_springers_, origins, sources. I adopted this reading from Hl., because
none of the other MSS. make sense. They have _spryngen of_ or _springen of_
(Hn. _sprynge of_), which can only mean 'arise from,' thus exactly
contradicting the sense intended. Thynne has _springe of_; but Wright,
Morris, and Bell all have _springers of_, as they follow the Harl. MS. I
know no other example of this rare word; and it is difficult to see why the
commoner form _springes_ would not have served the purpose. Tyrwhitt gets
over the difficulty by transposing the words, as in the Selden MS., thus
reading--'and of hem springen alle,' &c. But the other MSS. do not
countenance this arrangement.
388. Pride is usually accounted as the chief of all sins, and the source of
the rest; cf. Ecclus. x. 13; P. Plowman, C. vii. 3 (B. v. 63), and the
note; Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 16. [456]
There is a long passage in St. Gregory's Moralium lib. xxxi. c. 45 (ed.
Migne, vol. 76. col. 621), to which I suppose that later writers were much
indebted. It is explicitly referred to, for instance, by John of Salisbury,
in his Policraticus, lib. viii. c. 1. I quote some passages from it further
on, in suitable places. It begins thus:--
'Radix quippe cuncti mali Superbia est. Primae autem ejus soboles, septem
nimirum principalia vitia, de hac virulenta radice proferuntur, scilicet
inanis gloria, invidia, ira, tristitia, avaritia, ventris ingluvies,
luxuria; ... sed habet contra nos haec singula exercitum suum.'
389. _hise braunches_, its branches. In the Ayenbite of Inwyt, p. 17, they
are called _boghes_, boughs; and the 'twigs' are called _little boghes_.