284 O. #swipte#, tossed it off: OE. #swipian#, to lash; comp. OWScand.
svipa, to move quickly.
286. #fain#: the English had a bad reputation for their drinking habits
among their French neighbours. Wace describes their revels on the night
before the battle of Hastings, ‘Bublie crient e weisseil | E laticome e
drincheheil, | Drinc hindrewart e drintome, | Drenc folf, drinc half e
drinc tode,’ Roman de Rou, ed. Andresen, 7377, that is, They cry, be
blithe and wassail, and let it (the cup) come and drinchail, drink after
and drink to me, drink full, drink half and drink to thee. ‘Fercula
multiplicant et sine lege bibunt. Wessail et dringail,’ says Burnellus
of the English students at Paris at the end of the twelfth century,
Nigelli Speculum, 63/19. The parallel place in the prose Brut is, ‘þat
was þe ferst tyme þat “whatsaile” and “drynkehaile” come vp into þis
lande; and fram þat tyme into this tyme it Haþ bene wel vsede,’ 52/13.
290. #mod . . . main#, mind and might: an OE. combination; comp. ‘ða
ongunnon heo sticcemælum mod ⁊ mægen monian,’ Bede, 54/8, = ‘vires
animosque resumere.’ #halde to#, inclined to: OE. #hieldan#: its use
elsewhere in L is quite different; ‘þa hæðene hundes[;] hælden to
grunde,’ L 19558, is typical.
291. Comp. ‘þe wurse him wes ful neh,’ L 13284, 16636; ‘þe wurs him wes
on heorte,’ id. 9215; ‘þe scucke wes bi-tweonen,’ id. 276; ‘Tant l’a
diables cimoné | Qui maint homme a à mal torné,’ W 7159. For #ælche#,
swilce should perhaps be read.
292. #mæingde#, troubled, lit. mingled: the verb is mostly passive in L,
as ‘his mod him gon menge{n}[;] he morȝnede swiðe,’ 3407; comp. ‘Almast
menged him his mode,’ CM 8804.