126. #to ded maken# may be a construction by analogy of don, bringen
&c., but it is more likely that to has been wrongly repeated and should
be omitted. #forðen#, further, effect; comp. 184/280, 192/533, 193/554;
‘for to forðen is fendes wil,’ GE 341.
127. #wat if#: elliptical for, what results if? as at 181/170, what
matters it if? Transpose, wurðe war, be on his guard: comp. 9/122,
48/330, 203/204.
128. #figteð#: read fliteð, contends, offers resistance; comp.
‘Ierusalem ⁊ babilonie . . . fliteð eure ⁊ winneð,’ OEH ii. 51/10.
#fareð# &c., advances fighting against him; ‘sequiturque multum,’ T. For
#on#, comp. ‘hie alle on þone Cyning wærun feohtende,’ AS. Chron. ed.
Plummer, 48/4; ‘for to finde me a freke to feȝte on my fille,’ Anturs of
Arther, 15/27.
129. After #siðen# insert he seð · ðat, after he sees that he must
needs.
130. ‘Negligit corpus, facit inde scutum; | Verticis vero tenet usque
curam, | Ne moriatur,’ T. Comp. ‘Ðare næddre ȝeapnesse is ðat hie lið al
abuten itrand, ⁊ hire heaued on midden, for to berȝen ðat heaued,’ VV
101/19.
131. #litel--of#, little he cares about, he does not much mind what
happens to: see 8/84 note. #bute#, if only.
133-142 are based on ‘Fonte qui sacro semel es novatus, | Denuo peccans,
silicernus extas. | Ergo sis semper imitator anguis, | Cum
veterascis,’ T.
134. #Atte kirke dure#, at the font, placed symbolically at the entrance
to the church: comp. ‘heore godfaderes ⁊ heore godmoderes scullen
onswerie for hem et þe chirche dure ⁊ beo in borȝes et þe fonstan,’ OEH
i. 73/29.
135. Transpose, on him to leuen. For #leuen . . . luuien# see 143/73
note.
136. For #bodes#, hestes should probably be read; comp. 130/78; ‘þe
heste of hali chirche,’ OEH i. 85/18.
137-140. Re-arrange, If ðu hauest is broken. al ðu forbredes. |
forwurðes ⁊ forwelkes. eche lif to wolden. | Elded art fro blis. so ðis
wirm o werld is. #forgelues#: only here; it may be connected with OE.
#geolwian#, and so mean, to spoil by becoming yellow, to fade. But it is
suspect; possibly the original word was forwelkes, dost wither. There is
nothing in the original to correspond with l. 138; the adapter had
perhaps in mind ‘decidat, induret et arescat,’ Ps. lxxxix. 6. #Eche lif
to wolden#, so far as the attainment of eternal life is concerned.
#Elded#, severed by age, is the writer’s interpretation of silicernus.
Silicernium, a funeral feast, is used in Terence, Andria iv. 2. 48, as
an abusive term for an old man, hence L.L. silicernus, senex; but the
Catholicon, citing this place in T., says ‘Item silicernus ponitur
quandoque pro firmo et duro ut silex.’
141. Add at the end, him bi, meaning, in his own case. For the rhyme
comp. ‘And manige of ðo greten forði | ðat he adden ben hard hem bi,’ GE
3207, 3208; for the use of bi, see 13/18 note.