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.