[14]. sumhwile: he is probably thinking of the Fathers of the Desert, who plaited mats of palm, for the Vitas Patrum was a favourite book of his. The regulation is only of general application, these sisters being fully provided for.
[15]. wite, take charge of: in troublous times the anchorhold would be regarded as a place of safe deposit. of: so CN, but T omits (correct footnote by deleting B); it depends on Nawt. ‘Rien ne gardeȝ en vostre maisone daltrui choses,’ F. In N of must be partitive, for witen takes the acc. of the thing guarded: see [118/52 note].
[16]. boistes, boxes, caskets, mostly for ointment, but here probably jewel cases. chartres, deeds; probably the earliest instance. Scoren, scrolls: OF. escroe; comp. ‘Scrowe oðer quaer,’ AR 282/29.
[17]. cyrograffes, indentures, bonds; an early instance of the word. calices: there was a special objection, ‘nulla femina . . . calicem Domini tangat,’ Udalrici Sermo Synodalis, Migne, P. L. cxxxv. 1071 b.
[18]. strengðe, violence: comp. 40/168: ‘bute vor neod one, als strengðe ⁊ deaðes dred,’ AR 6/23; ‘auh teares doð him strencðe’ (= lacrima cogit), id. 244/27; ‘Ne dede dieuel him none strengþe,’ VV 113/19. F has ‘force.’
[20]. makeð—hus, causes your house to be laid open; comp. 117/8, 118/28; ‘oðer ȝif þu iherdest þeoues breken þine woawes,’ AR 242/23. The Gilbertine Rule, while forbidding access to the nuns ordinarily, says ‘propter ignis incendium vel mortis instantis periculum, vel propter furtum et latrocinium omnibus sustinemus introitum,’ p. *lxxvi.
[22]. seoð: comp. ‘Nullich ꝥ no mon iseo ou bute he habbe leaue speciale of ower meistre,’ AR 56/21; ‘inclusa etiam facie velata loqui debet cum viro,’ Ailred, 642 d. wel mei don of, it matters little about: don means originally, serve, suffice, as in ‘that will do,’ but the phrase with the words in this order is specialized: comp. ‘Ah wel mæi don hu hit ga; for wræcches we beoð æuere ma,’ L 12754, 5; ‘Scheome is understonden bi þe reade; auh wel mei don,’ AR 356/11, where Morton mistranslates. Quite different is, ‘an olde ancre mei don wel ꝥ tu dest vuele,’ AR 52/9. T has duhen here, as A at 64/59 and C at 65/52, ordinarily meaning to be of profit, to avail, but the sense is the same as in the phrase containing don. The construction is impersonal; ancre is dative at 64/59, 65/52, as at 64/74: for of, concerning, comp. ‘he . . . dyde of heom ꝥ he wolde,’ AS. Chron. D 208/9. ‘De colore autem vestium non est multum curandum,’ L; ‘ne puit chaler de voȝ draps,’ F.
[23]. unorne, plain, rough: ‘vils,’ F; ‘dum [ta]men non n[im]is (?) exquisite,’ L. But Förster (Morsbachs Studien l. 171) would translate, ordinary, usual.
[24]. ow to neodeð: comp. ‘nimen . . . þet hire to neodeð,’ AR 414/24. ow is dat. depending directly on the verb, the usual construction of the person in EME. for neoden and neod, comp. 123/210; to is adverbial and a superfluity, quite in the manner of the writer, comp. ‘þurh hwat muhte sonre ful luue of aquiken,’ AR 58/10; ‘þet ich spec er of þeruppe,’ id. 372/23; 130/80 note. Contrast, ‘Nefde he nane neode to us ac we hefden muchele neode to him,’ OEH i. 123/35, where to = of. to bedde: comp. ‘to ruggen and to bedde; iscrud mid gode webbe,’ L 19946, 7; ‘Nowe is the tyme of the yere when provysion was wont to be made . . . of ther wynter vesturys [to] theyr bodyes and to ther beddis,’ Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 68/4: ‘a lit ⁊ a dos,’ F.
[26]. linnene: its use in any form was a great concession. It was noted that Abbot Roger Norreys of Evesham, in his contempt for the Rule, ‘camisiis et lintheaminibus . . . palam utebatur,’ Chron. Abb. de Evesham, 104. hearde, hard; pl. of heard, l. 44: herde N 28 is the same word, but Morris glosses it, hards, hurds, tow, and heorden, hards of flax, referring both to heordan, without accounting for the difference in form. The meaning, of hards and of coarse hards, is not satisfactory. F has ‘sil ne seit de stupeȝ ⁊ de grosses estoupes’; the two nouns appear to be an Anglo-French and a French form from the same Latin word, stupa. Possibly the former means tow of flax and the latter tow of hemp; anyhow the cloth was called stupacium. Comp. generally, ‘Porro talia ei vestimenta sufficiant quae frigus repellant. Grossioribus peliciis utatur, & pellibus propter hyemem, propter aestatem autem unam habeat tunicam: utroque vero tempore duas de stupacio camisias vel staminas,’ Ailred, 644 e.