[52]. Elmesȝeorn, fond of giving alms, benevolent; OE. ælmes-georn: it occurs here only in ME. prud . . . ⁊ modi: comp. 3/4; ‘So modi and so prute,’ OEM 82/300.
[53]. wreðful ⁊ ontful: comp. 56/31.
[55]. forð mid, together with: see [1/19 note]. of, from: a common use with dative in OE.; comp. ‘Peahte ðeod com of Scyþþia lande on scipum,’ Bede, 28/7.
[56]. on þunres liche, in the likeness of thunder: the alteration of the MS. reading wunres is due to Morris, but the resultant meaning is unsatisfactory. He suggested, on þunres sleȝe, comparing ‘þær com swylce þunres slege,’ Ev. Nichod. ed. Thwaites, 13/3, and the expression occurs in ME. ‘ofdradd of ðese muchele ðþunresleiȝ ðe cumþ ut of godes auȝene muðe,’ VV 11/18. The writer has elsewhere, ‘Vre drihten wile cumen dredliche in fures liche,’ OEH i. 143/15, which may suggest the true reading here. The Latin has ‘deus descendit de celo et dyadema in capite eius’; possibly crunes lurks under wunres.
[60]. toȝeines, adv., in reply: him depends directly on seide, as in ‘ic eou habbe þet godspel iseid,’ OEH i. 5/13; ‘heom seggen godes lore,’ id. 7/33, though the construction with to is also found in these homilies. Comp. ‘Cuðberhtus him togeanes cwæð,’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. ii. 138/34. But the word is generally a preposition, as at 64/56, 86/142. ȝef—is: see 134/84.
[61]. la hwure, ah! at any rate. This writer uses La mostly with interrogatives, ‘La hu ne beað,’ 89/34; ‘Lahwet scal þis beon,’ 89/36. a þet: see [72/179 note].
[63]. efterward, in quest of, seeking; = ‘efter’ 7/53; comp. ‘þat ha beon þe lasse afterward swuch þing,’ HM 37/7; ‘Iohannes . . . wearð him æfterweard,’ Ælf. de Novo Testamento, 18/21. Similar uses of the compound in the sense of the simple preposition are, ‘al urommard þisse,’ AR 178/18; 58/66 note; 70/165: ‘They met Beues inwarde the paleys,’ Beues of Hamtoun, 69/1208; ‘alysde of þam witum ða þe towearde wæron,’ Wulfstan, 228/11. Similarly ‘þu most beon on ward þine sunnen,’ OEH i. 37/20 appears to mean, thou must give attention to thy sins.
[64]. swiðe wa: see [40/181 note] and comp. ‘Ofte hadde horn beo wo | At neure wurs þan him was þo,’ KH 115, where him shows that horn is dative. abeh &c.: ‘Post hoc prostravit se Michahel et Paulus et angelorum milia milium ante filium dei,’ B iv.
[66]. for, by: comp. 94/26.
[68]. þes þe redþer, the sooner on that account, the sooner. The more regular comparison is seen in, ‘ah þes þe we heoueden mare wele on þisse liue, þes we ahte to beon þe edmoddre,’ OEH i. 5/27, 21/12.