351. #prostes#: that is, seculars, #upe londe#, in their parishes, as
distinguished from the clerks (l. 347), who are either monks or canons.
353. Repeated from ON 484. #wat# (hwat), as far as; an adverbial _acc._
of extent: comp. ‘wet we on þisse middelerd liuien,’ OEH 11/2, as long
as; ‘also wat se we sinegen,’ OEH ii. 101/29, as soon as; ‘also wat swo
þe þridde dageð,’ id. 103/26: see ‘alwat,’ 15/84, 215/26.
354 begins a paragraph with large initial in both MSS., but it goes with
the preceding line ‘heo walde neoþeles ȝefe answere.’ The owl’s language
was threatening. Comp. ‘Þe niȝtingale at þisse worde, | mid sworde an
mid speres orde, | ȝif ho mon were, wolde fiȝte,’ ON 1067; ‘men weorreð
mid þreo kunne wepnen, mid scheotunge, mid speres ord ⁊ mid sweordes
egge,’ AR 60/14.