[331]. scenche, draught; OE. scencan, to pour out; comp. KH 369 note. deofles: M reads, of one duole scenche, of a stupefying draught.
[332]. A man must know how to protect himself well, if it (i.e. the drink) is not to trip him up. See B-T. s.v. screncan. J is defective here; D omits ll. 331, 2.
[333]. Mid: Vor D. For almihtin, 337 T, see 79/17.
[334]. ꝥ: þe J; see 13/28. he: he ne E; heo . . . ne J; hi ne D.
[335]. werie . . . wið: see 48/299.
[336]. bi ȝiten: in e only; ȝiuen alle mancunne E; and similarly in the other MSS. The text may mean, acquired for mankind.
[337]. bene, pleasant, agreeable: ‘spatiosa via . . . quae ducit ad perditionem,’ S. Matt. vii. 13. J reads grene, rejecting, as often, the unusual word: comp. ‘the broad way and the green’ of Milton’s sonnet.
[338]. niȝeðe del, nine-tenths, the great majority: niȝende del D.
[339]. wei grene: the path to heaven is compared to what is still in some parts called a ‘green road’ or a ‘green way,’ ‘a road over turf between hedges,’ EDD., the ‘unmetalled road’ of the Ordnance maps, because, unlike the highway, it is used by few. J has, þene wey so schene, and in the next line, and þat is wel eþ-sene; M, ⁊ þat is þe worlde on-sene. The last half of T 344 appears to be corrupt.
[341]. us lað: comp. ‘lað þah him were,’ L 244; 145/106.