J 13. #þo speke#, then to speak: the scribe had before him þo speche,
the speech, þo representing OE. #þā#, _s. acc. f._ of #se#, usually þe
in these texts. Mistaking þo for the adverb, meaning then, he altered
speche into speke, spoiling the rhyme. (Breier, 125.)
14. #breche# probably represents OE. #bræc#, #brec#, which occurs in the
boundaries of charters and appears to mean land left untilled among
cultivated fields, such as would be covered with underwood; it would go
well with #hurne# in its dialectal meaning of ‘a nook of land projecting
into another parish, district or field.’ The phrase would then mean, in
a corner of a spinney, just the position where the nightingale would
feel safe; see 153/59, 60. Mätzner takes the word to mean fallowland;
there is a dialectic breck, mostly northern and not recorded for the
south and a literary word break, given in NED under date 1674, with that
meaning. #beche# in J is generally identified with Layamon’s bach, bæch,
valley, but Kenyon holds that it represents OE. #bēce#, beech, if so,
hurne must have its secondary sense of hiding place.
J 16. #þat#: a scribe’s mistake for þar.
17. #ore#: OE. #ānre#, _s. d. f._: #hegge# is descended from a strong
fem. *#hecg#, but it is treated as masc. at l. 59, perhaps by confusion
with OE. #hege#. #waste#: written for vaste, that is, faste (comp. ON, J
796), which Breier takes for an adverb qualifying þicke, very thick. But
there is no evidence in ME. for the adverb, except with verbs and
participles. It is an adjective, secure, safe, as in ‘wel he makede his
castles[;] treowe ⁊ swiðe uæste,’ L 11897; comp. 153/53, 56-60, 157/130,
131, or possibly, dense.