[110]. rixin is a mistake due to the preceding rixið: the text, as it stands, must mean, who wills to rule and follow her. hlesten is the word associated with folȝin in VV, comp. ‘for ðan ðe hie nolden godes lare hlesten ne folȝin,’ 61/16, ‘Hlest ⁊ folȝih se ðe wile,’ 77/9.
[111]. vitas patrum: see pp. 551, 2, ed. Roswey, Antwerp, 1628. sume sal, at a time when a number of the hermits of the Thebaid came to visit S. Antony, ‘perfectionis inquisitione et collationis gratia.’
[112]. on—cumen: ‘quaenam virtus . . . certe ad Deum recto tramite firmoque gressu perduceret.’
[115]. annesse: ‘remotiorem vitam et eremi secreta.’ Comp. ‘Munec mai ut-faren mid ileaue in to hermitorie, oðer in to onnesse te wunien,’ VV 73/24. The same word means unity at 93/148.
[116]. to lokin is syntactically on a level with herborȝin, but has to, because it is separated from ðurh: comp. ‘Hit bieð sume þat non imeðe ne cunnen of hem seluen to feden,’ VV 139/23.
[117]. on manieskennes wisen: see 81/80 and 132/9.
[118]. on: S. Antony. Ðurh &c. Holthausen translates, ‘Through all these we have seen and heard a great many saved, and many by all these named virtues perished, because discretio failed them,’ which gives an unsatisfactory sense for the second clause and involves a forced meaning for ‘of’ as equivalent to ðurh (for which the only near parallels in VV are 97/19, 103/3), and a meaning in which it would hardly be used immediately after ‘manie’; ‘inamde’ (elsewhere ‘forenammde,’ VV 15/29) is superfluous. The original is, ‘Omnia quidem haec quae dixistis, necessaria sunt et utilia sitientibus Deum: sed his principalem tribuere gratiam nequaquam nos innumerabiles multorum fratrum casus et experimenta permittunt. Nam saepe vidimus fratres has observationes tenentes repentino casu deceptos, eo quod in bono quod coeperant discretionem minime tenuerunt.’ The English appears to be corrupt: mihten belongs to the former ðesen; the second alle is repeated from the first; under the superfluous inamde lurks the equivalent for repentino casu, which would hardly be overlooked by the translator; perhaps in a munde, in a handwhile, in a moment. The sense would then be, We have seen and heard of very many persons protected (comp. VV 73/7) by all these virtues, and (we have seen) many of these lapse in a moment, because discretion failed them. This meaning of mund is not in the dictionaries, and the evidence for it is slight, but comp. Varnhagen’s note on ‘boten a mounde’ in Anglia, iii. 283. More usual, but less appropriate, would be, in a niede.
[125]. muge is subjunctive after se ðe, indefinite, whosoever, as is wile in ‘Weriȝe se ðe wile,’ VV 89/33, but se ðe, he who, is followed by the indicative, ‘se ðe luueð,’ VV 41/7 (= qui diligit), ‘se ðe swereð,’ id. 79/3 (= qui iurat). There seems to be no distinction in meaning between ‘Bie war, ȝif ðu wilt,’ VV 59/2, and ‘Bie war, ȝif ðu wile,’ id. 61/8, but the forms of this verb are confused, see 89/37. Note also the indicative after ‘hwat hwat,’ 92/134.
[126]. to laten, to be passed over without mention, to be omitted.
[127]. ðe—to sant, to whom God sends it.