[3]. beastes . . . wurmes: The Lion of Pride, the Serpent of Envy, the Unicorn of Wrath, the Bear of Sloth, the Fox of Covetousness, the Swine of Greediness, the Scorpion of Lechery, each with its whelps. The conception comes from S. Jerome, ‘quasi inter scorpiones et colubros incedendum ut . . . iter per insidias saeculi huius et inter venena faciamus possimusque . . . terram repromissionis intrare,’ iv. 796. Comp. also, ‘Per superbiam enim quasi a leonibus lacerantur, per invidiam tanquam viperarum morsu percutiuntur,’ Cesarii Sermo lx, in S. August. v. App. 301 B. It is not in the manner of the Bestiaries, where the lion and the unicorn are types of Christ, though the influence of the Bestiaries is often shown in the AR.
[4]. ilead . . . to, traced to, classified under; ‘reduci ad,’ M; ‘menee od,’ F.: a rare use; comp. 54/20. seouene: in the older English literature the number is eight; Superbia being followed by Vana Gloria. See Max Förster, Über die Quellen von Ælfric’s Homiliae Catholicae, Berlin, 1892, pp. 47-9 for a good summary of the changes in the lists. seoluen B: so T seluen.
[5]. streones: ‘hweolpes,’ AR 198/7; ‘engendrures,’ F. vnsteaðeluest: ‘Destable,’ F. literally, unstabled. nis hit &c., is it not the species of Pride called Disobedience? CTN agree with B; the meaning is the same: T reads, nis hit of prude. Jnobedience. Her to falleð sigaldres: M has ‘Jnconstans fides. contra sacram doctrinam. nunc ex superbia inobediencie est: ad hoc pertinent sortilegia.’ The division in Morton is therefore wrong: P has Inobedience ne falleþ it to sigaldrie. ‘Þe vifte hweolp [of þe Liun of Prude] hette Inobedience,’ AR 198/17.
[6]. Herto falleð, come under this head; comp. ‘alle þe þing ꝥ lust falleþ to,’ AR 52/24, 58/9; ‘⁊ falleð to biȝete,’ SK 24/471. false teolunges, wrongful practices, especially in treatment of the sick by means of herbs gathered with incantations and of other pagan devices; comp. ‘Se cristena mann ðe on ænigre þissere gelicnysse bið gebrocod, and he ðonne his hælðe secan wyle æt unalyfedum tilungum, oððe æt wyrigedum galdrum, oþþe æt ænigum wiccecræfte, ðonne bið he ðam hæðenum mannum gelic,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 474/19-22. These ‘unallowed practices’ are, at the same place, contrasted with ‘true leechcraft,’ the skill of a doctor: comp. ‘uncundelich lechecreft,’ 62/36, and see the Homilia de sacrilegiis, ed. Caspari, ch. iv and notes, for abundant illustrations of these superstitions. Comp. also, for a wider use of teolung, ‘to æghwylcre neode man hæfð on cyricbocum mæssan gesette and tilige man (= let one set to work) georne mid þam . . . þæt is hwene betere, þonne man to wiccan, and to wigleran tilunge (= treatment) sêce æt ænigre neode,’ Wulfstan, 171/7-12 (B-T). Morton translates ‘false reckoning,’ which hardly comes under the head of unsteadfast belief; ‘fals takynges’ P.
[7]. lefunge o swefne · o nore: this order is peculiar to A. For the Dream Books of mediaeval England see Förster in Archiv cxxi. 33, cxxv. 39, cxxvii. 31. o nore: so BCT; N has on ore ⁊ of swefnes; PV have nothing corresponding; M is vague, ‘ad hoc pertinent sortilegia · ⁊ quecunque infidelitas · credere sompniis · ⁊ huius modi’: in F the place is at the damaged top of the folio; it has, apparently, ‘credence en estrenies en songes ⁊ toutes manieres de sorceries.’ ore cannot represent OE. ār, which has no meaning like luck, nor can it be connected with L. augurium, the contemporary French form of which is eür. I think it is F. oré, favourable weather, favourable occasion, as in ‘Nos n’avrons ja tens ne oré | Desci que li vienge a plaisir,’ Roman de Troye 5952, 3: the particular form of ‘unsteadfast belief’ meant being the trusting to the system of favourable and unfavourable days for different kinds of work &c., embodied in such books as the Calendar printed in M. L. Review, ii. 212-22, where it is stated that the first day of the month is good for beginning a piece of work, the second for marrying, the third is a bad day for taking up one’s abode in a town, and so on (for the literature see Archiv cx. 352). The collection in Caspari’s note on § 12 of the Homilia already cited shows that the superstition was often attacked in sermons as pagan; he quotes ‘Nullus Christianus observet, qua die de domo exeat, vel qua die revertatur, quia omnes dies Deus fecit; nullus ad inchoandum opus diem . . . attendat,’ Pseudoaug. Sermo cclxxviii. Comp. ‘time,’ OEH ii. 11/13 and VV 27/22-29.
[8]. heaued sunne: Orm’s ‘hæfedd sunne,’ 98/2728; peccatum capitale: ‘cum mortali peccato,’ M. Comp. ‘Nu syndon eahta heafod leahtras,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 354/267.
[9]. ‘þe ueorðe [hweolp of þe Liun of Prude] is Presumptio,’ AR 198/14.
[10]. ȝemeles: so BPV, negligent, adj. for noun, negligence, carelessness: N has the noun ȝemeleste; C scheomeles. under, classified under the head of: ‘þe seoueðe [hweolp of þe Bore of heui Slouhðe] is Gemeleaschipe,’ AR 202/13.
[11]. For uuel C has lure: NT have incorrectly lure for biȝete; so in M, ‘Qui non premunit alium de dampno uel incommodo.’ Not to warn a man against something hurtful is slothful negligence; not to apprise him of something to his advantage is venomous envy. The sins are different and come under different heads. The first half of the sentence is in effect hypothetical, and equivalent to, if a man does not warn &c.; so 54/21; 66/120, and F, ‘Ki ne garnist altre de son mal ou de son gaig[ne]; nest ceo perescouse negligence ou venimouse envie.’
[12]. For slaw ȝemeles C has slauðe scheomelese. teoheði mis: Contrast ‘rihtliche teðien,’ OEH ii. 215/32; ‘giuen rihte tiðinge,’ id. 129/32; ‘theoþe ryht vnder his honde,’ OEM 77/149. teouðen C; tiheðe T; Mis iteoðeged N, the being mistithed; a remarkable use of the participle; ‘male decimare,’ M; ‘mes doner,’ F, a vague expression, which looks like a translator’s failure. How S. Gilbert once dealt with a ‘mistither’ may be read in his life, printed in Dugdale, vi., pt. ii., p. *vii. mis is aphetic for amiss, wrongly; comp. 56/48.