119. #þuften#, handmaid; comp. 68/123; ‘for mi lauerd biseh his
þufftenes mekelac,’ HM 45/12; AR 4/11. OE. #þyften#.
120. #feareð to wundre#, goes to misfortune, ruin: OE. #wundor#, a
portentous thing. Comp. 6/46 note; 117/10; ‘þu scealt to wundre
gewurðan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 174/163; ‘⁊ tukeð ham alto wundre,’ AR
380/15; ‘ȝeuest þin ahne dere bodi to tuken swa to wundre,’ HM 27/14;
‘so was ðis were to wunder brogt,’ GE 3977. #Ancre# &c.: the first
clause is conditional, as at 54/11; if an anchoress have not her food
close at hand, two women are busy, i.e. have plenty to do, are needed.
This absolute use of #bisie#, meaning fully employed, is noteworthy. F
has ‘Recluse qe nad pas sa vetaille pres · mestier ad dauer ij
fe{m}mes’; L, ‘Anachorita que no{n} h{abe}t victu{m} ad manu{m} indiget
duabus ancillis.’ The rule is founded on that of Ailred, ‘Itaque
eligatur tibi aliqua anus, non garrula, non vaga, non litigiosa, non
nugigerula . . . Haec ostium cellulae custodiat . . . Habeat sub cura
sua fortiorem ad onera sustinenda puellam,’ 641 f.