295. #ðar wið ne dillen#, be not sluggish about that: comp. ‘Hymself to
on sware he is not dylle,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 21/679. The first half of
the line is feeble: perhaps dred for ned would be better.
298. #hire# follows the gender of vulpes. For #to name# see 179/107.
#queðsipe#: Holthausen suggests flerdscipe to restore the alliteration,
with reference to 187/351; the compound does not occur elsewhere.
Perhaps fikenunge, deceit; or, for the last half-line read for ure
unframe, comp. ‘Quad esau, rigt is his name | hoten iacob, to min
unframe,’ GE 1565. But the writer may have intended an inflectional
rhyme.
299. #harm-dedes#, injurious action; a compound which apparently occurs
here only.
301. #feccheð#, steals: comp. ‘Bothe my gees ⁊ my grys . his gadelynges
feccheth,’ P. Plowman B. iv. 51. #tun#, the enclosed farmyard.
305. #hulen# is hardly possible; it is not found elsewhere till the end
of the fourteenth century and the construction with the direct _acc._
hire is improbable. Mätzner suggested hunten, Holthausen, hurlen, drive:
huten, revile seems preferable; comp. ‘⁊ ȝiff mann wollde tælenn þatt, |
⁊ hutenn hire ⁊ þutenn,’ Orm 2033, 4875. So chauntecler says to the fox,
‘Acoursed be thou of Godes mouthe,’ Rel. Ant. ii. 273/19. Further the
repetition of #hatien# is feeble; harien, persecute, would give a good
sense, while huntes (176/21, 192/512) for men would restore the
alliteration. So the line would run, harien ⁊ huten . boðe huntes ⁊
fules.
307. #furg#, furrow. ‘In terram scissam se tendit atque supina | Et
quasi mortua sit, flamina nulla trahit,’ T.
308 is made up of halves of two lines which may have run thus: fugeles
to bilirten . mid hire fel wrenche | In eried lond er in erðchine . ge
strekeð adun. #bilirten#, deceive, ensnare, a Midland and Northern word:
OE. #belyrtan#. #eried lond#, ploughed land, ‘terram scissam,’ the
‘furg’ of l. 307. #erðchine#, a cleft in the ground: a compound found
here only.