The references throughout are to the Corpus MS., unless otherwise
stated.
1. #wildernesse#: of the world; he has already said, ‘Iþisse wildernesse
wende ure Louerdes folc, ase Exode telleð, touward tet eadie lond of
Jerusalem . . . ⁊ ȝe, mine leoue sustren, wended bi þen ilke weie toward
te heie Jerusalem,’ AR 196/28-30. Comp. ‘alse longe se we iðese westen
of þesser woruld wandrið,’ OEH i. 243/3; ‘Claustrales in huius mundi
deserto exulantes,’ Alanus de Insulis, 65. #þer . . . in#, in which; see
1/3: ‘ou vous aleȝ enȝ,’ F.
3. #beastes . . . wurmes#: The Lion of Pride, the Serpent of Envy, the
Unicorn of Wrath, the Bear of Sloth, the Fox of Covetousness, the Swine
of Greediness, the Scorpion of Lechery, each with its whelps. The
conception comes from S. Jerome, ‘quasi inter scorpiones et colubros
incedendum ut . . . iter per insidias saeculi huius et inter venena
faciamus possimusque . . . terram repromissionis intrare,’ iv. 796.
Comp. also, ‘Per superbiam enim quasi a leonibus lacerantur, per
invidiam tanquam viperarum morsu percutiuntur,’ Cesarii Sermo lx, in S.
August. v. App. 301 B. It is not in the manner of the Bestiaries, where
the lion and the unicorn are types of Christ, though the influence of
the Bestiaries is often shown in the AR.
4. #ilead . . . to#, traced to, classified under; ‘reduci ad,’ M; ‘menee
od,’ F.: a rare use; comp. 54/20. #seouene#: in the older English
literature the number is eight; Superbia being followed by Vana Gloria.
See Max Förster, Über die Quellen von Ælfric’s Homiliae Catholicae,
Berlin, 1892, pp. 47-9 for a good summary of the changes in the lists.
#seoluen# B: so T seluen.
5. #streones#: ‘hweolpes,’ AR 198/7; ‘engendrures,’ F. #vnsteaðeluest#:
‘Destable,’ F. literally, unstabled. #nis hit# &c., is it not the
species of Pride called Disobedience? CTN agree with B; the meaning is
the same: T reads, nis hit of prude. Jnobedience. Her to falleð
sigaldres: M has ‘Jnconstans fides. cont{ra} sacram doct{ri}nam. nu{n}c
ex sup{er}bia inobedi{enci}e est: ad h{oc} p{er}tine{n}t sortilegia.’
The division in Morton is therefore wrong: P has Inobedience ne falleþ
it to sigaldrie. ‘Þe vifte hweolp [of þe Liun of Prude] hette
Inobedience,’ AR 198/17.
6. #Herto falleð#, come under this head; comp. ‘alle þe þing ꝥ lust
falleþ to,’ AR 52/24, 58/9; ‘⁊ falleð to biȝete,’ SK 24/471. #false
teolunges#, wrongful practices, especially in treatment of the sick by
means of herbs gathered with incantations and of other pagan devices;
comp. ‘Se cristena mann ðe on ænigre þissere gelicnysse bið gebrocod,
and he ðonne his hælðe secan wyle æt unalyfedum tilungum, oððe æt
wyrigedum galdrum, oþþe æt ænigum wiccecræfte, ðonne bið he ðam hæðenum
mannum gelic,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 474/19-22. These ‘unallowed practices’
are, at the same place, contrasted with ‘true leechcraft,’ the skill of
a doctor: comp. ‘uncundelich lechecreft,’ 62/36, and see the Homilia de
sacrilegiis, ed. Caspari, ch. iv and notes, for abundant illustrations
of these superstitions. Comp. also, for a wider use of #teolung#, ‘to
æghwylcre neode man hæfð on cyricbocum mæssan gesette and tilige man
(= let one set to work) georne mid þam . . . þæt is hwene betere, þonne
man to wiccan, and to wigleran tilunge (= treatment) sêce æt ænigre
neode,’ Wulfstan, 171/7-12 (B-T). Morton translates ‘false reckoning,’
which hardly comes under the head of unsteadfast belief; ‘fals
takynges’ P.
7. #lefunge o swefne · o nore#: this order is peculiar to A. For the
Dream Books of mediaeval England see Förster in Archiv cxxi. 33, cxxv.
39, cxxvii. 31. #o nore#: so BCT; N has on ore ⁊ of swefnes; PV have
nothing corresponding; M is vague, ‘ad h{oc} p{er}tine{n}t sortilegia ·
⁊ quecu{n}q{ue} infidelitas · credere sompniis · ⁊ h{u}i{us modi}’: in F
the place is at the damaged top of the folio; it has, apparently,
‘credence en estrenies en songes ⁊ toutes manieres de sorceries.’ #ore#
cannot represent OE. #ār#, which has no meaning like luck, nor can it be
connected with L. #augurium#, the contemporary French form of which is
#eür#. I think it is F. oré, favourable weather, favourable occasion, as
in ‘Nos n’avrons ja tens ne oré | Desci que li vienge a plaisir,’ Roman
de Troye 5952, 3: the particular form of ‘unsteadfast belief’ meant
being the trusting to the system of favourable and unfavourable days for
different kinds of work &c., embodied in such books as the Calendar
printed in M. L. Review, ii. 212-22, where it is stated that the first
day of the month is good for beginning a piece of work, the second for
marrying, the third is a bad day for taking up one’s abode in a town,
and so on (for the literature see Archiv cx. 352). The collection in
Caspari’s note on § 12 of the Homilia already cited shows that the
superstition was often attacked in sermons as pagan; he quotes ‘Nullus
Christianus observet, qua die de domo exeat, vel qua die revertatur,
quia omnes dies Deus fecit; nullus ad inchoandum opus diem . . .
attendat,’ Pseudoaug. Sermo cclxxviii. Comp. ‘time,’ OEH ii. 11/13 and
VV 27/22-29.
8. #heaued sunne#: Orm’s ‘hæfedd sunne,’ 98/2728; peccatum capitale:
‘cum mortali peccato,’ M. Comp. ‘Nu syndon eahta heafod leahtras,’ Ælf.
Lives, i. 354/267.