1873. _Ther_, where. _leve_, grant. No two words have been more confused by editors than _lene_ and _leue_. Though sometimes written much alike in MSS., they are easily distinguished by a little care. The A. S. _l[=y]fan_ or _l[=e]fan_, spelt _lefe_ in the Ormulum (vol. i. p. 308), answers to the Germ. _erlauben_, and means _grant_ or _permit_, but it can only be used in certain cases. The verb _lene_, A. S. _l[=æ]nan_, now spelt _lend_, often means to give or grant in Early English, but again only in certain cases. I quote from my article on these words in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ii. 127--'It really makes all the difference whether we are speaking of to _grant_ a thing to a person, or to _grant_ that a thing may happen. "God _lene_ thee grace," means "God _grant_ thee grace," where to grant is to _impart_; but "God _leue_ we may do right" means "God _grant_ we may do right," where to _grant_ is to permit.... Briefly, _lene_ requires _an accusative case_ after it, _leue_ is followed by _a dependent clause_.' _Lene_ occurs in Chaucer, Prol. A. 611, Milleres Tale, A. 3777, and elsewhere. Examples of _leue_ in Chaucer are (1) in the present passage, misprinted _lene_ by Tyrwhitt, Morris, Wright, and Bell, though five of our MSS. have _leue_; (2) in the Freres Tale, D. 1644, printed _lene_ by Tyrwhitt (l. 7226), _leene_ by Morris, _leeve_ by Wright and Bell; (3) (4) (5) in three passages in Troilus and Criseyde (ii. 1212, iii. 56, v. 1750), where Tyrwhitt prints _leve_, but unluckily recants his opinion in his Glossary, whilst Morris prints _lene_. For other examples see Stratmann, s. v. _lænan_ and _leven_. It may be remarked that _leve_ in Old English has several other senses; such as (1) to believe; (2) to live; (3) to leave; (4) to remain; (5) leave, _sb._; (6) dear, _adj._ I give an example in which the first, sixth, and third of these senses occur in one and the same line:-- 'What! leuestow, leue lemman, that i the [_thee_] leue wold?' Will. of Palerne, 2358.