[43]. [þon]ne. The last half of n and e are in the MS. riche is probably a mistake for wrecche, as S. suggests.
[44]. For love turns miserably into an evil under the stroke of misfortune. To have loved and lost is an evil thing.
[45]. besihþ . . . to, contemplates; comp. 124/249 note. Zupitza quotes, ‘When þe gost it schuld go, | It biwent ⁊ wiþstode, | Biheld þe bodi þat it com fro,’ Desputisoun, 9-11. Comp. ‘cum educerent eam (i.e. animam) de corpore commonuerunt eam angeli tercio, dicentes: O misera anima, prospice carnem tuam unde existi,’ Visio Pauli, Texts and Studies, ii. 3. 18/7.
[C]
The heading is added from the Book of Job, vii. 11.
[1]. S., H., and B. fill the lacuna with Hwui noldest biþenchen from 4/17, but this does not fit the lower half of the letters left in the MS. where ligge as the end of the preceding line is fairly certain, followed by a word of three letters, the middle one being o and another word of two or two and a half letters, of which the first is w. Perhaps loþ we[re] should be read. A question is not suited to the context. The opening lines evidently correspond to OEH ii. 183/16-19, ‘longe habbe ich on þe wuned. swo wo is me þe hwile, for al þat me was leof; hit was þe loð · þu ware a sele gief ich was wroð. To gode þu ware slau and let · and to euele spac and hwat.’
[2]. This line is repeated at Frag. D 28.
[4]. [mo]dinesse. Comp. 77/52, ‘He hadde ben a modi kniȝt,’ Desputisoun, 5; ‘Me nimeð þe licome | ⁊ preoneð in a clut. | ꝥ wes so modi ⁊ so strong | ⁊ so swiþe prud,’ OEM 172/67-70; and for the passage at large, ‘Hwær beoþ þonne his welan & his wista? hwær beoð þonne his wlencea & his anmedlan?’ BH 111/33; ‘Hwar byð þonne heora wela, þe hi ahtan her on life? ⁊ hi dæghwamlice gesam nodon ma ⁊ ma togædere ⁊ nystan nænigne ende, hwænne hi ꝥ forlætan scoldan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 165/35-7; ‘Whar ben þine markes ⁊ þine poundes?’ Desputisoun, 33.
[5]. þurh [pa]newes igædered, scraped together, or, more probably, wrung from the poor, ‘Quare pecunias et alienas facultates et substantias pauperum tulisti et congregasti in domo tua?’ Batiouchkof’s text, p. 577. Comp. also 34/67, 46/296.
[6]. itolde. Comp. ‘and þa paneȝes weoren italde,’ L 29460. An early use of bi with unit of measurement.