141. Add at the end, him bi, meaning, in his own case. For the rhyme comp. ‘And manige of ðo greten forði | ðat he adden ben hard hem bi,’ GE 3207, 3208; for the use of bi, see13/18 note.142. See 123/210.143-151.Based on, ‘Sit cibus parcus, minuantur artus. | Unde non mandis miseros (a. l.pauperes) juvabis | Penitens defle dominoque semper | dic miserere,’ T.143.Feste&c. is explained, confirm thyself in steadfastness; but for this ethical sense festnen is used everywhere else (see 147/142) and of seems to be without parallel, though ‘steðeluest . . . of’ occurs at 129/24. The expression is rather pointless and corresponds to nothing in the ways of the serpent, while ll. 109, 110 are the only ones which have no interpretation in the ‘significacio.’ Furthermore the last half of the line is defective. Now l. 144 clearly represents the second line of the original quoted above, which means, from what you do not eat you will help the poor, and it depends for its point on the sparing of food enjoined in the preceding line of the original. Accordingly we should expect something in l. 143 to correspond to it, which as printed above means, let your food be sparing and your limbs reduced by bloodletting (minutio, see 66/103-105 notes). If the poet had before him, or misread his copy so, muniantur artes, he might translate, Feste þe of fastenes. ⁊ filste þe of þewes, that is, fortify thyself by fastings and help thyself by virtues. For he would find ars explained by Papias as bene recteque vivendi virtus . . .ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, id est a virtute. And the scribe by anticipating ste þe from the last half of the line might readily produce stedefastnesse.145.wurði—loken, worthy to presume to look.146.ward: see178/89 note.147.wið, in contact with, on: comp. 188/401, 201/148.150.bote bid, pray for deliverance: for the usual combination see 179/201. With l. 151 comp. ‘bidden for heom deies ⁊ nihtes þet crist heom milcie of heore misdede,’ OEH i. 7/36.152.stiis subject of bitokneð: ‘Signat hunc callem lapidis foramen. | Signat et christum petra, nam per ipsum | Fit novus quisque,’ T. Perhaps for tis, l. 154, we should read Christ.156. Comp. 181/160.Let, permit it to escape, as in ‘þe king bigan to grete | ⁊ teres for to lete,’ KH 889. Transpose ðe fro.157-160. ‘Cuius ad celsum veniendo templum, | Ut bibas sacrum beatumque verbum, | Evomas primum quod habes nocivum | Corde venenum,’ T.158. A defective line; read drench · þi sinnes to cwenchen. Comp. 28/10; ‘swa bihoueð þe saule fode;mid godes wordes mid gode mode,’ OEH i. 63/153; ‘to cwennkenn oþre sinness,’ Orm 11652.160. Omitbrest.forðward: read forward, covenant of 180/133: the combination is formal; comp. ‘my forwarde with þe I festen on þis wyse,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 47/327; ‘Pepigi fedus cum oculis meis . . . Ich habbe ivestned, seið Job, foreward mid min eien,’ AR 62/23; ‘ꝥ ich þis forward wulle;fastliche halden,’ L 23607. After this there are eight lines in the Latin which are not represented at all in the English poem, which is only slightly dependent on the original for the rest of the section.161.firmest, first of all, at the very beginning.163.forðward, henceforth; at 81/90 it means, straight ahead.164.Nedeð, presses on, vexes: comp. 179/113; ‘I me sellf all ah itt wald | Þatt deofell maȝȝ me scrennkenn, | Þurrh þatt I do min lusst tærto, | To don summ hefiȝ sinne | Þatt he me maȝȝ wel eggenn to, | ⁊ nohht ne maȝȝ me nedenn,’ Orm 11815, a passage which may have been in the writer’s mind here. But Mätzner suggests neggeð, comparing 179/122. Omit the second nogt, and in l. 165 transpose ðe fro.166.cliuer, expert in seizing: the only ME. example of the word clever: noted by Sir Thomas Browne as an East Anglian word. See NEDs.v.clever; the connection withclifer, claw, suggested by this use is illustrated by, ‘Hweðer þe cat of helle claurede euer toward hire ⁊ cauhte mid his cleafres hire heorte heaued,’ AR 102/4. Withoncomp. ‘gredi uppen woreld richeise,’ OEH ii. 195/1.169.nið ⁊ win: comp. 183/244: ‘nið and strif’ is the equivalent in GE 373: nið usually takes to, ‘he haueð to us muchel nið,’ OEH i. 55/11, but see 197/11.170. Comp. ‘he haueð leue to fonden mon,’ OEH i. 67/232.171. Transpose, us for to deren: it is a rhyming line.172. let us subject the body to pain:balewas probably suggested by ‘bote,’ 180/150. The meaning is made clear by, ‘lyued in penance hys lyueȝ longe | With bodyly bale hym blysse to byye,’. E. E. Allit. Poems, 15/476. Omit ðe before bale.173. that (i.e. the soul) is equal to the head, that is, the head figuratively signifies the soul. But the Latin finally identifies the head with Christ, ‘Hoc caput dico quod habes in ipso | Principe christo,’ which is from ‘omnis viri caput Christus est,’ 1 Cor. xi. 3.heldemight besubj.pastfromhealdan, if we were to keep, but that would give a poor sense; and it cannot be from heldan (hieldan) incline, for that would require to: silde should probably be read; comp. 180/130; ‘Semper illesum caput est habendum,’ T.; the meaning would be, let us protect it as it deserves.176. Transpose, weder softe: sen hauen ofte.softe, mild; comp. ‘ðis weder is softe,’ GE 3061.177. Read, heruestes hete; comp. ‘Heruest, with the heite ⁊ the high sun, | Was comyn into colde,’ Destruction of Troy, 407/12465.hardilike:heardlīce, energetically; the glideitakes the place of the usuale.178.renneð rapelike: comp. 187/368.181.wed, weed, used, no doubt, for the rhyme: for a more usual expression, see 21/112.182. Comp. ‘He deden on gres and coren deres,’ GE 3088, 3049.183.ireis for hire.hauen, wealth; comp. ‘man hoh . . . loc to chirche bringen ⁊ wurðin þermide godes bord;alse his haue beð,’ OEH ii. 217/6: n has been added as to ‘boðen’ 181/181 and elsewhere in this text and GE. Lit., that is to her for wealth; which constitutes her wealth.185.winter agen, to meet, resist, winter: comp. ‘Þe blake cloð . . . is þiccure aȝein þe wind,’AR 50/15; ‘Ðat arche was a feteles good | set and limed agen ðe flood,’ GE 561. ‘Ut valeat brume fieri secura future,’ T.186. Holthausen restores alliteration by substituting colde for winter.187.hule, hut, shelter. Mätzner takes the formerðatas demonstrative, and divides bi liuen, that is meat by which she can live, quoting ‘mete quorbi ðei migten liuen,’ GE 573. More probably the former ðat has displaced mide (comp. 191/503), then mete is the object of tileð, procures.188. Transpose, ðar tileð.189.it: the book Physiologus; so 192/506; see 177/38, 183/221.190. ‘Haec frumenta legit, si comperit; ordea spernit,’ T.finde ge, if she find: cleche for finde would restore the alliteration.corn, grainor seed, so OE.hwǣtene corn,corn hwǣtes, ‘granum frumenti,’ S. John xii. 24.191. Omit al, and for forleteð read sedeð, sheds.ðat—seide, of which I have already spoken.192. ‘She biteth not the barley to bear it about,’ Specimens. Mätzner also takes bit as biteð, eats, but explains beren abuten, about the barn. Butbit, OE.bīt, is contracted form of bideð, endures, which is to be restored here: she cannot endure the carrying of the barley about.193. but shunneth it and hurries away, as though it were a shame to have anything to do with it.sakeð: comp. 192/536; ‘nes þer nan biscop;ꝥ forð on his wæi ne scoc | na munec ne nan abbed;ꝥ he an his wæi ne rad,’ L 13245; ‘and with his batayle forth he schoke,’ Laud Troy Book, 4886.195. Omit ðe corn, forbitread biteð (so too at l. 211), and transpose, otwinne biteð.al—biteð, she bites it all asunder.otwinne, on twain: comp. OWScand. tvinnr, double. ‘Sed ne de pluviis aspersum germinet udis, | Aut ea ne pereat, esse quod hinc nequeat, | Granum quod legit prudens formica bipertit,’ T.196. Add wurþ beforeforwurðe: comp. ‘Ich schal mid one bare worde | Do þat þi speche wrþ forwurþe,’ ON 548.ne waxe&c., nor germinate so as to be lost to her.200. Defective: ðis little wile. ðe we on werlde wunen appears to form a line: Long and liuenoðe are probably the first and last words of a line; the latter must be dative. The Latin original has ‘Nosque laboremus, fratres, dum tempus habemus;’ something too is wanted to balance ‘mikel ge swinkeð,’ 181/175, like, Longe þat we labouren . for ure liuenoðe. This conjecture assumes an earlier use of labour than any recorded.202.of, off, away,adv.representing off ðis werlde; comp. ‘ær ic . . . of gewite,’ ‘prius quam eam,’ Psal. xxxviii. 16.winter: ‘tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.203.harde sures, sore troubles; comp. ‘to put þe of peril · i haue ney perisched oft, | ⁊ many a scharp schour · for þi sake þoled,’ W. of Palerne, 4513; ‘ffull sharpe was the shoure (printed shoute), shent were þere mony,’ Destruction of Troy, 10069: the adjective in this sense is usually sharp; ‘hard shoure,’ Destr. of Troy, 11048 is a fierce attack, but ‘sorful scurs,’ CM 24602. Similarly, ‘weorre ⁊ weane baðe | ⁊ untidi wederes,’ SK 2599.204. The line may be completed by, er we henne wende; see 22/117. The rest of this section consists of rhymed septenaries.205. Forderueread glewe, wise, prudent.206. Transpose, us ne, and omit harde. So that we do not deeply regret our improvidence at doomsday.207. Forureread here, forðere, with Holthausen who cites 178/88, þore. Forliues, soules should perhaps be read, as at 179/103.208. Fornummoreread more.209. Afterbarlicadd sed or corn. In the earlier bestiaries barley stands for heretical writers: Eudes de Cheriton, p. 247, explains wheat as good works.210. Omitto.hauen moten, must have, is feeble and does not rhyme. Holthausen suggests hauen geten, have to observe: moten geten, must get, or moten seken, which makes up for an indifferent rhyme by its contrast with sunen, seem better. ‘Ipse novam legem colligo, non veterem,’ T.211. get as at l. 195 would be better metrically.212. Transpose, god to don, and, us forbedeð.213. ‘Hoc est quod binas lex habet una vias, | Quae terrena sonat, simul et celestia monstrat. | Nunc mentem pascit, et modo corpus alit,’ T. The corrections bet, offers, and erðliche are due to Mätzner.bodes, not ‘biddings,’ Specimens, but teachings, information.bekned, points to, indicates, proclaims. The meaning of the original depends on the special use of lex, according to Papias ‘a legendo dicta lexis græce, latine locutio, id est quælibet syllaba uel uox, quæ scribi potest,’ hence the written word, here the ‘facts’ of natural history, useful to know for our bodily sustenance, but also charged with spiritual instruction. The ant, as the Latin puts it, ‘in suis factis res monstrat spirituales.’ The English version has obscured the sense by adding, without authority, l. 212, where lex is taken in its natural meaning of law.euelike, heavenly (teachings).214.o geuelike, on an equality, equally: OE.ge-efenlicadj.here used asnoun: comp. 194/593.215, 216. ‘Nos utinam repleat, famis ut formido recedat, Tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.216. The first half is short; add, in erd afternu.217. Next to the Ant in T. comes the Fox and then the Hart.218-221. ‘Cervus habere duas naturas atque figuras | Dicitur a phisio, cum docet inde, logo,’ T. How the hart renews its youth is again told in the Deposition of Richard the Second, 15/8-20, and there is a curious use of the fable in Nova Legenda Anglie, i. 254/23-29.221.fisiologet: the termination is probably borrowed from the familiar donet, a Latin grammar; OF. donet.223.ðurg his nese, by drawing in his breath, ‘spiritu narium,’ or as T.puts it, ‘cum naribus extrahit.’on on, continuously; at 207/339, forthwith.224.stoc . . . ston: ‘de caveis terrae, de latebrisve petrae,’ T. The translator uses a familiar combination.225.it: the adder.226.sweleð, miswritten for swelgeð, swallows: the scribe was probably led by ‘brinneð’ in the next line to think of the word which for him representedswǣlan.227, 228.ðerof . . . of: tautology is frequent in this piece: comp. 184/260. The impersonal use ofbrinneðappears to be without parallel: the meaning is, that poisonous matter burns him afterwards.230. ‘Estuat ad liquidas pergere fontis aquas,’ T.; estuat is glossed festinat, hencelepeð; comp. Psal. xli. 1.wið—list, displaying great prudence, wisdom: comp. ‘To the fischers hous þai went wiþ list,’ Gregorlegende, ed. Schulz, 52/1015.232-238. ‘Quas cum forte bibit, his plenus toxica vincit, | Se juvenemque facit, cornua quando jacit,’ T.235.non wigt, no whit, not at all.236.er, before he recovers.238.gingid him, renews his youth; comp. 184/259: a rare word, perhaps only here.241-249.‘Nos quoque cum prisci serpentis fraude revicti, | Virus contrahimus, urimur et facibus, | Haec est luxuria quae fert odium vel et iram, | Aut etiam nimia est aeris auaricia,’ T.241, 242 were no doubt originally couplets, perhaps, Alle we atter dragen | of ure eldere misdeden || ðe broken drigtinnes sonde | ðurg ðe neddres onde: comp. 40/192, 193.eldereseems to have been suggested by prisci.244.nið ⁊ win: see 181/169.245.giscing, covetousness: OE.gītsung; comp. ‘He bad him chesen steres-men . . . ðe niðing and giscing flen,’ GE 3429, 3432; ‘Mid yuernesse and prude . and yssyng wes þat on,’ OEM 38/35.246.wissing: to OE.wȳscan: its meaning as a sin is shown by, ‘Ne wrec þu þe mid wussinge . ne mid warienge,’ OEH ii. 179/22, avenge not thyself by wishing evil or cursing.247.ouerwene, presumption: found here only.248. Insert bi beforeswilc.252, 253. ‘Ad fontem vivum debemus currere christum,’ T.255.wissing, instruction. ‘Qui cum nos udat, sumpta venena fugat,’ T. udat is explained, with quotation of this line, in the Catholicon as balneat.257.forwerpenandgingen259 depend onbihoueð252. Holthausen restores the missing rhyme by reading, forwerpen pride hornes | so hert doð hise in þornes. It would be simpler to add al (comp. 178/73, 180/137, 182/191, 190/443), meaning completely, entirely, after hornes; it would balanceeurilcdel, and the rhyme is possible; see 190/465, 466.259. In this way renew our youth to God, that is, restore the baptismal relation to him; comp. 181/162 and 178/89.260. take heed to ourselves afterward henceforth, ever after. Comp.‘ðesunenday | ðat is forð siðen worðed ay,’ GE 261.263. That ought to be present in thought to us all: comp. 191/487, 196/653; ‘þine beoden þe beoð þe so imunde,’ SM 13/8.mindeis OE.gemynde.265. ‘Longius et pergunt pascua quando petunt,’ T.266.ouer water ten: ‘Si fluvios tranant,’ T.; ‘quant passent braz de mier,’ Bozon, Contes moralisés, 56/3; ‘Cervi . . . maria trameant gregatim nantes porrecto ordine, et capita imponentes praecedentium clunibus, vicibusque ad terga redeuntes,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 32, 114. See Fecunda Ratis, 105/522 note, as to the use of this story by the Fathers.268. Read biforen.272.skinbon, shinbone; OE.scin-bān, tibia, which if placed on the haunch of the preceding hart would make swimming difficult. He should have written chin: ‘Portant suspensum gradientes ordine mentum, Alter in alterius clunibus impositus,’ T.; ‘chescun de eux met sa test sus autri croupe,’ Bozon, 56/4.274. Transpose, teð biforen: ‘Sed qui precedit fessus ad ima redit; Sic se vertentes cuncti mutuoque ferentes | Nunquam deficiunt, atque viam peragunt,’ T.275.tirgen, to be fatigued: OE.tiergan,tyrgan, to vex. ‘Tirwyn, or make wery, lasso,’ Prompt. Parvul., col. 499. But the word is not original, it does not rhyme. Teren, representingtēorian,teorian, to tire, would be better; *toren with shifted accent, perhaps influenced by tor, difficult (see NED tor, tere) would restore the rhyme.276. Transpose, mide cumen.277.hertienis Mätzner’s correction, comparing 199/75, 76; but theinf.in-ienis very doubtful. The original word was probably beren.278.grund: see 188/401: the poet has misunderstood ‘ad ima redit,’ the weary leader, who has no rest for his chin, falls in at the rear of the procession.280. and supply their necessity; ‘nunquam deficiunt,’ they never failone another. A line is wanting, such as, ⁊ cumen to here stede, answering to ‘atque viam peragunt.’281. ‘Hunc retinent usum, si sint vel in agmine centum,’ T.hem bitwen, among themselves.284. ‘Per tales mores alienos ferre labores | Cum pietate monent atque juvare docent,’ T.costes, habits, ways: comp. ‘knewen he nogt ðis dewes cost,’ GE 3327.285. Connect ur non, no one of us.288.his wine, to his friend.289. ‘Alter alterius onera portate, et sic adimplebitis legem Christi,’ Gal. vi. 2.291-294. ‘Sic lex est Christi nobis complenda magistri | Cuius, qui faciet, pascua repperiet,’ T.293.bitwixen us . . . brice, useful, serviceable to one another: comp. 194/592.294.lage:acc.after to fillen, which is subject of is.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.hirefollows the gender of vulpes. Forto namesee 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.hulenis hardly possible; it is not found elsewhere till the end of the fourteenth century and the construction with the directacc.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 ofhatienis 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.308is 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.309.stund, portion (of time): rarely with defining genitive.310.dareð: comp. 187/374, 195/624: here, to lie motionless, in the other places, to lie hid, to lurk; comp. ‘fare man . . . to þam scræfe þær þa wiðer-sacan inne dariað behydde,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 506/321, and see Minot i. 9 for further illustrations of the uses of this word.311.swiðe redi, very prompt to seize the opportunity: comp. 187/368.312.fallen bi, alight near; a use of the verb determined by the needs of alliteration: Mätzner adduces OE.befeallen, but that requires on; so in ME. ‘Gredi foueles fellen ðor-on,’ GE 947. ‘insidet ut comedat,’ T. Transpose, bi hire fallen · fode for to winnen.313. Transpose, beð ded.314. Mätzner alterswullento billen, spoiling the secondary alliteration: the absolute use of willen, to desire to go, is common enough.fel: in Eudes de Cheriton, 303/7 and Jacques de Vitry, no. ccciv, the fox puts out his tongue and the birds make for it, a device which greatly improves the fox’s chance. Transpose, feleð wel.315.letteð, stops, hinders: OE.lettan. Transpose, up lepeð . ⁊ hem sone letteð.317.illing, evil treatment. ‘Dentibus et tristem reddit edendo vicem,’ T.318.tetoggeð, pulls to pieces; see 68/145.323.frame: see 176/24.324. For the combination, see 18/16.325. ‘Nunc zabulo similis, par aliquando viris,’ T.327. ‘Nos et dissimulat quod mala non faciat,’ T.lat, pretends; comp. 203/222: influenced in form at any rate by OWScand. láta.329. Omit a and he.330.bukes, belly’s: see 4/19, where it means body.331.wið unskil, without discretion: comp. ‘Ne rend, ne beat nogt wið vnskil,’ GE 3506; Orm 427.332. And while we are amusing ourselves, he quickly plays us a fox’s trick.foxing, a nonce-word in this sense, but it is common in dialect for shamming.334-341. ‘Cuius (read eius) edit carnem quisquis rem fingit inanem, | Hoc est peccatum quodlibet et malum | Quem quasi deglutit, cum secum ad tartara ducit,’ T.335.idel spel: ‘verbum otiosum,’ S. Matt. xii. 36; ‘tel heom þer spelles,’ L 26538 appears to mean, tell them tales there.336. Whoever feeds on sin, he tugs at the fox’s flesh.338.geld, requites; comp. l. 316.339.sending, disgrace, confusion; OE.scendan.341.merk, dark, murky; OE.mirce: comp. 190/439, 193/570.343, 344. ‘Daemon ab insidiis vulpeculae est similis,’ T.breides, stratagems, tricks; comp. 193/548.swik, deception; comp. 188/396: OE.swīc.345, 346. ‘Sic cum fraude viri sunt vulpis nomine digni, | Quales hoc plures tempore sunt homines,’ T. Formanread mani, omit ⁊, transpose wurði arn and insert to beforesame, and many likewise are worthy of the name of fox to their disgrace. Comp. ‘Euerilc ðhing haued he geue name, | Me to sorge, scaðe and same,’ GE 301.347.oðer, to another.348. Comp. ‘Danne ðogte eue on hire mod,’ GE 333; KH 281 note.349.iwis: see32/40 note. There is nothing in T. corresponding to ll. 347-349; the writer had probably in mind, ‘Ut quid cogitatis mala in cordibus vestris?’ S. Matt. ix. 4.350.legeð&c., lies not, misleads not in this; so, ‘Iff iosephus ne legeð me,’ GE 1281.351-354. ‘Herodesque fuit, qui christum querere jussit, | Credere se simulans, perdere dissimulans,’ T.; comp. S. Luke, xiii. 32.herodes: Orm has Herode in his English text.fox ⁊ flerd: nouns used as adjectives: for the former comp. 29/15;flerd, deceit, occurs in Orm, ‘falls ⁊ flærd,’ 12177: OE.fleard: see Björkman, 160.354.fordon: ‘Futurum est enim ut Herodes quaerat puerum ad perdendum eum,’ S. Matt. ii. 15.356.Seftes&c.: comp. 2/2.sene—werlde, it is seen in the case of the world; parenthetic; but Mätzner takesðingas subject ofis.Withoncomp. ‘þat was on Tristrem sene,’ Sir Tristrem 1205; ‘On þe hit is wel eþ sene,’ OEH ii. 255/5; ‘Ful soth it was apon vs sene,’ CM 24333.357.leiðe, hateful: OWScand. leiðr = OE.lāð: lodlike, OE.lāðlicis synonymous.ðus: either, as has already been said, that theCreatormade these loathly things, or, as follows, that He made them to this end, for the instruction of men generally. The latter is a commonmedievalidea; men, says Gilbert of Hoyland, contemplate God ‘in speculo creaturarum et scripturarum aenigmate,’ S. Bernardi Opera, ii. 170.358.manikines: see81/80 note.359.manne: dat.; see176/24 note.360. Holthausen supplied web (see l. 363), and swiðe or wide. ‘Plurima fila net (a. l.nectit) assiduus,’ T.361. Transpose, atte hus rof festeð.festeð, binds.fodredes, plans, means of securing food: a word found here only.362.so—elde, so it is for her in age, is senseless in this context: read, hire is so on felde, it is for her as if on a field, that is, she moves on a ceiling as if she were on the ground.so, as if; comp. 194/583 with 195/625; ‘His brunie he gan lace | So he scholde in to place,’ KH 717.363.werpeð, throws, with perhaps a reference to the specific meaning of warp, OE.wearp, stamen.364. Transpose, al idigt haueð. Withdriueðcomp. 176/8.365.it, the web.366. Transpose, fleges ðer faren . ⁊ ðerinne fallen.367.wiðeren, struggle; properly, resist.368.renneð&c.: comp. 181/178.redi: comp. 185/311.369.nimeð . . . to, makes for; see 213/539.nimeð, seizes: the repetition is tolerable, because of the different meanings of the word.370.bit: read biteð.bane, destroyer: OE.bana, mostly used of the agent.372. This line appears to be derived from ‘Et placet inde sibi nimium | Quando nocere potest alium’ which comes in the application or ‘significacio.’ If so, it means that in this action she finds her greatest profit. But probably hem should be substituted for hire.373. Read freteð.374.dareð: see 185/310 and 195/624.376. ‘Hos sequitur homo vermiculos | Decipiendo suos socios,’ T. For man read were.377.on—stalle, in any place whatsoever: comp. ‘i stude ⁊ i stalle,’ SK 683. B-T quotes from a charter, ‘ꝥ hi . . . næfre ne beon on stede ne on stealle þær æfre undon worðe ꝥ ure foregengles geuðen,’ Thorpe, Diplom. Angl., 348/28. The words are synonymous, so, ‘Þer þe fir he has his stall,’ CM 396. See 192/537.377.stille er lude, under any circumstances: see25/226 note.378.mot, place of meeting, especially in a court of law. Forwiseread mene: comp. ‘mannes mene,’ society of men, GE 501. See 26/266.379. Read, sarp he him biteð; corresponding to ‘bitterlike’ 187/370;comp. ‘sarp on bite,’ GE 2989. ‘Quos comedit faciens miseros,’ T.bale selleð, does him an injury. ME. sellen, to give, is rarely used with immaterial object, but comp. ‘sylle heom forȝefenesse,’ Twelfth Cent. Homilies, 132/20. Similar is ‘nuste noht Bruttes þere;þat balu heom wes ȝiueðe,’ L 29817. Transpose, bale him.380. Transpose, his blod drinkeð.dreueð, vexes, annoys.381. Forhemread him; the scribe corrected ll. 379, 380, but overlooked this. Transpose, ⁊ ðo him al freteð.382.cetegrandie: genitive of ‘cete grandia,’ Gen. i. 21, treated as though it were one word and a noun singular. Cetegrandia is not in Papias or the Catholicon; it is quite possibly the invention of the present writer; the heading in T. is ‘De Balena’ or ‘De Ceto.’ The word in l. 383 appears to have been formed directly from it; the OF. Bestiaries have cetus only.383-388. ‘Est super omne pecus quod vivit in aequore cetus, | Monstrum grande satis, cum superexstat aquis | Prospiciens illum, montem putat esse marinum, | Aut quod in oceano insula sit medio,’ T. Insert gret before fis.385.ðat: pronoun anticipating the clause ðat—neilond, l. 387.get, too; comp. ‘Of thre ȝere in þe temple sett, | And þerto fourtene winter gett,’ CM 10531.389.vnride, enormous, monstrous; OE.ungerȳde; the general idea of the word is excessive. Comp. 192/507, 522, 120/125.390.hungreð: impersonal as at 60/99; comp. ‘crist him ȝeueð swilcne mete ꝥ him nefre eft ne hungreð,’ OEH i. 37/30; ‘þer in onliche stude him hungrede,’ AR 162/1. Omit he.gapeð&c.: ‘os aperit | Unde velud florum (a. l.hamum) se flatus reddit hodorum | Ad se pisciculos ut trahat exiguos,’ T.391.it smit an onde, a breath rushes forth; comp. 126/321 note: it is formal nominative, the real subject isonde; comp. 188/403; ‘Til hit sprang dai liȝt,’ KH 124 note.393.to him dragen, move towards him: comp. 189/416, 32/49; ‘And whatena hauld shall we draw to?’ Child, Ballads, iii. 434.394.it, the sweet breath.395.houen: see 177/53.396.swike: see 82/111.uncuð . . . of: see 179/97.397. ‘Piscis pisciculos claudit, deglutit et illos,’ T.401.wið, on; comp. 180/147.se grund, bottom of the sea; comp. 177/58, 184/278, 189/423; ‘þai sail in þe see gronde . fissches to fede,’ Minot x. 4 note; ‘I’ll set my foot in a bottomless boat, | And swim to the sea-ground,’ Child, Ballads, i. 448.402.heil ⁊ sund: see 177/59.403. Insert perhaps harde or ille before time. ‘Si sit tempestas, cum vadit vel venit estas, | Et pelagus fundum turbidat omne suum,’ T.404. Forse, Holthausen suggests brine, salt sea, by way of improving the rhyme, but comp. time: bi me, KH 533, 534.405.winnen, come into conflict, at the change of the seasons.407.droui, turbid; comp. OE.drōf,drēfan: comp. ‘Þer faure citees wern set nov is a see called, | Þat ay is drouy ⁊ dim,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 68/1016.408.ðat stund, at that time; comp. 185/309.409. ‘Continuo summas se tollit caetus ad undas,’ T.stireð, moves; comp. ‘ðis asse is eft of weige stired,’ GE 3961, but stirteð would be more appropriate; comp. ‘And pharaon stirte up anon,’ GE 2931; ‘Þe fisches sturten op with þis song,’ South English Legendary, 232/456.houeð stille: comp. ‘Louerd crist, þat swch a best: scholde houi so stille | And soffri men opon him gon: and don al heore wille,’ id. 230/375.411.sipes: Mätzner suggested siperes, OE.scipere, but that does not apparently occur in ME. and it would be unmetrical, sipmen might be read, if any change were necessary.fordriuen, driven about, so ‘We beoþ séé-weri men;mid wedere al for-dreuen,’ L MS. O, 6205: but OE.fordrīfanmeans to drive away, banish, drive out of course.412. There is nothing in the original corresponding to this line: comp. 91/88.413.biloken: Mätzner explains, look around, comparing ‘Brid . . . biwent him ofte, ⁊ bilokeð him euer ȝeorneliche al abuten,’ AR 132/26, but the meaning of the verb is there qualified by ‘abuten.’ Here its natural sense is better, they look to themselves, they consider their plight.414. Add ðat afterwenen: comp. 185/311. ‘Est promontorium cernere non modicum | Huic religare citamprotempestate carinam | Nautae festinant utque foras saliant,’ T.416.mid here migt, striving their hardest: ‘bi his mihte,’ OEH ii. 189/11.417, 418. These lines probably ran, Sipes on to festen | ⁊ alle up to gangen.festen on, moor.419, 420. ‘Accendunt vigilem quem navis portitat ignem,’ T.; ‘vigilem,’ ever burning, Virgil, Æn. iv. 200.wel to brennenmay mean, to light a good fire, but such absolute use of brennen is without support. Forwelread welm, blazing fire: OE.wielm,wylm; comp. ‘he wolde hine ifusen;to ane bare walme,’ L 22123: the word is common enough in OE.but rare in ME., and so may have puzzled the copyist, who would find wel in the next line. The sense is, They all go up on land to light a blazing fire on this monster by a spark struck out of flint by steel into tinder.421.warmen . . . heten . . . drinkendepend ongangen: ‘ut cale se faciant aut comedenda coquant,’ T.423.grunde: see 188/401. For the whale mistaken for an island, comp. the South English Legendary, 224/155-176.426, 427. ‘Viribus est zabulus quasi cetus corpore magnus, | Ut monstrant magni quos facit ille magi,’ T.wið, of, as in ‘mekill of maine,’ Minot, i. 85.427.hauengives a fair sense with ‘wil ⁊ magt’ as object, but the original word was probably taunen (comp. 195/631), rendering ‘monstrant.’428, 429 are due to a misunderstanding of the original, ‘Mentes cunctorum qui suntubiquevirorum | Esurit atque sitit, quosque potest perimit;’ the devil hungers and thirsts for the souls of men and he destroys all he can.430.tolleð, allures: the earliest occurrence of the word.431. Omit he.sonde, shame.432.in leue lage, low (weak) in faith; a phrase apparently without parallel. ‘Sed modicos fidei trahit in dulcedine verbi, | Namque fide firmos non trahit ille viros,’ T.435.in rigte leue: see 89/28.mid fles ⁊ gast, in body and soul.437.on lengðe, in the long run, at length: more commonly used of measure, ‘hit is on lengþe;four and twenti mundes,’ L MS. O, 21993.438.festeð: comp. 1/23; ‘In him i hafe min hope al fest,’ CM 5288: ‘spem sibi ponit,’ T.439.helle dim: comp. 186/341.440. This article is mostly original.Sirene, genitive of sirena; the title in T. is ‘De Sirenis’; classical Latin has only siren,-is,fem.In T. they are female and birds in the nether half; his account is very brief and general, and it is followed closely by that of the onocentaur, which is ‘biformis’ like the siren; the ‘significacio’ is common to both. An earlier description is found in Layamon, 1322-1347, which is based on Wace, Brut, 733-771. The author of the Bestiary was acquainted with one or both of these. Comp. also Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. 47.441.selcuðes, marvels: the word is mostly adjective. ‘Item mare est animancium et monstrorum multiplicis forme productivum; mare enim longe producit monstra et mira quam facit ipsa terra,’ Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xiii.442.mereman, mermaid: a better form is meremin,pl.merminnen, L 1322: merman is a much later masculine formed from mermaid. The first half of the line is short: perhaps muchel should be added after is.443.oc—bunden, but in her resemblance to a maiden she is altogether limited to this extent of breast and body. This use of bind has perhaps been helped by Layamon’s ‘wifmen hit þunchet fuliwis;bi-neoðe þon gurdle hit þuncheð fisc.’444. ‘Poisson sunt del nombril aval,’ Wace 737. For the second half line read, ge is noman ilik.445.to fuliwis: see32/40 note.waxen: explained by Mätzner as furnished, in meaning of OE.beweaxan, which however is used only of extraneous growths, as ‘burgtunas brerum beweaxne,’ town-dwellings with briars o’ergrown, Cod. Exon. 443/16. Comp. ‘a win-tre | ðat adde waxen buges ðre,’ GE 59/2059.446.wankel, unstable; OE.wancol: comp. ‘wanclen,’ weaklings, L 31834. The modern dialect word, wankle, is current in the North and Midlands, and often used of uncertain, unsettled weather, and so probably here of stormy, disturbed seas.447.ðer—sinkeðis a half-line,sipes—werkeða complete line: the former may have run, ðer ðe water sinkeð . dun on west halue, where the sea slopes away down to the west; for the second half-line comp. ‘an æst halue an west halue,’ L 29287. ‘Et modo naufragium, modo dant mortale periclum,’ T.448.mirie: ‘Dolces vois ont, dolcement chantent,’ Wace, 738; ‘Þeos habbeð swa murie song,’ L 1326. Holthausen omitsge.mere, a shortened form of mereman.manie: ‘Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonancia multis | Vocibus et modulis cantus formancia multis,’ T.449.sille, marvellous; OE.syllic.450.it ben: see1/10 note.451. The scribe should have put the stop beforeforgeten. ‘Li fol home qui le cant oent, | . . . | Lor voie oblient et guerpissent,’ Wace, 743, 745.452. ‘Quae faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum,’ T.454.suk, suck, expressing the sound made by the water closing over the vessel.456-459appears to be based on the experience of Brutus; ‘Brutus iherde siggen;þurh his sæ-monnen | of þan ufele ginnen;þe cuðen þa mereminnen | . . . | Þa mereminnen heom to svommen;on alchare sidan. | swiða heo heom lætten;mid luðere heora craften. | Neðelas Brutusat-bræc;al buten burstan, | ⁊ ferde riht on his wei,’ L 1334-1337, 1342-1347.456.wise . . . warre: see 18/16.457. know how to return, that is, to escape: comp. ‘hwan ic aȝen cherre;al ic þe ȝelde,’ OEH i. 79/12, and for the noun, ‘Þer deþ so redi fynt dore opene, | Ne may helpe no ȝeyn char,’ Desputisoun, 76/167; ‘efter-charr,’ CM 21922.458. Often they have burst away, made good their escape: comp. 193/548 where the verb has an object in theacc.of the thing escaped from, as occasionally in OE., and as probably here also. For the second half of the line in its present form yields no satisfactory sense. Mätzner, who completed he[re], translates, with their heart incorruptible, inflexible, equatingouelwith OWScand. ófalr. Read, ofte arn atbrosten mid hele . here brest iuel, often have they safely escaped from their evil danger. Comp. ‘Þe king Goffar iseih his burst;⁊ unæðe him seolf atbreac,’ L 1610; ‘þa ofte ure Bruttes;makeden hufele burstes,’ id. 19856, and with the form brest, ‘or thei take reste | Er schal thei suffre mochel breste,’ Laud Troy Book, 4226; ‘To-quils þai duelled þar to rest, | O water had þai ful mikel brest,’ CM 6308.459. Mätzner deletesherd, to correspond with, ‘Quod (i.e.periculum) qui fugerunt, hii tales esse tulerunt,’ T.; but in view of L 1334-1337 quoted above, it would be better to leave outtold; the wise escape because they have been forewarned. With either alteration, the line remains formless: better, he hauen herd tellen . of tis mere unimete, with distinct alliteration in each half-line (comp. 464/15). Holthausen supplies is afterðat: the scribe probably understood the connection as, which, monstrous in this wise, as being half human and half fish, has a moral application (‘significacio’, ‘bitacnunge,’ 79/15) in virtue of this monstrosity.463, 464. Many men illustrate what is signified by this creature here adduced as a symbol. ‘Quam plures homines sic sunt in more biformes,’ T.; comp. 191/471.465. Mätzner alteredwuluesto sepes; the source is, ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis, qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces,’ S. Matt. vii. 15.467, 468. ‘Utpote sunt multi qui de virtute locuti, | Turpibusindulgent,’T. Perhaps of should be inserted before godcundhede.469.vncuð wið: see 179/97. ‘Qui foris ut fantur, sic intus non operantur,’ T.474.ðe legen, lie to thee, by presently breaking their oath: ‘unum dicentes, aliud mox tibi facientes,’ T.475.sage, discourse: OE.sagu: comp. ‘heo wenden þat his sawen;soðe weren,’ L 749.476.ðer imong, all the time they are promising.477.agteandsoulel. 478 are apparently accusatives in a sort of apposition to ‘ðe’ l. 476. OE.swicianrequiresymboronwith the name of the thing about which deceit is practised.480.Elpes: the OE. forms areelpendandylp; elp is probably a shortened form of the former.Inde riche, the realm of India.481.berges ilike, like mountains; ‘bene firmares montibus esse pares,’ T.; ‘ylp is ormæte nyten mare þonne sum hus,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/366.482.o wolde, in the woodland: comp. 195/620.484, 485. ‘Adversi coeunt, cum sibi conveniunt.’ The scribe has putsampnenin the place of some less common word; Holthausen proposes hemen which gives an assonance at any rate: if a verb *menen may be inferred from mæne, mene, intercourse, it would fit still better.486.kolde of kinde, chaste by nature: comp. 191/495; ‘so kinde cold,’ GE 1999.487.minde: see 184/263.488.noten of, make use of: see 84/45.gres, herb, medicinal plant.489.ðe, to which: see 46/292.mandragores, mandrake: L. mandragoras; in Philippe de Thaün mandragora. It is discussed at length in Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xvii, ‘dicitur autem habere virtutemprebetivammulieribus concipiendi.’ There is no mention of it in T., but it is common matter in the Bestiaries.490-494. ‘Hique semel pariunt quamvis tot tempora vivunt, | Hoc est ter centum, nec faciunt geminum, | Ast unum generant et per duo tempora gestans,’ T. (‘duo tempora’ = duos annos). See Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/569.wuneden: read wunen:moreis probably an addition by the scribe.495.blod ⁊ bon, subject of is: for the phrase, meaning the whole body, comp. 196/636; ‘nys non so feyr of blod ant bone,’ KH MS. L, 916 note.496. ‘Cum parit in magna, ne cadat, exstat aqua,’ T. The Bestiaries generally say that she takes to the water for fear of the dragon.sal, has to, must.498.to mid side: nothing corresponding in T., but ‘Tresque à sun ventre en l’unde,’ P. de Thaün, 1442; ‘pergit ad lacum magnum et ingreditur usque ad ubera,’ H. de S. Victor, ii. 427.midsideis a compound noun; contrast ‘with a sadel to the midside,’ Desputisoun, ed. Linow, 59/517 (Laud MS.) with the corresponding, ‘Wiþ a sadel to middle þe syde,’ 101/517 (Digby MS.).499.wanne—tide; Mätzner translates, ‘when mischief betides her,’treating harde as a noun, like 152/56 note. The construction would then be the same as in ‘Aþulf tit no wounde,’ KH MS. L, 1352, andhardemight better be translated birth pangs. But the order of the words is against that interpretation:tideis impersonal andhardeis an adverb: comp. ‘wel þe sal bityde,’ L MS. O, 2236.500.ðatis often repeated when a clause interrupts the construction, as in ‘sitteð all stille, ꝥ hwon he parted urom ou, ꝥ he ne cunne ower god, ne ower vuel nouðer,’ AR 64/20.502. ‘Non habet ut (a.l.unde) surgat, quia nunquam crura recurvat,’ T. The elk is also without joints in its legs; see Elton, Origins of English History, p. 54.504.Hu—widedepends on l. 506. Withhecomp. 119/77, 194/602.505.walkeð wide, travels to a distance; a favourite phrase in the romances: comp. ‘Ihc habbe walke wide,’ KH 953 note.506.her: in Physiologus.507. For resting is difficult because his huge bulk prevents him from lying down.508.to fuligewis: see 32/40.509. ‘Incumbit trunco arboris haut modico,’ T.510.trostlike, confidingly: ‘Idunc dort a seür,’ P. de Thaün, 1550.511.of walke weri, weary from walking; so, ‘weri of sorȝen,’ L 28081.512.ðisanticipates l. 514: the hunter notes the elephant’s favourite support, ‘his beste wune.’514.wune, resort; usually custom, but comp. ‘Vyche day in þe temple . wes myne ywune,’ OEM 43/207. Eudes de Cheriton, 316/26, has, ‘Elephas, more consueto super illam appodians, simul cum illa cadit.’515. Forwillenread wiken: to don hise wiken, to perform his functions, here, to sleep. The phrase ‘don wiken’ occurs in OEH i. 137/11, meaning, to do services. Comp. 84/45 note.516.underset: ‘Quam notat atque secat venator, et obice celat,’ T. Mätzner translates, underprops; rather, wedges up, underpins.517.bet: used for the rhyme, where best might have been expected.518.he, the elephant.it . . . war, aware of it: see200/116 note.519.makeð char, returns: comp. 190/457.520. ‘Clamque sedens spectat dum requiem repetat,’ T.biwaltis Mätzner’s correction for biwarlt; it is a rare word and means to rule, manage, wield, as in ‘þe holie þremnesse þe shop ⁊ biwalt alle shafte,’ OEH ii. 25/8. He explains the passage as, the hunter sits alone, observes whether his device helps him in any way. Butolonfor al one or one asin this text, 194/579, 580, the absence of a conjunction beforebihaltand the meaning given tobiwaltall raise doubts. Morris translates the last word as ‘deceiveth.’ Perhaps in olon lurks al on, which with *bihalt, observation, would give, intent on watching. *bihalt, noun of bihalden, is not found, but may be inferred from OE.geheald.biwaltmay be miswritten for biualt, representing OE.befealleþ: l. 521 might then mean whether his device results in anything for him.522.unride: see 188/389.524, 525. ‘Ille velud quondam securus ad arboris umbram, | Cum venit, incumbit, cumque ruente ruit,’ T.boden, for boðen.530.ðer, to that place.gangande: the author wrote gangen, and at l. 536 seken or more probably saken: comp. 108/232; ‘þer com o schelchene gon,’ OEM 45/279, 285; ‘Þer com go a wel fair mon,’ South English Legendary, 223/139, 226/265, 227/272; ‘þat him com biforen gon;a wunder ane fair mon,’ L 32064. The infinitive defines; here it means, on foot. ‘Tunc unus currit, qui relevare cupit,’ T.531.utis a scribe’s mistake for up.532.Fikeð, bustles, fusses: still in dialectic use in the northern counties and Scotland. See Björkman, 145, 306. The combination withfondeð, tries, does not occur elsewhere.533.forðen: see 180/126.no wigt, not at all.534.canne, can he; nor can he do anything else. ‘Sed nequit et satagit: complorans hic quoque barrit,’ T.536.manie: in the older Bestiaries twelve besides the first try to raise him. The original reading of the MS., sacande, for saken (shake), is preferable to the correction: see 182/193.537.on stalle maken, put him in a standing position, set him up again; comp. 193/539, 547, 556, 557; ‘cumen . . . on stalle,’ 193/539. A deer is said to stall when it stands still in covert.538.for, in spite of, notwithstanding; comp. ‘For roting es na better rede,’ CM 11505; ‘thei scholde come with-outen dwellyng | And speke with him for any thyng,’ Laud Troy Book, 3103: contrast ‘For,’ in consequence of, 193/542.540-549. ‘Cum nequeunt omnes, contendunt mittere voces, | Ad quas fit subitus parvulus ac minimus | Cuius (et est mirum) promuscida sublevat illum, | Et sic predictas effugit insidias,’ T.548. Comp. 186/344, 190/458.atbrested: supply he (the fallen elp) as subject: see6/18 note.552.ðat fele we, for that we suffer.553. Holthausen would read, Moyses wulde him reisen rigt, | migte iforðen no wigt; but reisen : forðen is sufficient rhyme for this author. The lines are, however, short; insert up before reisen, he after migte.556.her non, none of them.557. By ‘upright’ I mean in his former position as possessor of the riches of heaven. Foriseiesee56/46 note. Comp. ‘heoueriche wunne,’ AR 242/4; ‘heouenriche murhðe,’ OEH i. 115/1.559.suggeden, sighed; comp. ‘Forr iwhillc mann birrþ wepenn her, ⁊ sikenn sare ⁊ suhhȝhenn,’ Orm 7923.weren in ðogt, were very anxious: comp. ‘Euer ⁊ oo for my leof icham in grete þohte,’ Bödd. AE. Dicht. 179/7.560.ovt: read ogt, in any wise, at all.561.onder steueneis meaningless. Mätzner suggested mid are steuene, with one cry; Holthausen foronder, luder. Butalleis superfluous and the rhythm is defective: the original may have been, remeden he ðo ludere steuene. Comp. ‘Þa quað Membricius;ludere stefne,’ L 927; ‘Numbert heom to clepede;mid ludere stefne,’ id. 1428.563, 564. ‘Ipsorum precibus venit ad hoc dominus,’ T.care, anxiety.hem . . . to, to them: see 1/3.566.litel: ‘parvus, quoniam deus est homo factus,’ T.567.drowing ðolede, endured suffering: comp. ‘Ac of cristes þruwinge · þet he þolede her,’ OEM 37/4; ‘He ðrowede and ðolede un-timing ðat,’ GE 1180.568.under gede, went to the help of; said with a reference to l. 545: L. subvenire.570.dim: comp. 186/341.571. For the Turtle, the author follows the Latin original pretty closely.572.boke: Physiologus.o rime, in verse: insert al before o.573.lagelike, loyally, faithfully: comp. ‘ȝif ha hare wedlac laheliche halden,’ HM 13/33.574.make: comp. ‘Forr fra þatt hire make iss dæd | Ne kepeþþ ȝho nan oþerr,’ Orm 1276.siðen: read seden, separate, depart, OE.scēadan; comp. ‘Þurrh þatt he wollde stilleliȝ | Fra Sannte Marȝe shædenn,’ Orm 2922, 16240. Omit ge as unmetrical.575.muneð, keep in mind; comp. 185/284.576, 577. ‘Nocte dieque juncta manebit | Absque marito nemo videbit,’ T.sundren ovt, separate at all, at any time: comp. 195/623.578-583. ‘Sed viduata si caret ipso | Non tamen ultra nubet amico, | Sola volabit, sola sedebit: | Et quasi vivum corde tenebit | Opperiensque casta manebit,’ T.579.one, alone: OE.āna.fareð, passes her life.581.luue abit, awaits, watches for the return of her beloved.585.reche, take heed, bethink thyself.586. See 180/134.meche: ‘Namque maritus est sibi (i.e.animae) Christus,’ T.588.fro himward: see178/89 note. The metre requires the omission of-ward.590. Read luue none: for the combinationleue . . . luue, comp. 143/73.ne—newe, nor love any new one; comp. ‘Allas! is every man thus trewe, | That every yere wolde have a newe,’ Chaucer, H. F. 301; ‘He wolde not him chawnge for no newe,’ Guy of Warwick, 122. This gives the best sense and rhythm, but luue may be a noun governed by leue, and l. 581 favours that interpretation.591-593. ‘Quem superesse credit in aethre, | Inde futurum spectat eundem | Ut microcosmum judicat omnem,’ T.592.briche: see 185/293.593.on geuelike: see 182/214.594. Omitmen.his loðe, those hateful to him.598-600. ‘Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato,’ T.bro, eyebrow: OWScand. brá: see Björkman 231. Mätzner sees in the whale’s brow an expression for whalebone: Pliny says ‘ora ballaenae habent in frontibus, ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbos efflant,’ N. H. ix. 6, 16. The explanation is not convincing. Such comparisons are generally made with familiar objects, so ‘colblake,’ 153/75; ‘And worth al black sum ani cole,’ CM 22489; ‘Al blak so cole-brond,’ King Alisaunder 6260. Perhaps, so brond of cole: the scribe is given to leaving out the end of his words, and the rhyme cole : al is no worse than fel : al, 190/465. In other Bestiaries the panther is of many colours.600.trendled&c., rounded as a wheel.601. And it sets him off, adorns him, exceedingly: an early instance of this meaning. Comp. ‘þe kirtel bicom him swiþe wel,’ Guy of Warwick, Auch. MS. 14/210.602.he: see119/77 note.603.der: T. has ‘Diversis pastus venatibus et saciatus,’ but the Bestiaries generally avoid making him carnivorous; ‘Divers mangiers manjue,’ P. de Thaün, 474; ‘Saoulee . . . De boenes viandes plusors,’ Guillaume, 1958, 1960; ‘diversis herbis vescitur,’ Honorius Augustod. (Migne), 887.604.cul, rump: the earliest appearance of this French word in English. Mätzner explains it as cowl, fell.607. Afterdagesinsert al: comp. 195/635.609.lude so, as loudly as: but lude should probably be omitted, as the line is too long.610-615. ‘Exit odor talis de gutture, tamque suavis, | Ut virtute sua superet vel aromata cuncta,’ T.mid . . . forðmay be equivalent to forð mid, along with (see 1/19), butforðis more probably adverbial, far, as in, ‘Sum was wið migte so forð gon, | ðat hadden he under hem mani on,’ GE 835.oueral, widely spread.612.haliweie, more usually halewei, some preparation of a balsamic nature used both as a lotion and a drink. It corresponds to anOE.*hǣlewǣg, healing water, but the spelling in the text shows an association withhālig(NED.). Comp. ‘hwo þet bere a deorewurðe licur, oðer a deorewurðe wete, as is bame, in a feble uetles, healewi in one bruchele glese,’ AR 164/13; ‘Kumeð þerof smel of aromaz, oðer of swote healewi,’ id. 276/11.615. Comp. ‘For na drie ne for na wate,’ CM 6365.weteis by form a noun, as at l. 57; comp. ‘hwīlum fliht se wǣta ꝥ dryge,’ Boethius, ed. Fox, 234/10.617.wor so . . . of londe, wherever in the world; comp. ‘Wher he beo in londe,’ KH 416 note. But the metre requires on ðe londe.620.folegeð: ‘Ferunt odore earum mire sollicitari quadripedes cunctas,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 17, 62. The original has ‘Ad quem mox tendit quae vocem belua sentit, | Ac sectatur cum nimia dulcedine plenum.’ Eudes de Cheriton says, ‘animalia crudelia, ut Lupus et Leopardus . . . eam pro bono odore sequuntur et non infestant,’ 232: he explains the sweet smell as the soft answer that turns away wrath.621.ðe, of which: comp. 46/292 note.623-625. ‘Cum sonat, aut fugiunt, aut segnes corpore fiunt | In caveisque latent, nec in ipso tempore parent,’ T.ogt, at all.624.daren: see 185/310.627.tokned: ‘per mistica dictus,’ T.629. ‘Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum,’ Psalm xliv. 3.
141. Add at the end, him bi, meaning, in his own case. For the rhyme comp. ‘And manige of ðo greten forði | ðat he adden ben hard hem bi,’ GE 3207, 3208; for the use of bi, see13/18 note.
142. See 123/210.
143-151.Based on, ‘Sit cibus parcus, minuantur artus. | Unde non mandis miseros (a. l.pauperes) juvabis | Penitens defle dominoque semper | dic miserere,’ T.
143.Feste&c. is explained, confirm thyself in steadfastness; but for this ethical sense festnen is used everywhere else (see 147/142) and of seems to be without parallel, though ‘steðeluest . . . of’ occurs at 129/24. The expression is rather pointless and corresponds to nothing in the ways of the serpent, while ll. 109, 110 are the only ones which have no interpretation in the ‘significacio.’ Furthermore the last half of the line is defective. Now l. 144 clearly represents the second line of the original quoted above, which means, from what you do not eat you will help the poor, and it depends for its point on the sparing of food enjoined in the preceding line of the original. Accordingly we should expect something in l. 143 to correspond to it, which as printed above means, let your food be sparing and your limbs reduced by bloodletting (minutio, see 66/103-105 notes). If the poet had before him, or misread his copy so, muniantur artes, he might translate, Feste þe of fastenes. ⁊ filste þe of þewes, that is, fortify thyself by fastings and help thyself by virtues. For he would find ars explained by Papias as bene recteque vivendi virtus . . .ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς, id est a virtute. And the scribe by anticipating ste þe from the last half of the line might readily produce stedefastnesse.
145.wurði—loken, worthy to presume to look.
146.ward: see178/89 note.
147.wið, in contact with, on: comp. 188/401, 201/148.
150.bote bid, pray for deliverance: for the usual combination see 179/201. With l. 151 comp. ‘bidden for heom deies ⁊ nihtes þet crist heom milcie of heore misdede,’ OEH i. 7/36.
152.stiis subject of bitokneð: ‘Signat hunc callem lapidis foramen. | Signat et christum petra, nam per ipsum | Fit novus quisque,’ T. Perhaps for tis, l. 154, we should read Christ.
156. Comp. 181/160.Let, permit it to escape, as in ‘þe king bigan to grete | ⁊ teres for to lete,’ KH 889. Transpose ðe fro.
157-160. ‘Cuius ad celsum veniendo templum, | Ut bibas sacrum beatumque verbum, | Evomas primum quod habes nocivum | Corde venenum,’ T.
158. A defective line; read drench · þi sinnes to cwenchen. Comp. 28/10; ‘swa bihoueð þe saule fode;mid godes wordes mid gode mode,’ OEH i. 63/153; ‘to cwennkenn oþre sinness,’ Orm 11652.
160. Omitbrest.forðward: read forward, covenant of 180/133: the combination is formal; comp. ‘my forwarde with þe I festen on þis wyse,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 47/327; ‘Pepigi fedus cum oculis meis . . . Ich habbe ivestned, seið Job, foreward mid min eien,’ AR 62/23; ‘ꝥ ich þis forward wulle;fastliche halden,’ L 23607. After this there are eight lines in the Latin which are not represented at all in the English poem, which is only slightly dependent on the original for the rest of the section.
161.firmest, first of all, at the very beginning.
163.forðward, henceforth; at 81/90 it means, straight ahead.
164.Nedeð, presses on, vexes: comp. 179/113; ‘I me sellf all ah itt wald | Þatt deofell maȝȝ me scrennkenn, | Þurrh þatt I do min lusst tærto, | To don summ hefiȝ sinne | Þatt he me maȝȝ wel eggenn to, | ⁊ nohht ne maȝȝ me nedenn,’ Orm 11815, a passage which may have been in the writer’s mind here. But Mätzner suggests neggeð, comparing 179/122. Omit the second nogt, and in l. 165 transpose ðe fro.
166.cliuer, expert in seizing: the only ME. example of the word clever: noted by Sir Thomas Browne as an East Anglian word. See NEDs.v.clever; the connection withclifer, claw, suggested by this use is illustrated by, ‘Hweðer þe cat of helle claurede euer toward hire ⁊ cauhte mid his cleafres hire heorte heaued,’ AR 102/4. Withoncomp. ‘gredi uppen woreld richeise,’ OEH ii. 195/1.
169.nið ⁊ win: comp. 183/244: ‘nið and strif’ is the equivalent in GE 373: nið usually takes to, ‘he haueð to us muchel nið,’ OEH i. 55/11, but see 197/11.
170. Comp. ‘he haueð leue to fonden mon,’ OEH i. 67/232.
171. Transpose, us for to deren: it is a rhyming line.
172. let us subject the body to pain:balewas probably suggested by ‘bote,’ 180/150. The meaning is made clear by, ‘lyued in penance hys lyueȝ longe | With bodyly bale hym blysse to byye,’. E. E. Allit. Poems, 15/476. Omit ðe before bale.
173. that (i.e. the soul) is equal to the head, that is, the head figuratively signifies the soul. But the Latin finally identifies the head with Christ, ‘Hoc caput dico quod habes in ipso | Principe christo,’ which is from ‘omnis viri caput Christus est,’ 1 Cor. xi. 3.heldemight besubj.pastfromhealdan, if we were to keep, but that would give a poor sense; and it cannot be from heldan (hieldan) incline, for that would require to: silde should probably be read; comp. 180/130; ‘Semper illesum caput est habendum,’ T.; the meaning would be, let us protect it as it deserves.
176. Transpose, weder softe: sen hauen ofte.softe, mild; comp. ‘ðis weder is softe,’ GE 3061.
177. Read, heruestes hete; comp. ‘Heruest, with the heite ⁊ the high sun, | Was comyn into colde,’ Destruction of Troy, 407/12465.hardilike:heardlīce, energetically; the glideitakes the place of the usuale.
178.renneð rapelike: comp. 187/368.
181.wed, weed, used, no doubt, for the rhyme: for a more usual expression, see 21/112.
182. Comp. ‘He deden on gres and coren deres,’ GE 3088, 3049.
183.ireis for hire.hauen, wealth; comp. ‘man hoh . . . loc to chirche bringen ⁊ wurðin þermide godes bord;alse his haue beð,’ OEH ii. 217/6: n has been added as to ‘boðen’ 181/181 and elsewhere in this text and GE. Lit., that is to her for wealth; which constitutes her wealth.
185.winter agen, to meet, resist, winter: comp. ‘Þe blake cloð . . . is þiccure aȝein þe wind,’AR 50/15; ‘Ðat arche was a feteles good | set and limed agen ðe flood,’ GE 561. ‘Ut valeat brume fieri secura future,’ T.
186. Holthausen restores alliteration by substituting colde for winter.
187.hule, hut, shelter. Mätzner takes the formerðatas demonstrative, and divides bi liuen, that is meat by which she can live, quoting ‘mete quorbi ðei migten liuen,’ GE 573. More probably the former ðat has displaced mide (comp. 191/503), then mete is the object of tileð, procures.
188. Transpose, ðar tileð.
189.it: the book Physiologus; so 192/506; see 177/38, 183/221.
190. ‘Haec frumenta legit, si comperit; ordea spernit,’ T.finde ge, if she find: cleche for finde would restore the alliteration.corn, grainor seed, so OE.hwǣtene corn,corn hwǣtes, ‘granum frumenti,’ S. John xii. 24.
191. Omit al, and for forleteð read sedeð, sheds.ðat—seide, of which I have already spoken.
192. ‘She biteth not the barley to bear it about,’ Specimens. Mätzner also takes bit as biteð, eats, but explains beren abuten, about the barn. Butbit, OE.bīt, is contracted form of bideð, endures, which is to be restored here: she cannot endure the carrying of the barley about.
193. but shunneth it and hurries away, as though it were a shame to have anything to do with it.sakeð: comp. 192/536; ‘nes þer nan biscop;ꝥ forð on his wæi ne scoc | na munec ne nan abbed;ꝥ he an his wæi ne rad,’ L 13245; ‘and with his batayle forth he schoke,’ Laud Troy Book, 4886.
195. Omit ðe corn, forbitread biteð (so too at l. 211), and transpose, otwinne biteð.al—biteð, she bites it all asunder.otwinne, on twain: comp. OWScand. tvinnr, double. ‘Sed ne de pluviis aspersum germinet udis, | Aut ea ne pereat, esse quod hinc nequeat, | Granum quod legit prudens formica bipertit,’ T.
196. Add wurþ beforeforwurðe: comp. ‘Ich schal mid one bare worde | Do þat þi speche wrþ forwurþe,’ ON 548.ne waxe&c., nor germinate so as to be lost to her.
200. Defective: ðis little wile. ðe we on werlde wunen appears to form a line: Long and liuenoðe are probably the first and last words of a line; the latter must be dative. The Latin original has ‘Nosque laboremus, fratres, dum tempus habemus;’ something too is wanted to balance ‘mikel ge swinkeð,’ 181/175, like, Longe þat we labouren . for ure liuenoðe. This conjecture assumes an earlier use of labour than any recorded.
202.of, off, away,adv.representing off ðis werlde; comp. ‘ær ic . . . of gewite,’ ‘prius quam eam,’ Psal. xxxviii. 16.winter: ‘tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.
203.harde sures, sore troubles; comp. ‘to put þe of peril · i haue ney perisched oft, | ⁊ many a scharp schour · for þi sake þoled,’ W. of Palerne, 4513; ‘ffull sharpe was the shoure (printed shoute), shent were þere mony,’ Destruction of Troy, 10069: the adjective in this sense is usually sharp; ‘hard shoure,’ Destr. of Troy, 11048 is a fierce attack, but ‘sorful scurs,’ CM 24602. Similarly, ‘weorre ⁊ weane baðe | ⁊ untidi wederes,’ SK 2599.
204. The line may be completed by, er we henne wende; see 22/117. The rest of this section consists of rhymed septenaries.
205. Forderueread glewe, wise, prudent.
206. Transpose, us ne, and omit harde. So that we do not deeply regret our improvidence at doomsday.
207. Forureread here, forðere, with Holthausen who cites 178/88, þore. Forliues, soules should perhaps be read, as at 179/103.
208. Fornummoreread more.
209. Afterbarlicadd sed or corn. In the earlier bestiaries barley stands for heretical writers: Eudes de Cheriton, p. 247, explains wheat as good works.
210. Omitto.hauen moten, must have, is feeble and does not rhyme. Holthausen suggests hauen geten, have to observe: moten geten, must get, or moten seken, which makes up for an indifferent rhyme by its contrast with sunen, seem better. ‘Ipse novam legem colligo, non veterem,’ T.
211. get as at l. 195 would be better metrically.
212. Transpose, god to don, and, us forbedeð.
213. ‘Hoc est quod binas lex habet una vias, | Quae terrena sonat, simul et celestia monstrat. | Nunc mentem pascit, et modo corpus alit,’ T. The corrections bet, offers, and erðliche are due to Mätzner.bodes, not ‘biddings,’ Specimens, but teachings, information.bekned, points to, indicates, proclaims. The meaning of the original depends on the special use of lex, according to Papias ‘a legendo dicta lexis græce, latine locutio, id est quælibet syllaba uel uox, quæ scribi potest,’ hence the written word, here the ‘facts’ of natural history, useful to know for our bodily sustenance, but also charged with spiritual instruction. The ant, as the Latin puts it, ‘in suis factis res monstrat spirituales.’ The English version has obscured the sense by adding, without authority, l. 212, where lex is taken in its natural meaning of law.euelike, heavenly (teachings).
214.o geuelike, on an equality, equally: OE.ge-efenlicadj.here used asnoun: comp. 194/593.
215, 216. ‘Nos utinam repleat, famis ut formido recedat, Tempore judicii, quod simile est hiemi,’ T.
216. The first half is short; add, in erd afternu.
217. Next to the Ant in T. comes the Fox and then the Hart.
218-221. ‘Cervus habere duas naturas atque figuras | Dicitur a phisio, cum docet inde, logo,’ T. How the hart renews its youth is again told in the Deposition of Richard the Second, 15/8-20, and there is a curious use of the fable in Nova Legenda Anglie, i. 254/23-29.
221.fisiologet: the termination is probably borrowed from the familiar donet, a Latin grammar; OF. donet.
223.ðurg his nese, by drawing in his breath, ‘spiritu narium,’ or as T.puts it, ‘cum naribus extrahit.’on on, continuously; at 207/339, forthwith.
224.stoc . . . ston: ‘de caveis terrae, de latebrisve petrae,’ T. The translator uses a familiar combination.
225.it: the adder.
226.sweleð, miswritten for swelgeð, swallows: the scribe was probably led by ‘brinneð’ in the next line to think of the word which for him representedswǣlan.
227, 228.ðerof . . . of: tautology is frequent in this piece: comp. 184/260. The impersonal use ofbrinneðappears to be without parallel: the meaning is, that poisonous matter burns him afterwards.
230. ‘Estuat ad liquidas pergere fontis aquas,’ T.; estuat is glossed festinat, hencelepeð; comp. Psal. xli. 1.wið—list, displaying great prudence, wisdom: comp. ‘To the fischers hous þai went wiþ list,’ Gregorlegende, ed. Schulz, 52/1015.
232-238. ‘Quas cum forte bibit, his plenus toxica vincit, | Se juvenemque facit, cornua quando jacit,’ T.
235.non wigt, no whit, not at all.
236.er, before he recovers.
238.gingid him, renews his youth; comp. 184/259: a rare word, perhaps only here.
241-249.‘Nos quoque cum prisci serpentis fraude revicti, | Virus contrahimus, urimur et facibus, | Haec est luxuria quae fert odium vel et iram, | Aut etiam nimia est aeris auaricia,’ T.
241, 242 were no doubt originally couplets, perhaps, Alle we atter dragen | of ure eldere misdeden || ðe broken drigtinnes sonde | ðurg ðe neddres onde: comp. 40/192, 193.eldereseems to have been suggested by prisci.
244.nið ⁊ win: see 181/169.
245.giscing, covetousness: OE.gītsung; comp. ‘He bad him chesen steres-men . . . ðe niðing and giscing flen,’ GE 3429, 3432; ‘Mid yuernesse and prude . and yssyng wes þat on,’ OEM 38/35.
246.wissing: to OE.wȳscan: its meaning as a sin is shown by, ‘Ne wrec þu þe mid wussinge . ne mid warienge,’ OEH ii. 179/22, avenge not thyself by wishing evil or cursing.
247.ouerwene, presumption: found here only.
248. Insert bi beforeswilc.
252, 253. ‘Ad fontem vivum debemus currere christum,’ T.
255.wissing, instruction. ‘Qui cum nos udat, sumpta venena fugat,’ T. udat is explained, with quotation of this line, in the Catholicon as balneat.
257.forwerpenandgingen259 depend onbihoueð252. Holthausen restores the missing rhyme by reading, forwerpen pride hornes | so hert doð hise in þornes. It would be simpler to add al (comp. 178/73, 180/137, 182/191, 190/443), meaning completely, entirely, after hornes; it would balanceeurilcdel, and the rhyme is possible; see 190/465, 466.
259. In this way renew our youth to God, that is, restore the baptismal relation to him; comp. 181/162 and 178/89.
260. take heed to ourselves afterward henceforth, ever after. Comp.‘ðesunenday | ðat is forð siðen worðed ay,’ GE 261.
263. That ought to be present in thought to us all: comp. 191/487, 196/653; ‘þine beoden þe beoð þe so imunde,’ SM 13/8.mindeis OE.gemynde.
265. ‘Longius et pergunt pascua quando petunt,’ T.
266.ouer water ten: ‘Si fluvios tranant,’ T.; ‘quant passent braz de mier,’ Bozon, Contes moralisés, 56/3; ‘Cervi . . . maria trameant gregatim nantes porrecto ordine, et capita imponentes praecedentium clunibus, vicibusque ad terga redeuntes,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 32, 114. See Fecunda Ratis, 105/522 note, as to the use of this story by the Fathers.
268. Read biforen.
272.skinbon, shinbone; OE.scin-bān, tibia, which if placed on the haunch of the preceding hart would make swimming difficult. He should have written chin: ‘Portant suspensum gradientes ordine mentum, Alter in alterius clunibus impositus,’ T.; ‘chescun de eux met sa test sus autri croupe,’ Bozon, 56/4.
274. Transpose, teð biforen: ‘Sed qui precedit fessus ad ima redit; Sic se vertentes cuncti mutuoque ferentes | Nunquam deficiunt, atque viam peragunt,’ T.
275.tirgen, to be fatigued: OE.tiergan,tyrgan, to vex. ‘Tirwyn, or make wery, lasso,’ Prompt. Parvul., col. 499. But the word is not original, it does not rhyme. Teren, representingtēorian,teorian, to tire, would be better; *toren with shifted accent, perhaps influenced by tor, difficult (see NED tor, tere) would restore the rhyme.
276. Transpose, mide cumen.
277.hertienis Mätzner’s correction, comparing 199/75, 76; but theinf.in-ienis very doubtful. The original word was probably beren.
278.grund: see 188/401: the poet has misunderstood ‘ad ima redit,’ the weary leader, who has no rest for his chin, falls in at the rear of the procession.
280. and supply their necessity; ‘nunquam deficiunt,’ they never failone another. A line is wanting, such as, ⁊ cumen to here stede, answering to ‘atque viam peragunt.’
281. ‘Hunc retinent usum, si sint vel in agmine centum,’ T.hem bitwen, among themselves.
284. ‘Per tales mores alienos ferre labores | Cum pietate monent atque juvare docent,’ T.costes, habits, ways: comp. ‘knewen he nogt ðis dewes cost,’ GE 3327.
285. Connect ur non, no one of us.
288.his wine, to his friend.
289. ‘Alter alterius onera portate, et sic adimplebitis legem Christi,’ Gal. vi. 2.
291-294. ‘Sic lex est Christi nobis complenda magistri | Cuius, qui faciet, pascua repperiet,’ T.
293.bitwixen us . . . brice, useful, serviceable to one another: comp. 194/592.
294.lage:acc.after to fillen, which is subject of is.
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.hirefollows the gender of vulpes. Forto namesee 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.hulenis hardly possible; it is not found elsewhere till the end of the fourteenth century and the construction with the directacc.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 ofhatienis 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.
308is 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.
309.stund, portion (of time): rarely with defining genitive.
310.dareð: comp. 187/374, 195/624: here, to lie motionless, in the other places, to lie hid, to lurk; comp. ‘fare man . . . to þam scræfe þær þa wiðer-sacan inne dariað behydde,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 506/321, and see Minot i. 9 for further illustrations of the uses of this word.
311.swiðe redi, very prompt to seize the opportunity: comp. 187/368.
312.fallen bi, alight near; a use of the verb determined by the needs of alliteration: Mätzner adduces OE.befeallen, but that requires on; so in ME. ‘Gredi foueles fellen ðor-on,’ GE 947. ‘insidet ut comedat,’ T. Transpose, bi hire fallen · fode for to winnen.
313. Transpose, beð ded.
314. Mätzner alterswullento billen, spoiling the secondary alliteration: the absolute use of willen, to desire to go, is common enough.fel: in Eudes de Cheriton, 303/7 and Jacques de Vitry, no. ccciv, the fox puts out his tongue and the birds make for it, a device which greatly improves the fox’s chance. Transpose, feleð wel.
315.letteð, stops, hinders: OE.lettan. Transpose, up lepeð . ⁊ hem sone letteð.
317.illing, evil treatment. ‘Dentibus et tristem reddit edendo vicem,’ T.
318.tetoggeð, pulls to pieces; see 68/145.
323.frame: see 176/24.
324. For the combination, see 18/16.
325. ‘Nunc zabulo similis, par aliquando viris,’ T.
327. ‘Nos et dissimulat quod mala non faciat,’ T.lat, pretends; comp. 203/222: influenced in form at any rate by OWScand. láta.
329. Omit a and he.
330.bukes, belly’s: see 4/19, where it means body.
331.wið unskil, without discretion: comp. ‘Ne rend, ne beat nogt wið vnskil,’ GE 3506; Orm 427.
332. And while we are amusing ourselves, he quickly plays us a fox’s trick.foxing, a nonce-word in this sense, but it is common in dialect for shamming.
334-341. ‘Cuius (read eius) edit carnem quisquis rem fingit inanem, | Hoc est peccatum quodlibet et malum | Quem quasi deglutit, cum secum ad tartara ducit,’ T.
335.idel spel: ‘verbum otiosum,’ S. Matt. xii. 36; ‘tel heom þer spelles,’ L 26538 appears to mean, tell them tales there.
336. Whoever feeds on sin, he tugs at the fox’s flesh.
338.geld, requites; comp. l. 316.
339.sending, disgrace, confusion; OE.scendan.
341.merk, dark, murky; OE.mirce: comp. 190/439, 193/570.
343, 344. ‘Daemon ab insidiis vulpeculae est similis,’ T.breides, stratagems, tricks; comp. 193/548.swik, deception; comp. 188/396: OE.swīc.
345, 346. ‘Sic cum fraude viri sunt vulpis nomine digni, | Quales hoc plures tempore sunt homines,’ T. Formanread mani, omit ⁊, transpose wurði arn and insert to beforesame, and many likewise are worthy of the name of fox to their disgrace. Comp. ‘Euerilc ðhing haued he geue name, | Me to sorge, scaðe and same,’ GE 301.
347.oðer, to another.
348. Comp. ‘Danne ðogte eue on hire mod,’ GE 333; KH 281 note.
349.iwis: see32/40 note. There is nothing in T. corresponding to ll. 347-349; the writer had probably in mind, ‘Ut quid cogitatis mala in cordibus vestris?’ S. Matt. ix. 4.
350.legeð&c., lies not, misleads not in this; so, ‘Iff iosephus ne legeð me,’ GE 1281.
351-354. ‘Herodesque fuit, qui christum querere jussit, | Credere se simulans, perdere dissimulans,’ T.; comp. S. Luke, xiii. 32.herodes: Orm has Herode in his English text.fox ⁊ flerd: nouns used as adjectives: for the former comp. 29/15;flerd, deceit, occurs in Orm, ‘falls ⁊ flærd,’ 12177: OE.fleard: see Björkman, 160.
354.fordon: ‘Futurum est enim ut Herodes quaerat puerum ad perdendum eum,’ S. Matt. ii. 15.
356.Seftes&c.: comp. 2/2.sene—werlde, it is seen in the case of the world; parenthetic; but Mätzner takesðingas subject ofis.Withoncomp. ‘þat was on Tristrem sene,’ Sir Tristrem 1205; ‘On þe hit is wel eþ sene,’ OEH ii. 255/5; ‘Ful soth it was apon vs sene,’ CM 24333.
357.leiðe, hateful: OWScand. leiðr = OE.lāð: lodlike, OE.lāðlicis synonymous.ðus: either, as has already been said, that theCreatormade these loathly things, or, as follows, that He made them to this end, for the instruction of men generally. The latter is a commonmedievalidea; men, says Gilbert of Hoyland, contemplate God ‘in speculo creaturarum et scripturarum aenigmate,’ S. Bernardi Opera, ii. 170.
358.manikines: see81/80 note.
359.manne: dat.; see176/24 note.
360. Holthausen supplied web (see l. 363), and swiðe or wide. ‘Plurima fila net (a. l.nectit) assiduus,’ T.
361. Transpose, atte hus rof festeð.festeð, binds.fodredes, plans, means of securing food: a word found here only.
362.so—elde, so it is for her in age, is senseless in this context: read, hire is so on felde, it is for her as if on a field, that is, she moves on a ceiling as if she were on the ground.so, as if; comp. 194/583 with 195/625; ‘His brunie he gan lace | So he scholde in to place,’ KH 717.
363.werpeð, throws, with perhaps a reference to the specific meaning of warp, OE.wearp, stamen.
364. Transpose, al idigt haueð. Withdriueðcomp. 176/8.
365.it, the web.
366. Transpose, fleges ðer faren . ⁊ ðerinne fallen.
367.wiðeren, struggle; properly, resist.
368.renneð&c.: comp. 181/178.redi: comp. 185/311.
369.nimeð . . . to, makes for; see 213/539.nimeð, seizes: the repetition is tolerable, because of the different meanings of the word.
370.bit: read biteð.bane, destroyer: OE.bana, mostly used of the agent.
372. This line appears to be derived from ‘Et placet inde sibi nimium | Quando nocere potest alium’ which comes in the application or ‘significacio.’ If so, it means that in this action she finds her greatest profit. But probably hem should be substituted for hire.
373. Read freteð.
374.dareð: see 185/310 and 195/624.
376. ‘Hos sequitur homo vermiculos | Decipiendo suos socios,’ T. For man read were.
377.on—stalle, in any place whatsoever: comp. ‘i stude ⁊ i stalle,’ SK 683. B-T quotes from a charter, ‘ꝥ hi . . . næfre ne beon on stede ne on stealle þær æfre undon worðe ꝥ ure foregengles geuðen,’ Thorpe, Diplom. Angl., 348/28. The words are synonymous, so, ‘Þer þe fir he has his stall,’ CM 396. See 192/537.
377.stille er lude, under any circumstances: see25/226 note.
378.mot, place of meeting, especially in a court of law. Forwiseread mene: comp. ‘mannes mene,’ society of men, GE 501. See 26/266.
379. Read, sarp he him biteð; corresponding to ‘bitterlike’ 187/370;comp. ‘sarp on bite,’ GE 2989. ‘Quos comedit faciens miseros,’ T.bale selleð, does him an injury. ME. sellen, to give, is rarely used with immaterial object, but comp. ‘sylle heom forȝefenesse,’ Twelfth Cent. Homilies, 132/20. Similar is ‘nuste noht Bruttes þere;þat balu heom wes ȝiueðe,’ L 29817. Transpose, bale him.
380. Transpose, his blod drinkeð.dreueð, vexes, annoys.
381. Forhemread him; the scribe corrected ll. 379, 380, but overlooked this. Transpose, ⁊ ðo him al freteð.
382.cetegrandie: genitive of ‘cete grandia,’ Gen. i. 21, treated as though it were one word and a noun singular. Cetegrandia is not in Papias or the Catholicon; it is quite possibly the invention of the present writer; the heading in T. is ‘De Balena’ or ‘De Ceto.’ The word in l. 383 appears to have been formed directly from it; the OF. Bestiaries have cetus only.
383-388. ‘Est super omne pecus quod vivit in aequore cetus, | Monstrum grande satis, cum superexstat aquis | Prospiciens illum, montem putat esse marinum, | Aut quod in oceano insula sit medio,’ T. Insert gret before fis.
385.ðat: pronoun anticipating the clause ðat—neilond, l. 387.get, too; comp. ‘Of thre ȝere in þe temple sett, | And þerto fourtene winter gett,’ CM 10531.
389.vnride, enormous, monstrous; OE.ungerȳde; the general idea of the word is excessive. Comp. 192/507, 522, 120/125.
390.hungreð: impersonal as at 60/99; comp. ‘crist him ȝeueð swilcne mete ꝥ him nefre eft ne hungreð,’ OEH i. 37/30; ‘þer in onliche stude him hungrede,’ AR 162/1. Omit he.gapeð&c.: ‘os aperit | Unde velud florum (a. l.hamum) se flatus reddit hodorum | Ad se pisciculos ut trahat exiguos,’ T.
391.it smit an onde, a breath rushes forth; comp. 126/321 note: it is formal nominative, the real subject isonde; comp. 188/403; ‘Til hit sprang dai liȝt,’ KH 124 note.
393.to him dragen, move towards him: comp. 189/416, 32/49; ‘And whatena hauld shall we draw to?’ Child, Ballads, iii. 434.
394.it, the sweet breath.
395.houen: see 177/53.
396.swike: see 82/111.uncuð . . . of: see 179/97.
397. ‘Piscis pisciculos claudit, deglutit et illos,’ T.
401.wið, on; comp. 180/147.se grund, bottom of the sea; comp. 177/58, 184/278, 189/423; ‘þai sail in þe see gronde . fissches to fede,’ Minot x. 4 note; ‘I’ll set my foot in a bottomless boat, | And swim to the sea-ground,’ Child, Ballads, i. 448.
402.heil ⁊ sund: see 177/59.
403. Insert perhaps harde or ille before time. ‘Si sit tempestas, cum vadit vel venit estas, | Et pelagus fundum turbidat omne suum,’ T.
404. Forse, Holthausen suggests brine, salt sea, by way of improving the rhyme, but comp. time: bi me, KH 533, 534.
405.winnen, come into conflict, at the change of the seasons.
407.droui, turbid; comp. OE.drōf,drēfan: comp. ‘Þer faure citees wern set nov is a see called, | Þat ay is drouy ⁊ dim,’ E. E. Allit. Poems, 68/1016.
408.ðat stund, at that time; comp. 185/309.
409. ‘Continuo summas se tollit caetus ad undas,’ T.stireð, moves; comp. ‘ðis asse is eft of weige stired,’ GE 3961, but stirteð would be more appropriate; comp. ‘And pharaon stirte up anon,’ GE 2931; ‘Þe fisches sturten op with þis song,’ South English Legendary, 232/456.houeð stille: comp. ‘Louerd crist, þat swch a best: scholde houi so stille | And soffri men opon him gon: and don al heore wille,’ id. 230/375.
411.sipes: Mätzner suggested siperes, OE.scipere, but that does not apparently occur in ME. and it would be unmetrical, sipmen might be read, if any change were necessary.fordriuen, driven about, so ‘We beoþ séé-weri men;mid wedere al for-dreuen,’ L MS. O, 6205: but OE.fordrīfanmeans to drive away, banish, drive out of course.
412. There is nothing in the original corresponding to this line: comp. 91/88.
413.biloken: Mätzner explains, look around, comparing ‘Brid . . . biwent him ofte, ⁊ bilokeð him euer ȝeorneliche al abuten,’ AR 132/26, but the meaning of the verb is there qualified by ‘abuten.’ Here its natural sense is better, they look to themselves, they consider their plight.
414. Add ðat afterwenen: comp. 185/311. ‘Est promontorium cernere non modicum | Huic religare citamprotempestate carinam | Nautae festinant utque foras saliant,’ T.
416.mid here migt, striving their hardest: ‘bi his mihte,’ OEH ii. 189/11.
417, 418. These lines probably ran, Sipes on to festen | ⁊ alle up to gangen.festen on, moor.
419, 420. ‘Accendunt vigilem quem navis portitat ignem,’ T.; ‘vigilem,’ ever burning, Virgil, Æn. iv. 200.wel to brennenmay mean, to light a good fire, but such absolute use of brennen is without support. Forwelread welm, blazing fire: OE.wielm,wylm; comp. ‘he wolde hine ifusen;to ane bare walme,’ L 22123: the word is common enough in OE.but rare in ME., and so may have puzzled the copyist, who would find wel in the next line. The sense is, They all go up on land to light a blazing fire on this monster by a spark struck out of flint by steel into tinder.
421.warmen . . . heten . . . drinkendepend ongangen: ‘ut cale se faciant aut comedenda coquant,’ T.
423.grunde: see 188/401. For the whale mistaken for an island, comp. the South English Legendary, 224/155-176.
426, 427. ‘Viribus est zabulus quasi cetus corpore magnus, | Ut monstrant magni quos facit ille magi,’ T.wið, of, as in ‘mekill of maine,’ Minot, i. 85.
427.hauengives a fair sense with ‘wil ⁊ magt’ as object, but the original word was probably taunen (comp. 195/631), rendering ‘monstrant.’
428, 429 are due to a misunderstanding of the original, ‘Mentes cunctorum qui suntubiquevirorum | Esurit atque sitit, quosque potest perimit;’ the devil hungers and thirsts for the souls of men and he destroys all he can.
430.tolleð, allures: the earliest occurrence of the word.
431. Omit he.sonde, shame.
432.in leue lage, low (weak) in faith; a phrase apparently without parallel. ‘Sed modicos fidei trahit in dulcedine verbi, | Namque fide firmos non trahit ille viros,’ T.
435.in rigte leue: see 89/28.mid fles ⁊ gast, in body and soul.
437.on lengðe, in the long run, at length: more commonly used of measure, ‘hit is on lengþe;four and twenti mundes,’ L MS. O, 21993.
438.festeð: comp. 1/23; ‘In him i hafe min hope al fest,’ CM 5288: ‘spem sibi ponit,’ T.
439.helle dim: comp. 186/341.
440. This article is mostly original.Sirene, genitive of sirena; the title in T. is ‘De Sirenis’; classical Latin has only siren,-is,fem.In T. they are female and birds in the nether half; his account is very brief and general, and it is followed closely by that of the onocentaur, which is ‘biformis’ like the siren; the ‘significacio’ is common to both. An earlier description is found in Layamon, 1322-1347, which is based on Wace, Brut, 733-771. The author of the Bestiary was acquainted with one or both of these. Comp. also Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. 47.
441.selcuðes, marvels: the word is mostly adjective. ‘Item mare est animancium et monstrorum multiplicis forme productivum; mare enim longe producit monstra et mira quam facit ipsa terra,’ Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xiii.
442.mereman, mermaid: a better form is meremin,pl.merminnen, L 1322: merman is a much later masculine formed from mermaid. The first half of the line is short: perhaps muchel should be added after is.
443.oc—bunden, but in her resemblance to a maiden she is altogether limited to this extent of breast and body. This use of bind has perhaps been helped by Layamon’s ‘wifmen hit þunchet fuliwis;bi-neoðe þon gurdle hit þuncheð fisc.’
444. ‘Poisson sunt del nombril aval,’ Wace 737. For the second half line read, ge is noman ilik.
445.to fuliwis: see32/40 note.waxen: explained by Mätzner as furnished, in meaning of OE.beweaxan, which however is used only of extraneous growths, as ‘burgtunas brerum beweaxne,’ town-dwellings with briars o’ergrown, Cod. Exon. 443/16. Comp. ‘a win-tre | ðat adde waxen buges ðre,’ GE 59/2059.
446.wankel, unstable; OE.wancol: comp. ‘wanclen,’ weaklings, L 31834. The modern dialect word, wankle, is current in the North and Midlands, and often used of uncertain, unsettled weather, and so probably here of stormy, disturbed seas.
447.ðer—sinkeðis a half-line,sipes—werkeða complete line: the former may have run, ðer ðe water sinkeð . dun on west halue, where the sea slopes away down to the west; for the second half-line comp. ‘an æst halue an west halue,’ L 29287. ‘Et modo naufragium, modo dant mortale periclum,’ T.
448.mirie: ‘Dolces vois ont, dolcement chantent,’ Wace, 738; ‘Þeos habbeð swa murie song,’ L 1326. Holthausen omitsge.mere, a shortened form of mereman.manie: ‘Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonancia multis | Vocibus et modulis cantus formancia multis,’ T.
449.sille, marvellous; OE.syllic.
450.it ben: see1/10 note.
451. The scribe should have put the stop beforeforgeten. ‘Li fol home qui le cant oent, | . . . | Lor voie oblient et guerpissent,’ Wace, 743, 745.
452. ‘Quae faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum,’ T.
454.suk, suck, expressing the sound made by the water closing over the vessel.
456-459appears to be based on the experience of Brutus; ‘Brutus iherde siggen;þurh his sæ-monnen | of þan ufele ginnen;þe cuðen þa mereminnen | . . . | Þa mereminnen heom to svommen;on alchare sidan. | swiða heo heom lætten;mid luðere heora craften. | Neðelas Brutusat-bræc;al buten burstan, | ⁊ ferde riht on his wei,’ L 1334-1337, 1342-1347.
456.wise . . . warre: see 18/16.
457. know how to return, that is, to escape: comp. ‘hwan ic aȝen cherre;al ic þe ȝelde,’ OEH i. 79/12, and for the noun, ‘Þer deþ so redi fynt dore opene, | Ne may helpe no ȝeyn char,’ Desputisoun, 76/167; ‘efter-charr,’ CM 21922.
458. Often they have burst away, made good their escape: comp. 193/548 where the verb has an object in theacc.of the thing escaped from, as occasionally in OE., and as probably here also. For the second half of the line in its present form yields no satisfactory sense. Mätzner, who completed he[re], translates, with their heart incorruptible, inflexible, equatingouelwith OWScand. ófalr. Read, ofte arn atbrosten mid hele . here brest iuel, often have they safely escaped from their evil danger. Comp. ‘Þe king Goffar iseih his burst;⁊ unæðe him seolf atbreac,’ L 1610; ‘þa ofte ure Bruttes;makeden hufele burstes,’ id. 19856, and with the form brest, ‘or thei take reste | Er schal thei suffre mochel breste,’ Laud Troy Book, 4226; ‘To-quils þai duelled þar to rest, | O water had þai ful mikel brest,’ CM 6308.
459. Mätzner deletesherd, to correspond with, ‘Quod (i.e.periculum) qui fugerunt, hii tales esse tulerunt,’ T.; but in view of L 1334-1337 quoted above, it would be better to leave outtold; the wise escape because they have been forewarned. With either alteration, the line remains formless: better, he hauen herd tellen . of tis mere unimete, with distinct alliteration in each half-line (comp. 464/15). Holthausen supplies is afterðat: the scribe probably understood the connection as, which, monstrous in this wise, as being half human and half fish, has a moral application (‘significacio’, ‘bitacnunge,’ 79/15) in virtue of this monstrosity.
463, 464. Many men illustrate what is signified by this creature here adduced as a symbol. ‘Quam plures homines sic sunt in more biformes,’ T.; comp. 191/471.
465. Mätzner alteredwuluesto sepes; the source is, ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis, qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces,’ S. Matt. vii. 15.
467, 468. ‘Utpote sunt multi qui de virtute locuti, | Turpibusindulgent,’T. Perhaps of should be inserted before godcundhede.
469.vncuð wið: see 179/97. ‘Qui foris ut fantur, sic intus non operantur,’ T.
474.ðe legen, lie to thee, by presently breaking their oath: ‘unum dicentes, aliud mox tibi facientes,’ T.
475.sage, discourse: OE.sagu: comp. ‘heo wenden þat his sawen;soðe weren,’ L 749.
476.ðer imong, all the time they are promising.
477.agteandsoulel. 478 are apparently accusatives in a sort of apposition to ‘ðe’ l. 476. OE.swicianrequiresymboronwith the name of the thing about which deceit is practised.
480.Elpes: the OE. forms areelpendandylp; elp is probably a shortened form of the former.Inde riche, the realm of India.
481.berges ilike, like mountains; ‘bene firmares montibus esse pares,’ T.; ‘ylp is ormæte nyten mare þonne sum hus,’ Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/366.
482.o wolde, in the woodland: comp. 195/620.
484, 485. ‘Adversi coeunt, cum sibi conveniunt.’ The scribe has putsampnenin the place of some less common word; Holthausen proposes hemen which gives an assonance at any rate: if a verb *menen may be inferred from mæne, mene, intercourse, it would fit still better.
486.kolde of kinde, chaste by nature: comp. 191/495; ‘so kinde cold,’ GE 1999.
487.minde: see 184/263.
488.noten of, make use of: see 84/45.gres, herb, medicinal plant.
489.ðe, to which: see 46/292.mandragores, mandrake: L. mandragoras; in Philippe de Thaün mandragora. It is discussed at length in Bartholomeus Anglicus, lib. xvii, ‘dicitur autem habere virtutemprebetivammulieribus concipiendi.’ There is no mention of it in T., but it is common matter in the Bestiaries.
490-494. ‘Hique semel pariunt quamvis tot tempora vivunt, | Hoc est ter centum, nec faciunt geminum, | Ast unum generant et per duo tempora gestans,’ T. (‘duo tempora’ = duos annos). See Ælf. Lives, ii. 104/569.wuneden: read wunen:moreis probably an addition by the scribe.
495.blod ⁊ bon, subject of is: for the phrase, meaning the whole body, comp. 196/636; ‘nys non so feyr of blod ant bone,’ KH MS. L, 916 note.
496. ‘Cum parit in magna, ne cadat, exstat aqua,’ T. The Bestiaries generally say that she takes to the water for fear of the dragon.sal, has to, must.
498.to mid side: nothing corresponding in T., but ‘Tresque à sun ventre en l’unde,’ P. de Thaün, 1442; ‘pergit ad lacum magnum et ingreditur usque ad ubera,’ H. de S. Victor, ii. 427.midsideis a compound noun; contrast ‘with a sadel to the midside,’ Desputisoun, ed. Linow, 59/517 (Laud MS.) with the corresponding, ‘Wiþ a sadel to middle þe syde,’ 101/517 (Digby MS.).
499.wanne—tide; Mätzner translates, ‘when mischief betides her,’treating harde as a noun, like 152/56 note. The construction would then be the same as in ‘Aþulf tit no wounde,’ KH MS. L, 1352, andhardemight better be translated birth pangs. But the order of the words is against that interpretation:tideis impersonal andhardeis an adverb: comp. ‘wel þe sal bityde,’ L MS. O, 2236.
500.ðatis often repeated when a clause interrupts the construction, as in ‘sitteð all stille, ꝥ hwon he parted urom ou, ꝥ he ne cunne ower god, ne ower vuel nouðer,’ AR 64/20.
502. ‘Non habet ut (a.l.unde) surgat, quia nunquam crura recurvat,’ T. The elk is also without joints in its legs; see Elton, Origins of English History, p. 54.
504.Hu—widedepends on l. 506. Withhecomp. 119/77, 194/602.
505.walkeð wide, travels to a distance; a favourite phrase in the romances: comp. ‘Ihc habbe walke wide,’ KH 953 note.
506.her: in Physiologus.
507. For resting is difficult because his huge bulk prevents him from lying down.
508.to fuligewis: see 32/40.
509. ‘Incumbit trunco arboris haut modico,’ T.
510.trostlike, confidingly: ‘Idunc dort a seür,’ P. de Thaün, 1550.
511.of walke weri, weary from walking; so, ‘weri of sorȝen,’ L 28081.
512.ðisanticipates l. 514: the hunter notes the elephant’s favourite support, ‘his beste wune.’
514.wune, resort; usually custom, but comp. ‘Vyche day in þe temple . wes myne ywune,’ OEM 43/207. Eudes de Cheriton, 316/26, has, ‘Elephas, more consueto super illam appodians, simul cum illa cadit.’
515. Forwillenread wiken: to don hise wiken, to perform his functions, here, to sleep. The phrase ‘don wiken’ occurs in OEH i. 137/11, meaning, to do services. Comp. 84/45 note.
516.underset: ‘Quam notat atque secat venator, et obice celat,’ T. Mätzner translates, underprops; rather, wedges up, underpins.
517.bet: used for the rhyme, where best might have been expected.
518.he, the elephant.it . . . war, aware of it: see200/116 note.
519.makeð char, returns: comp. 190/457.
520. ‘Clamque sedens spectat dum requiem repetat,’ T.biwaltis Mätzner’s correction for biwarlt; it is a rare word and means to rule, manage, wield, as in ‘þe holie þremnesse þe shop ⁊ biwalt alle shafte,’ OEH ii. 25/8. He explains the passage as, the hunter sits alone, observes whether his device helps him in any way. Butolonfor al one or one asin this text, 194/579, 580, the absence of a conjunction beforebihaltand the meaning given tobiwaltall raise doubts. Morris translates the last word as ‘deceiveth.’ Perhaps in olon lurks al on, which with *bihalt, observation, would give, intent on watching. *bihalt, noun of bihalden, is not found, but may be inferred from OE.geheald.biwaltmay be miswritten for biualt, representing OE.befealleþ: l. 521 might then mean whether his device results in anything for him.
522.unride: see 188/389.
524, 525. ‘Ille velud quondam securus ad arboris umbram, | Cum venit, incumbit, cumque ruente ruit,’ T.boden, for boðen.
530.ðer, to that place.gangande: the author wrote gangen, and at l. 536 seken or more probably saken: comp. 108/232; ‘þer com o schelchene gon,’ OEM 45/279, 285; ‘Þer com go a wel fair mon,’ South English Legendary, 223/139, 226/265, 227/272; ‘þat him com biforen gon;a wunder ane fair mon,’ L 32064. The infinitive defines; here it means, on foot. ‘Tunc unus currit, qui relevare cupit,’ T.
531.utis a scribe’s mistake for up.
532.Fikeð, bustles, fusses: still in dialectic use in the northern counties and Scotland. See Björkman, 145, 306. The combination withfondeð, tries, does not occur elsewhere.
533.forðen: see 180/126.no wigt, not at all.
534.canne, can he; nor can he do anything else. ‘Sed nequit et satagit: complorans hic quoque barrit,’ T.
536.manie: in the older Bestiaries twelve besides the first try to raise him. The original reading of the MS., sacande, for saken (shake), is preferable to the correction: see 182/193.
537.on stalle maken, put him in a standing position, set him up again; comp. 193/539, 547, 556, 557; ‘cumen . . . on stalle,’ 193/539. A deer is said to stall when it stands still in covert.
538.for, in spite of, notwithstanding; comp. ‘For roting es na better rede,’ CM 11505; ‘thei scholde come with-outen dwellyng | And speke with him for any thyng,’ Laud Troy Book, 3103: contrast ‘For,’ in consequence of, 193/542.
540-549. ‘Cum nequeunt omnes, contendunt mittere voces, | Ad quas fit subitus parvulus ac minimus | Cuius (et est mirum) promuscida sublevat illum, | Et sic predictas effugit insidias,’ T.
548. Comp. 186/344, 190/458.atbrested: supply he (the fallen elp) as subject: see6/18 note.
552.ðat fele we, for that we suffer.
553. Holthausen would read, Moyses wulde him reisen rigt, | migte iforðen no wigt; but reisen : forðen is sufficient rhyme for this author. The lines are, however, short; insert up before reisen, he after migte.
556.her non, none of them.
557. By ‘upright’ I mean in his former position as possessor of the riches of heaven. Foriseiesee56/46 note. Comp. ‘heoueriche wunne,’ AR 242/4; ‘heouenriche murhðe,’ OEH i. 115/1.
559.suggeden, sighed; comp. ‘Forr iwhillc mann birrþ wepenn her, ⁊ sikenn sare ⁊ suhhȝhenn,’ Orm 7923.weren in ðogt, were very anxious: comp. ‘Euer ⁊ oo for my leof icham in grete þohte,’ Bödd. AE. Dicht. 179/7.
560.ovt: read ogt, in any wise, at all.
561.onder steueneis meaningless. Mätzner suggested mid are steuene, with one cry; Holthausen foronder, luder. Butalleis superfluous and the rhythm is defective: the original may have been, remeden he ðo ludere steuene. Comp. ‘Þa quað Membricius;ludere stefne,’ L 927; ‘Numbert heom to clepede;mid ludere stefne,’ id. 1428.
563, 564. ‘Ipsorum precibus venit ad hoc dominus,’ T.care, anxiety.hem . . . to, to them: see 1/3.
566.litel: ‘parvus, quoniam deus est homo factus,’ T.
567.drowing ðolede, endured suffering: comp. ‘Ac of cristes þruwinge · þet he þolede her,’ OEM 37/4; ‘He ðrowede and ðolede un-timing ðat,’ GE 1180.
568.under gede, went to the help of; said with a reference to l. 545: L. subvenire.
570.dim: comp. 186/341.
571. For the Turtle, the author follows the Latin original pretty closely.
572.boke: Physiologus.o rime, in verse: insert al before o.
573.lagelike, loyally, faithfully: comp. ‘ȝif ha hare wedlac laheliche halden,’ HM 13/33.
574.make: comp. ‘Forr fra þatt hire make iss dæd | Ne kepeþþ ȝho nan oþerr,’ Orm 1276.siðen: read seden, separate, depart, OE.scēadan; comp. ‘Þurrh þatt he wollde stilleliȝ | Fra Sannte Marȝe shædenn,’ Orm 2922, 16240. Omit ge as unmetrical.
575.muneð, keep in mind; comp. 185/284.
576, 577. ‘Nocte dieque juncta manebit | Absque marito nemo videbit,’ T.sundren ovt, separate at all, at any time: comp. 195/623.
578-583. ‘Sed viduata si caret ipso | Non tamen ultra nubet amico, | Sola volabit, sola sedebit: | Et quasi vivum corde tenebit | Opperiensque casta manebit,’ T.
579.one, alone: OE.āna.fareð, passes her life.
581.luue abit, awaits, watches for the return of her beloved.
585.reche, take heed, bethink thyself.
586. See 180/134.meche: ‘Namque maritus est sibi (i.e.animae) Christus,’ T.
588.fro himward: see178/89 note. The metre requires the omission of-ward.
590. Read luue none: for the combinationleue . . . luue, comp. 143/73.ne—newe, nor love any new one; comp. ‘Allas! is every man thus trewe, | That every yere wolde have a newe,’ Chaucer, H. F. 301; ‘He wolde not him chawnge for no newe,’ Guy of Warwick, 122. This gives the best sense and rhythm, but luue may be a noun governed by leue, and l. 581 favours that interpretation.
591-593. ‘Quem superesse credit in aethre, | Inde futurum spectat eundem | Ut microcosmum judicat omnem,’ T.
592.briche: see 185/293.
593.on geuelike: see 182/214.
594. Omitmen.his loðe, those hateful to him.
598-600. ‘Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato,’ T.bro, eyebrow: OWScand. brá: see Björkman 231. Mätzner sees in the whale’s brow an expression for whalebone: Pliny says ‘ora ballaenae habent in frontibus, ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbos efflant,’ N. H. ix. 6, 16. The explanation is not convincing. Such comparisons are generally made with familiar objects, so ‘colblake,’ 153/75; ‘And worth al black sum ani cole,’ CM 22489; ‘Al blak so cole-brond,’ King Alisaunder 6260. Perhaps, so brond of cole: the scribe is given to leaving out the end of his words, and the rhyme cole : al is no worse than fel : al, 190/465. In other Bestiaries the panther is of many colours.
600.trendled&c., rounded as a wheel.
601. And it sets him off, adorns him, exceedingly: an early instance of this meaning. Comp. ‘þe kirtel bicom him swiþe wel,’ Guy of Warwick, Auch. MS. 14/210.
602.he: see119/77 note.
603.der: T. has ‘Diversis pastus venatibus et saciatus,’ but the Bestiaries generally avoid making him carnivorous; ‘Divers mangiers manjue,’ P. de Thaün, 474; ‘Saoulee . . . De boenes viandes plusors,’ Guillaume, 1958, 1960; ‘diversis herbis vescitur,’ Honorius Augustod. (Migne), 887.
604.cul, rump: the earliest appearance of this French word in English. Mätzner explains it as cowl, fell.
607. Afterdagesinsert al: comp. 195/635.
609.lude so, as loudly as: but lude should probably be omitted, as the line is too long.
610-615. ‘Exit odor talis de gutture, tamque suavis, | Ut virtute sua superet vel aromata cuncta,’ T.mid . . . forðmay be equivalent to forð mid, along with (see 1/19), butforðis more probably adverbial, far, as in, ‘Sum was wið migte so forð gon, | ðat hadden he under hem mani on,’ GE 835.oueral, widely spread.
612.haliweie, more usually halewei, some preparation of a balsamic nature used both as a lotion and a drink. It corresponds to anOE.*hǣlewǣg, healing water, but the spelling in the text shows an association withhālig(NED.). Comp. ‘hwo þet bere a deorewurðe licur, oðer a deorewurðe wete, as is bame, in a feble uetles, healewi in one bruchele glese,’ AR 164/13; ‘Kumeð þerof smel of aromaz, oðer of swote healewi,’ id. 276/11.
615. Comp. ‘For na drie ne for na wate,’ CM 6365.weteis by form a noun, as at l. 57; comp. ‘hwīlum fliht se wǣta ꝥ dryge,’ Boethius, ed. Fox, 234/10.
617.wor so . . . of londe, wherever in the world; comp. ‘Wher he beo in londe,’ KH 416 note. But the metre requires on ðe londe.
620.folegeð: ‘Ferunt odore earum mire sollicitari quadripedes cunctas,’ Pliny, N. H. viii. 17, 62. The original has ‘Ad quem mox tendit quae vocem belua sentit, | Ac sectatur cum nimia dulcedine plenum.’ Eudes de Cheriton says, ‘animalia crudelia, ut Lupus et Leopardus . . . eam pro bono odore sequuntur et non infestant,’ 232: he explains the sweet smell as the soft answer that turns away wrath.
621.ðe, of which: comp. 46/292 note.
623-625. ‘Cum sonat, aut fugiunt, aut segnes corpore fiunt | In caveisque latent, nec in ipso tempore parent,’ T.ogt, at all.
624.daren: see 185/310.
627.tokned: ‘per mistica dictus,’ T.
629. ‘Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum,’ Psalm xliv. 3.