190. ‘Haec frumenta legit, si comperit; ordea spernit,’ T. #finde ge#,
if she find: cleche for finde would restore the alliteration. #corn#,
grain or seed, so OE. #hwǣtene corn#, #corn hwǣtes#, ‘granum frumenti,’
S. John xii. 24.
191. Omit al, and for forleteð read sedeð, sheds. #ðat--seide#, of which
I have already spoken.
192. ‘She biteth not the barley to bear it about,’ Specimens. Mätzner
also takes bit as biteð, eats, but explains beren abuten, about the
barn. But #bit#, OE. #bīt#, is contracted form of bideð, endures, which
is to be restored here: she cannot endure the carrying of the barley
about.
193. but shunneth it and hurries away, as though it were a shame to have
anything to do with it. #sakeð#: comp. 192/536; ‘nes þer nan biscop[;] ꝥ
forð on his wæi ne scoc | na munec ne nan abbed[;] ꝥ he an his wæi ne
rad,’ L 13245; ‘and with his batayle forth he schoke,’ Laud Troy Book,
4886.
195. Omit ðe corn, for #bit# read biteð (so too at l. 211), and
transpose, otwinne biteð. #al--biteð#, she bites it all asunder.
#otwinne#, on twain: comp. OWScand. tvinnr, double. ‘Sed ne de pluviis
aspersum germinet udis, | Aut ea ne pereat, esse quod hinc nequeat, |
Granum quod legit prudens formica bipertit,’ T.
196. Add wurþ before #forwurðe#: comp. ‘Ich schal mid one bare worde |
Do þat þi speche wrþ forwurþe,’ ON 548. #ne waxe# &c., nor germinate so
as to be lost to her.
200. Defective: ðis little wile. ðe we on werlde wunen appears to form a
line: Long and liuenoðe are probably the first and last words of a line;
the latter must be dative. The Latin original has ‘Nosque laboremus,
fratres, dum tempus habemus;’ something too is wanted to balance ‘mikel
ge swinkeð,’ 181/175, like, Longe þat we labouren . for ure liuenoðe.
This conjecture assumes an earlier use of labour than any recorded.
202. #of#, off, away, _adv._ representing off ðis werlde; comp. ‘ær ic
. . . of gewite,’ ‘prius quam eam,’ Psal. xxxviii. 16. #winter#:
‘tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.
203. #harde sures#, sore troubles; comp. ‘to put þe of peril · i haue
ney perisched oft, | ⁊ many a scharp schour · for þi sake þoled,’ W. of
Palerne, 4513; ‘ffull sharpe was the shoure (printed shoute), shent were
þere mony,’ Destruction of Troy, 10069: the adjective in this sense is
usually sharp; ‘hard shoure,’ Destr. of Troy, 11048 is a fierce attack,
but ‘sorful scurs,’ CM 24602. Similarly, ‘weorre ⁊ weane baðe | ⁊ untidi
wederes,’ SK 2599.
204. The line may be completed by, er we henne wende; see 22/117. The
rest of this section consists of rhymed septenaries.