[109]. They were too severe in their austerities, AR 378/21, 228/18.
[110]. For monluker see [125/270 note].
[115]. ꝥ—riwle depends on nan. This passage corresponds to 65/57-61.
[116]. strengðe, weight, importance: a favourite word of the writer; comp. ‘of þincges wiðuten . . . nis nout muche strencðe,’ AR 12/12; ‘me schal makien strencðe of onnesse of cloþes,’ id. 12/5. For of see 66/97. In the introduction to part viii, he says that they must not promise, as unwise people might do, to observe any of the external rules.
[117]. inre, the inner rule, the ‘lady rule,’ to which the outer is but an handmaid: comp. AR 4/10, 12/24, 410/18.
[118]. skile, reason.
[119]. þuften, handmaid; comp. 68/123; ‘for mi lauerd biseh his þufftenes mekelac,’ HM 45/12; AR 4/11. OE. þyften.
[120]. feareð to wundre, goes to misfortune, ruin: OE. wundor, a portentous thing. Comp. 6/46 note; 117/10; ‘þu scealt to wundre gewurðan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 174/163; ‘⁊ tukeð ham alto wundre,’ AR 380/15; ‘ȝeuest þin ahne dere bodi to tuken swa to wundre,’ HM 27/14; ‘so was ðis were to wunder brogt,’ GE 3977. Ancre &c.: the first clause is conditional, as at 54/11; if an anchoress have not her food close at hand, two women are busy, i.e. have plenty to do, are needed. This absolute use of bisie, meaning fully employed, is noteworthy. F has ‘Recluse qe nad pas sa vetaille pres · mestier ad dauer ij femmes’; L, ‘Anachorita que non habet victum ad manum indiget duabus ancillis.’ The rule is founded on that of Ailred, ‘Itaque eligatur tibi aliqua anus, non garrula, non vaga, non litigiosa, non nugigerula . . . Haec ostium cellulae custodiat . . . Habeat sub cura sua fortiorem ad onera sustinenda puellam,’ 641 f.
[121]. þe leaue, who may remain, to stay: an intransitive use.
[123]. unorne, not ‘old,’ but plain in appearance; comp. 62/23; either a young girl or middle-aged, without adornment.