90. Insert him before #sold#, with Holthausen. The expression is formal,
mostly used of betrayal; comp. ‘ic am i-boust ant i-sold to-day for oure
mete,’ Rel. Ant. i. 144/26; ‘How þat ioseph was boght and sald,’ CM 142;
‘Dickon thy maister is bought and sold,’ Shakspere, Richard III, v. 3.
305. Strunk in Mod. Lang. Notes, xxvi. 51 suggests He (Putifar) haueð
him bogt.
93. The line is printed as in the Specimens, but a better order would
be, He bad him sperd ben faste dun. The last word does not go well with
sperd, which takes in or wiþinne, 201/148, 204/248. C. has ‘Ille nimis
credulus coniugi vinctum ioseph tradidit in carcerem regis,’ the OF.
version, ‘mist le en la prison | au fort rei Pharaon;’ the Vulgate, ‘in
carcerem ubi vincti regis custodiebantur,’ all mentioning the king. The
original may have had Him bad ben sperd king Pharaun: for the rhyme see
202/171.