70. #æure umwile#, at regularly recurring times; it became a regular
tax. #tenserie#, protection money. Round, 215, quotes from a letter of
Pope Lucius to Archbishop Theobald, ‘Quidam etiam sub nomine tenseriarum
villas et homines suos spoliant.’ LL. _tensare_ means, to protect, and,
through extortion of money on pretence of protection, to rob. See Round,
414 and NED _s.v._ Other references for _tenserie_, _tenser_ are
Wistasse le Moine, 2112; Roman de Rou, 9554.
71. Worcester was burnt in 1139, Nottingham in 1140 and 1153, Winchester
in 1141, Oxford in 1142, Cambridge by Geoffrey in 1144.
72. Comp. ‘Ærst aswond þat corn here[;] ȝeond al þas kineriche. | þer
aft{er} hit wes swa deore[;] & al folc gon to deȝen. | swa þat þu mihtes
fare[;] fulle seouen nihte | ꝥ no mihtest þu þurh nene chep[;] finde
neouwer na bred. | an b{ur}ȝe and on londe,’ L 31793-31801; ‘ꝥ folc ut
of londe[;] flah on ælche ænde. | monie hundred tune{n}[;] bi-læued
weoren of monne{n}. | þat lut me uinde mihte[;] me{n} uaren ȝeond
londe,’ L 31845-50.
75. #ieden on#, ‘went about asking,’ Norgate. This meaning requires the
verbal subst.; rather, ‘subsisted on,’ with _on_ of manner.
78. #ouer sithon# is usually taken as, everywhere subsequently, which is
not suitable here. Earle equates it with OE. #ofer sīþum#, as meaning
times past reckoning, but #ofer# in the sense of surpassing requires an
acc., and the phrase is without parallel. Perhaps sithon is a weak acc.
sing. of #sīþ#, which is often weak in ME.; the phrase might then mean,
contrary to experience. For #ofer# in that sense, comp. ‘ofer aþas ⁊
treowe’ = ‘contra fidem iurisiurandi,’ Bede, 148/10. William of Ypres
burnt Wherwell, plundered Abingdon, and tried to burn S. Albans.
Geoffrey de Mandeville sacked Ramsey in 1143; ‘nec ecclesiis nec
coemiteriis parcebant,’ Ann. de Wintonia, 52; Malmesbury, ii. 540.
#forbaren#, abstained from injuring; comp. ‘That the pore is thus
i-piled, and the riche forborn,’ Pol. Songs, 337/312.
81. #ouer#, written for ower, anywhere. OE. #āhwær#. #Gif#, &c.: comp.
‘Ubicunque alter alterum in itinere conspicebatur, totus protinus
contremiscere, meticulose visum effugere, vel prope in silva vel in
divortio aliquo latere, usquequo, resumpto tandem spiritu, viam coeptam
tutior carperet, et audacior,’ Gesta, 41.