[177]. gruchesi, a hitherto unrecorded form, means, like the other readings, to munch, nibble. It is related to gruse T as the mod. dialect. forms growdge (Lincs.), grouge (Notts) are to grouze, to eat noisily (mostly Lincs.): gruselie N may be represented by gruzzle, to eat voraciously (Lanark). Similarly OF. groucier is grutch in ME., in mod. dialects, grouse, to grumble.
[178]. liht, readily given by the mistress; comp. 48/312. F appears to have read liþ, ‘le conge gist en toutes choses la ou ny ad pecche.’
[179]. na word: the rule for the anchoresses was, ‘Silence euere et te mete; vor ȝif oðre religiuse doð hit . . . ȝe owen biuoren alle,’ AR 68/21. ⁊ teo stille, and those few in a low voice: N has added beon, and let those be &c. complie: after the anchoress has said compline, the servant must be careful not to disturb her obligatory silence. The times of silence are stated in Ailred’s thirteenth chapter. aþet, until; OE. oð ðæt, until that, a conjunctional phrase, as at 72/189, 77/61, 69, 118/23, but here a preposition; comp. ‘aþet endunge þissere weorlde,’ OEH i. 119/15; ‘aðet tes dei,’ SK 1305. þet, þat are used alone as conjunctions, until; comp. 162/248; ‘ꝥ come þes dei,’ OEH i. 33/32; KH 123 note. a þa, 78/71 (= a þe) represents oð þe, conj., until: so too of = oð, 13/15. uort N 73/162, until, is shortened from for te (= for to); comp. ‘slepte uort midniht,’ AR 236/25; ‘for to þe fowertuðe dai,’ OEH ii. 23/7. But it is mostly a conjunction, as at 134/64, 136/156, 151/41; ‘uort ȝe beon al greiðe,’ AR 16/6; ‘for to þe time cam,’ OEH ii. 23/4; or it forms with þet a conjunctional phrase, 73/172; ‘vort tet we speken,’ AR 64/12; ‘forte ꝥ on þen þridde dai; ꝥ is heorte be liht,’ OEH ii. 103/23. Finally, in ‘ȝet nabbe ȝe nout wiðstonden uorte þet þe schedunge of ower blode,’ AR 262/17, uorte þet is a preposition. Note the readings of TC at l. 172.
[181]. hure appears to be a repetition of the preceding: N has cloð; CT clað: ‘fors le mangier ⁊ auestir,’ F.
[182]. ꝥ . . . bi, by means of which. flutte, subsist; OWScand. flytja, but the meaning here answers to the reflexive flytjask, to maintain oneself: ‘dunt ele se puit sustenir,’ F. Comp. ‘þet moni þusunt muhten biflutten,’ AR 202/25, apparently the only other place where it is used in this sense. The noun fluttunge is in HM, ‘to fluttunge ⁊ to fode,’ 27/8, 29/4; SM 22/34. Ne misleue &c., Let no recluse’s servant have such want of confidence in God as to think that He will fail her, whatever betide the recluse. The servant may rest assured that she will be provided for in any contingency. ‘Nule ne mescroie dieu qeiqe auienge de la recluse qil lui faille,’ F. See 141/36, and for trukie comp. further 82/105, AR 68/6, 234/17, 356/31.
[183]. þe meidnes wið uten would seem to restrict the application of the last sentence to the aged indoor servant, see 66/121. The reading of T, þeo ꝥ arn wið uten, applied to people in general who help the recluse, seems better.
[184]. alswa as, even as, just as: so ‘alriht so,’ AR 92/8. hom in T is a mistake for ho.
[185]. haueð ehe . . . toward: comp. ‘hwon ȝe habbeð touward me eien oðer honden,’ AR 76/15 (= ‘cum extenderitis manus’): ‘qi ad loil desperance vers si haut louer,’ F. In N 168 ‘of’ has been lost after ‘eie,’ which cannot mean any.
[186]. heh bure, Blake’s ‘heaven’s high bower’ is quite in the manner of the writer; he has ‘breoste bur,’ AR 34/11; ‘heorte bur,’ 102/22; ‘in to þe stirrede bur bliðe to heouene,’ SM 22/12. Comp. also, ‘in to þan heuenliche bure,’ OEH ii. 167/3. A has preserved the original reading: F has ‘vers si haut louer.’
[187]. eise . . . este: a frequent combination in AR, comp. ‘Eise ⁊ flesches este beoð þes feondes merken,’ AR 364/2, 136/26, 220/6, 374/27; ‘Al þe este ⁊ al þe eise is her,’ HM 29/26. ‘Od aise ne od delit ne achate hom pas tiele ioie,’ F.