[37]. leste &c., lest worse befall you: see 30/18. leste descends from þȳ lǣs þe; this is an early instance of its use.
[38]. meoke, soft, supple; comp. 64/66: the only instances in English of the use of this word in the material sense of OWScand. mjúkr as in Icel. mjúk-hendr, soft-handed. ‘In yeme utamini sotularibus grossis ⁊ callidis,’ L.
[39]. Hosen wiðute vampez, stockings without feet; the ‘chausses’ were usually footed. ‘En chauces sanȝ auant pieȝ gise qi voudra,’ F; ‘In caligis sine pedalibus dormietis,’ L. vampez, pl. of vampe or vampey, are properly the front part of a boot, the ‘uppers’ (avant pied), here they mean the whole covering of the foot. In Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey (ed. Singer 335), Wolsey is represented as saying, ‘we do intend . . . to go afoot . . . in the vamps of our hosen,’ i.e. in our stocking feet. The second and in 35 N is superfluous.
[40]. Ischeoed—bedde: another prohibition of undue austerities. The passage is not in any other of the English MSS., nor in F, but L has ‘calciatis numquam nec nisi in lecto.’
[41]. Sum—wereð, it may be that some woman wears &c. For inohreaðe see 56/43; F has ‘parauenture’ here as there. brech, drawers; OE. brēc, pl. of brōc, answering to femoralia of the monastic Rules. here, haircloth; OE. hǣre.
[42]. streapeles, the legs of the drawers; especially so called when they were closely confined to the limb by cross-gartering. They were worn by men also: see Strutt’s Complete View of the Dress &c. i, plates 31, 49, 56, for good illustrations. OE. strapul: ‘Hoc tibiale: a strapylle,’ Wright, Vocab. 775/18, 734/23. F has ‘les braeis de heire mlt bien noueȝ les tiguns aual desqe a pieȝ mult ferm laceȝ,’ but nothing corresponding to ah—here, which is in A alone: and yet it is necessary to the sense. The writer does not approve of the ‘brech of here,’ a sweet and patient disposition is better, an often-repeated idea; ‘Þis is Godes heste, þet him is muchele leouere þen þet tu ete gruttene bread, oðer werie herde here,’ AR 186/10. L is with A, ‘Alique utuntur femoralibus cilicium. Mallem tamen in vobis cor humile ⁊ potens sustinere dura verba · et probrosa · quam durum cilicium portare.’
[43]. swete . . . swote: a frequent combination: comp. ‘swete ⁊ swote iheorted,’ AR 118/3; ‘so unimete swote ⁊ swete,’ id. 102/26. þolien: comp. ‘A mis-word þet ȝe þolieð . . . ȝe nolden sullen hire uor al þe worldes golde,’ AR 190/7.
[44]. ȝef—wullen, If you can do without wimples, and you would doubtless wish to do so.
[45]. beoð bi, have for use: comp. ‘beoð bi þe leste þet heo euer muwen,’ AR 350/7; ‘gifð us al þat we bi ben,’ OEH ii. 69/29, 179/6. Similarly, ‘ne na mâ wifa þonne ân hæbbe, ac beo be þære anre þa hwile, þe heo lybbe,’ Wulfstan, 271/14 (B.-T.); ‘ne æac maran getilige to haldænne þonne ic gêmetlice bi beon mage,’ Blooms, ES xviii. 343/43. cappen: the ‘mitras lineas, nigras et forratas de agninis pellibus’ of the Gilbertine Rule, p. *lxxix.
[46]. wimplunge: so S. Bernard contrasts the wimpled fine lady and the veiled nun, ‘Risus immoderatior, incessus lascivior, vestitus ornatior wimplatae magis quam velatae congruerent,’ i. 123 f. The wimple was a long strip of fine linen which encircled the head, neck, and the top of the shoulders; at this time one end of it hung down along the left arm. There is a good illustration of it in Shaw’s Dresses and Decorations, i, on the middle figure of plate 10. Like other linen clothing, it was at this time coloured with saffron; ‘hire winpel wit, oðer maked geleu mid saffran,’ OEH ii. 163/32; Rel. Ant. ii. 15/8; the ‘ȝeolewe clað’ of 82/108. The long passage from Ancren l. 46 to wimplunge l. 59 is in AC only; in the latter it is added on the margin, which has been cropped. L is very fragmentary at this point, but it had matter corresponding to A.