125. Comp. ‘Mult avient sovent, | quant li mals le prent, | qu’il ne
puet parler, | penitence prendre | ne le suen despendre, | partir ne
doner,’ Reimpredigt 32/64. #itit#: bilimpeð D.
126. #for þi#: þi E e, with same meaning; D omits. #biet# is difficult;
possibly it is a mistake for beiet, kneels; see 132/3; 143/84. For #bit
⁊ bet#, prays for pardon and amends, comp. 86/120. The variations in the
MSS. here look like attempts to mend a faulty source. E, like T, has bit
⁊ beȝit ⁊ bet, prays for pardon, obtains it and amends: e has beot ⁊
beat ⁊ bit, the first verb probably from beoden, the second possibly for
beȝat: þat bit ore J; þat ore bit M gives a good sense, but is plainly
from the previous line. Finally the reading of D, ꝥ bit ⁊ bete ⁊ bet,
suggests that the author wrote, þat beot bote ⁊ bet, that offers
satisfaction and reforms; comp. 136/132, and for bet, 38/164.
127 T. #þe deað#: the article is often so prefixed in ME.; see NED. iii.
73 for examples.
128. #latheð#: leted E; leteþ e J M; uorlet D: probably the scribe of L
meant to write lateð as in T, he does not elsewhere use th.
129, 130 T. These lines, not in L, were added on the margin of e and
then partially erased. They are not, in my opinion, original. J has,
Bilef sunne hwil þu myht · and do bi godes lore. | And do to gode hwat
þu myht · if þu wilt habben ore. #nah#: for naht; Sin leaves you and not
you it, when you cannot commit it any longer. #him# shows confusion of
genders, #synn# is _fem._ For him þan þu, e has hi þanne þus, E hire
þanne þus (= þu es). With the sentiment comp. ‘Nulla igitur laus est non
facere quod facere non possis,’ Lactantius 579; ‘Si enim tunc vis
poenitentiam agere, quando peccare non potes; peccata te dimiserunt, non
tu illa,’ Alcuin ii. 135; ‘Or l’estuet laissier, | ne puet mais pechier,
| n’at mais a durer,’ Reimpredigt 36/71 (l’ = son pechié).