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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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