Nos quoque cum prisci serpentis fraude revicti, | Virus contrahimus, urimur et facibus, | Haec est luxuria quae fert odium vel et iram, | Aut etiam nimia est aeris auaricia,’ T.

241, 242 were no doubt originally couplets, perhaps, Alle we atter dragen | of ure eldere misdeden || ðe broken drigtinnes sonde | ðurg ðe neddres onde: comp. 40/192, 193. eldere seems to have been suggested by prisci.

244. nið ⁊ win: see 181/169.

245. giscing, covetousness: OE. gītsung; comp. ‘He bad him chesen steres-men . . . ðe niðing and giscing flen,’ GE 3429, 3432; ‘Mid yuernesse and prude . and yssyng wes þat on,’ OEM 38/35.

246. wissing: to OE. wȳscan: its meaning as a sin is shown by, ‘Ne wrec þu þe mid wussinge . ne mid warienge,’ OEH ii. 179/22, avenge not thyself by wishing evil or cursing.

247. ouerwene, presumption: found here only.

248. Insert bi before swilc.

252, 253. ‘Ad fontem vivum debemus currere christum,’ T.

255. wissing, instruction. ‘Qui cum nos udat, sumpta venena fugat,’ T. udat is explained, with quotation of this line, in the Catholicon as balneat.

257. forwerpen and gingen 259 depend on bihoueð 252. Holthausen restores the missing rhyme by reading, forwerpen pride hornes | so hert doð hise in þornes. It would be simpler to add al (comp. 178/73, 180/137, 182/191, 190/443), meaning completely, entirely, after hornes; it would balance eurilcdel, and the rhyme is possible; see 190/465, 466.

259. In this way renew our youth to God, that is, restore the baptismal relation to him; comp. 181/162 and 178/89.

260. take heed to ourselves afterward henceforth, ever after. Comp. ‘ðe sunenday | ðat is forð siðen worðed ay,’ GE 261.

263. That ought to be present in thought to us all: comp. 191/487, 196/653; ‘þine beoden þe beoð þe so imunde,’ SM 13/8. minde is OE. gemynde.

265. ‘Longius et pergunt pascua quando petunt,’ T.

266. ouer water ten: ‘Si fluvios tranant,’ T.; ‘quant passent braz de mier,’ Bozon, Contes moralisés, 56/3; ‘Cervi . . . maria trameant gregatim nantes porrecto ordine, et capita imponentes praecedentium clunibus, vicibusque ad terga redeuntes,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 32, 114. See Fecunda Ratis, 105/522 note, as to the use of this story by the Fathers.

268. Read biforen.

272. skinbon, shinbone; OE. scin-bān, tibia, which if placed on the haunch of the preceding hart would make swimming difficult. He should have written chin: ‘Portant suspensum gradientes ordine mentum, Alter in alterius clunibus impositus,’ T.; ‘chescun de eux met sa test sus autri croupe,’ Bozon, 56/4.

274. Transpose, teð biforen: ‘Sed qui precedit fessus ad ima redit; Sic se vertentes cuncti mutuoque ferentes | Nunquam deficiunt, atque viam peragunt,’ T.

275. tirgen, to be fatigued: OE. tiergan, tyrgan, to vex. ‘Tirwyn, or make wery, lasso,’ Prompt. Parvul., col. 499. But the word is not original, it does not rhyme. Teren, representing tēorian, teorian, to tire, would be better; *toren with shifted accent, perhaps influenced by tor, difficult (see NED tor, tere) would restore the rhyme.

276. Transpose, mide cumen.

277. hertien is Mätzner’s correction, comparing 199/75, 76; but the inf. in -ien is very doubtful. The original word was probably beren.

278. grund: see 188/401: the poet has misunderstood ‘ad ima redit,’ the weary leader, who has no rest for his chin, falls in at the rear of the procession.

280. and supply their necessity; ‘nunquam deficiunt,’ they never fail one another. A line is wanting, such as, ⁊ cumen to here stede, answering to ‘atque viam peragunt.’

281. ‘Hunc retinent usum, si sint vel in agmine centum,’ T. hem bitwen, among themselves.

284. ‘Per tales mores alienos ferre labores | Cum pietate monent atque juvare docent,’ T. costes, habits, ways: comp. ‘knewen he nogt ðis dewes cost,’ GE 3327.

285. Connect ur non, no one of us.

288. his wine, to his friend.

289. ‘Alter alterius onera portate, et sic adimplebitis legem Christi,’ Gal. vi. 2.

291-294. ‘Sic lex est Christi nobis complenda magistri | Cuius, qui faciet, pascua repperiet,’ T.

293. bitwixen us . . . brice, useful, serviceable to one another: comp. 194/592.

294. lage: acc. after to fillen, which is subject of is.

295. ðar wið ne dillen, be not sluggish about that: comp. ‘Hymself to on sware he is not dylle,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 21/679. The first half of the line is feeble: perhaps dred for ned would be better.

298. hire follows the gender of vulpes. For to name see 179/107. queðsipe: Holthausen suggests flerdscipe to restore the alliteration, with reference to 187/351; the compound does not occur elsewhere. Perhaps fikenunge, deceit; or, for the last half-line read for ure unframe, comp. ‘Quad esau, rigt is his name | hoten iacob, to min unframe,’ GE 1565. But the writer may have intended an inflectional rhyme.

299. harm-dedes, injurious action; a compound which apparently occurs here only.

301. feccheð, steals: comp. ‘Bothe my gees ⁊ my grys . his gadelynges feccheth,’ P. Plowman B. iv. 51. tun, the enclosed farmyard.

305. hulen is hardly possible; it is not found elsewhere till the end of the fourteenth century and the construction with the direct acc. hire is improbable. Mätzner suggested hunten, Holthausen, hurlen, drive: huten, revile seems preferable; comp. ‘⁊ ȝiff mann wollde tælenn þatt, | ⁊ hutenn hire ⁊ þutenn,’ Orm 2033, 4875. So chauntecler says to the fox, ‘Acoursed be thou of Godes mouthe,’ Rel. Ant. ii. 273/19. Further the repetition of hatien is feeble; harien, persecute, would give a good sense, while huntes (176/21, 192/512) for men would restore the alliteration. So the line would run, harien ⁊ huten . boðe huntes ⁊ fules.

307. furg, furrow. ‘In terram scissam se tendit atque supina | Et quasi mortua sit, flamina nulla trahit,’ T.

308 is made up of halves of two lines which may have run thus: fugeles to bilirten . mid hire fel wrenche | In eried lond er in erðchine . ge strekeð adun. bilirten, deceive, ensnare, a Midland and Northern word: OE. belyrtan. eried lond, ploughed land, ‘terram scissam,’ the ‘furg’ of l. 307. erðchine, a cleft in the ground: a compound found here only.

309. stund, portion (of time): rarely with defining genitive.

310. dareð: comp. 187/374, 195/624: here, to lie motionless, in the other places, to lie hid, to lurk; comp. ‘fare man . . . to þam scræfe þær þa wiðer-sacan inne dariað behydde,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 506/321, and see Minot i. 9 for further illustrations of the uses of this word.

311. swiðe redi, very prompt to seize the opportunity: comp. 187/368.

312. fallen bi, alight near; a use of the verb determined by the needs of alliteration: Mätzner adduces OE. befeallen, but that requires on; so in ME. ‘Gredi foueles fellen ðor-on,’ GE 947. ‘insidet ut comedat,’ T. Transpose, bi hire fallen · fode for to winnen.

313. Transpose, beð ded.

314. Mätzner alters wullen to billen, spoiling the secondary alliteration: the absolute use of willen, to desire to go, is common enough. fel: in Eudes de Cheriton, 303/7 and Jacques de Vitry, no. ccciv, the fox puts out his tongue and the birds make for it, a device which greatly improves the fox’s chance. Transpose, feleð wel.

315. letteð, stops, hinders: OE. lettan. Transpose, up lepeð . ⁊ hem sone letteð.

317. illing, evil treatment. ‘Dentibus et tristem reddit edendo vicem,’ T.

318. tetoggeð, pulls to pieces; see 68/145.

323. frame: see 176/24.

324. For the combination, see 18/16.

325. ‘Nunc zabulo similis, par aliquando viris,’ T.

327. ‘Nos et dissimulat quod mala non faciat,’ T. lat, pretends; comp. 203/222: influenced in form at any rate by OWScand. láta.

329. Omit a and he.

330. bukes, belly’s: see 4/19, where it means body.

331. wið unskil, without discretion: comp. ‘Ne rend, ne beat nogt wið vnskil,’ GE 3506; Orm 427.

332. And while we are amusing ourselves, he quickly plays us a fox’s trick. foxing, a nonce-word in this sense, but it is common in dialect for shamming.

334-341. ‘Cuius (read eius) edit carnem quisquis rem fingit inanem, | Hoc est peccatum quodlibet et malum | Quem quasi deglutit, cum secum ad tartara ducit,’ T.

335. idel spel: ‘verbum otiosum,’ S. Matt. xii. 36; ‘tel heom þer spelles,’ L 26538 appears to mean, tell them tales there.

336. Whoever feeds on sin, he tugs at the fox’s flesh.

338. geld, requites; comp. l. 316.

339. sending, disgrace, confusion; OE. scendan.

341. merk, dark, murky; OE. mirce: comp. 190/439, 193/570.

343, 344. ‘Daemon ab insidiis vulpeculae est similis,’ T. breides, stratagems, tricks; comp. 193/548. swik, deception; comp. 188/396: OE. swīc.

345, 346. ‘Sic cum fraude viri sunt vulpis nomine digni, | Quales hoc plures tempore sunt homines,’ T. For man read mani, omit ⁊, transpose wurði arn and insert to before same, and many likewise are worthy of the name of fox to their disgrace. Comp. ‘Euerilc ðhing haued he geue name, | Me to sorge, scaðe and same,’ GE 301.

347. oðer, to another.

348. Comp. ‘Danne ðogte eue on hire mod,’ GE 333; KH 281 note.

349. iwis: see 32/40 note. There is nothing in T. corresponding to ll. 347-349; the writer had probably in mind, ‘Ut quid cogitatis mala in cordibus vestris?’ S. Matt. ix. 4.

350. legeð &c., lies not, misleads not in this; so, ‘Iff iosephus ne legeð me,’ GE 1281.

351-354. ‘Herodesque fuit, qui christum querere jussit, | Credere se simulans, perdere dissimulans,’ T.; comp. S. Luke, xiii. 32. herodes: Orm has Herode in his English text. fox ⁊ flerd: nouns used as adjectives: for the former comp. 29/15; flerd, deceit, occurs in Orm, ‘falls ⁊ flærd,’ 12177: OE. fleard: see Björkman, 160.

354. fordon: ‘Futurum est enim ut Herodes quaerat puerum ad perdendum eum,’ S. Matt. ii. 15.

356. Seftes &c.: comp. 2/2. sene—werlde, it is seen in the case of the world; parenthetic; but Mätzner takes ðing as subject of is. With on comp. ‘þat was on Tristrem sene,’ Sir Tristrem 1205; ‘On þe hit is wel eþ sene,’ OEH ii. 255/5; ‘Ful soth it was apon vs sene,’ CM 24333.

357. leiðe, hateful: OWScand. leiðr = OE. lāð: lodlike, OE. lāðlic is synonymous. ðus: either, as has already been said, that the Creator made these loathly things, or, as follows, that He made them to this end, for the instruction of men generally. The latter is a common medieval idea; men, says Gilbert of Hoyland, contemplate God ‘in speculo creaturarum et scripturarum aenigmate,’ S. Bernardi Opera, ii. 170.

358. manikines: see 81/80 note.

359. manne: dat.; see 176/24 note.

360. Holthausen supplied web (see l. 363), and swiðe or wide. ‘Plurima fila net (a. l. nectit) assiduus,’ T.

361. Transpose, atte hus rof festeð. festeð, binds. fodredes, plans, means of securing food: a word found here only.

362. so—elde, so it is for her in age, is senseless in this context: read, hire is so on felde, it is for her as if on a field, that is, she moves on a ceiling as if she were on the ground. so, as if; comp. 194/583 with 195/625; ‘His brunie he gan lace | So he scholde in to place,’ KH 717.

363. werpeð, throws, with perhaps a reference to the specific meaning of warp, OE. wearp, stamen.

364. Transpose, al idigt haueð. With driueð comp. 176/8.

365. it, the web.

366. Transpose, fleges ðer faren . ⁊ ðerinne fallen.

367. wiðeren, struggle; properly, resist.

368. renneð &c.: comp. 181/178. redi: comp. 185/311.

369. nimeð . . . to, makes for; see 213/539. nimeð, seizes: the repetition is tolerable, because of the different meanings of the word.

370. bit: read biteð. bane, destroyer: OE. bana, mostly used of the agent.

372. This line appears to be derived from ‘Et placet inde sibi nimium | Quando nocere potest alium’ which comes in the application or ‘significacio.’ If so, it means that in this action she finds her greatest profit. But probably hem should be substituted for hire.

373. Read freteð.

374. dareð: see 185/310 and 195/624.

376. ‘Hos sequitur homo vermiculos | Decipiendo suos socios,’ T. For man read were.

377. on—stalle, in any place whatsoever: comp. ‘i stude ⁊ i stalle,’ SK 683. B-T quotes from a charter, ‘ꝥ hi . . . næfre ne beon on stede ne on stealle þær æfre undon worðe ꝥ ure foregengles geuðen,’ Thorpe, Diplom. Angl., 348/28. The words are synonymous, so, ‘Þer þe fir he has his stall,’ CM 396. See 192/537.

377. stille er lude, under any circumstances: see 25/226 note.

378. mot, place of meeting, especially in a court of law. For wise read mene: comp. ‘mannes mene,’ society of men, GE 501. See 26/266.

379. Read, sarp he him biteð; corresponding to ‘bitterlike’ 187/370; comp. ‘sarp on bite,’ GE 2989. ‘Quos comedit faciens miseros,’ T. bale selleð, does him an injury. ME. sellen, to give, is rarely used with immaterial object, but comp. ‘sylle heom forȝefenesse,’ Twelfth Cent. Homilies, 132/20. Similar is ‘nuste noht Bruttes þere; þat balu heom wes ȝiueðe,’ L 29817. Transpose, bale him.

380. Transpose, his blod drinkeð. dreueð, vexes, annoys.

381. For hem read him; the scribe corrected ll. 379, 380, but overlooked this. Transpose, ⁊ ðo him al freteð.

382. cetegrandie: genitive of ‘cete grandia,’ Gen. i. 21, treated as though it were one word and a noun singular. Cetegrandia is not in Papias or the Catholicon; it is quite possibly the invention of the present writer; the heading in T. is ‘De Balena’ or ‘De Ceto.’ The word in l. 383 appears to have been formed directly from it; the OF. Bestiaries have cetus only.

383-388. ‘Est super omne pecus quod vivit in aequore cetus, | Monstrum grande satis, cum superexstat aquis | Prospiciens illum, montem putat esse marinum, | Aut quod in oceano insula sit medio,’ T. Insert gret before fis.

385. ðat: pronoun anticipating the clause ðat—neilond, l. 387. get, too; comp. ‘Of thre ȝere in þe temple sett, | And þerto fourtene winter gett,’ CM 10531.

389. vnride, enormous, monstrous; OE. ungerȳde; the general idea of the word is excessive. Comp. 192/507, 522, 120/125.

390. hungreð: impersonal as at 60/99; comp. ‘crist him ȝeueð swilcne mete ꝥ him nefre eft ne hungreð,’ OEH i. 37/30; ‘þer in onliche stude him hungrede,’ AR 162/1. Omit he. gapeð &c.: ‘os aperit | Unde velud florum (a. l. hamum) se flatus reddit hodorum | Ad se pisciculos ut trahat exiguos,’ T.

391. it smit an onde, a breath rushes forth; comp. 126/321 note: it is formal nominative, the real subject is onde; comp. 188/403; ‘Til hit sprang dai liȝt,’ KH 124 note.

393. to him dragen, move towards him: comp. 189/416, 32/49; ‘And whatena hauld shall we draw to?’ Child, Ballads, iii. 434.

394. it, the sweet breath.

395. houen: see 177/53.

396. swike: see 82/111. uncuð . . . of: see 179/97.

397. ‘Piscis pisciculos claudit, deglutit et illos,’ T.

401. wið, on; comp. 180/147. se grund, bottom of the sea; comp. 177/58, 184/278, 189/423; ‘þai sail in þe see gronde . fissches to fede,’ Minot x. 4 note; ‘I’ll set my foot in a bottomless boat, | And swim to the sea-ground,’ Child, Ballads, i. 448.

402. heil ⁊ sund: see 177/59.

403. Insert perhaps harde or ille before time. ‘Si sit tempestas, cum vadit vel venit estas, | Et pelagus fundum turbidat omne suum,’ T.

404. For se, Holthausen suggests brine, salt sea, by way of improving the rhyme, but comp. time: bi me, KH 533, 534.

405. winnen, come into conflict, at the change of the seasons.

407. droui, turbid; comp. OE. drōf, drēfan: comp. ‘Þer faure citees wern set nov is a see called, | Þat ay is drouy ⁊ dim,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 68/1016.

408. ðat stund, at that time; comp. 185/309.

409. ‘Continuo summas se tollit caetus ad undas,’ T. stireð, moves; comp. ‘ðis asse is eft of weige stired,’ GE 3961, but stirteð would be more appropriate; comp. ‘And pharaon stirte up anon,’ GE 2931; ‘Þe fisches sturten op with þis song,’ South English Legendary, 232/456. houeð stille: comp. ‘Louerd crist, þat swch a best: scholde houi so stille | And soffri men opon him gon: and don al heore wille,’ id. 230/375.

411. sipes: Mätzner suggested siperes, OE. scipere, but that does not apparently occur in ME. and it would be unmetrical, sipmen might be read, if any change were necessary. fordriuen, driven about, so ‘We beoþ séé-weri men; mid wedere al for-dreuen,’ L MS. O, 6205: but OE. fordrīfan means to drive away, banish, drive out of course.

412. There is nothing in the original corresponding to this line: comp. 91/88.

413. biloken: Mätzner explains, look around, comparing ‘Brid . . . biwent him ofte, ⁊ bilokeð him euer ȝeorneliche al abuten,’ AR 132/26, but the meaning of the verb is there qualified by ‘abuten.’ Here its natural sense is better, they look to themselves, they consider their plight.

414. Add ðat after wenen: comp. 185/311. ‘Est promontorium cernere non modicum | Huic religare citam pro tempestate carinam | Nautae festinant utque foras saliant,’ T.

416. mid here migt, striving their hardest: ‘bi his mihte,’ OEH ii. 189/11.

417, 418. These lines probably ran, Sipes on to festen | ⁊ alle up to gangen. festen on, moor.

419, 420. ‘Accendunt vigilem quem navis portitat ignem,’ T.; ‘vigilem,’ ever burning, Virgil, Æn. iv. 200. wel to brennen may mean, to light a good fire, but such absolute use of brennen is without support. For wel read welm, blazing fire: OE. wielm, wylm; comp. ‘he wolde hine ifusen; to ane bare walme,’ L 22123: the word is common enough in OE. but rare in ME., and so may have puzzled the copyist, who would find wel in the next line. The sense is, They all go up on land to light a blazing fire on this monster by a spark struck out of flint by steel into tinder.

421. warmen . . . heten . . . drinken depend on gangen: ‘ut cale se faciant aut comedenda coquant,’ T.

423. grunde: see 188/401. For the whale mistaken for an island, comp. the South English Legendary, 224/155-176.

426, 427. ‘Viribus est zabulus quasi cetus corpore magnus, | Ut monstrant magni quos facit ille magi,’ T. wið, of, as in ‘mekill of maine,’ Minot, i. 85.

427. hauen gives a fair sense with ‘wil ⁊ magt’ as object, but the original word was probably taunen (comp. 195/631), rendering ‘monstrant.’

428, 429 are due to a misunderstanding of the original, ‘Mentes cunctorum qui sunt ubique virorum | Esurit atque sitit, quosque potest perimit;’ the devil hungers and thirsts for the souls of men and he destroys all he can.

430. tolleð, allures: the earliest occurrence of the word.

431. Omit he. sonde, shame.

432. in leue lage, low (weak) in faith; a phrase apparently without parallel. ‘Sed modicos fidei trahit in dulcedine verbi, | Namque fide firmos non trahit ille viros,’ T.

435. in rigte leue: see 89/28. mid fles ⁊ gast, in body and soul.

437. on lengðe, in the long run, at length: more commonly used of measure, ‘hit is on lengþe; four and twenti mundes,’ L MS. O, 21993.

438. festeð: comp. 1/23; ‘In him i hafe min hope al fest,’ CM 5288: ‘spem sibi ponit,’ T.

439. helle dim: comp. 186/341.

440. This article is mostly original. Sirene, genitive of sirena; the title in T. is ‘De Sirenis’; classical Latin has only siren, -is, fem. In T. they are female and birds in the nether half; his account is very brief and general, and it is followed closely by that of the onocentaur, which is ‘biformis’ like the siren; the ‘significacio’ is common to both. An earlier description is found in Layamon, 1322-1347, which is based on Wace, Brut, 733-771. The author of the Bestiary was acquainted with one or both of these. Comp. also Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. 47.

441. selcuðes, marvels: the word is mostly adjective. ‘Item mare est animancium et monstrorum multiplicis forme productivum; mare enim longe producit monstra et mira quam facit ipsa terra,’ Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xiii.

442. mereman, mermaid: a better form is meremin, pl. merminnen, L 1322: merman is a much later masculine formed from mermaid. The first half of the line is short: perhaps muchel should be added after is.

443. oc—bunden, but in her resemblance to a maiden she is altogether limited to this extent of breast and body. This use of bind has perhaps been helped by Layamon’s ‘wifmen hit þunchet fuliwis; bi-neoðe þon gurdle hit þuncheð fisc.’

444. ‘Poisson sunt del nombril aval,’ Wace 737. For the second half line read, ge is noman ilik.

445. to fuliwis: see 32/40 note. waxen: explained by Mätzner as furnished, in meaning of OE. beweaxan, which however is used only of extraneous growths, as ‘burgtunas brerum beweaxne,’ town-dwellings with briars o’ergrown, Cod. Exon. 443/16. Comp. ‘a win-tre | ðat adde waxen buges ðre,’ GE 59/2059.

446. wankel, unstable; OE. wancol: comp. ‘wanclen,’ weaklings, L 31834. The modern dialect word, wankle, is current in the North and Midlands, and often used of uncertain, unsettled weather, and so probably here of stormy, disturbed seas.

447. ðer—sinkeð is a half-line, sipes—werkeð a complete line: the former may have run, ðer ðe water sinkeð . dun on west halue, where the sea slopes away down to the west; for the second half-line comp. ‘an æst halue an west halue,’ L 29287. ‘Et modo naufragium, modo dant mortale periclum,’ T.

448. mirie: ‘Dolces vois ont, dolcement chantent,’ Wace, 738; ‘Þeos habbeð swa murie song,’ L 1326. Holthausen omits ge. mere, a shortened form of mereman. manie: ‘Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonancia multis | Vocibus et modulis cantus formancia multis,’ T.

449. sille, marvellous; OE. syllic.

450. it ben: see 1/10 note.

451. The scribe should have put the stop before forgeten. ‘Li fol home qui le cant oent, | . . . | Lor voie oblient et guerpissent,’ Wace, 743, 745.

452. ‘Quae faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum,’ T.

454. suk, suck, expressing the sound made by the water closing over the vessel.

456-459 appears to be based on the experience of Brutus; ‘Brutus iherde siggen; þurh his sæ-monnen | of þan ufele ginnen; þe cuðen þa mereminnen | . . . | Þa mereminnen heom to svommen; on alchare sidan. | swiða heo heom lætten; mid luðere heora craften. | Neðelas Brutus at-bræc; al buten burstan, | ⁊ ferde riht on his wei,’ L 1334-1337, 1342-1347.

456. wise . . . warre: see 18/16.

457. know how to return, that is, to escape: comp. ‘hwan ic aȝen cherre; al ic þe ȝelde,’ OEH i. 79/12, and for the noun, ‘Þer deþ so redi fynt dore opene, | Ne may helpe no ȝeyn char,’ Desputisoun, 76/167; ‘efter-charr,’ CM 21922.

458. Often they have burst away, made good their escape: comp. 193/548 where the verb has an object in the acc. of the thing escaped from, as occasionally in OE., and as probably here also. For the second half of the line in its present form yields no satisfactory sense. Mätzner, who completed he[re], translates, with their heart incorruptible, inflexible, equating ouel with OWScand. ófalr. Read, ofte arn atbrosten mid hele . here brest iuel, often have they safely escaped from their evil danger. Comp. ‘Þe king Goffar iseih his burst; ⁊ unæðe him seolf atbreac,’ L 1610; ‘þa ofte ure Bruttes; makeden hufele burstes,’ id. 19856, and with the form brest, ‘or thei take reste | Er schal thei suffre mochel breste,’ Laud Troy Book, 4226; ‘To-quils þai duelled þar to rest, | O water had þai ful mikel brest,’ CM 6308.

459. Mätzner deletes herd, to correspond with, ‘Quod (i.e. periculum) qui fugerunt, hii tales esse tulerunt,’ T.; but in view of L 1334-1337 quoted above, it would be better to leave out told; the wise escape because they have been forewarned. With either alteration, the line remains formless: better, he hauen herd tellen . of tis mere unimete, with distinct alliteration in each half-line (comp. 464/15). Holthausen supplies is after ðat: the scribe probably understood the connection as, which, monstrous in this wise, as being half human and half fish, has a moral application (‘significacio’, ‘bitacnunge,’ 79/15) in virtue of this monstrosity.

463, 464. Many men illustrate what is signified by this creature here adduced as a symbol. ‘Quam plures homines sic sunt in more biformes,’ T.; comp. 191/471.

465. Mätzner altered wulues to sepes; the source is, ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis, qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces,’ S. Matt. vii. 15.

467, 468. ‘Utpote sunt multi qui de virtute locuti, | Turpibus indulgent,’ T. Perhaps of should be inserted before godcundhede.

469. vncuð wið: see 179/97. ‘Qui foris ut fantur, sic intus non operantur,’ T.

474. ðe legen, lie to thee, by presently breaking their oath: ‘unum dicentes, aliud mox tibi facientes,’ T.

475. sage, discourse: OE. sagu: comp. ‘heo wenden þat his sawen; soðe weren,’ L 749.

476. ðer imong, all the time they are promising.

477. agte and soule l. 478 are apparently accusatives in a sort of apposition to ‘ðe’ l. 476. OE. swician requires ymb or on with the name of the thing about which deceit is practised.

480. Elpes: the OE. forms are elpend and ylp; elp is probably a shortened form of the former. Inde riche, the realm of India.

481. berges ilike, like mountains; ‘bene firmares montibus esse pares,’ T.; ‘ylp is ormæte nyten mare þonne sum hus,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/366.

482. o wolde, in the woodland: comp. 195/620.

484, 485. ‘Adversi coeunt, cum sibi conveniunt.’ The scribe has put sampnen in the place of some less common word; Holthausen proposes hemen which gives an assonance at any rate: if a verb *menen may be inferred from mæne, mene, intercourse, it would fit still better.

486. kolde of kinde, chaste by nature: comp. 191/495; ‘so kinde cold,’ GE 1999.

487. minde: see 184/263.

488. noten of, make use of: see 84/45. gres, herb, medicinal plant.

489. ðe, to which: see 46/292. mandragores, mandrake: L. mandragoras; in Philippe de Thaün mandragora. It is discussed at length in Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xvii, ‘dicitur autem habere virtutem prebetivam mulieribus concipiendi.’ There is no mention of it in T., but it is common matter in the Bestiaries.

490-494. ‘Hique semel pariunt quamvis tot tempora vivunt, | Hoc est ter centum, nec faciunt geminum, | Ast unum generant et per duo tempora gestans,’ T. (‘duo tempora’ = duos annos). See Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/569. wuneden: read wunen: more is probably an addition by the scribe.

495. blod ⁊ bon, subject of is: for the phrase, meaning the whole body, comp. 196/636; ‘nys non so feyr of blod ant bone,’ KH MS. L, 916 note.

496. ‘Cum parit in magna, ne cadat, exstat aqua,’ T. The Bestiaries generally say that she takes to the water for fear of the dragon. sal, has to, must.

498. to mid side: nothing corresponding in T., but ‘Tresque à sun ventre en l’unde,’ P. de Thaün, 1442; ‘pergit ad lacum magnum et ingreditur usque ad ubera,’ H. de S. Victor, ii. 427. midside is a compound noun; contrast ‘with a sadel to the midside,’ Desputisoun, ed. Linow, 59/517 (Laud MS.) with the corresponding, ‘Wiþ a sadel to middle þe syde,’ 101/517 (Digby MS.).

499. wanne—tide; Mätzner translates, ‘when mischief betides her,’ treating harde as a noun, like 152/56 note. The construction would then be the same as in ‘Aþulf tit no wounde,’ KH MS. L, 1352, and harde might better be translated birth pangs. But the order of the words is against that interpretation: tide is impersonal and harde is an adverb: comp. ‘wel þe sal bityde,’ L MS. O, 2236.

500. ðat is often repeated when a clause interrupts the construction, as in ‘sitteð all stille, ꝥ hwon he parted urom ou, ꝥ he ne cunne ower god, ne ower vuel nouðer,’ AR 64/20.

502. ‘Non habet ut (a.l. unde) surgat, quia nunquam crura recurvat,’ T. The elk is also without joints in its legs; see Elton, Origins of English History, p. 54.

504. Hu—wide depends on l. 506. With he comp. 119/77, 194/602.

505. walkeð wide, travels to a distance; a favourite phrase in the romances: comp. ‘Ihc habbe walke wide,’ KH 953 note.

506. her: in Physiologus.

507. For resting is difficult because his huge bulk prevents him from lying down.

508. to fuligewis: see 32/40.

509. ‘Incumbit trunco arboris haut modico,’ T.

510. trostlike, confidingly: ‘Idunc dort a seür,’ P. de Thaün, 1550.

511. of walke weri, weary from walking; so, ‘weri of sorȝen,’ L 28081.

512. ðis anticipates l. 514: the hunter notes the elephant’s favourite support, ‘his beste wune.’

514. wune, resort; usually custom, but comp. ‘Vyche day in þe temple . wes myne ywune,’ OEM 43/207. Eudes de Cheriton, 316/26, has, ‘Elephas, more consueto super illam appodians, simul cum illa cadit.’

515. For willen read wiken: to don hise wiken, to perform his functions, here, to sleep. The phrase ‘don wiken’ occurs in OEH i. 137/11, meaning, to do services. Comp. 84/45 note.

516. underset: ‘Quam notat atque secat venator, et obice celat,’ T. Mätzner translates, underprops; rather, wedges up, underpins.

517. bet: used for the rhyme, where best might have been expected.

518. he, the elephant. it . . . war, aware of it: see 200/116 note.

519. makeð char, returns: comp. 190/457.

520. ‘Clamque sedens spectat dum requiem repetat,’ T. biwalt is Mätzner’s correction for biwarlt; it is a rare word and means to rule, manage, wield, as in ‘þe holie þremnesse þe shop ⁊ biwalt alle shafte,’ OEH ii. 25/8. He explains the passage as, the hunter sits alone, observes whether his device helps him in any way. But olon for al one or one as in this text, 194/579, 580, the absence of a conjunction before bihalt and the meaning given to biwalt all raise doubts. Morris translates the last word as ‘deceiveth.’ Perhaps in olon lurks al on, which with *bihalt, observation, would give, intent on watching. *bihalt, noun of bihalden, is not found, but may be inferred from OE. geheald. biwalt may be miswritten for biualt, representing OE. befealleþ: l. 521 might then mean whether his device results in anything for him.

522. unride: see 188/389.

524, 525. ‘Ille velud quondam securus ad arboris umbram, | Cum venit, incumbit, cumque ruente ruit,’ T. boden, for boðen.

530. ðer, to that place. gangande: the author wrote gangen, and at l. 536 seken or more probably saken: comp. 108/232; ‘þer com o schelchene gon,’ OEM 45/279, 285; ‘Þer com go a wel fair mon,’ South English Legendary, 223/139, 226/265, 227/272; ‘þat him com biforen gon; a wunder ane fair mon,’ L 32064. The infinitive defines; here it means, on foot. ‘Tunc unus currit, qui relevare cupit,’ T.

531. ut is a scribe’s mistake for up.

532. Fikeð, bustles, fusses: still in dialectic use in the northern counties and Scotland. See Björkman, 145, 306. The combination with fondeð, tries, does not occur elsewhere.

533. forðen: see 180/126. no wigt, not at all.

534. canne, can he; nor can he do anything else. ‘Sed nequit et satagit: complorans hic quoque barrit,’ T.

536. manie: in the older Bestiaries twelve besides the first try to raise him. The original reading of the MS., sacande, for saken (shake), is preferable to the correction: see 182/193.

537. on stalle maken, put him in a standing position, set him up again; comp. 193/539, 547, 556, 557; ‘cumen . . . on stalle,’ 193/539. A deer is said to stall when it stands still in covert.

538. for, in spite of, notwithstanding; comp. ‘For roting es na better rede,’ CM 11505; ‘thei scholde come with-outen dwellyng | And speke with him for any thyng,’ Laud Troy Book, 3103: contrast ‘For,’ in consequence of, 193/542.

540-549. ‘Cum nequeunt omnes, contendunt mittere voces, | Ad quas fit subitus parvulus ac minimus | Cuius (et est mirum) promuscida sublevat illum, | Et sic predictas effugit insidias,’ T.

548. Comp. 186/344, 190/458. atbrested: supply he (the fallen elp) as subject: see 6/18 note.

552. ðat fele we, for that we suffer.

553. Holthausen would read, Moyses wulde him reisen rigt, | migte i forðen no wigt; but reisen : forðen is sufficient rhyme for this author. The lines are, however, short; insert up before reisen, he after migte.

556. her non, none of them.

557. By ‘upright’ I mean in his former position as possessor of the riches of heaven. For iseie see 56/46 note. Comp. ‘heoueriche wunne,’ AR 242/4; ‘heouenriche murhðe,’ OEH i. 115/1.

559. suggeden, sighed; comp. ‘Forr iwhillc mann birrþ wepenn her, ⁊ sikenn sare ⁊ suhhȝhenn,’ Orm 7923. weren in ðogt, were very anxious: comp. ‘Euer ⁊ oo for my leof icham in grete þohte,’ Bödd. AE. Dicht. 179/7.

560. ovt: read ogt, in any wise, at all.

561. onder steuene is meaningless. Mätzner suggested mid are steuene, with one cry; Holthausen for onder, luder. But alle is superfluous and the rhythm is defective: the original may have been, remeden he ðo ludere steuene. Comp. ‘Þa quað Membricius; ludere stefne,’ L 927; ‘Numbert heom to clepede; mid ludere stefne,’ id. 1428.

563, 564. ‘Ipsorum precibus venit ad hoc dominus,’ T. care, anxiety. hem . . . to, to them: see 1/3.

566. litel: ‘parvus, quoniam deus est homo factus,’ T.

567. drowing ðolede, endured suffering: comp. ‘Ac of cristes þruwinge · þet he þolede her,’ OEM 37/4; ‘He ðrowede and ðolede un-timing ðat,’ GE 1180.

568. under gede, went to the help of; said with a reference to l. 545: L. subvenire.

570. dim: comp. 186/341.

571. For the Turtle, the author follows the Latin original pretty closely.

572. boke: Physiologus. o rime, in verse: insert al before o.

573. lagelike, loyally, faithfully: comp. ‘ȝif ha hare wedlac laheliche halden,’ HM 13/33.

574. make: comp. ‘Forr fra þatt hire make iss dæd | Ne kepeþþ ȝho nan oþerr,’ Orm 1276. siðen: read seden, separate, depart, OE. scēadan; comp. ‘Þurrh þatt he wollde stilleliȝ | Fra Sannte Marȝe shædenn,’ Orm 2922, 16240. Omit ge as unmetrical.

575. muneð, keep in mind; comp. 185/284.

576, 577. ‘Nocte dieque juncta manebit | Absque marito nemo videbit,’ T. sundren ovt, separate at all, at any time: comp. 195/623.

578-583. ‘Sed viduata si caret ipso | Non tamen ultra nubet amico, | Sola volabit, sola sedebit: | Et quasi vivum corde tenebit | Opperiensque casta manebit,’ T.

579. one, alone: OE. āna. fareð, passes her life.

581. luue abit, awaits, watches for the return of her beloved.

585. reche, take heed, bethink thyself.

586. See 180/134. meche: ‘Namque maritus est sibi (i.e. animae) Christus,’ T.

588. fro himward: see 178/89 note. The metre requires the omission of -ward.

590. Read luue none: for the combination leue . . . luue, comp. 143/73. ne—newe, nor love any new one; comp. ‘Allas! is every man thus trewe, | That every yere wolde have a newe,’ Chaucer, H. F. 301; ‘He wolde not him chawnge for no newe,’ Guy of Warwick, 122. This gives the best sense and rhythm, but luue may be a noun governed by leue, and l. 581 favours that interpretation.

591-593. ‘Quem superesse credit in aethre, | Inde futurum spectat eundem | Ut microcosmum judicat omnem,’ T.

592. briche: see 185/293.

593. on geuelike: see 182/214.

594. Omit men. his loðe, those hateful to him.

598-600. ‘Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato,’ T. bro, eyebrow: OWScand. brá: see Björkman 231. Mätzner sees in the whale’s brow an expression for whalebone: Pliny says ‘ora ballaenae habent in frontibus, ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbos efflant,’ N. H. ix. 6, 16. The explanation is not convincing. Such comparisons are generally made with familiar objects, so ‘colblake,’ 153/75; ‘And worth al black sum ani cole,’ CM 22489; ‘Al blak so cole-brond,’ King Alisaunder 6260. Perhaps, so brond of cole: the scribe is given to leaving out the end of his words, and the rhyme cole : al is no worse than fel : al, 190/465. In other Bestiaries the panther is of many colours.

600. trendled &c., rounded as a wheel.

601. And it sets him off, adorns him, exceedingly: an early instance of this meaning. Comp. ‘þe kirtel bicom him swiþe wel,’ Guy of Warwick, Auch. MS. 14/210.

602. he: see 119/77 note.

603. der: T. has ‘Diversis pastus venatibus et saciatus,’ but the Bestiaries generally avoid making him carnivorous; ‘Divers mangiers manjue,’ P. de Thaün, 474; ‘Saoulee . . . De boenes viandes plusors,’ Guillaume, 1958, 1960; ‘diversis herbis vescitur,’ Honorius Augustod. (Migne), 887.

604. cul, rump: the earliest appearance of this French word in English. Mätzner explains it as cowl, fell.

607. After dages insert al: comp. 195/635.

609. lude so, as loudly as: but lude should probably be omitted, as the line is too long.

610-615. ‘Exit odor talis de gutture, tamque suavis, | Ut virtute sua superet vel aromata cuncta,’ T. mid . . . forð may be equivalent to forð mid, along with (see 1/19), but forð is more probably adverbial, far, as in, ‘Sum was wið migte so forð gon, | ðat hadden he under hem mani on,’ GE 835. oueral, widely spread.

612. haliweie, more usually halewei, some preparation of a balsamic nature used both as a lotion and a drink. It corresponds to an OE. *hǣlewǣg, healing water, but the spelling in the text shows an association with hālig (NED.). Comp. ‘hwo þet bere a deorewurðe licur, oðer a deorewurðe wete, as is bame, in a feble uetles, healewi in one bruchele glese,’ AR 164/13; ‘Kumeð þerof smel of aromaz, oðer of swote healewi,’ id. 276/11.

615. Comp. ‘For na drie ne for na wate,’ CM 6365. wete is by form a noun, as at l. 57; comp. ‘hwīlum fliht se wǣta ꝥ dryge,’ Boethius, ed. Fox, 234/10.

617. wor so . . . of londe, wherever in the world; comp. ‘Wher he beo in londe,’ KH 416 note. But the metre requires on ðe londe.

620. folegeð: ‘Ferunt odore earum mire sollicitari quadripedes cunctas,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 17, 62. The original has ‘Ad quem mox tendit quae vocem belua sentit, | Ac sectatur cum nimia dulcedine plenum.’ Eudes de Cheriton says, ‘animalia crudelia, ut Lupus et Leopardus . . . eam pro bono odore sequuntur et non infestant,’ 232: he explains the sweet smell as the soft answer that turns away wrath.

621. ðe, of which: comp. 46/292 note.

623-625. ‘Cum sonat, aut fugiunt, aut segnes corpore fiunt | In caveisque latent, nec in ipso tempore parent,’ T. ogt, at all.

624. daren: see 185/310.

627. tokned: ‘per mistica dictus,’ T.

629. ‘Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum,’ Psalm xliv. 3.

630. fen, mud; comp. ‘Or or flum noe spredde his fen,’ GE 490.

631. taunede, displayed: taunen is an aphetic form of *at-awnen (see NED. s.v. tawne): it is found only here and several times in GE. ll. 631, 632 are the interpretation of ll. 603-605: ‘At satur ille fuit, quia quot vult, tot sibi sumit,’ T.

634. Well is it for the man for whom he was willing to suffer it. ‘Et somnum cepit cum nos moriendo redemit,’ T. For the omission of the verb after wel, see 21/92 note: for dat, to whom, see 46/292 note.

635. on on, continuously.

636. blod ⁊ bon: see 191/495.

637. Perhaps in wis of the MS. should not have been altered, as it occurs again in GE at 214/575: it may be a genuine, though mistaken, resolution of iwis.

639. vuemest, highest.

641. smel: ‘nimio suae incarnationis odore,’ H. de S. Victor, ii. 426.

642. let her, left behind in the world.

643. For him, hin, shortened form of hine, may be read: comp. ‘fleges kin sal hin ouer-gon,’ GE 3004.

644. For fin read afin or in fin; the meaning will be, into his divine presence at our ending. The original has ‘Celos ascendens, ubi regnat cum patre presens, | Quem gentes cuncte sunt sic credendo secute:’ the parallel passage in the description is l. 620. godcundnesse properly means, divinity, divine nature, here apparently, the manifestation of that divinity in heaven. For fin, death, comp. ‘Alle ðhe olde deden ðor fin,’ GE 3852.

645. ‘Serpens antiquus qui nobis est inimicus,’ T.

646. dine, sound, preaching: suggested by ‘rem,’ 195/611, and possibly by S. Paul’s use of Psalm xviii. 5, ‘in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum,’ Rom. x. 18.

648. ðer wile, whilst, so long as; comp. 198/37, 205/288, 446/59, ‘And mete quorbi ðei migten liuen, | ðor quiles he woren on water driuen,’ GE 573; ‘Therwhile, sire, that I tolde this tale | Thi sone mighte tholie dethes bale,’ Seuyn Sages, 701. he—beren, they maintain obedience and cherish love: he refers to noman: beren goes naturally with luue, with lage it stands for lage halden, to keep the commandments (of God).

649. Thetbald ends with the Panther, and this section is generally said to be taken from Neckam’s De Naturis Rerum, c. xlvi. His dove has eight ‘natures,’ three of which are wanting in our author’s seven, and lacks two of those given here (ll. 656, 657; ll. 660, 661), while Neckam’s explanation of the fifth, ll. 662, 663, is quite different. The matter is common to the Fathers and medieval writers, and our author may have drawn from more than one, but Hugh of S. Victor, De Bestiis et aliis Rebus, lib. i. c. 11, most nearly resembles him. His dove has ten qualities, six of which are here, and there is something resembling the seventh: each of them is quoted.

651. wes, we them. hauen in mode, keep in mind: so, ‘ben us minde,’ l. 653: see 184/263.

653. Mätzner takes alle it together as, all of them, comparing 190/450, where he says it = them, but see 1/10 note: the construction is similar here, it is a mere introductory word like there: the order is, it ogen alle &c., and the meaning, they ought all to be present in thought to us.

654. ‘Caret felle, id est, irascibilitatis amaritudine,’ V. Comp. ‘Loke nu þet tu, þet he cleopeð kulure, habbe kulure kunde, þet is wiðuten galle,’ AR 292/19; ‘Forr cullfre iss milde ⁊ meoc ⁊ swet, | ⁊ all wiþþutenn galle,’ Orm 1258; ‘Lauedi scho es o leuedis all, | Mild and mek witouten gall,’ CM 101.

655. simple: Comp. ‘Estote simplices sicut columbe · buð admode alse duue,’ OEH ii. 49/25, that is, humble. softe, gentle.

656. ‘Non vivit ex raptu, quia non detrahit proximo,’ V. Mätzner divided bi lagt and explained lagt as pp. of lacchen used substantively as prey: the word does not occur elsewhere.

657. The scribe probably understood this line as, Let us do aback all thieving; that is, renounce, reject, like ‘werpeð abec,’ 16/142: though aback descends from on bæc. But the rhyme is bad, and the emendation hac, due to Mätzner, does not improve it, besides being difficult of interpretation. If it is for ac (comp. 217/87) the meaning might be, Let us also put away from us all thieving. Morris suggests hagt = agt, mind, and the rhyme lagt : hagt occurs in GE, see 201/135, but the word hagt means, in ME., only care, anxiety, peril. Holthausen proposed iþagt, OE. geþeaht; in the sense, put out of our counsel, thoughts: the form apparently does not occur elsewhere, and it makes a metrical difficulty. Probably the corruption of the line began with Ilc; it may have run, Noman do we robbing of aght; comp. ‘If i giue þe for to kepe | . . . | Hors or ani oþer aght, | And it wit wiþerwin be laght,’ CM 6763; ‘For to spare his aune aght, | þis pore manes schep he laght,’ id. 7927.

658, 659. ‘Colligit grana meliora, id est, meliora dicta. Non vescitur cadaveribus, id est, desideriis carnalibus,’ V. leteð, abstains from. Omit ðe before sed.

660, 661. ‘Geminos nutrit pullos, id est, amorem Dei et amorem proximi,’ V, which is not like the text. Comp. rather, ‘Alienos pullos nutrit dum errantes a regno Dei alienos per poenitentiam reducit,’ Honorius Augustod., 962. ur ilk, each of us.

662, 663. ‘Columba pro cantu utitur gemitu, quia quod libens fecit plangendo gemit,’ V. woning &c.: see 2/15. lic: apparently adv., equally; likewise; her song is at the same time a lament: the order of the words and the absence at this date of a preposition with woning is against the meaning, her song is similar to a lament: comp. ‘Forr þeȝȝre (cullfre ⁊ turrtle) sang iss lic wiþþ wop,’ Orm 7931. For bimene, reflexive, see 40/168 note.

664, 665. ‘Super fluenta aquarum (Canticum Canticorum, v. 12) residet, ut, visa acciptris umbra, venientem citius devitet, quia in scripturis studet, ut supervenientis diaboli fraudem declinet,’ V. wis of, a variant of ‘war of,’ suggested by the frequent association of ‘wis and war:’ see 18/16. nome, seizing, clutches: only here and at 206/322.

666, 667. ‘Nidificat in foraminibus petrae, quia spem ponit in Christi passione,’ V.

Phonology: Oldest E. Texts 570
OE Texts

a + g ... Anglian tre(o):
tre (o)

Accidence: ...nigt s. a. 582;
582:

The personal pronouns ... oðer 603
oder

eurilc 257, 286
euerilc 257, eurilc 286

Only three verbs ... I c. s. 3. wan 632
3,

For the octosyllable ... cundnéss|ẹ afín 644
afin

Verses of three measures ... tíl | it cúm|ẹð ðe tíme 403
timé

Syncope of the middle vowel ... sinịging 256
sinigịng

173. ... subj. past from healdan
subj. past.

185. ... AR 50/15
AR/50/15

257. ... it would balance eurilcdel
euerilcdel

260. ... Comp. ‘ðe sunenday | ðat is
open quote missing

356. ... subject of is.
period (full stop) missing

357. ... the Creator made these loathly things
final “r” in “Creator” invisible

a common medieval idea
“l” in “medieval” invisible

414. ... Huic religare citam pro tempestate carinam
pre

428, 429 ... Mentes cunctorum qui sunt ubique virorum
text unchanged: error for “ubicunque”?

467, 468. ... Turpibus indulgent,’
close quote invisible

489. ... habere virtutem prebetivam
text unchanged: error for “prebitivam”?

612. ... It corresponds to an OE. *hǣlewǣg
OE *hǣlewǣg

XXII. GENESIS AND EXODUS

Manuscript: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 444, former mark R 11; on vellum, 186 × 116 mm., in one hand of the end of thirteenth or of the beginning of the fourteenth century. It contains on 81 folios the poem from which the present extract is made. On f. 1 r is the name of a former owner, Richard Southwell, with a motto nearly obliterated, Sapit qui sustinet, or suscepit (James). See further A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by M. R. James, vol. ii, p. 357.

Editions: Morris, R., Genesis and Exodus. E. E. T. S., O. S. 7, 1865, revised 1873. Mätzner, E., Altenglische Sprachproben, i. 76-90. Specimens, 153-170. Emerson, O. F., ME. Reader, 21-35.

Literature: Fritzsche, A., Anglia, v. 43-90 (authorship, phonology, grammar, metre, notes); Hilmer, H., Ueber die Sprache der altenglischen Story of Genesis and Exodus, Sondershausen, 1876; Holthausen, F., ES xvi. 429-33, Archiv, xc. 143, 144, 295, cvii. 386-92, Anglia, xv. 191-4, xxii. 141 (notes and emendations); Kölbing, E., ES iii. 273-334, xvii. 292-6 (notes and emendations); Schumann, W., Anglia, vi. Anzeiger, 1-32; Stratmann, F. H., ES ii. 120, iv. 98 (notes).

Analogue: Die altfranzösische Histoire de Joseph, ed. W. Steuer, Erlangen, 1903, also as L’Estoire Joseph, ed. E. Sass, Berliner Dissertation, 1906.

Phonology: This section should be compared with pp. 581-586; explanations of abnormal forms offered there are not repeated. Oral a is a, asses 427, crauen 420; a before nasals is a, gan 8, man 446 r. w. chanaan, nam 84, quanne 14, ðanne 199; men 204 (3 times) is a reduced form of the indefinite pronoun man; a before lengthening groups is o, among 587, fond 30, but and 6 &c., handful 15, Orm’s hanndfull, with consonant following the lengthening group. æ is a, at 25, bad 93 (14), bar 22 (6), dale 79 r. w. bale, faste 93, 248, quat 37, ðat 9, was 1 &c.; the exceptions are fest 427 r. w. best, queðer 111, reste 82, reste 466 (5), weche 514, weches 521 (comp. ‘weciað,’ Vesp. Ps. 126/1), togider 406 r. w. hider. e is e, beden 266, beðen 501, deren 402 r. w. sheren, stede 81 r. w. dede, wel 10 &c. (wēl, Bülbring, § 284); before lengthening groups, ende 588, engeles 587, feld 29, but hate 12, 32, 33, influenced by haten, hatian and perhaps by OWScand. hatr, bi 150, quilke 134 (3), swilc 33, bliscing 452, influenced by blissung, rejoicing, wol 384, GE 621, ‘wol wel he dede,’ id. 724, ‘ðehg wol wel,’ id. 1266, due to labial influence and weakness of stress (Gabrielson, Influence of W-, 207, 8); seigen 548, seið 404 (secgað). i is i, bid 563, driuen 219, is 74 &c., ðider 55, wile 180, wliten 343 r. w. eten; before lengthening groups, bringen 213, wilde 71, winden 502; beðen 552 is a miswriting of bidden, welin 585 of wilen. o is o, biforen 16, on 32, soren 15, wrogt 36 r. w. nogt; before lengthening groups, forð 190, gold 194, ‘wolde,’ GE 1418, but an 95, a 40, 108, without stress, wulde 9 (4), wurðen 517. u is u, kuppe 101, wukes 527; before lengthening groups, grund 164, hunger 204, murnen 107, but boden 67, storue 54, ‘domme,’ GE 2821, French writings. y is regularly i, bigen 220, kin 240, 244 r. w. beniamin, kire 505 r. w. ȳre; before lengthening groups, kinde 129 (5), kinges 87, but deden (dǣdon) 2, 154, 265 r. w. beden, 431, 504, 538 r. w. abiden, dede 44, 82 r. w. stede, come 321, sundri 81 (3), analogy of sundor. ā is o, agon 292 (ongān), gon 242 r. w. pharaon, 249 r. w. symeon, non 283 r. w. symeon, on 320 r. w. symeon, ðo 13, wrot 581 r. w. mot; with oo, ‘ooc,’ GE 1873, ‘wooc,’ id. 1874; but ‘loac,’ GE 1798, ‘ðoa,’ id. 3894 r. w. salmona, 4129 r. w. fasga, ‘woa,’ id. 880 r. w. oba: slo 35, slon 34 r. w. on, come from forms with ā; before two consonants, homward 430, but a 81, an 58 &c., unstressed article, anoðer 43, ali 482, 493, 526, hali 492, clad 174? with shortened a as if from *clādd, gast 482, 492, quam 374 (hwām), bilef, 214, 251 (‘belāf,’ Peterborough Chron., an. 1131), probably by confusion with belǣfan, but Kluge, Grundriss § 125, assumes a change of ablaut, ‘ða,’ GE 1901 r. w. bozra, ‘wac,’ id. 1197 r. w. ysaac. ǣ₁ is e, bilewen 287, clene 493, leden 358 r. w. speden, 355 r. w. ðeden, segeð 286, form from sǣgan, meaning from sīgan; before two consonants, fette 154, helðe 398, lesteð 564, but ea in ear 202, 483, a in ani 235 (ā with shortening), ðan 212, 389, 550 (þām with shortening), and o in most 350, 422 (l N māst), ei in fleis 143 (= fles, comp. treweiðe 358), i in ilc 409, 410, 421 (ylc). ǣ₂ is e, bedden 327 (bǣdon from biddan in form, but budon from bēodan in meaning), dede 41 (4), mel 466 r. w. wel, red 45, 191 r. w. sped, 568 r. w. dead, sel 442 r. w. wel, ðer 95 r. w. prisuner, 170 r. w. buteler, weren 255 (6), were 228, wet 342, 396 r. w. gret; before two consonants, lewse 44, 407 (lǣswe), redden 34, vnselðehe 370, but ðor 42 r. w. sor, 48 &c., 471 r. w. ger, ðore 324, wor 82 (hwāra), quuor 482 (3), quor 462, wore 139, 246, woren 434 r. w. biforen, and six other instances. ē is e, bene 565, sped 46 r. w. red; before two consonants, kepten 25, but doðes 230. ī is i, but y is written for it in yre 506. ō is o, written oo in good 121, 448, ‘booc,’ GE 4124, ‘tooc,’ id. 4123, but cam 55 (8), bicam 202, breðere 7 (14), an umlaut form, wep (OE. wōp) 382 is a new formation from wēpan, briðere 325. ū is u, but ‘town,’ GE 2739, ‘out,’ id. 72. ȳ is i, hid 364, kid 411 r. w. bitid, srid 73 r. w. bitid, but ðe 357 (þȳ).

ea before r + cons. is a, harme 368; before lengthening groups, forward 290, harde 94 (3), but e in erd 148 (3), gerken 309, speren 248, sperd 93, 147 and wurð 116 (9). The i-umlaut is e, derne 46, erue 44, werneden 261, but chare 444. ea before l + cons. is a, alle 34 &c., salt 20 (3); before lengthening groups o, bold 13, 175, cold 39, 584, holden 94 (3), old 3 (3), sold 4 (4), wold 40 (4), but geld 206, ‘geald,’ GE 2581; the i-umlaut is e, eldere 483, 560, welden 197 (see 359/7 and comp. Bülbring § 175 anm.). eo before r + cons. is e, berge 583, fer 483, feren 31, herte 32 (6), sterres 17. To the wur group belong wurðe 111, 128, wurðen 465, 481, wurðed 20, wurðeden 18, wurðing 194. The i-umlaut is i, hirde 449, hirdnesse 26, but hertedin 76, smeren 496, 502 (smierwan), smered 509, 511, smerles 508 are without umlaut: a wyr word is wurð 39 (5). The u- and å-umlauts of a are wanting, as in bale 80 r. w. dale, faren 292, misfaren 7, as are also those of e, werlde 288 (7), beren 138, fele 425. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i, is e in her 13, but biueð 334, cliued 59, cliueð 438, liued 60, nimen 416, 532, siluer 268 (comp. OWScand. silfr, Björkman, 112), siðen 115 (6) have no umlaut. ea after palatals is a, sal 79 &c., shauen 174, bigat 332 r. w. get, forgaf 553, forgat 146, gaf 45 (5). ie after ġ is e, bigetel 88, bigeten 234, forgeten 156, geuen 452, 512, but forgiue 549 r. w. liuen, ME. gifte 520; after sc, e, sheren 401 r. w. deren. EWS. gief is if 7 (3). eo after ġ is u in gunge 335, gungest 214 (4); after sc, u, sulen 22 &c., sulde 9, sulden 355, ‘suuen,’ GE 107. eom is am 129 (4), heom, hem 9 &c.

ēa is e, bed 101, bred 102, dede 519, eddi 140, gret 341, 395 r. w. wet, lepes 132, ee in neet 151; before two consonants e, eðimod 303, lefful 578, but ea in bead 548, bread 133, dead 1 r. w. unred, 485, 547, 567 r. w. red, dead 286, eares 158, and a (shortening) before two consonants in chapmen 85, chafare 47, gatte 531, 567 (Björkman, 109). The i-umlaut is e, herde 107, heren 585, nede 215, 219, ned 295, 578 r. w. red, nedful 184. ēo is invariably e, bed 127, bedden 552, for beden, ben 10 &c., dep 38 r. w. slep, leue 475, sen 26 &c., ðeden 356 r. w. leden, ðre 132 r. w. me; it is written ee in seen 492, ‘teen,’ GE 1344; before two consonants e, fellen 326, 551, leuere 139; but ei in weis 343 (wēox from weacsan), comp. fleis 143: miswritten i in lif 481 for ‘lef,’ GE 340 (6). The i-umlaut is e, dere 301, 453, ten 51 r. w. men. gīet is get 39 (6). ēa after ġ is e, ger 1 (11).

a + g is ag, dragen 100, lages 500, slagen 58, but daiges 499, 509, 525, laiges 510, 526, daies 123. æ + g is ei, dei 141 r. w. weilawei, freinde 107, seide 19 (6), seiden 218 (7), seid 479, 482, and ai, abraid 165, dai 249, 359 r. w. wei, faire 447, mai 19 (6), waines 416, written ay in may 36: fagen 321 (3) is from fagen: æ + h is seen in lagt 135, ‘vnachteled,’ GE 796. e + g is ei, leid 284, weie 293: agen 55 r. w. sen, 125, 304, 403 r. w. ben comes from agēn. i + g is ig in manige 234, 332, but the spirant is absorbed in birien 478, biried 571, ybiried 574, and manie 446: birigeles 528, biriele 542 (byrgels) are analogic: beries 116 is LWS. berie. Final ig is i, eddi 140, seli 568; stiward 87, 317 is LWS. stīweard: i + h is seen in ‘sigðhe’ (gesihþ), GE 1630. o + g, h is og, bogt 90, drogen 456, wrogt 78, 272, ‘dogtres,’ GE 1090, 1094, but dowter 201 (? Northern). u + g, h is ug, fugeles 135, mugen 144. y + h is seen in ME. frigti 18. ā + g is og, ogen 108, but owen 40; ā + h, og, ‘oget,’ GE 324, but agte 363 (? influence of ǣht). ǣ₁ + h is ag, agte 144 (ǣht), bitagt 97 r. w. hagt: ǣ₂ + g, leigen 16. ō + h is og, brogt 274, nogt 35 r. w. wroht, sogt 30, other spellings are ‘broghten,’ GE 1008, ‘ðohgteful,’ id. 1437, ‘sowt,’ id. 2870, ‘ðhowtes,’ id. 3544, ‘wroutis,’ id. 456. ō + g is og, ug, ‘bog,’ GE 608, ‘ynog,’ id. 3670, buges 114, ynug 210. ū + g is ug, drugte 161, ðhugte 118. ea + h is seen in sag 7 (6), waxen 114; the i-umlaut in migt 504, migte 68 &c., nigt 103, 515 r. w. rigt. eo + h is seen in rigt 15, brictest 6, but sextene 3 (comp. Mercian sex, sexta, Bülbring § 319 anm.); fe 89 represents feoh, dat. fēo. ēa + g is eg, bege 194; hegest 196 may represent hēahsta, but is more probably a new formation from hēh; ēa + h, ‘ðehg,’ GE 1266. ēo + g is also eg, drege 262; ēo + h is seen in wex 211; wexen 158, 556; the i-umlaut in ligten 79 (līhtan). ā + w is ou, ow, sowen 401, soules 578, sowle 579. ī + w, newe 412 is Anglian nēowe. ēa + w is ew, shewed 67, ðewed 10. ēo + w is also ew, knewen 31, 216, reweli 382, rewðe 393, trewthe 390, but gure 232 (5), final, gu 314 &c., knew 221, 222, wintre 113; without umlaut are trewið 91, trewed 439.

In syllables without stress a is levelled to e, moneð 516, vten 460, so o in hunger 230; ofrigt 104, 279 representing āfyrht has been influenced by ME. offriȝt: on is an 95. An e, often unmetrical, has been inserted in bodẹward 336, bodẹwurd 548, breðere 7 &c., briðẹre 325, coren 158 (9), engẹles 587, manigẹfold 556, gadẹren 188, eldẹre 483, 560, fugeles 135, 143, leuelike 329, leuere 139, reweli 382 (but rewli 64), vnselðẹhe 370, similarly ei, i in trewẹịðe 358, birịgeles 528 (byrgels); an irrational e is added finally in ðogẹ 24, towardẹ 49; e is omitted in bettre 44, biforn 326, first 185, forward 88, 318, gur 314, herdne 127 (ǣrende), mor 260 r. w. or: i is written for e in michil 260, and inserted in eðimod 303 (ēaþmōd), sinịgeden 259. The prefix in tawnen 180 is æt; be- is regularly bi, biforen 16, biment 256, bitwen 23; ge- is generally lost, kinde 129, lefful 578, seli 192, writ 70, but it survives in gede 43, 341 (yet g may be merely parasitic), yoten 470, ynug 210, it is disguised in to ful in wis 575 (comp. 196/637); the suffix ung is regularly ing, ending 283, wurðing 194.

Metathesis of r takes place in wrigtful 258, wrigteleslike 130; rr is simplified in chare 444 r. w. fare, charen 490 r. w. faren, duren 293, fer 483, feren 31. ll is simplified in al 167 &c., handful 15, wil 28 (3), wilen 358. n is added in dalen 27, against metre, and lost in a 40, 108, o 103, 177, 280 for on; nn is simplified in gunen 432, mankin 460 (manncynn), quane 4, 356. p is inserted in dempt 92, ME. drempte 37, 103, and lost in ME. chafare 47. f between vowels and vowellikes is u, crauen 420, erue 44, louerd 237, luue 18, ouer 541, wiue 201, written w in bilewen 287, wiwes 91, but ‘wifwes,’ GE 857, ‘wifuede,’ id. 1588 and even ‘wifes,’ id. 453 also occur; otherwise it is f, fare 85, lif 493; it is doubled in off 476, and lost in lord 226. t is doubled in bettre 44, lutten 217, lost in best 350 and finally in an 122, 575 (the original had ant), ða 128, 244, 372, ef 391, GE 3081, ‘hef,’ id. 4019, ‘flig,’ id. 3084; tt is simplified in fet 152; for t, þ is written in anð 218, and th, ‘soth,’ GE 3685, ‘leth,’ id. 3385: ts is sc in bliscing 452; a curious letter substitution is p for t in waspene 6, GE 1440 (wæstm). d is doubled in bedden 327, 552, eddi 140 (? shortening); b is written for it in glaðe 351 r. w. scaðe, wurðen 517 and frequently elsewhere: dd is simplified in fordred 245. For þ, th appears in trewthe 390, ‘tholen,’ GE 508; it is often written ðh, biðhogte 169, ðhenke 126, ðhing 476, ðhogt 165, 221, 308, ðhogte 24 (3), ðhugte 118, ðhurg 246, welðhe 428, but ðinkeð 457, ðogte 448. Initial þ in pronominal words is seldom assimilated after t, s, so, ðat ðin 189, ‘malt ðat,’ GE 1017, ‘salt ðu,’ id. 1043, but ‘at te,’ GE 2756, ‘and (for ant) te,’ id. 615, ‘and tin,’ id. 926, ‘is tis,’ id. 334. For þ, d is written in dan 54, dat 70, 534, de 97, dogt 486, dor 45, endede 575 (endeð), helped 77, kude 168, quad 35 (4), wid 41 (4), and t in quat 77, 383, ‘Betel,’ GE 760. þþ is simplified in siðen 115 &c., d is substituted for it in siden 509. Noteworthy is derke 291, 399 with rk for rþ. sć is mostly s, sal 79, salt 20, soren 15, srid 73, srud 61, 421, sulde 9, sulen 22, finally, fleis 143, weis 343 (cs), doubled in wassen 345, but shauen 174, sheren 401, shewed 67, schilde 579; she 21, ‘sche,’ GE 235, ‘sge,’ id. 1444, ‘che,’ id. 1227 are equivalent. The stop c is k before e and i and in combination with other consonants, biwaken 498, wukes 527, kid 411, drink 106, often before u, kumen 31, 48, kuppe 101, kude 420, but cloðes 73, folc 82, ranc 159, cumen 123 &c., cuppe 364, 372, cuðe 208, and the proper names ‘Cedar,’ GE 1257, ‘Ceturam,’ id. 1446; otherwise it is c, cam 55, comen 75, coren 158 &c., spac 395, woc 165. For c, g is written in ‘ðig,’ GE 564, ‘swing,’ id. 566, ‘ðengen,’ id. 1571. č is ch, chare 444, childes 61, lich 495 (5), michel 89, riche 324, but biseken 546, euerilk 379, ic 21, swilc 33 &c., are not palatalized: swil 442 has lost c; similarly ‘Qwel,’ GE 170, ‘quil,’ id. 3631. čč is ch, drechen 42, fechen 417, rechen 140, 176, rechede 178, reching 112, wech 514, weches 521: smaken 497 is a ME. formation. čǧ is g in bigen 220, 300, comp. 481/7, 8. cw is regularly qu, quad 35 &c. Palatal ġ is written g, geld 206, ger 1, gunkeste 5; ġe is y in yoten 470, ynug 210; it is lost in if 7 &c. An interpolated y sound appears to be indicated by g in ‘digere’ (dīere), GE 3483, ‘tgen’ (tēon), id. 3824, ‘tgen’ (tīen), id. 3413, 3418, ‘tgelt,’ id. 1840, the second and third also appear as ‘then,’ GE 1514, 3305 (h pronounced separately), similarly ‘thaunen,’ GE 32: comp. 365/23. The guttural spirant is g in swolgen 72, sorge 74 (comp. Orm’s bollȝhenn, sorrȝhe); later forms are sorwe 59 (3), morwen 359; it is lost in sorfull 380. The voiceless spirant is also written g, frigti 325, nigt 103, sogt 30, sag 7, ðog(e) 24, ðurg 577, so probably drugte 161 (drūgað, in Orm, druhhþe), other representations of the same sound are seen in brictest 6, ‘brocte,’ GE 237, ‘hicte,’ id. 713: ‘sagt,’ GE 1301, ‘burgt,’ id. 727 have added an irrational t by analogy of sogt &c. Noteworthy is the insertion of the spirant in the French words haigre 73, ‘olige,’ GE 1624, ‘astronomige,’ id. 792, where ig may be written for ī, but olie 512. ǧ appears in egypte 86 &c. h is lost in adde 14 (5), adden 504, 505, ali 482 (3), aue 442, aueð 523, e 39, 395, 476, is 14 (9), om 324, yoten 470, also by coalescence in fonde 29, madim 62, weli 582, wexem 11. h is added in halle 394, herdes 464, herdne 127, hunne 303, hure 260, 549. hl is l, lene 153, lord 226: hr, r, rad 535, raðe 367, rem 58, ring 193: hw, qu, quane 4, quan 190, quat 37, queðer 111, quiles 37, quilke 134, quam 374, quor 462 and quu, quuan 365, quuor 482, but nā-hwǣr is ‘nogwer,’ GE 1271.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. a. hate 12, stede 43, 81, sune 5, 72, wlite 342, kire 505, mete 138, bale 80, erue 44, herdne 127 have e corresponding to their OE. vocalic ending, bege 194, bode 69, 437 (gebod, comp. boda, messenger), liche 542, 569 (but lich 495), weie 305 have added e, wliten 343, GE 3614, n, fe 89 represents feoh, drugte 402, drūgaþ. Gen.-es, flodes 150, kinges 87, wiwes 91, but louerdis 326: dat. -e, bale 92, 579, come 321, ende 588, here 533, mete 348, stede 468, 521, sune 443, with vowel termination in the nominative, dale 79 (dalen 27 has added n, against metre), gilte 463, harme 368, kinge 235 (but king 451), liue 471 (but lif 493), londe 386, 572 (but lond 129 &c.), ofspringe 236, tune 365, wastme 6, wedde 252, weie 293, 534, wiue 201; without inflection are fulsumhed 182, grund 164, strem 150, ðogt 384 and a large number of others, mostly with long stem vowel or of more than one syllable; yre 506 has lost n, tre 113 is an Anglian nominative form trēo, wo 458 is indeclinable. The pl. n. a. of masculines end in -es, fugeles 135, sunes 2 (7), lepes 132, muðes 270, but meten 133, 309, r. w. eten (translating cibos, panes; at GE 363 it is probably singular with added n), sunen 229 r. w. cumen: neuters are der 71, folc 498, 505, ger 181 (7), ?kin 556, neet 151, srud 421, gere 190, bones 566, geres 207, liches 501, wiues 417. Genitive is teres 342, 396, datives, engeles 587, semes 427, teres 410. Of the fem. nouns of the strong declension helpe 83, herte 339, luue 340 have original e in the nominative, bene 565, bere 535, blisse 122, dede 41 (3), rewðe 393, sonde 367, trewðe 513, vnselðehe 370, sinne 36, sorwe 59, sorge 74 (3), wede 68 have added e, without it are ending 474 and other verbal substantives in -ing, ned 295, sped 192. Genitives are drugte 161, soules 578, werldes 494; helle pine 584, helle dale 79 may be regarded as composition forms. Dative -e, blisse 586, helðe 398, lewse 44, nede 215, 219, werlde 288 (7); onsagen 99, ðeden 356 have added n; but bering 232, hond 197 (3), as often in OE., ned 578, smerles 508, sped 46, 275, wurðing 194 are without inflection. Acc. -e, fare 85, hirdnesse 26; gifte 520, kinde 490 have added e; without inflection are bimening 538, bliscing 452, ending 283, forward 88 (3), stund 95, 163 and, as in OE., hond 117, migt 504. Pl. n. are blisses 404, dedes 513, hertes 13, lages 500, sondes 219, agte 144; d. laiges 526; a. agtes 278, laiges 510, agte 198, weden 423. Nouns of the weak declension have -e in the nom., bode 529, bredwrigte 131, wille 388; d. wune 6; a. kuppe 101, time 474; genitive is weches 521, but ‘sterre,’ GE 134. Pl. n. are sterres 17, wukes 527; d. wunes 347, but ‘feren,’ GE 1275; a. asses 427, beries 116, feres 532, but ‘wunen,’ GE 3137. The minor declensions are represented by fot s. d. 326, 551, ‘fote’ pl. d., GE 376; man s. n. 167, s. d. 302, men pl. n. 184, chapmen 85, hirdemen 449, men pl. d. 587, pl. a. 47; moneð s. a. 516; boc s. n. 576; biri s. d. 311; nigt s. d. 103, s. a. 515, pl. a. 501 (5), nigtes 499; fader s. n. 19, faderes s. g. 229, fader s. d. 8; broðer s. n. 110, s. a. 244, breðere pl. n. 21 (9), briðere 325, breðere pl. g. 267, pl. d. 429, pl. a. 7; moder s. d. 338; dowter s. a. 201; childes s. g. 61, childre pl. n. 282, pl. a. 304, childer 203; eares pl. n. 158; bred s. a. 102, bread 133.

Adjectives which in OE. end in a vowel have e throughout, bliðe 413, 429, riche 324, 327, 408; those in -ig lose g and are invariable, miri 312, sundri 81, 408, 468, similarly rewli (hrēowlic) 64. Weak inflections are gunge s. n. m. 335 (insert þe before it), leue s. a. m. 475, wis[e] s. d. m. 461 (similarly ‘ðe strong[e] god of israel,’ GE 1846 is to be read). All others are uninflected in the singular; they either belong to the classes mentioned above, or are predicative, or come after the noun qualified. mycel is michil s. n. f. 281, michel s. n. neut. 89, lȳtel, litel s. a. f. 95. The plural has -e, fette 158, fulle 400, glaðe 351, gode 513, harde 108, smale 161; the exceptions, mostly dissyllabic or predicative, are bold 13, fulsum 207, nedful 184, niðful 13, ranc 159, 162, sorful 380, wis 533 (read wisẹ), wrigtful 258. ān as article without stress is before consonants, a, an, 58, 64, 81, 149, 159 &c., once on 469, before h, an 455, 555, as elsewhere before a vowel. The numeral and pronoun is on, 101, 179, 227, 233 &c.; nān, pronoun and adjective is mostly non, but the adjective is twice no, 296, 352. Adjectives used as nouns with inflections are pl. n. fette 164, d. dede 519, fette 154, a. fette 155, sibbe 557. Comparatives have -e, bettre 53, more 420, leuere 139, eldere 483, but bet 420 (adverb form); superlatives are mostly without it, best 350 (3), brictest 6, first 185, gungest 214, 239, hegest 196, most 350, but gunkeste 5, gungeste 244 have weak inflection: boðen is pl. n. with added n, 179, pl. d. 103.

The personal pronouns are ic 21 (4), ‘hic,’ GE 34, rarely i, id. 309, me, we, ur pl. g. 316, us, ðu, (‘redes)tu,’ GE 2934, ðe, ge pl. n., gure g. 372, gu d. 314, a. 561, ge 406. Dual forms occur elsewhere, ‘wit,’ GE 1775, ‘unc,’ id. 1776, ‘gunc,’ id. 2830. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 4 &c., e 29 (4), (wel) i 582, she f. 21, ‘sche,’ GE 235, ‘sge’ id. 1444, ‘che,’ id. 1227, ghe 203, ‘ge,’ GE 1024, it neut. 12, (was)t 53, (‘stod)et,’ GE 590, with pl. verb, id. 1770, g. ‘hire’ f. id. 2035, d. him m. 60, (mad)im 62, ‘hin,’ GE 47, ‘hire’ f., id. 322, ‘it’ neut., id. 6, a. him m. 37, ‘hine,’ GE 3468 r. w. dine, ‘hin,’ id. 3004, ‘in,’ id. 3887, ‘hire’ f., id. 971, it neut. 63, (‘tell)et,’ GE 3526; pl. n. he 31 &c., once ‘ðei,’ GE 573, g. here 263, 410, 421, ‘ere,’ GE 2855, her 312, d. hem 14, (wex)em 11, a. hem 26 &c., is 184, 458, 503 (‘warp)es,’ GE 3025, ‘hes’ (= he them), id. 911, 943. Reflexives are ‘ðe self,’ GE 934, gu 358, him 169, hem 256, 355, ‘himseluen,’ GE 1338, ‘hemseluen,’ id. 537; definitive is self s. d. m. 235; possessives, mi s. n. m. 110, mine f. 565, in other cases min 72, 80, 371; pl. n. a. mine 566, min 282, 304, 404; ði s. n. f. 388, s. a. neut. 143, in other cases ðin 110, 125, 189, 436; pl. n. ðine 21; his 8 &c. as general form for the singular, written is 15 (6), but hise 91, 191, 236, 396, 474, 475, 490, 495, 569, 579, at all these places his is metrically admissible; pl. hise as the general form 25 &c., but his 40, 73, 75, is 14, 410, 429, hise being in all these places metrically admissible; ‘hire’ f., GE 333; ‘his’ neut., GE 120, ‘is,’ id. 327; ure 315, 547, 560, hure 260, 549, ur 226; ‘gunker,’ GE 398, gure 232 (4), gur 314; here 16 (8), ‘ere,’ GE 3773, her 13. The definite article is ðe 82 &c., de 97, ‘(at) te,’ GE 2756, miswritten ðo 164, instrumental, ðe 357, for ði 11; ðat 169 &c., ða 244, pl. ðo 98 &c. are demonstratives: wið ðan ðat conj. 389, miswritten wið ðanne ðat 550. The compound demonstrative is s. ðis 19, 131, ðes 166; pl. ðise 185, ðis 179, 186, ðes 253, in the last three places ðise is admissible. The relatives are ðat 22, 185 (= that which), ðe 102. Interrogatives are ‘quo,’ GE 2821, ‘quase,’ id. 2870, quam 374, quat 107 (5), ‘Queðer,’ GE 1471, quilc s. 474, ‘quil,’ GE 3631, quilke pl. 134, 404, ‘qwel,’ GE 170; the correlative is swilc s. 33, 59, 393, swil 442, pl. swilke 234, swilc 236, 500 (metre requires swilke in the latter place). Indefinites are quat so 37, 40, 388, quat so euere 386; men 204, 232, 277, ‘man,’ GE 1, 3; sum 515, 516, 517, ‘summe’ pl., GE 399, 401; ani 235; oðer s. 202, oðere pl. 183 (5), toðere 394, oðer 133, 510 (read oðre); anoðer 43, 157; ilc 410, euerilc 152, euerilk on 379; ‘mani,’ s., GE 696, manie 446 (read mani), manige pl. 234, 332, ‘manie,’ GE 4068; fele 425; fo 457; al s. 167, but allẹ s. d. f. 428, pl. alle 16 &c., halle 394, al 250, 325 (read alle).

Only two verbs, fare 443, reste 82, have infinitive in -e; all others, including thirteen of the second weak conjugation, end in -en. Contract verbs are bisen 195, sen 19 (5), seen 492, ten 9. The dative infinitive is not inflected, it has for prefix mostly to, but for to with bigen 300, cumen 123, geuen 452, slon 34. Presents are s. 1. bid 563, chare 444, rede 187; 2. findes 374, ‘betes,’ GE 3974, ‘haues,’ id. 360 and others in -es, ‘tregest,’ GE 3975 is isolated; 3. bimeneð 280, liueð 437, cliued 59, endedẹ 575, haued 92, helped 77, liued 60, ðinked 461, trewið 91; contracted are bitid 235, bit 292, hað 560, lið 12 (‘ligeð,’ GE 889, against metre), wurð 39 (5); pl. 1. holden 290, drege we 262; 2. senden 294, cume ge 225, haue ge 369; 3. hauen 72, wunen 518: subjunctive s. 2. friðe 389; 3. berge 583, helpe 582, leue 586, wurðe 111, deren 534 r. w. here, with irrational added n; pl. 1. liuen 550: imperative s. 2. bed 127, tel 110, forgiue 549, ðhenke 126; pl. 2. bereð 297, hoteð 564, seið 404. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. bad 93, 175, bigat 332, forgaf 553, forgat 146, gaf 45, quad 35, quat 77, quað 121, sag 7, spac 395; pl. 3. bedden 327, leigen 16: I b. s. 3. bar 22, bicam 202, cam 55, nam 84, tobar 200; pl. 3. comen 75, nomen 61: I c. s. 1. gan 459, wrong 118, wurð 116; 3. abraid 165, bigan 462, fond 30, gan 8, geld 206, unbond 277, wurð 145, freinde 107 (weak form); pl. 3. funden 69, gunnen 546, gunen 432, gunne 49 (if the word following ends in n, there is a tendency to drop the verbal n, comp. 10, 420), wurðen 104: subjunctive s. 1. wurðe 128; 3. wurðe 272, wurð[e] 477: II. s. 3. bilef 214, 251, ros 32, wrot 578; pl. 3. abiden 537, smiten 163: III. s. 3. bead 548, bed 101, gret 71; pl. 3. boden 67, lutten 217: IV. s. 1. stod 113; 3. stod 15, swor 487, understod 264, woc 165; pl. 3. foren 536, token 254: V. IV. s. 3. wex 13, 291, weis 343; pl. 3. wexen 158: V. s. 3. forlet 494, het 419, knew 221, let 222, slep 37; pl. 3. fellen 326, knewen 31. Participles present: ‘sigande,’ GE 1436, ‘betende,’ id. 2713, ‘stondende,’ id. 3149; past: I a. beden 266, ?forgeten 233, freten 155, geuen 512: I b. bicumen 281, boren 214, cumen 190, forholen 371, fornumen 282, numen 32, ouercumen 162, stolen 129, soren 15, vndernumen 189: I c. bunden 270, swolgen 72, worpen 39, wurðen 517: II. driuen 375: III. drogen 456, forloren 565: IV. dragen 100, grauen 485, shauen 174, slagen 58, sworen 530: V. IV. waxen 114: V. fordred 245, holden 94, hoten 239, yoten 470, inflected, hotene s. d. 562. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 1. hadde 117; 3. bitagte 193, gatte 531, herde 107, likede 353, made 580, seide 19, missed 57, trewed 439, set 58, told 177, ðoht 352, went 543; pl. 1. sinigeden 259, werneden 261; 3. chidden 23, ferden 360, leiden 65, luueden 206, maden 88, senten 66, skinden 85, hertedin 76, biried 571, shewed 67, stunden 83. Participles present: ‘tuderande,’ GE 164, ‘wuniende,’ id. 2742; past: maked 524, smered 509, ðewed 10, bitid 74, mad 469, seid 479, sperd 93, srid 73, biment 256, ?fest 427, filt 361, ligt 306, ofrigt 104, went 365, inflected, welkede 161. Minor Groups: ‘witen’ inf., GE 328, wot 1 pr. s. 231, pr. s. 166, ‘witen’ pr. pl., GE 74, wiste 2 pt. s. 383, pt. s. 316, wisten pt. pl. 271; hunne pr. s. subj. 303; og 1 pr. s. 241, ‘oc’ pr. s., GE 197, ogen pr. pl. 108, owen 40, ‘agtes’ 2 pt. s., GE 1762, agte pt. s. 363, ‘oget,’ GE 324; duren pr. pl. 293, ‘durste’ pt. s., GE 2593, ‘dursten’ pt. pl., id. 1863; can pr. s. 176, ‘cunen’ pr. pl., GE 4054, cuðe pt. s. 208, kude 168, ‘cuðen’ pt. pl., GE 2996, kude 420, ‘kuð’ pp., GE 2666; sal 1 pr. s. 79, salt 2 pr. s. 20, ‘sal,’ GE 1815, ‘saltu,’ id. 1041, sal pr. s. 126, sulen 1 pr. pl. 22, 2 pr. pl. 408, sule ge 242, sulen pr. pl. 143, ‘sule’ GE 305, ‘suldes’ 2 pt. s., id. 3984, sulde pt. s. 24, sulden pt. pl. 355, sulde 10; ‘munen’ inf., GE 1622, ‘mune,’ id. 972, ‘to munen’ dat. inf., id. 197, ‘for to munen,’ id. 687, muneð pr. s. 463, ‘munen’ 1 pr. pl., GE 558, mune ?pr. s. subj. 476, ‘mune’ 2 pr. s. imp., GE 45; ‘mugen’ inf., GE 1818, mai pr. s. 19 &c., may 36, ‘muwen’ 1 pr. pl., GE 3316, ‘mugen’ pr. pl., id. 3017, ‘mogen,’ id. 3227, mugen pr. pl. subj. 144, migte 1 pt. s. 137, pt. s. 68, migt he 238, ‘migten’ pt. pl., GE 573; mot pr. s. 582, ‘mote’ 1 pr. s. subj., GE 1621, pr. s. subj., id. 2645, ‘muste’ pt. s., id. 2624; ben inf. 10, for to ben d. inf. 196, am 1 pr. s. 129, ‘best’ 2 pr. s., GE 2884, ‘beas,’ id. 365, ‘art,’ id. 356, is pr. s. 74, ‘beð,’ GE 182, ben 1 pr. pl. 258, 2 pr. pl. 223, pr. pl. 123, be 454, aren 282, ‘arn,’ GE 16, be pr. s. subj. 388, 565, ben pr. pl. subj. 566, beð 2 pr. pl. imp. 317, was 1 pt. s. 120, ‘wore’ 2 pt. s., GE 1759, was pt. s. 1, wast (= was it) 53, were we 1 pt. pl. 228, weren pt. pl. 255 (6), woren 100 (7), ‘worn,’ GE 61, wore pt. s. subj. 139, 246; wile pr. s. 180, nile 59, wilen 2 pr. pl. 358, welin (for wilen) pr. pl. 585, wulde pt. s. 9, ‘wolde,’ GE 912, ‘wulden’ pt. pl., id. 1075, ‘wolden,’ id. 3756, ‘nolden,’ id. 3029; ‘don’ inf., GE 194, vndon 168, to don d. inf. 28, doð(es) pr. s. 230, don 2 pr. pl. 285, pr. pl. 519, do pr. s. subj. 568, 2 pr. s. imp. 387, doð 2 pr. pl. imp. 405, dede pt. s. 44 (9), deden pt. pl. 2, dede 82, don pp. 41, 128, 315, 477, 542, do 142; gon inf. 238, ouergon 340, ‘to gon’ d. inf., GE 3078, ‘gon’ 2 pr. pl., id. 3124, ‘go’ 2 pr. s. imp., id. 2815, ‘goð’ 2 pr. pl. imp., id. 3585, gede pt. s. 43, ‘geden’ pt. pl., GE 1034, gon pp. 291.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are ai 287, aren 282, blomede 115, boðen 103, 179, (bi)calleð 368, fo 457, fro 31, geren 495, grot 74, groten 80, hagt 98, heil(nesse) 122, eðen 242, ille 12, kides 63, lages 500 laiges 526, laðes 188, lit 64, liðeð 131, lote 382 loten 312, nai 35, oc 229, or 1, orest 115, raken 186, ransaken 377, rapen 430 rapeð 403, scaðe 352, seck 363, semet 223, skinden 85, (ouer)takeð 367, tiding 412, til 60, ðeden 84, ðog 24, 217, ðral(dom) 376, wante 298, witter 6, witter(like) 374, wopnede 533; probably busk 159, vnhillen 8; possibly bond 130, cartes 416, twinne 421; in sonderemen 65, er is probably due to Scandinavian influence. French are butuler 109 buteler 169, cisterne 38, feið 241, feste 524, fin 424, flum 540, fruit 301, graunte 590, haigre 73, hardi 175, lettres 581, merci 237, messe(song) 520, offiz 125, olie 512, paid 269, pais 589, plates 52, poure 233, present 327, pris 301, prisun 94, prisunes 98, prisuner 96, scite 469, seruede 105, spices 48, spice(like) 497, spies 223, spien 226, strif 494; possibly the interjection A 237, rospen 186 (OF. rosper). Latin are crisme 512, elmesse 520.

Dialect: East Midland of the Southern border. Its general character is definitely East Midland, but ā as occasionally oa in rhymes like ðoa : salmona GE 4129, woa : oba GE 880, the occurrence of hine : dine GE 3468, hin, id. 3004, yoten 470 beside hotene 562, wuniende GE 2472 as assured by the metre, æ + g as ei beside ai testify to contact with the South. The large proportion of French words may point in the same direction. Evidence of transmission through a North Midland copy is furnished by ā as occasionally a, sć as s, the pronouns ghe, ge beside she, ðei beside he pl., the 2 pr. s. ind. of verbs in -es, the pres. part. in -ande, and occasional aren beside usual ben. It was probably at this stage that the metre suffered by loss of final -e; some feminine endings may have become masculine. The scribe of our manuscript was probably faithful to his exemplar, for he was imperfectly acquainted with the language.

Metre: The short rhymed couplet, as in ON. It is not so skilfully handled here as in ON, but it was no less regular in its construction before the copyists tampered with the text. Skeat’s description of it as a verse of four accents, ‘the unaccented syllables being left, as it were, to take care of themselves’ is misleading, for it is a verse of four feet with the regulation number of accented and unaccented syllables. It differs from the verse of ON in the predominance of masculine endings, in the larger proportion of trisyllabic feet, and in the number of fourth feet with an additional syllable. The types, as in ON (see pp. 564, 565), are i. ðat hé | wel ðéw|ed súld|e bén, 10; so 11, 33, 46, 63, 64, 70, 73, 75, 89, 93 &c.: i a. Naí quad | rubén | slo wé | him nógt, 35; so 45, 72, 101, 110, 145, 202, 221, 297, 302, 331, 387, 408, 422, 435, 459, 460 &c.: i b. ðát | ðu sált | ðus wúrð|ed bén, 20; so 23, 30, 36, 222, 272, 295, 578: ii. He knéw|en hím | fro fér|en kúmen, 31; so 47, 80, 85, 87, 92, 100, 123, 124, 133, 137, 156, 157, 181, 207, 218, 230, 265, 299, 322, 324, 337, 344, 351, 355, 371, 405 &c.: ii a. Wúrðed|en hím | wið frígt|i lúue, 18; so 333, 334, 343: ii b. Né | ðat mét|e fró | hem béren, 138; so 469, J́t | was v́nd|ren tím|ẹ or móre, 323. The unstressed element in a foot, and especially in the third foot, is often doubled; one of the syllables often admits of being slurred: i. Twelwe gér | or ýs|aác | was déad, 1; so 246, 363, ðo wéx | her hért|es niðfúl | and bóld, 13; so 28, 34, 42, for thrít|ti plát|es to ðó | chapmén, 52; so 57, 71, 96 &c., Wið ðó | prisún|es to líu|en in hágt, 98, Jacób|es sún|es déd|en unréd, 2; so 29, 39, 40, 62, 84, 97, 369: i a. Ál but ðe | ton bróð|er sým|eón, 250, Sónder|e mén | he it leíd|en ón, 65; so 69, Goód is | quað jós|eph to drém|en of wín, 121; so 184, féllen | bifórn | ðat lóu|erdis fót, 326; so 436, 439, 451, 564: i b. dón | for ðe déd|e chírch|e góng, 519, Wénd|e him slág|en set úp | an rém, 58; so 328, ðát | ðe bár | sulen lút|en ðé, 22; so 78, 83, 127, 148, 171, 193, 200, 228, 254, 286, 289, 301, 308, 350, 427, 440, 452, 453, 487, Jác|ob ðús | him bimén|eð o rígt, 280; so 383, 391, 403: ii. seue eár|es wéx|en fétt|ẹ of córen, 158, Hu he sét|tẹ at ðe mét|e hís|e súnes, 348, Jc réd|e ðe kíng | nu hér | bifóren, 187; so 235, 270, 288, 294, 321, 338, 374, 437, 502, 537, He wás | iacób|es gunkést|e súne, 5; so 81, 88, 155, 162, 217, 220, 281, 367, 431, 463, 530, 565, 585, Jn tó | egípt|e lédd|en ðat wáre, 86; so 309, 357, 400: ii a. Tóward | here fád|er he gún|en drágen, 432, so 467, Ság he | ðor kúm|en wið spíc|es wáre, 48, Gáf he | is bréð|ẹre wið hért|e blíðe, 429: ii b. Ór | for misdéd|e or fór | onságen, 99, ðát | is hánd|ful stod rígt | up sóren, 15; so 79, 185, 219, 300, 362, 385, 402, 538. The light syllable is omitted in ii. Ne wíst|e he nógt | quát | he wóren, 434: ii b. Húr|e sínn|e ðú | hím | forgíue, 549, with good effect. Inversion of the accent is infrequent, i. ðu sált | áfter | ðe ðríd|de deí, 141, 517: i a. Kínde | lúue | gan him óu|ergón, 340, Jósep | háued | hem áft|er sént, 366, J́c am | iosép | drédeð | gu nógt, 397: ii. He bád | cártes | and waín|es nímen, 416, Quuor ié|su críst | wúlde | ben bóren, 484, He dógt | wið hém | réste | to háuen, 486, And ebrís|se fólc | ádden | an kíre, 505, Egípt|e fólc | áueð | him wáked, 523, He bád | síbbe | cumen hím | bifóren, 557. Synizesis occurs in olie 512, birigeles 528, biriele 542. Syncope of the syllable after the accent in trisyllabic words is certain in breðẹre 21, 325, 429, blomẹde 115, rechẹde 178, euẹrilc 268, lerẹde 354, eldẹre 483, luuẹde 554, and similarly in arẹn 282, comẹn 356, wilẹn 358; it is probable, though not assured by the metre in seruede 105, wrigteles 130, leuere 139, fugeles 143, euerilc 152 &c., gaderen 188, faderes 229, 347, oðere 253 (oðre 573), breðere 51 &c., werneden 261, wunede 471, eldere 560, hotene 562; the medial e in words of this type is nowhere necessary for the scansion. The verbal termination -eþ has probably full syllabic value everywhere, as it has at 77, 92, 286, 367, 523. Elision takes place in allẹ 16, wantedẹ 209, sentẹ 213, listnedẹ 276, ðhogtẹ 347, witterlikẹ 479, hiatus in 153, 155, 233, 246, 252, 262, 367, 378, 425, 551, 586: in a large number of lines there is a choice between elision and hiatus; in view of the author’s liking for trisyllabic feet, the preference should perhaps be given to the latter.

Proper names of three syllables have, with few exceptions, two accents, those of two syllables are very often stressed on the second, according to the current clerical use, for Mammotrectus says ‘nulla dictio de natura acuit ultimam nisi . . . hebraica · ut David ⁊ Jacob.’ So ábrahám, adád, béniamín (10), but béniamin 422, chánaán, ‘cánahán,’ GE 726, dotáym, ebrón, éffraým, gálaád, génesís, gersén, iurdón, mánassén, pháraón 119 (7), pháraún 172 r. w. prisun, but pháraon 191, 465, pharáon 411, pútifár 87, 199, but pv́tifar 91, rámesé, sichém 25, but síchem 29, sýmeón, ýsaác. Otherwise egípte, once egípt 213, iácob, ácob 445, jacóbes, iésu, jóseph, jósep, ósep (18), iosép 92, 266, joséph 139 r. w. swep, in many other places the metre admits of either accentuation, josépes, júdas 387, elsewhere indeterminate, as Vdas 45, móyses, pháran, rúben 55, elsewhere rubén is possible; adjectives are cristéne 510, ebrísse. The spelling of the proper names mostly follows Comestor or the Vulgate, but ebron, egipte, jurdon, pharaon are French, and probably ramese; in view of the variants, no conclusion can be drawn from initial j in Jacob, Judas, and Joseph; for the last the author probably wrote iosep throughout.

The corruptions of the text consist mostly of inversions of the word order and additions which aim at greater clearness or emphasis. Line 6, read witter of wune (H = Holthausen); l. 7, hise breðere sag (H); l. 8, gan it; l. 24, ðog ðhóg|te iác|ob it súl|de bén; l. 53, was it; l. 60, Til he him; l. 77, it helpeð (H); l. 82, Wor sé|li fólc | hem rést|e déde, comp. GE 257; l. 91, his; l. 108, Harde drém|es óg|en a wóld|e ðát; l. 118, ðorin, comp. GE 3634; l. 130, And wrígt | ẹleslík|e hóld|en in bónd; l. 134, omit ðe; l. 149, read ðo drémp|te phá|raón | a drém; comp. 200/119, 127; l. 159, ránkẹ on | an búsk | and wél | tidí; l. 163, To sám|en smít|en and ón | a stúnd; l. 172, omit ðe king; l. 173, omit ðo; l. 180, omit king; l. 182, read In fúl | sumhéd | súlen | ben númen, comp. 207/351, 208/400; l. 183, And séu|e súl|en áft|er bén; l. 186, ðisẹ óð|ẹre súl|en rósp|en and ráken; l. 189, ðat ðin fólc | ne wúrð|e v́nd|er númen; l. 190, omit forð (H) and read ger; l. 191, omit king; l. 199, read was v́n|der hím | ðo pú|tifár; l. 214, biléf | at hóm | was gúng|est bóren; l. 225, And cúm|en fór | non óð|er ðíng; l. 241, Nú | bi ðe feíð | ic og phár|aón (H); l. 269, H would read here for ðe, but ?pai-ed; l. 275, omit so; l. 279, omit ðanne; l. 285, read If bén|iamín | ge; l. 287, Aí | sal hé | wið mé | biléwen; l. 290, omit non; l. 293, read Óc | he ne dúr|en weí | cumen ín, comp. 206/305; l. 310, omit alle; l. 311, omit alle; l. 312, read Here nón | ðo lót|en hád|den míri; l. 317, Béð | nu stíll|e quád | þe stiwárd; l. 341, Sone gé|de he út; l. 358, If gé | gu wíl|ẹn wið tréw|ðẹ léden, comp. 212/512; l. 361, omit alle; l. 370, read Grét | vnsélð|e is gú | cumen ón; l. 384, ðát | ic ám | wol wítt|er o ðógt; l. 386, Quat só | on lónd|e wúrð|e stólen, comp. 198/37, 40, 208/388, GE 270; l. 394, he dé|de ut áll|e ðe tóð|ẹre gón; l. 396, ðat ál | his wlít|e wurð tér|es wét; l. 400, Get fúll|e fíu|e súl|en ben númen; l. 411, omit king, and in line 412, newe; l. 421, omit here; l. 438, read Al egípt|e ín | his wíll|e clíueð; l. 446, Ánd | of his kínd|e mán|i a mán; l. 476, On ðhíng | ðat óff | og é | wel múne; l. 477, read wurðe; l. 492, Hál|i gást | it him déd|e sén; l. 495, read his; l. 498, And egípt|e fólc | him faír|e biwáken; l. 500, read swíl|ke; l. 514, ðo bén | ðam ál | ðat wéch|e déde; l. 528, scan get ádd|e jác|ob bír|yels nón; l. 529, omit king; l. 531, omit it; l. 542, scan ðor ís | ðat lích | in bír|yels dón; l. 545, read Hise bréð|ẹre ðán|ne cóm|en him tó; l. 546, omit alle; l. 550, read Wið ðán | ðat wé | ðe v́nd|er líuen; l. 577, ðe móy|ses eár | ðurg gód|es réd; l. 579, read his; l. 587, éngẹles | amóng | and sé|li mén, comp. GE 700, 785. In ll. 66, 67, it, though metrically admissible, is superfluous: l. 68 may be scanned, Jf his chíld|es wéd|e it mígt|e bén: ll. 250, 251 are unrhythmical and al in the former, ungrammatical, perhaps, álle but | here bróð|er sým|eón might be read, for l. 251 Holthausen proposed, biléf | ðis bróð|er ðór | in bónd: in l. 291, ðe dérð|e wéx | would improve the rhythm, as ure for ur in l. 316: scan l. 470, ðe wás | y-ót|en rám|esé. A considerable use is made of alliteration.

Introduction: The author tells us that his song is drawn out of Latin and written in simple language for those who are not book-learned. He was probably a secular priest, for there is no reference to the monastic life in his work. His source was almost exclusively the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor (here quoted from the edition printed by Crespin at Lyons in 1526), but he occasionally referred to the Vulgate. As his purpose was narrative, he leaves out most of Comestor’s learned disquisitions, but he retains those at ll. 81-4, 501-21 and somewhat enlarges the latter. The source of ll. 354-58 has not been discovered; it may have been an interpolated Comestor. The addition of ‘ouer pharan’ in l. 541 is probably due to the author.

2. unred, folly, an ill-advised thing; OE. unrǣd: comp. ‘He has me don oft vnresun,’ CM 3747; ‘vnwit,’ Laud Troy Book, 4285.

3. For &c. is the remnant of a calculation in Comestor of Jacob’s age at the time when Joseph was sold. See Gen. xxxvii. 2.

6. ‘prestantior corpore et sapientior ceteris,’ Comestor. wastme is Mätzner’s emendation; Morris suggested wasteme: the same scribal error, ‘of faiger waspene’ occurs at GE 1440. OE. wæstm, wæstem means growth, stature; the sense here is, countenance: comp. ‘hire wliti westum,’ SK 310, answering to ‘vultus ipsius claritas.’ of witter wune, discreet in behaviour: the explanations of Mätzner, ‘of intellectual capacity,’ and of Morris, ‘of good ability,’ seem to force the meaning of wune, which is, custom, use, so ‘for kinde wune,’ GE 1405, by family custom, usage. Comp. 208/384; ‘witter of figt,’ GE 864; ‘o resun . . . rijf,’ CM 14837; ‘o reson . . . ranc,’ id. 21024.

7. misfaren, go astray, misbehave.

8. gan—baren, uncovered and laid bare: the auxiliary use of gon is frequent in GE.

9, 10. He would have them discipline themselves, so that they might be of good moral character. Possibly the second he stands for Jacob; that is, Joseph wished Jacob to discipline them. Comp. for ten, 171/368; ‘þat he hine sculde wel i-teon; ⁊ tuhlen him teachen,’ L 2418.

11. him was added by Mätzner. For wið, against, comp. ‘⁊ all þatt follc toc niþ wiþþ himm,’ Orm 10267. nið is often associated with hate; comp. 198/33; ‘þurrh hete ⁊ niþ,’ Orm 1404, 8013; ‘stormes of nið · ⁊ of onde · ⁊ of hatienge,’ OEH ii. 177/4.

12. for—lið: Morris inserts herte after ille, producing a truism and spoiling the verse. Mätzner translates ‘quia situm est in malo,’ treating ille as a neuter noun, evil. Possibly ille means, evil men, but more probably the place is corrupt, and we should read, And hate sor þat ille in it lið, (envy) and bitter hatred which wickedly co-exists with envy, that is, envy which produces hatred of the person envied. For ille as adverb, comp. GE 1706, 4029.

13. ðo . . . Quanne, then especially . . . when: ‘Causa tamen odii maior fuit visio somniorum,’ Comestor. bold, shameless: Lucifer is ‘ðat neddre bold,’ GE 323.

15, 16. ‘Putabam . . . vestros manipulos adorare manipulum meum stantem,’ C. soren, shorn.

16. And all theirs lay before them. it may be meant for a reinforcing dative; see 13/34: but its occurrence elsewhere, as at 201/163, 202/182, where it is hard to explain or otiose and metrically in excess, makes it probable that it is due to the scribe, as it certainly is at GE 385, 387.

17. xie is by the rhyme endluue or elluue.

18. frigti luue, love and awe, ‘luue eie,’ 72/200: comp. ‘ðo wurð abraham frigti fagen,’ GE 1331.

19. sen: Mätzner takes this word to be the infinitive of the substantive verb, corresponding to OHG. sīn, MDu. sijn; how may this be? But if the word ever existed, it would surely be found elsewhere in ME. He quotes ‘Hu mai it hauen, hu mai it sen,’ GE 298, where if hauen is equivalent to se habere, sen may be to videri. In the third place instanced, ‘To sen gode witnesse ðor-on, | ðat wond was in ðat arche don,’ GE 3843, it appears to go closely with ðor-on, as in ‘so faiger he was on to sen,’ id. 2659 and to represent in both places tō sēonne.

22. luten usually takes to, as at 193/544, but comp. ‘Þa kingess fellenn dun, itt seȝȝþ, | To lutenn Crist ⁊ lakenn,’ Orm 7348.

24. ðoge; read ðog. As a probable source of the line, Fritsche quotes Josephus ii. 2, ‘eventurum olim quando tam a parentibus quam a fratribus adoratione dignus haberetur;’ but perhaps it may be regarded as a natural inference from ‘pater vero rem tacitus considerabat,’ Gen. xxxvii. 11.

26. Hirdnesse: OE. hierdnes; custody, guard; here used for flocks: comp. ‘for te loken hirdnesse fare,’ GE 2771, to look to the welfare of the cattle.

30. he—sogt, he sought and found them; invenit eos quaesitos; a form of expression much used by the author, suggested by such places in the Vulgate as, ‘requisita non invenieris ultra in sempiternum,’ Ezech. xxvi. 21. Comp. 203/215, where join, ‘to josep sogt for nede;’ ‘ðer het god abre ðat tagte lond,’ GE 827; ‘And son he fand þe soght cite,’ CM 3254; ‘Ai quen þat þe folk him soght sau,’ id. 7473.

31. fro feren, from afar: see 118/40.

32. Hatred conceived in their hearts arose in them. Such phrases are common in our author, as ‘olie in trewðe geuen,’ 212/512; ‘song . . . on soðe sagen,’ GE 14. On the other hand such expressions as ‘drugte numen,’ 201/161; ‘sorge numen,’ GE 368, where the participle is used like L. captus, suggest taking it here in dependence on hem. With on comp. 210/454.

35, 36. ‘Nel feron mie, | ce sereit desverie,’ Joseph 273.

37. drempte: impersonal with two accusatives, Quatso and him; so too at 200/103, 202/170, and probably at 201/149: more commonly the thing dreamt takes of, or is a clause, 200/113, 120, 201/132. ðor quiles, whilst: see 196/648.

38. cisternesse: the MS. has ðisternesse here (it occurs correctly at GE 58), and ‘ðis ðhisternesse’ at GE 66, where ‘ðis’ is in excess, and cisternesse at l. 56. The original had, no doubt, cisterne or cistern in both places, and in this line probably In cisterne ðise, imitating ‘proiicite eum in cisternam hanc,’ Gen. xxxvii. 22 (comp. ‘He ðrowede and ðolede untiming ðat,’ GE 1180): having blundered here, the scribe altered cistern l. 56 in conformity, spoiling the metre.

39. Get, still, in spite of his dreams. Above e of wurðe a small he is added in the MS.

40. The phrase owen a wold means, to have in one’s power, like its synonym hauen a wolde (see 52/387 note); it occurs in its literal sense at 200/108, distressing dreams were responsible for that, and in ‘Luue wel michil it agte a wold, | Swilc seruise and so longe told,’ GE 1671, very strong love was capable of such hard service and so protracted. Here it has the derived sense of import, mean, like power, force used for meaning expressed by letter or phrase: comp. ‘Quat oget nu ðat for-bode o wold,’ GE 324, what now was the import of that prohibition; ‘And vndernam him ðat it agte awold,’ id. 2727, and questioned him as to what it meant; ‘ðor is writen quat agte awold, | ðat ðis werld was water wold,’ id. 525, therein is written what it signified that this world was destroyed by water.

41. wid herte sor, presumably on Reuben’s part.

42-44. ‘et recessit Ruben meliora querens pascua,’ C. lewse, so again at GE 1576: OE. lǣs, g. lǣswe.

45. dor quiles, meanwhile; comp. 204/265, and see 196/648.

46. ‘that was carried out in secret haste,’ Morris, who proposes derue for derne. But the meaning is, advice that was filled full of secret gain. For of comp. 217/91, 94, for sped, ‘of euerilc sed, | Was erðe mad moder of sped,’ GE 121. In the OF. Joseph, it is said of Judas, ‘mult iert escientous | et auques coveitous,’ ll. 347, 348, and he makes a speech to his brothers, ‘Touz temps somes berchier, | onc n’ëumes denier. | Ore en porrons aveir | senz vendre nostre aveir,’ ll. 365-368.

48. spices ware: ‘aromata & resinam & stacten .i. myrram,’ C.

52. xxx plates: all the early MSS. of the Vulgate have ‘viginti argenteis,’ but ‘triginta’ C., ‘deniers treis feiz dis,’ Joseph 414; the change is due to the desire to perfect the parallel with Christ. plates, silver coins: comp. ‘I nul sulle my Loverd [for] nones cunnes eiste, | bote hit be for the thritti platen that he me bitaiste,’ Rel. Ant. i. 144/25. The metrical stress requires ðo for ðe.

53, 54. ‘Melius est ut venundetur Ismaelitis, et manus nostrae non polluantur,’ Gen. xxxvii. 27. dan, than that. in here wold, in their power, at their hands.

57. ðhogte swem, felt sorrow, as in ‘Of paradis hem ðinkeð swem,’ GE 391, if so, the verb is impersonal and him must be supplied from he: or perhaps, experienced a feeling of faintness: the OF. poem has ‘Quant l’enfant ne trouva, | par poi ne forsena. | Il ne set que il face, | pasmez chiet en la place,’ ll. 433-436.

58. set up, raised: ‘credens eum interemptum scissis vestibus eiulabat,’ C. Comp. ‘ðis folc ðo sette up grot and gred,’ GE 3717.

59. him cliued: the MS. reading is meaningless; that in the text is Mätzner’s, who explains, cleaves to him. But in view of, ‘And atter on is tunge cliuen,’ GE 372; ‘Al egipte in his wil cliueð,’ 210/438, it is doubtful whether even the pronoun can be used in this sense without a preposition. Now cleave is associated with cling in ‘My hert doth clynge and cleve as clay,’ Coventry Mysteries (54), where cling, wither up, is used metaphorically for, shrink in fear (see 3/32 note and comp. ‘I clynge as cleyȝ, icauȝt in care,’ Horstmann, S. A. Legenden, 178/388), and it is also used transitively. Is it not probable that cleave had also some such metaphorical meaning which would be suitable here?

62. If in is right, it goes with ðe, in which. But its absence would improve the verse, and ðe alone can mean with which: see 46/292. In any case prud is adj., splendid; comp. 209/422; ‘Wið gold and siluer and wið srud, | ðis sonde made ðe mayden prud,’ GE 1413.

63. wenten, turned it round and round, rather than, altered it; although the Latin, ‘tinxerunt,’ favours the latter.

64. an rewli lit, a pitiable dye.

65. Sondere men, messengers; sing. ‘sonder man,’ GE 2871; ‘sanderrmann,’ Orm 19383; ‘sondes man,’ L 13615.

73. in haigre srid, clad in a hair, a hair shirt; see 62/31.

74. grot and sorge: comp. 214/583, similarly ‘grot and gred,’ GE 3717; ‘In grot and in srifte,’ id. 3692.

76. hertedin: read herten; comp. 184/277.

79. ligten, descend: see 141/42. ‘Descendam lugens ad filium meum in infernum,’ C.

81-84. ‘Erat enim tunc in inferno quidam locus beatorum longe semotus a locis penalibus · qui ob quietem et separationem ab aliis sinus dicebatur. . . . Et dictus est etiam sinus abrae · quia etiam abraam ibi erat in sustentatione usque ad mortem christi,’ C., commonly called Limbus Patrum: ll. 83, 84 refer to the Harrowing of Hell, for an account of which in ME. literature see Hulme’s edition of the legend, E. E. Text Society.

85. skinden here fare, hasten their journey: the verb, which occurs only here in ME., represents OWScand. skynda.

88. bigetel, advantageous: the adjective of ‘biȝete’ 60/12; only here.

90. Insert him before sold, with Holthausen. The expression is formal, mostly used of betrayal; comp. ‘ic am i-boust ant i-sold to-day for oure mete,’ Rel. Ant. i. 144/26; ‘How þat ioseph was boght and sald,’ CM 142; ‘Dickon thy maister is bought and sold,’ Shakspere, Richard III, v. 3. 305. Strunk in Mod. Lang. Notes, xxvi. 51 suggests He (Putifar) haueð him bogt.

93. The line is printed as in the Specimens, but a better order would be, He bad him sperd ben faste dun. The last word does not go well with sperd, which takes in or wiþinne, 201/148, 204/248. C. has ‘Ille nimis credulus coniugi vinctum ioseph tradidit in carcerem regis,’ the OF. version, ‘mist le en la prison | au fort rei Pharaon;’ the Vulgate, ‘in carcerem ubi vincti regis custodiebantur,’ all mentioning the king. The original may have had Him bad ben sperd king Pharaun: for the rhyme see 202/171.

95. an: comp. 201/163.

96. prisuner, gaoler. prisunes, prisoners.

98. to liuen in hagt, to live in care, goes with l. 100: comp. 201/136. hagt: see 196/657 note, and comp. ‘Twin-wifing ant twin-manslagt | Of his soule beð mikel hagt,’ GE 485; ‘Amalechkes folc fledde for agte of dead,’ id. 3384.

99. onsagen, accusations, charges; OE. onsagu: apparently only here in ME.

103. drempte: see 198/37.

105. on sel, at a time, on one occasion: comp. ‘And moyses was numen an sel | In ðe deserd depe sumdel,’ GE 2769; ‘on midel sel, ðat ilc nigt,’ id. 3159. Kölbing translates timely, that is, early in the day, quoting, ‘Ad quos cum introisset Ioseph mane,’ Gen. xl. 6, and, ‘And made swiðe on sele ðat mete,’ GE 1537, where however swiðe gives the special sense, in quick time. But the expression appears to mean happily in, ‘And he folgede is red on sel,’ GE 1866; ‘on good sel,’ id. 1375, 1545.

108. This is the answer of the dreamers. See 198/40 note.

111. strong: see 21/94 note.

112. on god bilong, pertaining to God, in God’s power. ‘Numquid non domini est interpretatio .i. numquid adiutorio dei potest interpretari,’ C. bilong is an isolated form, apparently made of bi + long, OE. gelang which in ME. is commonly ilong; see 134/96 note. Mätzner would read ilong here.

114. waxen buges, full-grown boughs, or shoots. ‘Videbam coram me vitem & in ea tres fundos oculos (principal buds) scilicet unde funduntur palmites. Alii ponunt tria flagella, vel tres propagines quod idem est,’ C.

116. Morris by his punctuation makes beries acc. after bar and wurð ic war parenthetic; but the construction is the same as at 9/122, 192/518; ‘quanne he it wurð war,’ GE 1462, 3387; ‘And quane ðe king wurð war ðis dead,’ id. 2983; ‘ðan pharaon wurð war ðis bot,’ id. 2957: wurð war is treated as though it meant observed. But it takes of at 203/204.

121, 122. ‘Deus dedit in bonum hominibus vsum vini . . . soluit lites et tristitias · et bona est eius visio,’ C.

127. herdne: OE. ǣrende, mission, but here affected in meaning by ǣrendian, to intercede: make intercession for me.

128. ða: for ðat: the scribe not seldom drops final t.

129. kinde, native; so, ‘ðog it was nogt is kinde lond,’ GE 1279: ‘car a tort sui chaitis | en estrange païs,’ Joseph 837.

130. wrigteleslike, undeservedly: OE. gewyrht, thing done, merit, in Orm, wrihhte.

132. lepes: ‘canistra,’ C.

135. ðor on: comp. ‘On was tette he sone aueð lagt,’ GE 2621. The construction with on is rare, the verb in this sense regularly takes an accusative.

136. hagt: see 200/98.

140. swep occurs in the same connection at 202/166, and in ‘For þai can swyth of a sweuyn · all þe swepe tell,’ Wars of Alexander, 248, evidently with the meaning, scope, significance. Mätzner refers it to OE. swǣp, for which see Napier, OE. Glosses, 78/2894 note; its meaning, persuasion, or more probably, deceit, does not suit our word. More probably its OE. congener is seen in ymbswǣpe which glosses L. ambages, Sweet, Oldest E. Texts, 599; if so, it would mean compass, content, like the noun sweep of more recent origin.

144. ðat, from that: werien usually takes wið (50/335), fram, but the pronouns are frequently used alone in all sorts of loose syntactical relations: see 46/292 note. Omit sal; though it might be defended by GE 1818, agte is commonly plural. Not in the Vulgate or Comestor, but ‘It sal na raunsun ga for þe,’ CM 4494; ‘te trenchera la teste; | ne te lera raendre,’ Joseph 854.

145. ðat is subject of wurð.

148. Divide wið uten-erd; for wið, on, see 180/147. uten-erd, foreign land; OE. ūtan + eard: comp. ‘uten erdes sorge sen,’ GE 956; ‘into vten stede,’ id. 1741. At 210/460, it is used adverbially in conjunction with her, and at 210/464 it develops an adverbial form, ‘uten herdes.’ Comp. L. extorris.

149. pharaon: probably acc.; see 200/104.

150. flodes strem: ‘Putabat se stare super fluuium,’ C.

151. vii: seuene.

158, 159. ‘Septem spice plene pullulabant in culmo vno,’ C. busk, bush, for stalk is curious. ranc and wel tidi, luxuriant and very healthy-looking; the phrase qualifies ‘eares.’

161. drugte numen: ‘percusse vredine,’ C.; ‘uredo . . . dicitur corruptio ex urente vento proveniens quando stantes segetes aduste videntur in campo,’ Catholicon: ‘de gelée brulez,’ Joseph 904. With numen comp. 198/32: drugte, sorge are genitives. Similar constructions without prepositions are frequent in this author, ‘water wold,’ 526, overpowered by water; ‘sinne wod,’ 1073, demented by sin; ‘elde swac,’ 1528, weakened by age; ‘herte hard,’ 2936, hard of heart; ‘hungur fordred,’ 3313, in fear of hunger; ‘nede driuen,’ 3165; ‘deades driuen,’ 1125, under the sway of death. See 207/342.

163, 164. There is nothing in Comestor or the Vulgate corresponding to these difficult lines. Mätzner takes it as equivalent to they, and quotes for the intransitive use of smiten, ‘Heo smiten to-gædere,’ L 5183, to which may be added, ‘Bitid a stund þai samen smate | In a dale biside a wate,’ CM 2495. Schumann objects that smiten is transitive everywhere else in the poem; he proposes, To-samen is smiten, them dashed together, apparently depending on ranc. It would probably be better to omit it (see 197/16 note); adopting Fritsche’s ðristen he in the next line, the meaning would be, Next (ðo) the lean ears have overcome the full ears, dashed together in conflict, and in a moment they have thrust the full ears to the ground. The participial phrase is quite in the manner of the author.

164. ðo: miswritten for ðe.

166. wot, where wiste might be expected, is perhaps due to anticipation of nogt.

168. Who could solve the riddle involved in the dream: comp. 1/4.

170. of ðat: supply a relative as accusative to drempte: see 198/37, 200/103.

174. shauen: ‘ioseph totonderunt. Uincti enim et exules incrementa crinium patiuntur,’ C.

175. hardi ⁊ bold: Comp. ‘Þe king of Beme had cares colde, | Þat was ful hardy and bolde,’ Minot iv. 68.

176. wold, power, meaning. See 201/140.

180. ‘quod facturus est deus ostendit pharaoni,’ C.

182. numen, taken, in the sense of dealt with, experienced. Comp. 208/400; ‘Ðe seuend moned was in cumen, | And seuene and xxti dais numen,’ GE 593; ‘Seue nigt siðen forð ben numen,’ id. 1687.

184. The editors take Sori and nedful with men, but they might qualify is, them, and that would be more consonant with the original, ‘quos (annos) sequentur alii .vii. tante sterilitatis. vt obliuioni dent cuncta retro abundantia,’ C.

186. rospen and raken, waste and scrape away: in these meanings the words are apparently without parallels.

187. her biforen: miswritten for ear biforen: see 211/483 note: for her = ear, comp. ‘ðor he quilum her wisten wunen,’ GE 801.

189. vndernumen, taken unawares: comp. ‘Ðis godes folc was undernumen, | Quan he segen ðis hird al cumen,’ GE 3221, where it appears to mean, surprised: perhaps influenced in this rare meaning by undergan, as in, ‘Þou hast me gyled and vndurgone’ (= circumvenisti), Horstmann, S. A. Legenden, 33/479, 75/790.

194. bege: ‘collo torquem auream circumposuit,’ C. Comp. 133/34.

195. bisen: see 12/14 note.

197. welden &c., so, ‘neme hit in here honde,’ KH 60 note. vnder his hond, l. 210, in his control; comp. 204/252; ‘Unnderr þe laþe gastess hand,’ Orm 11146.

199. ðo . . . ðanne together are strange and the line is unmetrical. Read, was vnder him ðo putifar.

200. hem so to bar, caused such dissension between them; OE. toberan, to carry in different directions.

202. Oðer . . . ðan, different from what: see 100/122 note. ðan is Mätzner’s correction.

206. Comp. for the form of the sentence, ‘He was hem lef, he woren him hold,’ GE 793.

212. x: The scribe writes tgen (2), then (1), ten.

215. for nede sogt: depends on josep: comp. 198/30, and ‘for nede driuen,’ 203/219.

217. ðog, nevertheless; that is, though he was their brother, they unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy of 197/21, 22.

219. for: but ‘ðo wurð pharaon nede driuen,’ GE 3165.

222. Als he let: read, Let he als, he pretended as if: comp. ‘Sho lete als sho him noght had sene,’ Ywain, 1809.

226. For spien with acc. comp. ‘Bot er yee comen þe land to spi,’ CM 4824; ‘vous venez ceste terre | espier et conquerre,’ Joseph.

230. doðes: Mätzner’s suggestion, doð us, causes us, gives the best solution. Comp. 206/303.

233-236. ‘Impossibile est enim viro idiote tales filios esse · cum etiam regibus talis filiorum copia valde sit difficilis,’ C. forgeten: explained by Mätzner as forgotten, with meaning, of no account, obscure, which is without parallel. Probably for geten, for progeny, offspring: get is however not instanced in that sense before the fourteenth century.

235. For seldom hath it befallen even to a king: for this practically adverbial use of self, comp. ‘God haued swilc fair-hed him geuen, | ðat self ðe fon it leten liuen,’ GE 2609: ‘Self his kinde nile ðat wune forgeten,’ id. 1806.

240. for &c.: as the name Benjamin implies.

244. gure is due to Morris.

245, 246. ‘Timebat enim ne forte et in illum (Benjamin) aliquid deliquissent,’ C. he, Benjamin. hem, the brethren. forred, betrayed.

247. dun, to an underground prison.

253. sone on on, soon forthwith, very quickly: a favourite phrase of our author.

255. If sone be correct, it must stand for sone so, as soon as, as in, ‘sone so loth ut of sodome cam,’ GE 1109. But that is inconsistent with ll. 263, 264, where, as in the Vulgate and C., their lamentations are uttered in the presence of Joseph. Probably sone has been repeated from l. 253, displacing or, before: so ‘ðor,’ l. 257, means, in Joseph’s hearing.

258. Wrigtful, guilty; deserving punishment for our misdeed; ‘Merito hec patimur,’ C.; comp. wrigteleslike, undeservedly, 201/130. But Kölbing suggests that the original had Rigtful, justly, rightfully; comp. ‘Rihtful was iacob cald his name,’ CM 3742.

260. michil mor, much more than we now suffer.

263. None of them suspected that they were understood: ‘nescientes quod intelligeret eos ioseph, quia per interpretem loquebatur eis,’ C. on his mod: a common tag; comp. ‘ðo ðogte thare on his mod, | long bigging is here nogt god,’ GE 717; ‘He þoȝte vpon his mode | Hit nas for none gode,’ KH 281 note.

265. ðor quiles, meanwhile, as at 198/45, usually whilst, as at 196/648.

270. ðor biforen, ‘there as before,’ Morris; ‘over it,’ Kock. biforen here and at 205/299, 207/362 has plainly the meaning of, in addition, besides. The development of meaning is parallel to that of besidan, by the side of, in addition to: so biforen, in the presence of (the common meaning in our author, as at 207/337), in addition to. ðor biforen then means, in addition to that; ðor rounds off the expression, as in ðor quiles.

273. ouerðogt, ‘vexed,’ ‘grieved,’ NED.; ‘anxious,’ Bradley-Str.; ‘very anxious,’ Morris: it apparently occurs here only. The original had probably, o seri ðogt, of sorry mood; comp. 208/384 for the form of the expression and ‘dredful and bleð and sori mod,’ GE 3520; ‘And sumdel quemeð it his seri mood,’ id. 408.

277. Comestor does not mention that one of the sacks was opened on the way: our author follows him, not the Vulgate, Gen. xlii. 27.

279. sori, sorely; comp. ‘wiste hire drogen sori for ðrist,’ GE 977. Holthausen suggests sor.

280. o rigt: the meaning is doubtful, it may be justly, reasonably, OE. on riht, but for that the author has ‘wit rigt,’ GE 52. In the other place where it occurs, ‘Abraham was buxum o rigt,’ GE 1299, it means, straightway.

283. ending non, Of Joseph I know not how he ended: comp. ‘Of his endinge ne wot ic nogt,’ GE 487.

286. segeð, descends: OE. sǣgan, cause to sink.

288. ðor quiles, as long as: see 196/648.

289. us—hard, it will go hard with us.

290. no: probably ne should be read.

291. derke: so too at 208/399: it seems hardly a mere scribal error for derðe.

293. Mätzner thinks he is a mistake for we, but see the examples of sudden transition from indirect to direct speech in Kellner, Syntax, 60.

296. Kölbing suggested the addition of non: Schumann would substitute non for no, but the former gives a better verse. Mätzner reads, And ic ne can, following Morris, who translates, And I know no better plan. Understand quan after And.

298. That there be wanting to the Egyptians none thereof; comp. ‘ne nawiht ne wonteð ham | of al ꝥ ha wilneð,’ SK 1670.

299. ðor biforen, besides: see 205/270.

300. wið, with which.

304. agen, back; so 208/375.

305. Join forð rigt, straightway, or, by the nearest way.

306. Mätzner rightly omits cumen as a gloss. For ligt as a verb comp. ‘Nu am ic ligt to fren hem ðeðen,’ GE 2787; 141/42. ‘Igitur filii iacob descenderunt in egyptum,’ C.

308. Kinde ðhogt, natural affection; comp. ‘kinde blod,’ 206/330. was is evidently a substitute for some rhyming word; Emerson suggests lag, Kock, stag, Morris, ðag. It was probably some uncommon word which the scribe altered, possibly wag, stirred, moved, OE. wæg, which is sometimes used intransitively. In the passage corresponding to 207/340, C. has ‘Commota sunt viscera eius,’ which our writer seems to have used here. 

311. biri, palace: at 12/7 it means, court.

312. Her non, none of them: so ur non, l. 316.

316. wiste . . . gilt, was conscious of wrong-doing: ‘non est in nostra conscientia quis posuerit eam in marsupiis nostris,’ Gen. xliii. 22.

318. min forward is explained in Specimens of the condition that Benjamin should be brought, as in 205/290; but that stipulation was Joseph’s, not the steward’s. It looks like a vague rendering of C., ‘Pax vobis . . . pecuniam quam dedistis mihi probatam (i.e. checked, found correct) ego habeo.’ The French version has, ‘Vostre aveir seit tout vostre, | car nous avons le nostre’; and the English text may mean, for the price which I was ordered to charge for the corn is actually in my possession.

320. on and on, one by one; comp. 208/377, 214/573.

322. to nome, as captive: comp. 196/665; probably the only instances of its use in ME.; noun of niman.

323. vndren time: ‘meridie,’ C. See 74/209.

324. For riche, see 6/30.

325. of frigti mod, through their feeling of fear; comp. ‘Wið reuli lote and frigti mod,’ GE 1162.

329. understod, received; comp. 210/447.

334. I know there none who does not tremble; a parenthesis which would be better placed before l. 333. ðat he is practically equivalent to who.

336. after bodeword ðin, in accordance with your commandment; comp. ‘for ðhu min bode-word haues broken,’ GE 361.

339. ouerwente: an isolated past of *ouerwenden, in the intransitive use recorded in NED., to go over, pass over; giving the meaning, his heart went out to him forthwith. But the absence of to before him renders this explanation doubtful. More probably him refers to Joseph and reinforces his, as in ‘þat his ribbes him to brake,’ KH 1077 (see also 80/47 note), with meaning, his heart overflowed forthwith. C. has, ‘commota sunt viscera eius.’

340. For ouergon, overcome, see 22/143.

342. teres wet: comp. 208/396; teres appears to be pl. gen., of, with tears, so ‘swerdes slagen,’ GE 3721, where swerdes is s. gen. Contrast ‘of is teres wet,’ 209/410.

345. Holthausen omits and; the scribe has taken it from the next line, as he did again at ll. 2839, 2840. him biforen, in his presence.

347. wunes, custom: the pl. is used for the rhyme. ‘Deposuitque ioseph fratres secundum ordinem etatis eorum · sicut in domo patris sedere consueuerant,’ C.

349. sonde: see 13/30.

354. For omission of the subject, see 6/18. There is nothing in the Vulgate or Comestor corresponding to ll. 354-358. There is a similar passage in CM 4863-82, in which Joseph tells his brethren that Pharaoh has no mercy for thieves.

355. Omit And, with Holthausen.

356. vnkinde, foreign; a singular use, but comp. ‘ðog it was nogt is kinde lond,’ GE 1279; ‘to wende into þaire kindely lande,’ CM 3914; ‘He left bath kiyth and kyndli thede,’ id. 11103.

358. Read trewðe, as elsewhere.

360. Or or: this doubled or is frequent in GE; perhaps the second or was felt to be adverbial: a further redundancy is seen in ‘or or ðe flod was long biforn | of noe bigeten,’ GE 905.

362. biforen: see 205/270.

365. ut, out of: the rare prepositional use.

368. And accuses of harm and damage.

370. on: see 210/454. Read unselðẹ, as elsewhere.

371. forholen: this verb takes the dative of the person, 34/77, 208/385, or wiþ, as in, ‘forhele hit wid þin arege,’ OEM 117/244.

373. sikerlike, confidently.

374. Vp, upon; comp. ‘Of ȝoure hors aliþteþ; and vp ȝoure feot stondeþ,’ L MS. O, 5862.

375. agen: comp. 206/304.

382. Comp. ‘Wið bedes and gret and teres wep,’ GE 3888.

383, 384. ‘An ignoratis quod non sit similis mihi in auguriandi scientia. Forte ioco dictum est · nec est imputandum,’ C. The French version has ‘ne saviez vous | que je sui engignous | et tant sai deviner | que je n’en truis mon per,’ but GE and CM omit all reference to divination.

389. Wið ðan ðat, on condition that.

390. Morris added him after ledde; the omission of the relative is fairly common in GE.

396. Read, al his. teres wet: see 207/342.

398. ‘pro salute vestra misit me dominus ante vos,’ C.

400. sulen . . . ben numen, are to be gone through; comp. 202/182.

404. min blisses: ‘gloriam meam,’ C.

407. gersen: ‘Gessen,’ Vulgate; ‘iessen,’ C., the form in GE was probably influenced by ‘Gerson,’ Gen. xlvi. 11.

408. sundri appears to mean, apart from the Egyptians, and to be derived from ‘Hec (i.e. pastores sumus) dicetis vt habebitis seorsum ab egyptiis in optima terra iessen,’ C.; comp. 210/468; Gen. xlvi. 33, 34.

413. in herte fagen: so, ‘in herte wooc,’ GE 1874; ‘in herte mild,’ id. 2635.

414. For him read hem, Joseph’s relatives; for migte in the next line migten. ‘Gauisusque est pharao et dixit ad ioseph. De fratribus tuis. Tollite plaustra de egypto ad subuectionem coniugum,’ C.

415. Because of Pharaoh’s love for Joseph they were enabled to prosper. ‘Omnia vestra adducite vobiscum · dabo vobis omnia bona egypti,’ C. timen, to fare well or ill, mostly the former, is almost confined to GE in this sense: comp. ‘Amalech fleg and israel | Hadde hegere hond and timede wel,’ GE 3391; ‘Bi ðan sal sarra selðe timen,’ id. 1023; ‘ðis folc, sprungen of israel, | Is vnder god timed wel,’ id. 4023.

421. twinne srud: ‘Deditque ioseph singulis binas stolas,’ C.

422. Comp. 198/62.

425. Al so fele: ‘totidem,’ C. He sent his father a present similar to that of Benjamin.

426. in—wil, at his father’s disposal.

427. fest is taken by Mätzner as the pp. of esten; so, ‘with burdens fastened’: it might be adj. fæst, ‘with burdens loaded,’ Morris. In either case it is a strange phrase. Probably lest, OE. hlæst, is to be read, meaning, with the burden of a horse load.

434. He did not know them in their rich dresses; ‘þai com ham noght als prisuns like, | Bot als þai war knigthes rik; | Cled þai war wit riche wede,’ CM 5133.

438. in—cliueð, remains fixed, stands at his disposal. ‘Joseph viuit et dominatur in egypto,’ C. Comp. 209/426.

441. Wel me: see 2/13 note, 21/92 note, 195/634. If wel is me wel is correct it must mean, it is very wel for me: perhaps we should read, me is wel wel; comp. ‘wol wel he dede,’ GE 724, ‘Wel wel was hit bitoȝe,’ L MS. O, 23253; ‘Hijs lauerd he kneu wel wel biforn,’ CM 11033: or, fel it me wel; comp. ‘Niðede ðat folk him fel wel,’ GE 1521.

442. That I have thus lived to see such good fortune. swil[c] sel usually means in GE such time, as ‘it wurð soð binnen swilc sel,’ 1032, it came true within the stated time, so GE 417, 1204, and it may have that meaning here.

444. sen: supply as object sune from the preceding line.

453. dere is Mätzner’s correction.

454. ger: read geres, 203/207, or gere, 202/190. be ðe on: constructions with on are frequent in GE; comp. 205/286, 208/370; ‘ðat burgt folc ðat helde was on,’ GE 1063; ‘For swinc and murning hem was on,’ id. 3205, in each case rhyming with don. Comp. the Latin inscription, ‘scire laboras, annos quod tulerim mecum.’

455. xxx: ðritti.

456. Have I suffered wo here in the world, not, ‘Have I suffered here in [this] world’s woe’; for dregen generally takes an accusative in GE, and the intransitive use, as at GE 3235, is rare.

457. offen is very doubtful, while ðor of occurs frequently in the poem. The original had probably, ðor of an fo, answering to ‘An hundred ger.’

460. Here among men, away from my true home: comp. 201/148; ‘And uten erdes sorge sen,’ GE 956. vten erd was suggested by ‘Dies peregrinationis vite mee,’ C., on which he comments, ‘Peregrinationis dixit · quia sancti vitam hanc pro incolatu habent,’ words which are paraphrased in ll. 461-464. Comestor had in mind, ‘Heu mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est,’ Ps. cxix. 5 (actually quoted in Zainer’s ed. of 1473).

461. So is explained by l. 464.

466. If seli represents OE. gesǣlig, happy, its use with mel, meal, is singular. But ‘he seruede his fader wel | Wið wines drinc and seles[t] mel,’ GE 1541 suggests sele, good, as the right word here.

467. him: corrected by Mätzner.

468. sundri: see 209/408: ‘sciens gratum esse egyptiis separari a se pastores,’ C.

472. xiiij: The Vulgate and C. say seventeen.

474. Quilc time, at what time, when.

476. One thing whereof he should be right mindful. Mätzner inserts he after ðat: Schumann suggested the division of offe. But the line is still unmetrical, and the subjunctive mune for should remember is very doubtful; probably og has dropped out after off: comp. ‘And for hise sinne oc (= og) he to munen,’ GE 197, for the infinitive without to, ‘Cristene men ogen ben so fagen,’ id. 15 and for the infinitive in e, ‘fare’ 210/443 in rhyme as here.

477. wurð—don, was finished with him: NED quotes ‘He knewe well that it was doon of him,’ Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 56.

479. witterlike, definitely; that is, not merely in Hebron, but in the cave where Abraham was laid; ‘in sepulchro maiorum suorum quod abraamium dicitur,’ C.

482. stille, in secret: comp. ‘And stille he dalf him [in] ðe sond,’ GE 2718.

483. fer ear biforen, very long beforehand: comp. ‘ðe was of hin fer ear biforen | Or ani werldes time boren,’ GE 47; ‘ear fear biforn,’ id. 253. See 202/187.

484-486. hem: Jacob’s ancestors, as in the frequent ‘dormivit cum patribus suis.’ C. has ‘Cura fuit sanctis sepeliri in terra qua sciebant Christum resurrecturum · ut cum eo resurgerent’ (in Zainer’s text the last clause is ‘vbi cum eo multa corpora sanctorum surrexerunt cum eo’). Accordingly Kölbing proposed to read for hem, him, referring to Christ, of whom our author says that he ‘restede him after ðe ded,’ GE 257. A further change of reste to arist would make the correspondence with C. complete, but it is more probable that the author omitted the clause.

489. This line appears to represent ‘Cumque videret diem obitus sui imminere · vocauit Joseph,’ C. which comes in the narrative before l. 415. There is a mixture of constructions, (1) when he felt his departure at hand, and (2) Before his departure. Mätzner proposed to substitute migte for wiste.

491. And prophesied of their future: Gen. xlix.

493. Comp. 212/526.

494. strif: ‘Militia est vita hominis super terram,’ Job vii. 1. Comp. ‘He made on werlde al erue tame, | ðe sulde him her, in swinkes strif, | to fode and srud, to helpen ðe lif,’ GE 174.

498. bi waken, ‘waked,’ watched by his body: comp. ‘He was biwaked richeliche, | And wel faire browt on erthe,’ Seuyn Sages (Weber), 2578.

502. biqueðen, ‘bewail,’ Morris, whom Mätzner follows. But this use is without parallel and is not a natural development of OE. becweðan: possibly it descends from cwīþan, to lament. In NED, bigreden, lament, or bigreiðen, prepare, make ready, are suggested. Perhaps biwreðen, representing OE. bewrīðan, to surround with bands: the line would then mean, to anoint, shroud and enwrap.

504. migt, power, that is, means, wealth.

506. Not to bury it speedily with iron tool. For wið yre, comp. Minot iii. 102 note.

507. rigt, properly, carefully.

510-522. This passage is based on ‘Fideles modo quia mortuos suos fide et virtutibus conditos aiunt .xxx. diebus eos plangunt .i. speciales missas sub numero tot dierum pro ipsis celebrant. Quidam tertiam diem maxime celebrant · pro spiritu anima et corpore. Alii septimam,’ C.

510-512. Christian folk have other customs. They are anointed during their lifetime with chrism and oil; with chrism and the oleum catechumenorum at baptism, with the oleum infirmorum in Extreme Unction. in trewðe geuen: administered with faith in their efficacy: in Extreme Unction, the ministrant said, ‘da fiduciam tui muneris exequendi.’ ‘Oratio fidei salvabit infirmum,’ S. Jac. v. 15.

513, 514. For ðon, Morris read don, Mätzner, ðor. More probably it is a mistake for ðo induced by the ending of the next word, ðan also has been corrupted out of ðam. For acts of faith accompanied by charity, those are for Christians in place of all that watching of the dead: an idea repeated in ll. 519-521. Strunk, Mod. Lang. Notes, xxvi. 51, proposes for ðon ben, don bet, with meaning, For truth and good deeds therewith avail more than that vigil. For mide, see 177/57, 212/532.

515. Sum is subject of don, l. 519. on, the first day. The Officium Mortuorum and masses of requiem (‘chirche gong,’ l. 519) were celebrated for thirty days and with special solemnity on the day of the deposition, the third, seventh, thirtieth (the month’s mind) and the anniversary; these or some of them were accompanied by doles (‘elmesse gifte,’ l. 520). See Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 315, 516-519.

517. Mätzner explains wurðen, ‘accomplished,’ that is, completed: which is the sense required, but such use of the participle is hard to parallel, although ‘þenne weoren heore iwil; allunge iwurden,’ L 19656, comes near it. Awurden, ended, would present less difficulty, and would improve the verse. A participial expression with the same meaning is seen in ‘fowerti winter vten led,’ GE 3348.

526. laiges was corrected by Morris. See 211/493 and comp. ‘Clense ðis folc wel ðis to daiges, | And bidde hem leden clene la[i]ges,’ GE 3453.

529. bode: ‘Significauit autem Joseph Pharaoni per intercessores quod iurauerat patri de sepultura,’ C. bōda, messenger.

531. ðor—dede, wherein he (Joseph) acted well, his pious act.

533. wis of here: neither in OE. nor in ME. does here mean war, battle, but only army, devastation. Morris reading heren, translates, ‘skilful in armed expeditions,’ which seems forced. Probably were is to be read: comp. ‘Als it were wopnede here, | Redi to silden him fro were,’ GE 1787. A similar phrase is ‘witter of figt,’ GE 864. In l. 534 read dere.

535. rad: comp. ‘And iacob was of weie rad,’ GE 1783.

536. abuten, making a detour: ‘timentes bella deuiauerunt a recto itinere veneruntque ad aream azad,’ C. adad: ‘atad,’ Vulgate and LXX; not in Codex Amiatinus.

539. numen, proceeded: comp. 13/28, 178/78, 179/113, 187/369; ‘And ðeðen he nam to mirie dale,’ GE 745, and often. There is an ellipsis of wei; comp. 206/305. So ‘his weige ðeðen ches,’ GE 2736, compared with ‘Anon of lond he ches,’ Sir Tristrem 2221.

541. ouer pharan: not in Comestor or the Vulgate; comp. GE 1248. The desert of Paran on the west side of the Dead Sea is meant.

542. biriele: this form without final s is suspect.

544. sent: s added by Morris.

549. ‘nos quoque oramus vt patri tuo dimittas iniquitatem hanc,’ C.

550. Wið ðan(ne) ðat, inasmuch as, seeing that: differently at 208/389.

552. This line is corrupt: Holthausen’s ‘To bidden meðe and beden bot’ gives a good sense and restores the rhyme. He compares ‘Moyses bad meðe,’ GE 3011: see 36/126 note.

556. This line is unmetrical and otherwise difficult: kin should be sing., wexen is pl., manige fold for manigfeald is strange. Perhaps we should read, His kin was waxen manig fold.

557. Mätzner adds his before sibbe, which makes the line too long; perhaps cumen is in excess.

559. biforen qualifies hað . . . sworen.

561. in: comp. ‘Tac ðin sune ysaac in hond,’ GE 1287; ‘An. vii. kinge-riches lond | Ic sal hem bringen al on hond,’ id. 2789.

564. Fulfil it then, promise it now: so, ‘ðat ic ðe haue hoten wel, | Ic it sal lesten euerilc del,’ GE 2905.

568. seli red, happy counsel, possibly in the sense of what is advantageous, helpful; but ‘seli sped,’ 200/192, GE 240 suggests a simpler reading.

570. egipte like, after the Egyptian fashion.

571. Add he before biried. hem, his bones, l. 566.

572. late, after many years: ‘nec motus donec egressi sunt filii israel de egypto,’ C.

573. on and on: comp. 206/320.

578. soules is sing., comp. ‘for liues helpe and soules red,’ GE 496; ‘for sowles frame,’ id. 626.

579-590. Not by the author.

580. engel tale: ‘on engleis speche,’ GE 14; ‘on engleis tale,’ id. 450; ‘On engle speche,’ id. 814.

582. ‘May God help him kindly,’ Morris; this involves helpe, mot, where we should expect helpen, mote. Mätzner suggested wel e mot, God help him, well he may.

583. sorge ⁊ grot: see 199/74.

584. cold ⁊ hot: see 44/232-236.

586. spilen, disport themselves.

589. Comp. ‘And to alle cristene men | beren pais and luue bitwen,’ GE 7. After us, Holthausen adds be: perhaps, ben ús | bitwén.

Phonology: ... but ‘loac,’ GE 1798
GE.

ǣ₁ is e
æ₁

ēa is e ... (wēox from weacsan)
wæcsan

a + g ... ǣ₂ + g
æ₂

Accidence: ... onsagen 99, ðeden 356 have added n
adden

Vocabulary: ... til 60, ðeden 84
ðeðen

Metre: ... Goód is | quað jós|eph
quáð

ii b. Ór | for misdéd|e or fór | onságen
ii. b.

quát | he wóren, 434:
434;

i a. Kínde | lúue | gan him óu|ergón
1 a.

J́c am | iosép | drédeð | gu nógt
Jć am

euẹrilc 268
text unchanged, but body text has euerilc almost throughout

308. Kinde ðhogt,
đhogt

which our writer seems to have used here.
here.’

356. ... CM 3914
CM.

371. ... OEM 117/244.
OEM.

XXIII. KENTISH SERMONS

Manuscript: Laud Misc. 471, Bodleian Library; on vellum, 188 × 130 mm.: consists of two manuscripts bound together; the former, mostly Latin, has at f. 65 r, ‘Man may longe liwes wenen’ (see p. 308). The second manuscript, of the end of the thirteenth century, begins at f. 92 with Grosseteste’s Château d’Amour; on f. 128 r is Maurice de Sully’s sermon for January 1st in French, then follows the present article. Other sermons in French by Sully begin on f. 138 v², but they do not include the originals of these English translations.

Facsimile: Skeat, W. W., Twelve Facsimiles, Oxford, 1892; plate v gives ll. 19-78.

Editions: Morris, R., An Old English Miscellany, pp. 26-36. Kluge, F., Mittelenglisches Lesebuch, pp. 19-25.

Literature: Danker, O., Die Laut- und Flexionslehre der mittelkentischen Denkmäler, Strassburg, 1879; Heuser, W., Zum kent. Dialekt im Mittelenglischen, Anglia, xvii. 73-81; *Konrath, M., Zur Laut- und Flexionslehre des Mittelkentischen, Archiv, lxxxviii. 47-66, 157-180, lxxxix. 153-166; Reimann, M., Die Sprache der mittelkentischen Evangelien, Berlin, 1883. Of the French original, Manuscripts and Text: Meyer, P., Romania, v. 466, xxiii. 178, xxviii. 245; Documents manuscrits, Paris, 1871, pp. 157, 158, 244; Boucherie, A., Le Dialecte poitevin au xiiie siècle, Niort, 1873; the Author: Mortet, V., Maurice de Sully, évêque de Paris, in Mémoires de la Société de l’histoire de Paris, xvi. 105; Bourgain, L., La Chaire française au xiie siècle, Paris, 1879; Lecoy de la Marche, A., La Chaire française au Moyen Âge, Paris 1868.

Phonology: Oral a is a, habbe 75, last 212; awakede 172 has its form from āwacian, its meaning from āweccan. a before nasals is a, fram 35 (5 times), man 120 &c., þan conj. 34, þanne 47, 160, wanne 21 (4); man indef. pron. is man 112, me 34; apparently lengthened in naam 237, from the plural. a before lengthening groups is o, belongeth 86, fond 206 (3), hond 138, londes 31, longe 246, 275, but shortened and 10, answerden 18, and amenges 217, influenced by gemengan. æ is divided between e, efter 22 (3), hedde 41 (8), hedden 11 (12), nedden 242, hest 101, smech 50, 53, þet 10 (47), wet 42, 151 and a, hadde 173, spac 20, 87, þat 54 (23), uastinge 57, was 6 &c., wat 26, 86, 174, 221, watere 91 (6), stressless at 84 (6), ate 229; from OE. forms in a, almichti 5 (6), fader 48, habbe 67; flexion form bak (biteres) 111; iheed 248 represents OE. gehæfd. e is e, be prep. 39 &c., iþenche 282, wrench 275; before lengthening groups ende 161, strengþe 267; but bi 54 &c., swiche 127 (4), siche 179, wiche 145, wyche 112; e is raised to i in sigge 53 (11), togidere 95 from the umlaut form togedere, wrichede 59, comp. wrecca; with bie prep. 94, 228 for bi, comp. ‘beo’ for be, Reimann § 18. 2 f; in angles 150 a is probably due to French influence, although a for umlaut e before nasal is characteristic of the South-Eastern area, see 439/9-13, 269/25-27. The isolated o in ongel 28 beside angles may be set down to the representation of OF. a before nasal + cons. in Southern ME. indifferently as a or o, so in Ayenbite, chambren, chombre, chongi (Behrens 78), but the scribe of KS writes always sergant, serganz. i is i, wille 22, finde 24, often written y, especially in contact with m, n, agyn 212, hym 13; here 85, her, is an early instance of the spelling with e. o is o, dorste 87, wolde 23, but an 71, ane 242 (an), a 192 through loss of stress; þane 175, 274, 281 is LWS. þane. u is u, icume 216, 253, to cumene 284, luuie 74, hifunde 21, undren 205 (3), but o in awondrede 177, come 60, comme 55, cometh 22, 159, icomen 215, ffolvellet 90, fonden 208, ifonden 27, louie 243; see 269/31. y is e, spusbreche 110, chereche 149, dede 205, euele 107 (12), ferst 96 (7), uuluelden 93, manken 41, senne 61 (14), þenche 245, werm 55, berdene 219, but forþingketh 221, due to palatal influence, kinges 7, mirre 11, 54, as in French original, niste 98, analogy of wiste, formeste 134 (formest). ā is o, aros 169, holi 5 &c., no 55, none 156, on art. 202, one 134, 199, o 14, one numer. 117 &c., doubled in aróós 171, hool 137, hóót 74, 280, noon 148, 221, 282; before two consonants, o, bitockned 107 &c., gost 48, onlepi 48; but the indef. article is mostly an, ane, a, so too anoþer 30, anoþren 34; askede 13, 17, haleghen 146 have shortened a, contrast ‘oxi,’ Ayenbite 114/1; with namore 87 comp. nammore 231/14. ǣ₁ is regularly e, anhet 115, wreþe 188, doubled in anhéét 116, 124, before two consonants, clensed 139, euerich 122 (5), leuedi 83, leuedis 31, but aueriche 69, lauedi 6, 87, goth 51, with o from the plural. ǣ₂ is also e, euen 206 (5), þer 60 &c., wer 13 (4), were 91 (4), ofdred 16, werefore 69 (3), but war 26 (hwār), ware 91, waren 215, 216. ē is e, akelþ 108, deþ 70 (3), he 15 &c., se art. 13 &c., wenden 216, but doþ 179, with o from the plural, ha 20 &c., a 250, 264, mostly stressless. ī is i, hwilem 19, niþing 121, wyn 84; doubled in hij 248; before two consonants, wyman 87, winyarde 203; the only exception is bleþeliche 182, comp. ‘blethliche,’ Seuyn Sages 503 (Kentish), ‘bleþeliche,’ Ayenbite, 20/26; according to Konrath (p. 172) ē in MK. had a very close sound approaching ī, which led to their interchange, but there is also ‘bluðeliche’ 119/80, OEH i. 31/4 which needs accounting for. ō is o, comen 35 (4), into 12, to 22, sothfast 38, doubled in good 120, 183, 281, goodman 202, but a in kam 12 (4) and reduced to e in te 7, 20, 256, te dai 5 (4), euerte 135, neuerte 248, inte 250, 251. ū is u, bute 279, ut 239, upward 51, doubled in uut 202, but o in bote 244, don 170. ȳ is e, bredale 80, fer 112, ueréé 51, here 203, herde 208, iherde 228, iherede 232, iherd 248, prede 188, wéé 207 (hwȳ); before two consonants, bredgume 99, but ihierde 236 where ie may be a writing for ē, or equivalent to [je], litle 143 (litel).

ea before r + cons. is a in art 124, 125, winyarde 203 &c., to . . . ward 51, but e in forewerde 203, 204 in syllable of minor stress. ea before l + cons. is a, al 8 &c., and its compounds, falle 155, halt 283, before ld, a in chald 109, schald 108, o in chold 124, itold 67, 222 (as bold, bolde in Ayenbite), but before lde, ia (as for ēa) in ialde 39, ihialde 101; this alternation of a (not o) and ia, as short and long, is specifically Kentish. The i-umlaut is e, elde 260, 268, 270. eo before r + cons. is e, verrene 35, herte 45 (6), sterft 154, sterre 7 (4), werkes 50 (8), werkmen 203 (3), before lengthening groups, erþe 82, 135, erþliche 65, husberners 111; Kentish absence of i-umlaut (Bülb. § 187) in ismered 55; uerste 223. eo before lf is e, selue 115, seluen 123, 183. eo, u- and å-umlaut of e is e, fele 224, 270, heuene 29 (9); after w, o in wordle 191, world 228. eo, u- and å-umlaut of i is e in beneme 186, clepie 181, clepeþ 262, selure 64, here 11 (10), but hire 27, 30, 185. ea after palatals is a, sal 34 (4), yaf 158, 214. ie after ġ is e, yeue 210, 251, yeft 35, yefþ 272, yeue 71, 159, yef 213, yeld 211, yeftte 37. EWS. gief is yef 24 &c. eo after sć is o, solle 271, sollen 200, 254, solde 14 (5), solden 250, but sulle 223. eom is am 184, heom, hem 10 &c.

ēa is ia, beliaue 41 (6), diadlich 41, 264, diadliche 143 (7), diath 41, diaþe 274, griat 201, griate 234, 272, ya in yare 282, but ea in beleaue 45 (6), great 141, 169, greater 267, a in belaue 67, e in gret 171, grete 143: slon 24 is from a form with ā. The spelling with e [ē] is not Kentish, that with a is probably meant for ea, which is historic spelling of the same import as the specifically Kentish ia, ya. The phonetic value of the latter is in dispute. Sweet says probably [jaa], that is, with accent shifting; Konrath [jœ̄] for the initial, [œ̄] for the medial position; Heuser maintains that the symbols must have the same value wherever placed and suggests for it [eǣ]. The i-umlaut of ēa is e, beleue 47, 250, bileue 75, bileued 242, beleuede 103, iherde 14, 19, iherd 62 (4), ihere 282, ihereþ 106, 224, onlepi 48, onlepiliche 65, but ie in ihiereth 42, niedes 181, 185, nyede 180. ēo initial is ye, yede 12 (7); medial, ie bien 18, 192, bieth 59, 68, bieþ 152 (10), bied 116, biedh 143, dieule 61, forbiet 73, liese 16, liesed 114, liest 145, 153, forliest 154, but e in betuene 9, deuel 187, deueles 241, frend 221, helden 235, iuel 84, prest 40, and i in sike 58, sikman 136; final, ie, ye, bie 178, 223, 156, 207, ibye 219, hie 207 (hēo), hye 87, þrie 7 (5) and i, bi 14, 71, 139, si 6 (10), hi 87, but e in be (swo) 263, ibe 238, 239, 241, 246, 247. The medial ie, which is characteristic of Kentish, has, according to Sweet, the value of diphthongic [jee], according to Konrath, of the monophthong ē; final ie, ye is ī. The i-umlaut of ēo is e, þefte 144. ēa after ġ is e in yere 66, ēo, e in yemer 114, yemere 113, yemernesse 56, but Morsbach (Anglia, Beiblatt, vii. 326) regards it as umlaut e. gīet is yet 118.

a + g is agh, daghen 252, laghe 17 (3), but ai in daies 66: mowe 53, 260, moue 72, muee 33 represent the subjunctive form mugon: seith 183, 242, seiþ 184, seyth 201, seid 113, 274 come from segeþ. æ + g is ai, dai 5 &c., day 33 (5), mai 148 &c., may 58 (5), maidene 237, vaire 177, but deai 219: seide 20 &c., seyde 88 (6), seiden 172, seyden 217, iseid 19 represent segde &c.: sede 86, seden 230 descend from sǣde, sǣdon. e + g is ei, ileid 170, weye 30: ayen 30, 206, agenes 269 descend from ongēn, so toyenes 235; tojanes 8 (influence of n), from tōgēanes, comp. 428/37. i + g final is i, bodi 60, mani 118, peni 251; lauedi 87, leuedi 83 represent hlǣfdī; the spirant is lost in bodie 158. u + g: mowe 75. ā + g is seen in oghe 112, ǣ₁ + h in tachte 249 (shortened tāhte), ō + h in ibrocht 99, nocht 23 (5); in cróós 90 the spirant has been absorbed; nacht 65, 104, 146 comes from shortened nāht. The i-umlaut of ea + ht is e in the specifically Kentish manslechtes 111 (Bülb. § 180 b), but i in almichti 5, micht 137, michte 24, nicht 28. ēo + ht is i in bricht, brichtnesse 44, richt 209, unricht 221: wesse 92 is wēoscon. ēo + g is e in legheþ 275; īe + ht, i in licht 46. e + w: iseghe 176 comes from gesegen. ā + w is au, saule 159, saulen 191: seghe 105, seghen 25, 215 come from sǣgon. ī + w: newe 134. ēa + w is seen in feaue 224, seaweth 199, seawede 37, 39, seauede 237, seaude 249, seauinge 8, seywinge 32, miswriting, perhaps for sewinge. ēo + w occurs in biknewe 8, furti 266 shortened, yure 64, final yu 89, 210, yw 174, 251. Accents are more sparingly used than in piece v, 275/40; they appear to emphasize the length of a vowel already doubled to indicate length in anhéét 116 (anheet 124), aróós 171 (aros 169), cróós 90, hóót 74, 280 (hot 88, 279), wéé 207; in beleauéé 230, icornéé 224, ueréé 51, séé 169, 175 short inflectional e is doubled and accented, possibly to point out that it is not silent, but muee 33 is without accent; similarly iléke 61 (ileke 72, 73, ilke 59), offréde 38 (offrede 38): in galiléé 78 (Vulgate Cana Galilaeae) separate pronunciation of the vowels is indicated.

In godespelle 5, 32, 199, haleghen 146, iherede 232, ileke 61, leuedis 31, leuedi 83, lauedi 6, moreghen 202 a glide e has been inserted, a final e added in ate 229, ofte 275; e is lost in icornéé 224, mor 34. For e, ie is written in sollie 160, o is e in sikerliche 187. The prefix in akelþ 108 is a- intensive; in agyn 212, alast 236, anhet 115 &c., an-, on-; in astrengþed 179 a- from ar-; in answerden 18, and-; in awondrede 177, of-: be- is mostly bi-, but betokned 116 (3), ge-, i-, ihende 55, iwil 114, but it is lost in bore 71. The suffix in sothfast 38 is -fæst (in the Ayenbite it appears as -uest), in felarede 147, -rǣden, in childhede 262, -hǣd; the termination of verbal nouns is -ing, as in ME. gauelinge 144; in baþieres 92 the suffix is Fr. -ière.

w is written u in betuene 9, suo 135, uilleth 200; it has disappeared in siche 179, so 59: vrefore 246 is miswritten for werfore. Metathesis of r is seen in undren 205, in loruerde 103 the scribe has added r by anticipation. ll is simplified in ffolvellet 90, uuluelden 93, godspel 242, iwil 114 &c.; Kentish wordle 191 &c. alternates with world 228. m is doubled in comme 55; mm simplified in wyman 87. The preposition in is reduced to i 5 &c.; nn is simplified in clenesse 92, cumene 284, done 191, heþenesse 8; n is lost in heueriche 252, 256, 281. bb is simplified in habeþ 259. Initial f is u, v in vaire 177, uastinge 57, velaghes 218, ueréé 51, verrene 35, uerste 223, uuluelden 93 and medially between vowels and vowellikes, ffolvellet 90, iuel 84, over 26, senuulle 142, with exceptions bifore 25, 104, underfonge 254, þerefore 254, werefore 238, vrefore 246, otherwise f occurs under all conditions. f is assimilated in hedde 41, lost in hest 101, iheed 248, lordes 32, lordinges 31. For t, th appears in wath 102 (comp. ethe in Ayenbite), and td in hotestd 266: t is doubled in yeftte 37, lost in beste 100, last 212 and finally in þa 82, 180, þe 39, 280. d is doubled in risindde 8; dd simplified in ofdred 16. For þ, th is often written in verbal terminations, t occurs in habbet 62, 64, 85, maket 121, d in bied 116, bitockned 107, bitokned 142, betokned 116, 143, 152, 266, drinked 115, hatied 278, tþ in habbetþ 219, dh in biedh 143, clepiedh 185, hatedh 73, mudh 113. Initial þ is t twice, to 58, 175 after and; the scribe must have had ant in mind or in his exemplar. A parasitic þ has been inserted in alþer 266, OE. ealra, an early instance of a form common in the South. For voiced s, z occurs in sechez 21, serganz 88, 89, signefiez 142, but it is not used initially. ss appears as sc in blisce 70. sc is s, sal 34, seawede 37, solle 271, sulle 223, srifte 159, flesliche 43, fles 237, but ssipe 168 (4), wesse 92, flesce 56, flessce 59. The stop c is k before e, i, akelþ 108, wakie 57, before a, u, kam 12, kuþe 17, in combination with consonants, biknewe 8, tokningge 141, folk 135, except cl, cr, clenesse 92, croos 90: it is c before o, cometh 22. Finally it is c or k, spac 20, bak 111, tok 139, 175: c is written ck in betockneþ 225, bitockneþ 268, bitockned 107, and gk in forþingketh 222. The graph xp (= χρ) is used in xpisteneman 107 &c., xpisteman 109: the Latin text has chana 78 for Cana. č is ch, besech 125, bisecheth 182, chald 109, chold 124, chereche 149, child 21, euerich 122, -lich 41 &c., michel 15, kingriche 16, seche 36, speche 33, swiche 127, techinge 231, þenche 245, wiche 145, wrench 275, sch in schald 108, but hic 22 &c., besekeþ 68: čč is ch, smech 50, wrichede 59. Palatal g is written y, ayen 30, toyenes 235, (wyn)yarde 203, yaf 158, ye 21, yemer 114, yere 66, yeue 210, yeftte 37, the doubling in winyyarde 272 was without intention: y is lost in iyue 133, gegiefen. It has developed to w in mowe 53, moue 72 and is lost in muee 33; other spellings are seen in tojanes 8, hye 64: yu 89, yure 64 have imitated ye, gē. g is lost finally in words ending in -ig. čǧ is gg in sigge 53 &c. The guttural stop is written g, gold 11, king 15, doubled in tokningge 141: for ng, nk appears in kink 38, offrinke 34, 36, þinkes 74, 112. The spirant is gh, daghen 252, haleghen 146, laghe 17, legheþ 275, oghe 112, seghe 105, moreghen 202, sorghen 185. Similarly the guttural spirant h is represented by ch, ibrocht 99, nacht 65, nocht 23, þurch 119 &c., but þurh 188; palatal are bricht 44, licht 46, michte 24, nicht 28, richt 209. h is added in hac 87, hic 66 &c., hifunde 21, his 218, hure 178, 198, hut 279, hye 64: h is lost in i 43, 250, is 232, ise 168, 246. hr is r, raþe 140, as already in OE., hw, w, wee 207, wer 13, vrefore 246, wiche 145, wo 48, wylem 38, but hwilem 19, 258, hwylem 117.

Accidence: Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune 48 represents sunu. Gen. -es, domes 192, liues 275; heueriche 252, 256, 281 is a composition form: d. -e, bodie 158, with short stem vowel, daye 69, daie 220, 227, gode 49 (10), marcatte 206, ueréé 51; exceptions are god 47, gost 72, iwil 157; peny 203 is probably accusative: the time words dai 5 (11), midday 205 (3), euen 235, moreghen 202 (5), undren 205 (3) are treated as accusatives, as occasionally in OE. tō-dæg, on mid-dæg, on undern. In the acc. bodi 60, peny 213, 215, 216, peni 251, 255, 281 have lost final g. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -es, bakbiteres 111, lordinges 31, daies 66, but husberners 111, croos 90; neuters are n. þinges 59, 61; a. þinges 73, 74, þinkes 74, werkes 50 (5), faten 91, 93. Pl. d. -es, angles 150, londes 31, 36, werkes 68 (4), writes 183, but daghen 252, wyntre 266 (comp. nom. wintru). All feminine nouns of the strong declension have -e throughout the singular, except n. lauedi 87, leuedi 83; d. lauedi 6, world 228, 238, 258, 263, wordl 230 (but wordle 191, 236, 243); a. hond 138. Plurals are n. deden 111, saulen 191, sennen 145, leuedis 31, tides 227; d. hertes 72, niedes 181, 185, offringes 63, wordles 259, sennen 147, sorghen 185; a. sennen 142, 143, 160. Nouns of the weak declension have -e throughout the singular, n. sterre 7, tunge 282, yare 282; d. bredgume 99, sunne 44, time 168; a. beliaue 41; plurals are d. haleghen 146; a. time 228. The minor declensions are represented by man s. n. 123, sikman 136, xpistenman 69, goodman 202, wyman 87, mannes s. g. 147, cristenemannes 45, men s. d. 260, manne 46, 120, cristenemanne 52, 69, man 265, 267, 268, s. a. 120, men pl. n. 15, pl. d. 153, pl. a. 142, werkmen 203; fader s. n. 48; frend s. n. 221; child s. a. 21; nicht s. d. 28. The French nouns have -es in the pl., except geus 15, gyus 13, paens 245, 247, serganz 88, 89.

Adjectives which in OE. end in e retain it throughout; those in -ig lose g and are invariable in the singular, so stille, newe, holi, onlepi 48. Weak inflections are s. n. m. euele 107, 109, gode 44, 45, vaire 177, f. gode 52, s. g. m. gode 45, s. d. m. euele 120, gode 46, 52, f. griate 272, ialde 39, neut. wrichede 59; strong, s. g. neut. longe 275, s. d. m. gode 67, 230, f. diadliche 150, 153, 154, 157, 189, 278, griate 234, neut. euele 157, s. a. m. gode 173. Not inflected are weak s. a. neut. heþen 239; strong, s. d. f. diadlich 264, neut. good 183, yemer 114, s. a. m. god 234, good 120, hool 137, s. a. f. gret 171, griat 201. French words have no inflection. The plural ends in -e, bitere 59, diadliche 143, euele 109, 156, senuulle 142, verrene 35, but heþen 252 and the predicative idel 207, 238, 241, 246 are uninflected. litel is litle, s. d. m. 174, pl. d. 147, pl. a. 143; āgen, oghe, s. n. m. 112. ān adj. is n. an before vowel 28, a before consonant 80, 136, 169, o 14, d. ane f. 81, neut. 168, a. ane 203, 213, 214, 216, emphatic form on n., a certain, 202, one d. 134, a. 199: the numeral and pronoun is d. one 117, 118, 168, on 221, a. on 218: nān adj. is s. n. no 55, 148, 273, noon 282, d. f. no 263, neut. none 157, a. neut. noon before vowel 221, no 85, pl. d. none 156: the pronoun is n. s. noon 148, non 247, 274. Adjectives with inflection used as nouns are euele s. d. 126, 138, gode 126, eueles pl. d. 190, godes 65, gode pl. a. 58; euel 186, good 281, unricht 221 are s. a. neut. Comparatives are greater s. d. f. 267 (2); more 217, namore 87 used as nouns: superlatives, formeste 134, beste 100, 102; used as nouns are ferste pl. 213, uerste pl. 223, laste pl. 218, 224; predicative are hotestd 266, ferst 224, last 223.

The personal pronouns are hic 22 (8), i(ne) 104, 221, me, we, us, þu, þe, ye, hye 64, yu, yw 174, 251. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 15 &c., ha 20 (21) often stressless, a 250, 264, ha in has 69, hi 26 for he, hi f. 87, hye 87, hit neut. 18, with m. f. nouns 50, 175; d. him m. 11, hire f. 86; a. hine m. 172, 283, hyne 10, hin 27 before vowel, hym 13 (possibly dative), hit neut. 21; pl. n. hi 8 &c., hie 207, i 43, 250; g. here 216; d. hem 10; a. hi 185, 204, hij 248, hem 17 (possibly dative), is in has 69, his 218. Reflexives are hine 148, him 170, him seluen 123, hem pl. d. 217, pl. a. 25, 92, 177; definitive are himselue s. d. neut. 115, himseluen 183: possessives, mine s. d. m. 209, 250, 251, f. 137, neut. 138, min s. a. neut. 222; þine s. d. m. 219; his s. 211 &c., is 232, pl. hise 15, 83, 171, ise 168, 246, his 103, 146, 150, 233; here 85; ure 5, 68, 280, hure 178, 198; yure 64; here 11 (10), hire 27, 30, 185. In the following account of the article and demonstrative the translator is assumed to have taken the genders of French nouns from the French original. The definite article is s. n. se m. 13 (15), þe 211, þe commencement 102, þe miracle 140, þo 265, si f. 31 (6), and with masc. nouns 6, 12, 45, si miracle 31, 177, þe 141, 255, þe custome 93, þe nature 266, þet neut. 32 (12); g. þes m. 214 (perhaps miswritten for his); d. þo m. 9 (17), þe 50 (13), þo f. 8 (18), þe 45 (6), þe cite 6, þo neut. 5 (12), þe 33 (8); a. þane m. 175, 274, 281, þan 206, 235, þo 25, 269, þo miracle 176, þe 44 (7), se 107, þo f. 70 (11), (and) to 175, þe 53 (7), þet neut. 21 (8); instrumental þe 105, 178: pl. n. þo 24 (17), þe 226, 247; d. þo 7 (11), þe 183; a. þo 56 (12), (and) to 58, þe 58, 89, 228, 229, 245. Þet is demonstrative adj. 42 (3), 49, 54 (2), 281, also þa s. d. m. 82, s. d. neut. 82, 180, þo s. d. m. 267; the plural is þo 59, 72, 73, 74 (2), 145, 147, 176, þa d. 252: þet is demonstrative pronoun 22, 68, 281, þat 150, 152, 161, þe[t] 280; for þet 15, 23, 24 means because, be þet 37, by that that: the plural is þo, mostly with relatives, þo þet 108 &c., those who, 231, those to whom, 283, for those who: other pronominal uses of the article are seen in se þet 96, 154, 180, he who, for þan 272, on that account, er þane 171 (read þan), before. The compound demonstrative is s. n. þes m. 225, þis, þis commencement 102, þis miracle 140, 177, þis f. þis signefiance 122, þis tempeste 171; d. þise m. 210, f. 152 (4), þis 229 (6), þise neut. 84, 97; a. þise f. 204, 222, þis neut. 20: pl. n. þos 210, 217, a. 90, 91. The relative is þet and þat; it means that which in 43, 209, 243, 278, 279, 280, in which 82, anyone who 208. Interrogative are wat 86, 174, 221, wet 42, 151, wiche 145, wyche 112; the correlative is swiche s. d. m. 179, siche s. a. m. 179, swiche pl. 127, 191, 262: ilca is ilke pl. 59, ileke 61, 72, 73, ilek 74. Indefinites are wo so 48; me 34, 38, 58, 145, man 112, 274; oþer 188, oþre pl. 111, 121, 210, oþer 100, 153; anoþer s. d. m. 30, anoþren 34; euerich 122, 216, eueriche s. d. m. 213, 260, aueriche 69, euerich 214; mani 118, 234; fele 224, 270; feaue pl. 224; al s. 243 &c., alle pl. 15 &c., pl. g. alþer 266.

Verbs in -an, except the contract slon 24, have infinitive in -e, bidde 75, bileue 75, yeue 251 and twenty-five other examples; those in -ian with short stem vowel have -ie, luuie 74, hatie 72, makie 34, 137, wakie 57, with long stem vowel, -i, loki 148. French verbs with consonant stems follow the latter, acumbri 187, anuri 22, onuri 24, serui 75 (3), somoni 16, suffri 41, targi 273, uisiti 57, with these is associated offri 10. The dat. infinitive is inflected in to cumene 284 only; it has -en in to siggen 123, 152, 231, otherwise -e, with prefixed for te, habbe 256, here 203, liese 16, wende 273; with to, seche 36, sigge 90 (3), slepe 170; Fr. for to anuri 10, to serui 273. Presents are s. 1. beneme 186, habbe 67, sigge 104; Fr. sucuri 185; 2. makest 218, syncopated hest 101; 3. belongeth 86, betockneþ 225, luueþ 279 and twelve others in -eþ, bitockned 107, betokned 116, 143, 152, 266, bitokned 142, luued 74, maked 119, hatedh 73, loket 60, maket 121; Fr. ofserueth 112, signefieth 40 (4), turneþ 265, amuntet 52, defendet 54, ofseruet 70, signefiet 55, 57, signified 50, 113, signefiez 142; syncopated are akelþ 108, anhet 115, forbiet 73, forliest 154, liest 145, 153, halt 283, hath 48, hot 88, 279, hóót 74, 280, licht 46, seith 183 (4), seid 113, 274, sent 264, sterft 154, telþ 32 (5), yefþ 272; the syncopated forms are thus as numerous as the full forms: pl. 1. bisecheth 182, habbeth 219 (3), redeth 5, habbetþ 219, hopieþ 256 (verbs in -ian with short stem vowel have -ieþ in pr. pl., -ie in subj.); Fr. perisset 173; 2. habbeth 21, 106, habbet 62, 64, 151, luuieþ 278, hatied 278, syncopated dret 174; Fr. ofserueþ 281; 3. betockneþ 226, habbeþ 100, 218, drinked 115, liesed 114, habbet 85, luuieþ 283, clepiedh 185, syncopated yeft 35; Fr. defendet 60: subjunctive s. 3. helpe 182, loke 122, wende 126, yeue 71, 159, yef 191 before vowel, luuie 244; Fr. deliuri 190, granti 284, serui 244, sucuri 181; pl. 1. beleue 47, loke 152, grede 186, 189, offre 42, 47, sigge 189, clepie 181; Fr. perissi 190; 2. falle 155: imperative s. 2. agyn 212, besech 125, yef 213, yeld 211, clepe 211; Fr. saue 172, sauue 189; pl. 2. bereth 96, cometh 22, 159, ihiereth 42, lokeþ 155, offreth 65, ffolvellet 90, forleted 159, greded 158, sechez 21; Fr. anuret 22, moveth 95. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. spac 20, 87, yaf 158, 214; pl. 3. seghen 25, 215, seghe 105, speken 13: I b. s. 3. kam 12 (4), naam 237; pl. 3. comen 35 (4), nomen 9: I c. s. 3. fond 206 (3); pl. 1. fonden 208: II. s. 3. aros 169, 174, aróós 171: IV. s. 3. tok 139, 175: V. IV. pl. 3. wesse 92: V. s. 3. het 29, iuel 84; pl. 3. biknewe 8, helden 235. Participles present: II. risindde 8; past: I a. iseghe 176, iyue 133: I b. ibore 6 (4), bore 71, icume 216, 253, icomen 215: I c. idrunke 97, hifunde 21, ifonden 27: III. icornéé 224: V. behote 19, ihialde 101, underfonge 254, ofdred 16. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. ansuerede 220, answerde 86, clepede 89, makede 118, made 103, 135, offrede 38, seauede 237, seaude 249, hedde 97 (5), iherde 14 (5), iherede 232, seide 20 &c., sente 204, tachte 249; Fr. aperede 28, apierede 7, aresunede 245, failede 84, onurede 136, sucurede 180, paide 214; pl. askede 13, awakede 172, beleuede 103, offrede 40 (4), seawede 37, 39, hadde 173, hedde 41 (3), seyde 208, answerden 18 (3), hedden 11 (9), nedden 242, maden 63, seiden 172, 217, seden 230, uuluelden 93, wenden 216, wenten 25; Fr. anurede 27, gruchchede 217, seruede 88, 230, serueden 258. Participles past: astrengþed 179, bileued 242, clensed 139, icleped 81, pl. iclepede 91, 224, imaked 81 (3), maked 119, imad 204, ioffred 64, ismered 55, istrengþed 106, iþoled 219, iheed 248, iherd 62 (5), ileid 170, iseid 19, 259, itold 67, 222, anheet 116, 124, ibrocht 99, iwent 94; Fr. anud 15, anured 71, aparailed 11, asoiled 160, deseiurd 147, deseuerd 156, deseurd 148, 149, ientred 254, isauued 192, iserued 96, itravailed 218, iwarisd 140. Minor Groups: wot pr. s. 274, wiste pt. s. 173, pt. pl. 98, niste 98; kuþe pt. pl. 17; dorste pt. s. 87; sal 1 pr. s. 210, 251, pr. s. 34, 178, sollen 1 pr. pl. 200, 254, sollie 2 pr. pl. 160, sulle pr. pl. 223, solle 271, solde pt. s. 14 (4), pt. pl. 30, solden 250; micht 2 pr. s. 137, mai pr. s. 148 (3), may 58 (5), mowe 1 pr. pl. 53, 260, moue 72, muee 2 pr. pl. 33, mowe 1 pr. pl. subj. 75, michte pt. s. 24; mote 2 pr. s. subj. 127, pr. pl. subj. 192; bi inf. 14, 71, bie 178, 223, bien 18, 192, am 1 pr. s. 184, art 2 pr. s. 124, 125, is pr. s. 31 &c., his 122, nis 146, 148, bieþ 1 pr. pl. 152 (3), 2 pr. pl. 155 (5), bie ye 207, bieth pr. pl. 59 (5), biedh 143, bi 2 pr. s. subj. 139, be (swo) pr. s. subj. 263, bie 2 pr. pl. subj. 156, be pr. pl. subj. 263, bieþ 2 pr. pl. imp. 160, was pt. s. 6 (6), were pt. pl. 91 (3), weren 176, ware 91, waren 215, 216, ibe pp. 238 (5), ibye 219; wille 1 pr. s. 22, 139, wilt 2 pr. s. 137, wille pr. s. 182, 187, wile 180, nel 55, uilleth 1 pr. pl. 200, wolde pt. s. 23 (3), wolden pt. pl. 10; do inf. 58 (6), misdo 62, don 200, to done d. inf. 191, for to done 241, to do 58 (nominative), do 1 pr. s. 221, 222, deþ pr. s. 70 (3), doþ 179, 2 pr. pl. 279, 280, pr. pl. 100 (3), do pr. s. subj. 125, 126, 2 pr. pl. subj. 279, doþ 2 pr. pl. imp. 89, dede pt. s. 16 (5), deden pt. pl. 235, ido pp. 50, 101; go inf. 22, 57, gon 10, 192, goth pr. s. 51, go 2 pr. s. imp. 212, goþ 2 pr. pl. imp. 20 (3), yede pt. s. 12 (5), pt. pl. 210, yeden 252, igo pp. 239.

Noteworthy adverbs are al 8, 11, 212, alast 236, euerte 135, neuerte 248, ihende 55, 60, onlepiliche 65, also in Ayenbite; prepositions, the alternatives an 71, ane 242, a 192; at 84, ate 229; for 41, fore 67, 105; in 81 (11) mostly before vowels, ine 18 (33) mostly before consonants, inne 154, i 5 (5) followed by the definite article; to 22, te 5 &c. stressless, inte 250, 251, and amenges 217, an early instance, wath 102; conjunctions, ase so 110, 144 translating si cume, al wat 26, þe 39 for þet, þo þet 242, 246 meaning inasmuch as.

Vocabulary: Scandinavian are velaghes 218, fela(rede) 147, scab 142, and probably bakbiteres 111, as a compound. French are †acumbri 187, †age 265, †amonestement 61, †amuntet 52, †anud 15, †anuri 10, onuri 24, †anvie 188, †aparailed 11, †aperede 28, apierede 7, apostles 246, †aresunede 245, †asoiled 160, auenture 84, †bunte 272, chaste 120, cite 6, †commandement 214, †commencement 102, †compainie 149, conseil 9, †contrarie 101, †cors 55, custome 93, †cuuenable 37, deciples 84, †defendet 54, deliuri 190, †deseiurd 147, deseuerd 156, deseurd 148, †diuers 259, †ensample 35, failede 84, folies 121, geus 15, gyus 13, †glorius 31, glutunie 144, grace 72, granti 284, gruchchede 217, †hasteliche 94, †ientred 254, †iwarisd 140, large 121, lecherie 110, lechur 120, lepre 137, leprus 136, †maladie 140, manere 188, merci 158, miracle 98, montayne 134, †moveth 95, †nature 267, †naturel(liche) 115, nature(liche) 108, offrendes 12, 27, (of)serueth 112, †orgeilus 120, †paens 245, paide 214, †painime 71, †pardurable(liche) 148, patriarches 229, †pelrimage 57, peril 180, †perissi 190, poure 58, prechur 249, profetes 19, prophete 249, religiun 92, roberie 110, †sacrefise 39, sarmun 135, saue 172, sauue 189, seinte 6, sergant 211, serui 75, seruise 200, †signefiance 62, †signefieth 40, somoni 16, spus(breche) 144, †sucuri 181, suffri 41, †targi 273, †tempeste 170, †trauail 212, †itravailed 218, †umble 120, ure 218, urisun 67, †verray 39, uertu 126, uisiti 57, †ydres 90. The words marked † appear for the first time in English. marcatte 206 is probably a post-Conquest borrowing: offri 10 is French in form, but its meaning is the restricted one of OE. offrian. Latin are Architriclin 96 (pre-Conquest), probably clerekes 17, the French original has clers, possibly religiun 92. The French borrowings are often Anglo-French in form. The prefix in acumbri is en-, in ofseruet, English of-, with meaning for the compound, gains by serving; anud (enuier) and ensample for essample show an exchange of prefixes; in anvie a is written for e before a nasal; anuri is a contamination of aorer and honorer; in contrarie the affix is AF. -arie for OF. -aire, in manere, AF. -ere for OF. -iere, so -ur for -eor in lechur, prechur; OF. -ee (Latin -āta) is e in contre. In grant, OF. graanter, a is lost, in age, e initially, and after ai in painime, also between l and r in pelrimage. In sarmun, e becomes a before r + cons., but not in serganz; ie for e in apierede, as often in AF. texts, is probably here Kentish interchange of e, ie; u for o before n appears in amuntet, bunte, religiun, urisun, but not in commandment, commencement, the same substitution takes place in suffri; ai before s is phonetic e in aresunede; ai followed by e is ae in paens; ai + n mouillé is simple ai, ay in compainie, montayne; ei before vr is e in deseuered, deseur[e]d, but deseiur[e]d 147; ei before l mouillé is ai in aparailed; OF. juiu, later giu, is represented by geus, gius, as in MS. A; OF. ue is o in moveth; the regular representation of L. ŏ + l mouillé is seen in asoiled, but orgeilus is an isolated spelling, the usual diphthong being oi, ui, perhaps the writer was influenced by English orgel. OF. üi is u in anu[e]d. ch for c before i is doubled in gruchchede; n is lost in cuuenable, as in MS. A; r is doubled in verray; z has the value of ts in serganz; the spelling deciple is in MS. A.

Dialect: A scribe, not Kentish but probably South Midland, has copied with tolerable fidelity a Kentish manuscript, but alien forms such as aueriche 69, lauedi 6, war 26, ware 91, waren 215, spac 20, yaf 158 intrude; chold 124, as a compromise between chald of the exemplar and cold is significant.

Introduction: Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris from 1160 to 1196, composed in Latin a series of sermons on the gospels for the Sundays and other festivals of the Christian year, which were intended for the use of the priests in his diocese. The French versions of these are, in the opinion of Bourgain and Lecoy de la Marche, free reproductions by various preachers. That they were exceedingly popular is shown by the large number of manuscript copies which have survived. These have been classified by Meyer in two redactions. Our translator has used a manuscript of class A, and indeed one differing little from MS. Douce 270, Bodleian (D), written in England early in the thirteenth century. It has, however, a plus not represented in the English translation, which occasionally rather resembles MS. Ashmole 1280, Bodleian (A) also of the thirteenth century.

The translator gives a very literal rendering of his original; it influences his idiom, order and choice of words, even to the borrowing of an occasional inflection, as in sechez 251/21 (= querrez) and probably in signifiez 218/42 (= signefie). As the French sermons are not easily accessible, the fourth is here printed from D, with some variants from A. ‘Nos trouon lisand (lisons) en saint euangille dui . ke n·s· dex entra une fiez en une nef ⁊ si disciple le siuirent. Et si cum il furent en la mier . si leua un grant torment ⁊ nostre sire se esteit cochiez dormir . en la nief . deuant ceo ke li tormenz comencast. Et si disciple eurent grant pour; del torment . sil esueillerent . ⁊ si li distrent . Sire sauue nos; ke (kar) nos perisons . ⁊ il estoit chose de ce . kil nauoent creance (bone fiance) `i´ oi creance ne fiance en lui . ⁊ il lor dist . Que cremez uus gent de petite fei? si leua sus . si chosa deliurement les uenz . ⁊ la mer . sempres se furent appeisie. Et cum li hom qui erent en la mer (nef) eurent ueu le miracle . si sesmerueillerent mout. Ceo `est´ li bons (beaus) miracles ke leuangille dui nus reconte . si en duit estre afferme nostre creance. Car bien deit len creire en celui seignor qui tel miracle pot fere . ⁊ fet quant il ueut. OR nus besoigne que cil qui securut ses desciples en icel peril; quil nus sucurre en noz perilz . ⁊ il le fra uolentiers se nus len crion merci . par bone uolentie. Si cum il meisme dist par la sainte escripture . Je sui fet il la saluetie del pople . quant il mapeleront en lor besoigne . [e]t en lur angoises . Jo les orroj . ⁊ serrai lur deu pardurables. Prion lui donc merci seurement se diable nus uout enconbrer . par peche . par orgoil . ⁊ par enuie . o par ire . . . crions li merci . ⁊ si li disons . Sire saluez nos . ke nus ne perisons . . . ⁊ que il nus deliure de tuz mals . ⁊ quil nus doinst tot bien . ⁊ nus dont tels oures a faere en cest siecle que les almes ⁊ les cors (cors de nus) poisent estre sauuie . al ior del ioise.’

The French quotations without reference are from the Douce MS.

1. The text is from the beginning of the gospel for the feast of the Epiphany, S. Matt. ii. 1, 2. D has a wrong heading, In die nat. domini.

5. ase: ‘ke quant.’

6. þet—apierede: ‘ke lestoille ki est demustrance de la nessance apparut.’ Supply þet after sterre.

8. heþenesse: ‘paenime.’ tojanes: ‘uers,’ towards. al swo . . . swo: even as . . . so; ‘com . . . si’: similarly in ll. 11, 12; 215/26, 27.

11. hedden—offrendes: ‘ourent apparaillees lor offrendes.’

12. kam: apparently the translator read uint. D has ‘siuirent’; A, ‘siwerent’: Boucherie’s text, ‘se mistrent apres.’

13. hym askede: an order of words like ‘li demanderent,’ so at 215/17.

15. anud: ‘trublez.’

17. þe laghe: ‘les escriptures’: see 182/213 note.

18. Hi—ierusalem: ‘cil respondirent · ke en bethleent.’

23. This sentence is in D, but not in A. he . . . herodes: see 119/77.

25. hem wenten: ‘sen alerent’; appears to be used as the past of go; elsewhere the writer has yede, yeden.

26. al wat hi kam: ‘iusquil uint.’ For al wat, until, see 15/84. For hi read he, i.e. the star.

27. For omission of the subject before hin, see 6/18.

30. ayen wende: ‘alassent,’ D; ‘returnassent,’ A. wende: ‘sen repeirassent,’ D; ‘returnassent,’ A.

35. verrene: ‘lointenes.’

36. offrinke: ‘offrendre,’ D, A.

37. be þet hi, by the fact that they, inasmuch as: ‘por ceo quil,’ D; ‘par iceo quil,’ A. cuuenable yeftte: ‘couenables dons.’ seawede &c.: ‘demostrerent kil auoent uerraie creance quil esteit reis uerrais’: there is a similar shortening in the English at l. 39.

39. to here godes sacrefise: ‘au sacrifice damlede.’

42. This interpretation of the gifts is as old as Irenaeus and is a medieval commonplace. Comp. ‘Monstrant auro regem esse, | praesulem designant thure, | mirram signum tumuli | tribuere domino,’ MSD i. 41/28-30.

43. Gostliche: ‘esperitielment.’

44. glareth: ‘resplendist.’

46. licht, lights, lightens.

48. he is: an addition, not in the French.

50. werkes: D has, ‘Li encens signefie bon oure . (ure A) ⁊ bone preiere;’ Boucherie, ‘bone ovre e bone prière.’ Our writer has translated ‘ovre,’ but not ‘preiere,’ on the other hand in l. 52 he mentions prayer, ‘biddinge,’ but not good works. ido—ueréé: ‘mis el fu del encensier,’ D, but A has only ‘mis el fuz.’

55. ihende, near: OE. gehende.

56. is: due to the French, ‘la bon oure . ki est amiere.’ to þo yemernesse, to the wretchedness: ‘a la chiche ⁊ a la maluoistie de nostre char,’ to the stinginess and the evil disposition of our flesh.

57. uastinge &c.: ‘ieuner pur deu . ueiller . alier en pelerinage.’

59. so, in the same way as myrrh is bitter to the taste: ‘Jces choses si sunt ameres a nostre malueise char,’ A.

60. loket: ‘defent.’

61. amonestement is conveyed directly from the French original.

66. i þo yere: ‘de uostre uie,’ DA.

67. fore Gode belaue: ‘par ferme creance:’ similarly for and for in the next line are mistranslations of ‘par.’

69. þo cristenemanne: dative, from the christian, ‘requiert tuz iors a son crestien.’ werefore &c.: ‘ke (par qui, A.) li crestien se il le faeit desert ⁊ conquiert la glorie perdurable.’

76. Quod—dignetur: supply, qui vivit et regnat Deus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.

77. euangelica: drawn from the gospel for the day, S. Joh. ii.

81. cite: ‘cithe’; A has ‘uile.’

82. flesliche: ‘corperelment:’ comp. 217/103. To &c.: ‘A cel noces fud madame saint Marie,’ A.

84. so iuel auenture: ‘si auint par auenture:’ per or by may have fallen out in the English, but the expression in the text occurs elsewhere with fell and befell.

86. Wat &c.: ‘Que apartient a mei ⁊ a tei femme;’ ‘Quid mihi et tibi est, mulier,’ S. Joh. ii. 4.

88. Serganz: ‘serganz.’ of: partitive; comp. ‘and of þe cupe serue,’ KH 234 note.

90. ffol vellet &c.: ‘Emplez fist se il les ydres de eue.’ þet—faten is an addition of the translator’s.

92. baþieres: ‘bognoeres,’ D; ‘baignur,’ A. for religiun, ceremonially: ‘pur religion.’

94. was: for omission of the subject see 6/18 note.

95. Moveth togidere: D has ‘Puissiez ore,’ A, ‘Espucet,’ and the Vulgate, ‘Haurite nunc.’ The translator probably read esprucet (with AF. u for o) = esprochez; his rendering would then mean, Draw nigh, approach.

96. þat—iserued: apparently from Comestor, Historia Euangelica, c. xxxviii, ‘architriclino ·i· primati inter conuiuantes in triclinio;’ the French is quite different.

97. Possibly he has dropped out before hedde idrunke, but A has ‘e cume out guste.’

99. ibrocht: ‘puissie,’ D; ‘espuce,’ A. The word seems to have puzzled the translator here, as at l. 95.

100. doþ forþ . . . ferst: ‘mettent auant.’

101. ihialde: ‘estuie,’ stored up.

102. wath nu, until now: ‘desque aore.’ See 15/84.

103. þo beleuede: ‘Et si crurent en lui si disciple.’

107. This interpretation is singular. In Bede, vii. 205; Alcuin, ii. 464, Ælfric, Hom. Cath. ii. 56, the water is knowledge of holy scripture.

109. chald of: ‘froid del amor;’ comp. 218/124.

110. Ase so here and in l. 144 appears to be an attempt to render ‘si cume,’ A.

111. There is nothing in the French for husberners. In CM 26234, ‘Fals wijtnes and trouth breking, | Mans slaghter and hus brening’ are sins reserved to the bishop’s absolution: see Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, ii. 492. bakbiteres is the compendious equivalent for ‘tuz cil ki despeisent ⁊ clamnent lur pronie,’ A.

112. ofserueth: ‘deseruent.’

115. naturelliche: ‘naturelmen.’ anhet: ‘eschaufe.’

117. ine one time: comp. 128/1.

119. gostliche: ‘esperitelment.’

121. of—large: ‘Del auier large,’ of the covetous, generous. and—folies: there is nothing in the French corresponding to this: probably so has dropped out before of.

122. Nu &c.: ‘Or esguard chescon uer sei meismes.’

126. of &c.: ‘de mal en bien.’

130. S. Matt. viii. 1, 2, as adapted in the lesson of the missal.

133. iyue: ‘liure.’

135. euerte: comp. 11/190; ‘neuerte,’ 221/248: compounds of ǣfre, nǣfre + te, to, like hitherto, heretofore: mostly Kentish. ‘le primier sermon quil onques feist en terre.’

136. a sikman: the translator’s gloss on ‘leprus.’ onurede: ‘aora.’

137. of mine lepre . of mine euele: the last three words are added by the translator. ‘de ma lepre,’ D; ‘de male lepre,’ A.

138. ‘n·s· si li dist · si estendi sa main ⁊ tocha sa liepre.’ tok, touched: comp. ‘If erf or man ðor one take,’ GE 3456.

139. al so raþe, as quickly as the word was spoken. ‘isnelepas,’ on the spot.

141. tokningge: ‘signefiance.’

144. Gauelinge: ‘usure.’

146. haleghen, saints: the French has ‘amis.’

147. þet—loki, against which no man can guard himself: ‘dont nuls ne se pot guardier.’ For þet = wið þet, see 46/292 and comp. 153/56.

148. pardurableliche: ‘perdurablement.’

149. for lepre: The French has, ‘Por le lepre est deseurez hom de la compaignie dautres genz . car cil qui moret en pecchie criminel . . . cil pert la compaignie de deu . ⁊ de ses amis . ⁊ de ses angles perdurablement.’ Probably the translator’s eye wandered from the former ‘compaignie’ to the latter; he then added ‘þat is to sigge’ &c., and afterwards in l. 153 he returned to the omitted sentence.

159. forleted: ‘guerpissez.’

164. S. Matt. viii. 23, 24; the last sentence altered from S. Mark vi. 48, ‘erat enim ventus contrarius eis.’

168. one time: ‘une fiez.’

169. so . . . so: ‘Et si cum il furent en la mier . si leua un grant torment.’

170. was ileid him &c.: ‘se esteit cochiez dormir.’

173. ha wiste wel &c.: ‘il estoit chose de ce . kil nauoent creance,’ D, it was a fault that they had not faith; ‘il les chalenga de ceo qui il naueient bone fiance en lui,’ A. The translator had in mind choisi.

174. wat dret yw is usually explained as, what terrifies you, a very rare meaning for dreden, or possibly as an impersonal construction, which is without parallel. The French has ‘que cremez uus,’ the Vulgate, ‘quid timidi estis.’ The usual construction in ME. is reflexive, comp. 208/397, ‘ne drede ȝe ow nawiht,’ SK 1393; ‘Ne dred te, Zacariȝe, nohht,’ Orm i. 2/151; ‘him ne dret naȝt to do zenne,’ Ayenbite 34/14, and if dret may be taken as a syncopated plural, that construction would be exemplified here. Syncopated plurals are rare, and where they occur, they are usually said to be scribal mistakes; such are ‘yeft,’ 215/35, ‘spekþ,’ Ayenbite 58/15, ‘brekþ,’ id. 16/21, ‘zeneȝþ’ id. 155/3. Perhaps they are specifically Kentish. If this view be accepted, wat is an acc. of reference like quid and practically equivalent to why.

175. tok, rebuked: ‘chosa.’

177. so awondrede hem: ‘si sesmerueillerent;’ see 54/27.

180. þet se þet . . . þet: ‘que cil qui securut . . . quil nus sucurre.’ For the repeated þet, comp. 220/200; ‘sitteð al stille, ꝥ hwon he parted urom ou, ꝥ he ne cunne ower god,’ AR 64/20.

183. ‘Salus populi ego sum, dicit Dominus: de quacumque tribulatione clamaverint ad me, exaudiam eos: et ero illorum Dominus in perpetuum,’ Introit for xixth Sunday after Pentecost, and for Thursday after the iiird Sunday in Lent. The French version ends, ‘serrai lur deu pardurables:’ in l. 186 the English translator has deserted, as he rarely does, his original.

187. sikerliche, with confidence: ‘seurement.’ acumbri, load, oppress; ‘enconbrer:’ apparently the earliest instance of its occurrence.

191. yef—done, grant us to do such works. þo saulen &c., ‘les almes ⁊ les cors de nus,’ A.

194. sexagesima should be septuagesima.

195. S. Matt. xx. 1.

200. þet . . . þet repeated as at 219/180: ‘ke si nus uolons faere le son seruise . ke nus en aurons loiers.’

202. goodman, head of a household; an early instance in this sense. ‘pruzdom,’ D; ‘prudome,’ A.

203. for—forewerde: ‘au couenant dun dener.’

205. undren: ‘tierce;’ ‘circa horam tertiam,’ Vulg.; about nine o’clock: see 74/209.

206. ayen þan euen: ‘enuers la uespre.’ Comp. 221/235.

210. mid þo oþre: ‘ourer ensemble as autres.’ hi wel: read hit was, as at l. 205. ‘Quant uint au seir.’

212. agyn to: ‘comence a cels.’ al—ferste: ‘iusquas premerains.’

214. þes—commandement: ‘le comandement sun seignor.’

215. hi . . . þo: ‘Et com ceo uirent cil qui par matin esteient uenu:’ the clause þo—icomen is in apposition to, and explains hi, just as ‘cil—uenu’ does ‘ceo.’

217. habbe: the translator has left out ‘Mes com li sergantz uint a els paer . si ne dona a chascun ke un denier.’

219. berdene: ‘le fes de la peine,’ A; ‘les feissels ⁊ la paine,’ D.

221. After unricht there is a considerable omission. Wat &c., What displeases you in my doing as I will: ‘tei ke peise se io faz ma bunte’ (‘uolunte’ A).

227. tides, hours: ‘diuerses ores.’ Comp. 38/137.

228. time &c.: ‘les diuers tens de cest siecle.’

234. þet &c.: ‘qui par grant amur a lui se tindrent . ⁊ firent le suen seruise.’ to him depends on helden.

236. alast of þis wordle, towards the end of the world. alast is an adverb and its use with a dependent noun here is remarkable. ‘uer la fin del siecle.’

237. seauede: ‘se demustra:’ him has probably dropped out before ine.

238. Werefore, because: ‘car.’

241. for to done &c., so far as concerned the doing of the works of the devil, they had been industrious enough at that. But that is idleness in God’s sight. ‘Il nauient mie estie oiseus damier le diable . ⁊ de fere les lecheries ⁊ de feire les mauues enginz de gahannier (cultivate) lor terres . de faere lor uignes.’

243. For—man is: the French has, ‘Car ce que home faet (fet, A) en cest siecle, desque il deu nen aime; ne ne sert; tote deit estre recontie pur oiseyse.’ Apparently the translator has read seit for faet.

244. al &c., he may count it all as loss and idleness. for, as; comp. 27/304: ‘tote deit estre recontie pur oiseyse . ⁊ tot reuient a nient.’ But Bülbring, Ablaut 25, takes for lore for past participle.

245. aresunede, called to account; ‘chosa.’

246. þo þet, inasmuch as, so in l. 242; lit. when that: ‘quant,’ A.

248. neuer te: see 218/135. Restore the MS. iheed in the text. ‘Ceo est a dire . que il nauient onques eu ne prophete ne apostre.’

256. al so . . . ase, just as.

259. of diuers wordles: ‘del diuers tens del siecle.’

260. elde, age, period of life: ‘aez,’ D; ‘age,’ A.

262. ‘quant il apele de tels ia a son seruise.’ þer bieþ appears to be a false translation of ‘ia,’ already, as if it were i a.

263. beswo þet, provided that: an early instance of the phrase.

264. At undren &c.: ‘Et cels met il en sa uigne a tierce . quil torne en son seruise en la hie (= ae, L. aetas) de xx anz.’

267. ‘issint est humene nature de greinor chalor en cest aage.’

269. agenes þo euen: ‘uers le uespre:’ see 220/206.

270. fele: ‘les plusors.’ As so . . . ase, just in the same way . . . as: ‘issint . . . si come.’

272. All the same no man should put off turning to God, trusting to His forbearance. ‘Nepurquant ceste grant buntie . damledeu quil done as ous com as autres . ne se deit nul asseurer (asurer ne targer, A) de sei torner a deu . ne targier de lui seruir.’ With Nocht for þan, not on that account, comp. 25/240.

274. þane dai: ‘le ior ne lore,’ probably a reference to ‘Vigilate itaque, quia nescitis diem, neque horam,’ S. Matt. xxv. 13, but þet holi writ, ‘lescripture’, is applied to other books than the Bible. for Man—wrench: see 21/108, 29/1, 2 note: there is nothing corresponding to it in the French, but after ‘seruir’ (note on l. 272) ‘quil ne seit suspris de mort dementres.’

280. and, if: comp. 176/2.

283. halt alle þo, keeps in reserve for all those; ‘quae praeparavit Deus iis, qui diligunt eum,’ 1 Cor. ii. 9: ‘pramet ⁊ estore a ceus qui lui aiment.’

w is written ... A parasitic þ has been inserted
ꝥ

Accidence: ... The pl. n. a. of masculines
“pl.” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

The personal pronouns ... d. þise m. 210
“m.” misprinted as plain (non-italic)

Vocabulary: ... geus 15, gyus 13
15 gyus

174. ... The usual construction in ME. is reflexive
ME is

THE END.

Appearance of the Text

The inverted semicolon ; is represented as an oversized semicolon ;

A half-width space, shown here in red,   is common in the main text but rare in the Notes.

All brackets are in the original.

The work cited as the “NED.” is now known as the OED.

Cross-References

References such as “see p. 123” or “see 12/34” (page/line) come in several forms:

— Page numbers up to 222 refer to the primary text. See table of contents in the main volume for pagination; line numbers refer to the text, not to the physical page.

— The form “12/34 note”, and all higher page numbers (223 and up), refer to the present volume. The first kind are linenotes; the second refer to some earlier text’s notes, identified by physical line number.

Errors and Inconsistencies:

Formatting of less common characters such as þ and ȝ has been silently corrected to agree with the rest of the text. Inconsistent punctuation in subheaders (“Accidence:” and similar) has been silently regularized. Other typographical errors are shown in two ways: with mouse-hover popups as they occur, and as a list at the end of each selection. The word “invisible” means that there is an appropriately sized gap, but the letter or punctuation mark itself is absent. Note that text format (bold or italic) has semantic meaning in this volume.

Editorial corrections listed in the Corrigenda have been made in the text. The page as printed is retained for completeness.

Inconsistencies noted by transcriber but not changed:

spelling of the names Batiouchkof(f), Horstman(n)
variant spelling of medi(a)eval
NED and NED.

Thematic Index

Selection I (Worcester Fragments) has two general Notes sections, for I.A and I.B-C. The two parts of Selection IX (Ancrene Wisse) share general Notes.

| Ia | Ib,c | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI* | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI | XVII | XVIII | XIX | XX | XXI | XXII | XXIII
Manuscript(s) | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Facsimile(s) |  |  | X | X | X |  |  |  | X | X |  |  | X | X | X | X |  |  |  |  | X |  |  | X
Edition(s) | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Literature |  | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Analogue(s) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | X |
Source(s) |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | X | X |  |  |  | X |  |
Phonology | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Accidence† | X | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Vocabulary |  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Dialect | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |  | X | X | X |  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X
Style |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | X |  |  |  |  |  |  | X | X |  |  |  |  |  |
Metre | X | X | X |  |  |  | X | X | X |  |  |  |  |  | X | X |  |  | X |  | X | X | X |
Introduction | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X

* Most aspects of Selection XI are discussed under Selection X.

† “Grammar” in Selection II, “Accidence” elsewhere.

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