384. #do# obviates the repetition of an: comp. 122/185. #lahfulnesse#,
loyal holding to her offer, ll. 145-147, contrasted with
#unrihtfulnesse#, l. 385.
J 390. #eu# is, of course, a mistake for us.
391. #An ȝef# is clearly wrong, while #ȝet# in J, meaning moreover,
gives a poor sense. The original may have been, ȝif, als ich wene, þat
he wolde, if, as I think, he would be willing to act as umpire. Ȝif þat,
if, occurs in ‘ac ȝif þat he forlost his wit,’ ON 693, where J rejects
þat and spoils the metre: perhaps the avoidance of the construction has
caused the corruption of the text.
394. #nuȝte#: in all probability the original had nuste. The scribes,
being acquainted with the graph st for ȝt, ht (see KH 249 note),
mechanically substituted the latter here. C, starting correctly from
nuste, wrote nuȝte; J read the original as miste, which for him meant
myhte. There is a similar trouble in the text of ON 1300, where for
nustest C has miȝtest or mistest and J nustest, ‘very like mistest,’
Wells.
397. #utlete#: the passage to the sea, now represented by the Fleet
between the Chesil Bank and the mainland. Portisham is now about three
miles inland, near Abbotsbury, to the monastery in which place it
formerly belonged (Dugdale, Monast. iii. 52).
400. #þurh# &c.: by his delivered judgements and by his writings; that
they righted matters as far as Scotland is a playful exaggeration.
407. Why will they not betake themselves to counsel, that is, take
counsel: comp. ‘þe traytours of Scotlond token hem to rede, | þe barouns
of engelond to brynge to dede,’ Bödd. AE. Dicht. 133/225; ‘Þe Irise oft
tok hem to red, | To ston þat douhti kniȝt to ded,’ Horn Childe, 214;
‘Cnihtes eoden to ræde,’ L 19238; Minot vi. 68 note.