343. #mid--hulde#, along the lower (downward) slope: nuðer E; niðer
helde D M. J omits ll. 343-4. #mid#, in the same direction as, like the
modern ‘with the stream.’
344. #godliese#: gutlease D: the earliest quotation for godless,
impious, in NED. is under 1528; words before that time are ranged under
goodless, comfortless, worthless. But Mätzner puts examples from SK and
HM under the former. Are the cheerless wood and the bare field
Virgilian? Aeneas passes by the ‘descensus Averni’ ‘per tacitum nemus’
to the ‘lugentes campi’. #bare#: brode D.
345. #hese#: hes E; heste J M; hesne D. #ðer#: þat J, cognate _acc._;
comp. ‘I am a man farand þe way,’ CM 3295.
346. #ꝥ beoð ða#: see 1/10. #sculdeð . . . wið#: see 48/299: silten D
(for silden, shielded); schedeþ wel J, possibly, separate themselves
completely, but scheden requires from, 159/153, and in the presence of
wið the reading may be regarded as a mistake for schildeþ.
347. #ȝeanes#: to ȝeanes E; ayeyn J; aȝenes M; D omits ll. 347, 8. Not,
‘along the cliffs,’ but, breasting the steep slope, up the high hill;
comp. Milton’s ‘labour up the hill with heavenly truth.’
348. J reads, þeos leteþ awei al heore wil; comp. 157/133. #fulle#,
perform; OE. #fyllan#: M has felle.
352. #ne ðincð# &c.: comp. 12/11 (piece v). J substitutes, Wel edy wurþ
þilke mon · þat þer byþ vnderuonge.