[100]. þes—ehte: read þes weorldes muchele ehte.
[101]. itimien represents OE. getīmian, to befall, happen, a meaning which does not suit here or at 104. The ME. word may here have been influenced by OWScand. tíma, always used with a negative as in tíma ekki, to grudge (Egge in Mod. Lang. Notes, i. 131), but his suggestion of a connexion with ‘beteem,’ Shak. Hamlet I. ii. 141, must be rejected, and the isolated use of the word in a Scandinavian sense, afford, find in his heart, in this Southern text makes a difficulty. Mätzner suggests the meaning, ‘verfallen auf etwas,’ and Strat.-Bradley, ‘to use opportunities.’ Possibly the writer was trying to translate some such Latin as, non potest temporanee manducare, or temporare (= in tempore vivere, Catholicon), or adtemporare, which would suggest getimien in a strained sense of, to do at the proper season.
[102]. ah liggeð þer uppon: comp. ‘Condit opes alius, defossoque incubat auro,’ Virgil, Georg. ii. 507; ‘Chryseros quidam nummularius, copiosae pecuniae dominus . . . sordidus aureos folles incubabat,’ Apuleius, Metamorp. iv. 9.
[103]. Eudes de Cheriton, Fabula lxvii. has, ‘Contra auaros et laycos tenaces. Bufo, qui habitat in terra, rogauit Ranam, que habitat in flumine, quod daret ei de aqua ad potandum. Ait Rana: Placet; et dedit ei quantum uolebat. Rana esuriens rogauit quod daret ei de terra. Respondit Bufo: Certe nichil dabo, quia ego ipse, timens ne deficiat, [non] comedo ad sufficienciam. Sic sunt plerique in tantum tenaces, quod expectant quod panes sint muscidi, bacones rancidi, pastilli sint putridi; nec possunt manducare nec pro Deo dare; timent quod terra eis deficiat. Hii sunt bufones Diaboli.’ Eudes flourished about 1219 A.D. The parallelism between ‘nec—dare’ and ‘maȝen—godalmihtin’, 101, 2; and between ‘timent—deficiat’ and ‘swa—trukie,’ 104, 5, is striking.
[105]. trukie: comp. 72/183.
[107]. The passage in brackets is conjectural: the copyist passed over a line ending with the same word as that which he had just completed. For the yellow cloth see [62/46 note].
[109]. helfter, halter, noose: OE. hælfter. The original had, no doubt, laqueus diaboli. For similar expressions comp. ‘Revera ornatus muliebris sagena diaboli est,’ Caesarius Heist., 287; ‘diaboli hamus,’ Vitas Patrum, 302. þeos wimmen &c.: comp. ‘Mundus est la garanne au diable in qua venatur ut capiat animas, et tendit ibi laqueos infinitos. Unus laqueus ejus est pulchritudo corporalis et ornatus. Unde istae dominae, quae tam pulchrae videntur esse et tam bene ornatae, acemées, sunt muscipula diaboli, quam tendit ad capiendum fatuos; ipsae sunt la ratière au diable,’ Hauréau, Notices, iv. 154. lumeð, shine, are splendidly attired. The MS. reading luueð and Morris’s conjecture liuieð give a poor sense. For lumen comp. ‘Hire lure lumes liht, | ase a launterne a nyht,’ Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 169/23; ‘þat lemeþ al wiþ luefly lyt,’ id. 152/6, 155/8, 145/3. The transitive ‘alemeþ,’ illuminates, occurs in OEH ii. 109/1; ‘alumþ,’ id. 141/29. musestoch: comp. ‘Similiter assatur caseus et ponitur in muscipula. Quem cum sentit Ratus, intrat in muscipulam, capit caseum et capitur a muscipula. Sic est de omni illicito. Caseus asatur, quando mulier paratur, ornatur, ut stultos ratos alliciat et capiat,’ Eudes de Cheriton, 221/1; ‘Mulier pulchra . . . est caseus in muscipula. Mulier adornatur . . . Hoc est caseus assatus,’ id. 328/1. See also 62/51 note.
[114]. blanchet, ‘fine wheaten flour,’ Halliwell, who quotes from MS. Bowes of Robert of Brunne, ‘With blaunchette and other flour | To make thaim qwytter of colour.’
[116]. scawere, mirror: comp. OEH ii. 29/9-13. hindene, Morris thinks is miswritten for hid-ern, hiding-place; a word which does not occur elsewhere; if it were connected with OE. hȳdan the first syllable would be hud- in this text. In Specimens it is translated snare, with comparison of OE. hinderhōc, stratagem, as if for hindere. I take it to be the adv. hinden in substantive use, the hinder parts, the ‘behind’; in CM 22395, ‘hindwin.’ There is an ‘exemplum’ preserved in Le Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry, ch. xxxi, which tells what the lady who devoted a fourth of the day to her toilet once saw in her mirror; it was probably in our writer’s mind here. The Book of the Knight was written for the instruction of his daughters.
[118]. wið: comp. 48/299 and ‘þer wið,’ 82/121; ‘þe clenesse iscilt heo wið unþeawes,’ OEH i. 111/17; but ‘from,’ 148/141; ‘Wiðtieð giu fro flesliche lustes,’ OEH ii. 63/28.