476. One thing whereof he should be right mindful. Mätzner inserts he
after #ðat#: Schumann suggested the division of offe. But the line is
still unmetrical, and the subjunctive mune for should remember is very
doubtful; probably og has dropped out after off: comp. ‘And for hise
sinne oc (= og) he to munen,’ GE 197, for the infinitive without to,
‘Cristene men ogen ben so fagen,’ id. 15 and for the infinitive in e,
‘fare’ 210/443 in rhyme as here.
477. #wurð--don#, was finished with him: NED quotes ‘He knewe well that
it was doon of him,’ Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 56.
479. #witterlike#, definitely; that is, not merely in Hebron, but in the
cave where Abraham was laid; ‘in sepulchro maiorum suorum quod abraamium
dicitur,’ C.
482. #stille#, in secret: comp. ‘And stille he dalf him [in] ðe sond,’
GE 2718.
483. #fer ear biforen#, very long beforehand: comp. ‘ðe was of hin fer
ear biforen | Or ani werldes time boren,’ GE 47; ‘ear fear biforn,’ id.
253. See 202/187.
484-486. #hem#: Jacob’s ancestors, as in the frequent ‘dormivit cum
patribus suis.’ C. has ‘Cura fuit sanctis sepeliri in terra qua sciebant
Christum resurrecturum · ut cum eo resurgerent’ (in Zainer’s text the
last clause is ‘vbi cum eo multa corpora sanctorum surrexerunt cum eo’).
Accordingly Kölbing proposed to read for #hem#, him, referring to
Christ, of whom our author says that he ‘restede him after ðe ded,’ GE
257. A further change of #reste# to arist would make the correspondence
with C. complete, but it is more probable that the author omitted the
clause.
489. This line appears to represent ‘Cumque videret diem obitus sui
imminere · vocauit Joseph,’ C. which comes in the narrative before l.
415. There is a mixture of constructions, (1) when he felt his departure
at hand, and (2) Before his departure. Mätzner proposed to substitute
migte for #wiste#.