4453. Beemoth is here perhaps confused with Leviathan, which was regarded by some as a kind of serpent: see Isidore, Etym. viii. 27.
4462. le al: there is of course an elision, though not indicated in the text.
4477. 2 Macc. v. 17, &c.
4494. Note that in the forms ‘refusablez,’ ‘abhominablez,’ ‘delitablez,’ &c., the z is equivalent to s, and does not imply any accenting of the final syllable.
4542. ou, for ‘au,’ see Glossary.
4558. devant lez meins, ‘beforehand’: cp. 5436.
4561. survient. This and the other verbs rhyming with it in the stanza seem to be in the past tense, for ‘survint,’ ‘vint,’ ‘tint,’ &c. Other examples of this will be found elsewhere, e.g. 8585, 9816. The passage means: ‘When the fire from heaven fell on the sacrifice, it was Malignity that inspired the hatred of Abel in the heart of Cain, for which he was accursed.’ ‘Dont’ answers regularly to such expressions as ‘par tiele guise’: see note on 217.
4570. Ps. x. 15, ‘Contere brachium peccatoris et maligni.’
4605. Ps. xxii. 16 (Vulg. xxi. 17), ‘concilium malignantium obsedit me,’ &c.
4704. mestre Catoun: the author of the well-known Disticha, many of whose maxims tend to teach patience.