[179]. are: ore E J D. The text means, ever without mercy and without end, but Lewin confusing ore with orde as in ‘Wiþþutenn ord ⁊ ende,’ Orm 234/6775, translates ‘ohne Anfang und Ende.’ e reads á ⁊ buten ende.
[180]. gate: dure E e J D; M omits. for lesen: for lese e; the others have to. The infinitive of purpose with for is uncommon, comp. 173/409.
[181]. sullic, wonder. wa . . . uneade, OE. unēaðe, are historically adverbs, lit. though to them it be wofully and grievously; bet, wwrs, &c., are used in the same construction; see 46/289: comp. with uneade, ‘þer fore hire wes uneðe,’ L 4503; ‘an heorte him wes unneðe,’ id. 26730. J has, he mawe wunye eþe, they may easily remain there.
[182]. for lesen: variants as in l. 180, but E for lesen. Comp. ‘Ki deu ne uolt conustre tut serrat cureicus | Il ne morrat ia meis ne por mei ne por uus,’ Guischart 223, 4.
[183]. helle brec, harrowed hell. ‘The Gospel [of Nicodemus] probably reached the climax of its popularity in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,’ The ME. Harrowing of Hell, ed. Hulme, p. lxviii.
[184]: Comp. ‘Tant cher nus achatað de sun sanc precius,’ Guischart 220; OEM 49/434, 187/20. hom: hi D; the others, us.
[185]. mei . . . mei: comp. 30/29, where L has the usual pair, representing OE. mǣge, kinswoman, mǣg, kinsman: mouwe . . . mey E; maȝhe . . . mei e; moȝe . . . meie D; moȝe . . . mei M: but J Nolde hit nomon do for me.
[188]. bendes: comp. 81/67.
[192 T]. þar þat, of those who: comp. 1 Cor. vi. 2.
[192]. ꝥ, because. uuele: harde J D M, meaning hardship; comp. ON. 459, 527. habbeð . . . on honde, have to do with, have to suffer: similar expressions are ‘sorhen heom com on honde,’ L 30428; ‘for al hit trukeð us an hond; ꝥ we to temden,’ id. 16799; ‘and eoden him luðere an hond,’ id. 31265: ‘him for ðissere worulde wel on hand eode,’ Ælf. Lives i. 488/13. For the matter, comp. 183/241, 193/551-2.