222. #þer--feche#, might there procure for myself: but E e D M have for
þer me, þerinne, þarinne, and D wende for mahte.
223. #ꝥ his# is a misreading of an original þeh ic, and #on# is for ou.
#wise men#: comp. ‘De ceo ke io dirrai asez en ai garanz | Les mielz de
seinte glise e tuz les plus uaillanz,’ Guischart 9, 10.
224. #aboken#: comp. ‘Hit is write in þe bok · þer me hit may rede,’ OEM
41/131.
226. #unfrome#, detriment: unfreme e; unureme M; hearme E; harme J;
unwines D.
227. #edi men ⁊ arme#: comp. ‘Arme ⁊ edie ledin,’ Prov. of Alfred, ed.
Skeat 7/39; ‘ne ermne ne eadine,’ OEH i. 115/19. For arme M reads
strangely areȝe. ‘Entendez ca uers mei les petiz e les granz,’
Guischart 1.
229. #twa uuele#: uuele twa e, and similarly the other MSS. #iferen# in
T is certainly the noun, companions, so iueren D and probably #iuere# in
L: in the others #ifere#, in company.
230. #maket niþinges#, made worthless men, a reading due to the
misunderstanding of the compound, as in T and the other MSS., stingy in
giving away food: comp. ‘mete custi,’ L 19266. M has, þat were niþinges
here.
231. For #waning#, D has sorinesse; for #wow#, all MSS. wop; comp. ‘þær
nan stefne styreð butan stearc-heard | wop and waning, na wiht elles,’
Be Domes Dæge, 14/200; 2/10. #efter eche streche#, at every stride, on
every hand; comp. 29/14; ‘bið swa mihtles on his modes streche,’ OEH i.
111/25, for the verb, ‘bot inwyth not a fote, | To strech in the strete
þou hatȝ no vygour,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 29/969. The other MSS. agree
with T: #after ache strate#, along each road: for #after# comp. ‘Ðonne
licggeað ða giemmas toworpne æfter strætum’ (= dispersi per plateas),
Cura Past. 135/4; ‘Al þat verden æfter wæi,’ L 13776. M reads in
eueriche strete.
With 232-4 comp. 120/100-2. #from hete to hete# may mean from one degree
of heat to another, but the MSS. agree with T. The last half of the line
which is peculiar to L does not mean, ‘and nearly freeze the wretches,’
as Morris translates, but, and each (change) for comfort to the
wretches. The construction is probably the same as at 86/125; see 176/24
note: if #to frure# is a _dat. inf._, it is the only one in L without
final _n_.
233. #blisse#: J has here and l. 235, lisse, rest, respite; a word often
associated with blisse, as ‘Blisse ⁊ lisse ic sende uppon monnen’, OEH
i. 15/2.
234. #of--misse#, they feel the privation of heat. The verb is also
constructed with of, ‘Hwo þat for lyue þisse | þer-of schal mysse,’ OEM
73/34, 5, 87/7, 8; Minot ix. 13 note.
235. #hi#, heat and cold; the MSS. agree with T. The omission of the
subject to nabbeð T 239 is grammatically correct, but the metre requires
hie. #lisse#: T, so E e J M.
236. D reads Niteð hi hwer hi wonieð mest, they know not where they
lament most. For #mid--wisse#, see 32/40.
237. #walkeð#: not ‘rolls’ as at 2/12; the place in the writer’s mind is
‘Cum immundus spiritus exierit de homine, ambulat per loca inaquosa,
quaerens requiem; et non inveniens dicit,’ &c., S. Luke xi. 24.