230. #Mid fulle dreme#, with good round volume of sound, in contrast
with the nightingale’s thin shrill pipe, ll. 235, 236.
236. #weode unripe#, half-grown weed, like Milton’s ‘scrannel pipes of
wretched straw.’
239-246. #a riȝte time#. The owl takes credit for singing, not all night
like the nightingale, l. 247, but only to call the religious to their
hours, #an eue#, Vespers (#æfen-sang#); #bedtime#, Compline
(#niht-sang#); #ad middelniȝte#, Mattins with Lauds (#ūht-sang#);
#dairim#, Prime (#prīm-sang#), ‘þærrihte upasprungenum dægriman
dægredsang sy begunnen,’ Benedictine Rule, ed. Schröer, 32/22. S.
Brendan in his wanderings came to the bird’s paradise where ‘þe foweles
sunge ek here matyns: wel riȝt, þo hit was tyme, | ⁊ of þe sauter seide
þe uers: ⁊ siþþe also prime, | ⁊ vnderne siþþe ⁊ middai: ⁊ afterwardes
non, | ⁊ eche tyde songen of þe dai: as cristene men scholde don,’
Legendary, ed. Horstman, 225/223. #note#, employment, here divine
service; comp. 74/210. The nightingale claims her share in this at ll.
347-353.