101. #itimien# represents OE. #getīmian#, to befall, happen, a meaning
which does not suit here or at 104. The ME. word may here have been
influenced by OWScand. tíma, always used with a negative as in tíma
ekki, to grudge (Egge in Mod. Lang. Notes, i. 131), but his suggestion
of a connexion with ‘beteem,’ Shak. Hamlet I. ii. 141, must be rejected,
and the isolated use of the word in a Scandinavian sense, afford, find
in his heart, in this Southern text makes a difficulty. Mätzner suggests
the meaning, ‘verfallen auf etwas,’ and Strat.-Bradley, ‘to use
opportunities.’ Possibly the writer was trying to translate some such
Latin as, non potest temporanee manducare, or temporare (= in tempore
vivere, Catholicon), or adtemporare, which would suggest getimien in a
strained sense of, to do at the proper season.
102. #ah liggeð þer uppon#: comp. ‘Condit opes alius, defossoque incubat
auro,’ Virgil, Georg. ii. 507; ‘Chryseros quidam nummularius, copiosae
pecuniae dominus . . . sordidus aureos folles incubabat,’ Apuleius,
Metamorp. iv. 9.
103. Eudes de Cheriton, Fabula lxvii. has, ‘#Contra auaros et laycos
tenaces.# Bufo, qui habitat in terra, rogauit Ranam, que habitat in
flumine, quod daret ei de aqua ad potandum. Ait Rana: Placet; et dedit
ei quantum uolebat. Rana esuriens rogauit quod daret ei de terra.
Respondit Bufo: Certe nichil dabo, quia ego ipse, timens ne deficiat,
[non] comedo ad sufficienciam. Sic sunt plerique in tantum tenaces, quod
expectant quod panes sint muscidi, bacones rancidi, pastilli sint
putridi; nec possunt manducare nec pro Deo dare; timent quod terra eis
deficiat. Hii sunt bufones Diaboli.’ Eudes flourished about 1219 A.D.
The parallelism between ‘nec--dare’ and ‘maȝen--godalmihtin’, 101, 2;
and between ‘timent--deficiat’ and ‘swa--trukie,’ 104, 5, is striking.