comprehendit, cauponemque ad capitale supplicium perduxit.' Valerii Maximi, lib. i. c. 7 (De Somniis). Cf. Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 27. 4194. _oxes_; written _oxe_ in Hl. Cp. Ln; where _oxe_ corresponds to the older English gen. _oxan_, of an ox--_oxe_ standing for _oxen_ (as in Oxenford, see note on l. 285 of Prologue). Thus _oxes_ and _oxe_ are equivalent. 4200. _took of this no keep_, took no heed to this, paid no attention to it. 4211. _sooth to sayn_, to say (tell) the truth. 4232. _gapinge._ The phrase _gaping upright_ occurs elsewhere (see Knightes Tale, A. 2008), and signifies lying flat on the back with the mouth open. Cf. 'Dede he sate uprighte,' i. e. he lay on his back dead. The Sowdone of Babyloyne, l. 530. 4235. _Harrow_, a cry of distress; a cry for help. 'Harrow! alas! I swelt here as I go.'--The Ordinary; see vol. iii. p. 150, of the Ancient Drama. See F. _haro_ in Godefroy and Littré; and note to A. 3286. 4237. _outsterte_ (Elles., &c.); _upsterte_ (Hn., Harl.) 4242. A common proverb. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 50, has 'I drede mordre wolde come oute.' 4274. _And preyde him his viáge for to lette_, And prayed him to abandon his journey. [254] 4275. _to abyde_, to stay where he was. 4279. _my thinges_, my business-matters. 4300. 'Kenelm succeeded his father Kenulph on the throne of the Mercians in 821 [Haydn, Book of Dates, says 819] at the age of seven years, and was murdered by order of his aunt, Quenedreda. He was subsequently made a saint, and his legend will be found in Capgrave, or in the Golden Legend.'--Wright. St. Kenelm's day is Dec. 13. Alban Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, says:--[Kenulph] 'dying in 819, left his son Kenelm, a child only seven years old [see l. 4307] heir to his crown, under the tutelage of his sister Quindride. This ambitious woman committed his person to the care of one Ascobert, whom she had hired to make away with him. The wicked minister decoyed the innocent child into an unfrequented wood, cut off his head, and buried him under a thorn-tree. His corpse is said to have been discovered by a heavenly ray of light which shone over the place, and by the following inscription:-- In Clent cow-pasture, under a thorn, Of head bereft, lies Kenelm, king born.' Milton tells the story in his History of Britain, bk. iv. ed. 1695, p. 218, and refers us to Matthew of Westminster. He adds that the 'inscription' was inside a note, which was miraculously dropped by a dove on the altar at Rome. Our great poet's verson of it is:-- 'Low in a Mead of Kine, under a thorn, Of Head bereft, li'th poor _Kenelm_ King-born.' Clent is near the boundary between Staffordshire and Worcestershire.