90. Comp. ‘After vuele cumeð god[;] wel is him þe hit habbe mot,’ L
3608. A transposition here restores the alliteration in two verses.
92. Comp. 195/634, where the verb is omitted after wel, as is usual in
such expressions; ‘Wel him ðe is clene iþrowen,’ VV 95/30; ‘Ah wel hire
ꝥ luueð godd,’ HM 27/35. For #þat#=for whom, see 46/292 note, and for
#ischapen#, destined, comp. ‘after ðan ðe hem iscapen is,’ VV 105/4: hit
is, of course, good after evil, weal after woe.
94. Comp. ‘Whoso roweth aȝein the flod, | Off sorwe he shal drinke; |
Also hit fareth bi the unsele, | A man shal have litel hele | Ther agein
to swinke,’ Pol. Songs, 254/20; ‘werig sceal se wiþ winde roweþ,’ Exeter
Book, 345/12. For #strong#, difficult, tough, comp. 48/312, 76/18,
200/111; ‘hu strong hit is to arisen of vuel wune,’ AR 326/28: ‘þes ilke
Mon is strong to sermonen’ (difficult to preach to, a tough subject),
OEH i. 81/14.
98. #mon# is a suspended _nom._, the construction being changed at l.
105: analogous to 19/48.
102. #idelnesse holde#, enjoy leisure. T has hednesse, OE. #ēadnes#,
happiness, comfort. ‘Honestior est qui senectutem ad otium rettulit,
quam quem in otio invenit,’ Monita 22/75.
106. #wel bitowe#, well employed, profitably experienced. Comp. ‘alle þe
ȝeres weren wel bi-toȝe,’ L 19902; VV 13/2; ON 702; ‘uuele bitohe,’
74/225.
108. See 26/244 note, and for the form of the expression, comp. ‘Ah her,
þu wenest ȝet | ꝥ tu wenen ne þerf,’ SK 1153.
110. #lyues#: read lyf is . . . luued: ‘Qui enim vult vitam diligere,’
&c. 1 S. Peter iii. 10.
111. #lyf his owe#: the order is strange, and #owe# is pointless, quite
different from 22/128, 23/149, 27/277, where there is a contrast with
one’s possessions, &c. Possibly the original had _lifes leowe_, life’s
warmth, shelter, OE. #hlēow#: comp. ‘herd leouwe,’ AR 368/12, poor
housing. The word was uncommon and likely to puzzle the copyist.
112. #wrt#: Comp. ‘Herba nec antidotum poterit depellere loetum; | Quod
te liberet a fato, non nascitur horto,’ Fecunda Ratis 132/725. Skeat
quotes as a proverb, ‘Cur moriatur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto?’
It is from the Regimen Sanit. Salern. l. 177, and the next line is,
‘Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis.’ #a wude#: comp.
181/181.