72. #elde . . . vnhelþe#: for this combination, see 40/197, where
_unhelðe_ rhymes with _uniselðe_.
75. #wroþe#, _pl. adj._ agreeing with #wene#, to which latter #heo# and
#hi#, variant forms of the _pl. n._, refer. When age and ill-health
come, then the expectations of the improvident man are in experience
found to be utterly perverse: not only are they cheated, but they
actually vanish, i.e., he is left without hope at all. There is a play
on wene and wenliche, l. 68.
78. Comp. ‘Melior est sapientia, quam secularis potentia | Plus unicus
sensus quam multiplex census,’ Wipo 7.
82. #furþer#. T has wrþere, more worthy, which is, no doubt, original,
as it alliterates with _weole_. noht wurþ, RJ.
83. #of frumþe#, from the beginning, betimes: comp. 65/59; ‘þah þu
liuedest of adames fru{m}ðe,’ OEH i. 33/31. RJ reads of fremðe, but T
fremede, and Skeat adding [of] translates, out of a stranger. But the
point is not the making friends early or out of strangers, but the
having wisdom along with your gold. Stanza xiii. is a weak echo of vii.
and l. 144 is the key to l. 83. Read _hine to freme_ for _him of
frumþe_, with the meaning, Unless he make Wisdom his friend to his
profit. See 15/110; 176/24 note.
87-92. Comp. ‘ȝif þou be visite[d] w{ith} pou{er}te, | take it not to
hevyle, | for he ꝥ sende þe Adu{er}site, | may t{ur}ne þe Aȝen to wele,’
ES xli. 261/5: Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 133.
87. #howyen#, be anxious, distressed: comp. ‘Ne beo ge na hogiende ymb
þa morgenlican neode,’ S. Matt. vi. 34.