4. #makeþ#: hit makeð, C; the subject is weder, _neut._: turneþ he, B;
i.e. reyne (OE. #regn#, _m._). Comp. ‘Hope maketh fol ma{n} ofte
ble{n}kes,’ Havelok 307; ‘þe{n}ne þe ky{n}g of þe kyth a cou{n}sayl
hy{m} takes, | Wyth þe best of his burnes, a blench for to make,’
Cleanness 1201, 2.
6. #falwy#: falewi, BC: comp. 133/39, ‘faleweþ so doþ medewe gres,’ OEM
93/16.
8. #deþes drench#: comp. ‘Þær Cristess mennisscnesse | Drannc dæþess
drinnch o rodetreo,’ Orm 45/1373.
9. #bench# implies feasting: comp. ‘Ne schaltu neuer sytten · on bolstre
ne on benche | Ne neuer in none halle · þar me wyn schenche,’ OEM
175/89; ‘Ye þat weryeþ þat riche schrud · and sytteþ on eure benche,’
id. 169/3; ‘Ac þu sete on þine benche, underleid mid þine bolstre,’
Worcester Frag. C, 26; L 9693.
10. With #aquench#, comp. ‘Her-of we owe þenche. | And vre sunnen
aquenche. | Mid beden and myd almesse,’ OEM 79/217.
12. B reads, þat may agein deaþes wiþer clench, that has power against
death’s hostile grip: _wiþer-clench_ appears to be without parallel. In
our text, Morris takes #ago# for _agon_, escape, but, as Zupitza points
out, it is probably for _agon_ = agein, which is also found as age, aȝe.
Stratmann-Bradley translates #wiþer-blench#, attack, quoting this place
only: more probably it means sly, treacherous attack.
14. #ryueþ#, rakes: Icel. rifja, to rake hay into rows: ‘Ryvyn, or
rakyn,’ Prompt. Parvul. ed. Mayhew, col. 386. #on o streng#: so B, but C
in one strench, which would represent OE. #strenc#, a by-form of
#streng#, recorded in _Funiculus, modicum funus_, rap _uel_ strenc,
Wright, Vocabularies 245/6, just as drench, wrench represent #drenc#,
#wrenc#. If that be the case here, then C agrees with BJ, save in the
preposition _in_. For Death armed with a rake comp. ‘Hwen he com to
arudden | of deaðes rake oðre, | hwi deide he him seoluen?’ SK 1137:
Satan is often so represented, ‘Þer is sathanas þe qued · | redi wyþ his
rake,’ OEM 181/213; SM 11/11; SK, MS. C 917. Death sweeps in his victims
with his rope; ‘Ded has vs wit-sett vr strete, | · | All sal we rin into
his rape,’ CM 23727; ‘Ded sal rug us til his rape,’ CM 21920; ‘Deþ shal
take vs al in rape,’ id. MS. T. The conception then is that of Death
sweeping in all sorts and conditions with the same rope. It is just
possible that the reading of C, strench, is meant for strech, i.e.
stretch, the word still used in Dorsetshire for ‘the space taken in at
one stretch of the rake,’ EDD. v. 813. Streche is not common at this
period, but comp. 42/231; ‘on his modes streche,’ OEH i. 111/25, in the
sweep, or compass, of his mind.
15. #fox#, _adj._: comp. 187/351; ‘fox of fyl’ (_read_ wil), Horst.,
S.A.L. 12/251; Orm 230/6646: for #wrench#, comp. ‘Alse þe fox þe mid his
wrenches walt oðer deor[;] ⁊ haueð his wille þerof,’ OEH ii. 195/7.