256. Alfred would hardly have said that a man learns wisdom from
proverbs and prudence from good luck. Read for #sawe#, sorewe (the
scribe has overlooked the contraction for _re_), and for #hiselþe#,
uniselþe, misfortune. Comp. ‘In þes middeneardes iscole · selðen ⁊
uniselðen,’ OEH i. 243/7: ‘Vitat maiora sapiens post dampna minora,’
Prov. Hein. 240. Borgström reads his elde, where _his_ is surely
doubtful and þ interchanging with _d_ without parallel.
258. The editors leave out #And#, which is not in T, but l. 257 is
complete in itself; #And vnwurþ#, and despicable, is a sort of
afterthought: for the combination comp. 4/37; ‘þat he biðe vnworð & lah’
(loþ, MS. O), L 3464, and further for this meaning of #vnwurþ#, 143/92;
‘þe idele ȝelp us beo eure unwurð,’ OEH i. 107/8.
259. #hokede#, thievish: in thieves’ slang, a hook is a pickpocket, his
fingers are hooks. Comp. ‘Sutoribus custodem addidit et ut eorum curvos
ungues observaret . . . rogavit,’ Disciplina Clericalis, ed. Hilka u.
Söderhjelm, 28/19; ‘Arpiis similes armantur in ungue ferino,’ Fec.
Ratis, de Predonibus, 173/1154. #þat he bereþ# is rejected by Skeat as a
‘gloss.’ It is certainly feeble; perhaps we should read, þat he herȝeþ,
with which he plunders; the relative would be under the régime of the
preceding #þurh#.