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
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 finde{n} 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.
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