434. Lat. 'de conscientia bona et fide non ficta'; cf. 1 Tim. i. 5.
437. to drede, to be feared; the gerund, and right according to the old idiom. We still say—'he is to blame,' 'this house to let.' March in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 198, says—'The gerund after the copula expresses what must, may, or should be done. Ex. Mannes sunu is tō syllanne, the Son of Man must be delivered up, Matt. xvii. 22'; &c.
439.
'For it nis bote a bladre i-blowe ful of a wreche wynde;
Be it with a litel prikke i-priked, a-wey it shrinketh al';—
South-E. Legendary, l. 194.
442. bigonne, didst begin; the right form, for which Tyrwhitt has begonnest. For the Mid. Eng. biginnen we commonly find onginnan in Anglo-Saxon, and the past tense runs thus—ongann, ongunne, ongann; pl. ongunnon. The form in Middle English is—bigan, bigunne (or bigonne), bigan; pl. bigunnen (or bigonne). The very form here used occurs in the Ayenbite of Inwyt, ed. Morris, p. 71. The suffix -st does not appear in strong verbs; cf. Thou sawe, B. 848; thou bar, G. 48.
The whole of ll. 443-467 varies considerably from the original, the corresponding passage of which is as follows: 'Cui Almachius: "ab iniuriis caepisti, et in iniuriis perseueras." Caecilia respondit: "iniuria non dicitur quod uerbis fallentibus irrogatur; unde aut iniuriam doce, si falsa locuta sum, aut te ipsum corripe calumniam inferentem, sed nos scientes sanctum Dei nomen omnino negare non possumus; melius est enim feliciter mori quam infeliciter uiuere." Cui Almachius: "ad quid cum tanta superbia loqueris?" Et illa: "non est superbia, sed constantia." Cui Almachius: "infelix, ignoras,"' &c. (l. 468). However, Chaucer has adopted an idea from this in ll. 473, 475.
463. To scan this, remember that Iuge has two syllables; and accent confus on the first syllable.