Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
General
Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500
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. iv^1, 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.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account