918. _we biseken_, we beseech, ask for. For such double forms as _beseken_
and _besechen_, cf. mod. Eng. _dike_ and _ditch_, _kirk_ and _chirch_,
_sack_ and _satchel_, _stick_ and _stitch_. In the Early Eng. period the
harder forms with _k_ were very frequently employed by _Northern_ writers,
who preferred them to the palatalised _Southern_ forms (perhaps influenced
by Anglo-French) with _ch_. Cf. M. E. _brig_ and _rigg_ with _bridge_ and
_ridge_.
926. This line means 'that ensureth no estate to be (always) good.'
Suggested by Boethius; see bk. ii. pr. 2. ll. 37-41 (vol. ii. p. 27).
928. _Clemence_, Clemency, Pity. Suggested by 'il tempio ... di Clemenza,'
Tes. ii. 17; which again is from 'mitis posuit Clementia sedem,' Theb. xii.
482.
932. _Capaneus_, one of the seven heroes who besieged Thebes: struck dead
by lightning as he was scaling the walls of the city, because he had defied
Zeus; Theb. x. 927. See note to l. 912, above.
937. The celebrated siege of 'The Seven against Thebes'; Capaneus being one
of the seven kings.