177. #gruchesi#, a hitherto unrecorded form, means, like the other
readings, to munch, nibble. It is related to #gruse# T as the mod.
dialect. forms growdge (Lincs.), grouge (Notts) are to grouze, to eat
noisily (mostly Lincs.): #gruselie# N may be represented by gruzzle, to
eat voraciously (Lanark). Similarly OF. groucier is grutch in ME., in
mod. dialects, grouse, to grumble.
178. #liht#, readily given by the mistress; comp. 48/312. F appears to
have read liþ, ‘le conge gist en toutes choses la ou ny ad pecche.’
179. #na word#: the rule for the anchoresses was, ‘Silence euere et te
mete[;] vor ȝif oðre religiuse doð hit . . . ȝe owen biuoren alle,’ AR
68/21. #⁊ teo stille#, and those few in a low voice: N has added #beon#,
and let those be &c. #complie#: after the anchoress has said compline,
the servant must be careful not to disturb her obligatory silence. The
times of silence are stated in Ailred’s thirteenth chapter. #aþet#,
until; OE. #oð ðæt#, until that, a conjunctional phrase, as at 72/189,
77/61, 69, 118/23, but here a preposition; comp. ‘aþet endunge þissere
weorlde,’ OEH i. 119/15; ‘aðet tes dei,’ SK 1305. þet, þat are used
alone as conjunctions, until; comp. 162/248; ‘ꝥ come þes dei,’ OEH i.
33/32; KH 123 note. #a þa#, 78/71 (= a þe) represents #oð þe#, _conj._,
until: so too #of# = oð, 13/15. #uort# N 73/162, until, is shortened
from for te (= for to); comp. ‘slepte uort midniht,’ AR 236/25; ‘for to
þe fowertuðe dai,’ OEH ii. 23/7. But it is mostly a conjunction, as at
134/64, 136/156, 151/41; ‘uort ȝe beon al greiðe,’ AR 16/6; ‘for to þe
time cam,’ OEH ii. 23/4; or it forms with þet a conjunctional phrase,
73/172; ‘vort tet we speken,’ AR 64/12; ‘forte ꝥ on þen þridde dai[;] ꝥ
is heorte be liht,’ OEH ii. 103/23. Finally, in ‘ȝet nabbe ȝe nout
wiðstonden uorte þet þe schedunge of ower blode,’ AR 262/17, #uorte þet#
is a preposition. Note the readings of TC at l. 172.
181. #hure# appears to be a repetition of the preceding: N has cloð; CT
clað: ‘fors le mangier ⁊ auestir,’ F.
182. #ꝥ . . . bi#, by means of which. #flutte#, subsist; OWScand.
flytja, but the meaning here answers to the reflexive flytjask, to
maintain oneself: ‘dunt ele se puit sustenir,’ F. Comp. ‘þet moni þusunt
muhten biflutten,’ AR 202/25, apparently the only other place where it
is used in this sense. The noun fluttunge is in HM, ‘to fluttunge ⁊ to
fode,’ 27/8, 29/4; SM 22/34. #Ne misleue# &c., Let no recluse’s servant
have such want of confidence in God as to think that He will fail her,
whatever betide the recluse. The servant may rest assured that she will
be provided for in any contingency. ‘Nule ne mescroie dieu qeiqe auienge
de la recluse qil lui faille,’ F. See 141/36, and for #trukie# comp.
further 82/105, AR 68/6, 234/17, 356/31.
183. #þe meidnes wið uten# would seem to restrict the application of the
last sentence to the aged indoor servant, see 66/121. The reading of T,
þeo ꝥ arn wið ute{n}, applied to people in general who help the recluse,
seems better.
184. #alswa as#, even as, just as: so ‘alriht so,’ AR 92/8. hom in T is
a mistake for ho.
185. #haueð ehe . . . toward#: comp. ‘hwon ȝe habbeð touward me eien
oðer honden,’ AR 76/15 (= ‘cum extenderitis manus’): ‘qi ad loil
desperance v{er}s si haut louer,’ F. In N 168 ‘of’ has been lost after
‘eie,’ which cannot mean any.
186. #heh bure#, Blake’s ‘heaven’s high bower’ is quite in the manner of
the writer; he has ‘breoste bur,’ AR 34/11; ‘heorte bur,’ 102/22; ‘in to
þe stirrede bur bliðe to heouene,’ SM 22/12. Comp. also, ‘in to þan
heuenliche bure,’ OEH ii. 167/3. A has preserved the original reading: F
has ‘v{er}s si haut louer.’
187. #eise . . . este#: a frequent combination in AR, comp. ‘Eise ⁊
flesches este beoð þes feondes merken,’ AR 364/2, 136/26, 220/6, 374/27;
‘Al þe este ⁊ al þe eise is her,’ HM 29/26. ‘Od aise ne od delit ne
achate hom pas tiele ioie,’ F.
188. #reden#: F has ‘lire,’ but the women would not understand French.
#euche wike eanes#: ‘Quater in anno legantur scripta fratribus et
sororibus,’ Gilbertine Rule, p. *xciv. #ou beoðe# in N 173, to both of
you, means, to the anchoresses as well as to their servants; comp. N
176.