[278]. sele laȝen, pleasing customs: see KH 1110 note.
[284] O. swipte, tossed it off: OE. swipian, to lash; comp. OWScand. svipa, to move quickly.
[286]. fain: the English had a bad reputation for their drinking habits among their French neighbours. Wace describes their revels on the night before the battle of Hastings, ‘Bublie crient e weisseil | E laticome e drincheheil, | Drinc hindrewart e drintome, | Drenc folf, drinc half e drinc tode,’ Roman de Rou, ed. Andresen, 7377, that is, They cry, be blithe and wassail, and let it (the cup) come and drinchail, drink after and drink to me, drink full, drink half and drink to thee. ‘Fercula multiplicant et sine lege bibunt. Wessail et dringail,’ says Burnellus of the English students at Paris at the end of the twelfth century, Nigelli Speculum, 63/19. The parallel place in the prose Brut is, ‘þat was þe ferst tyme þat “whatsaile” and “drynkehaile” come vp into þis lande; and fram þat tyme into this tyme it Haþ bene wel vsede,’ 52/13.
[290]. mod . . . main, mind and might: an OE. combination; comp. ‘ða ongunnon heo sticcemælum mod ⁊ mægen monian,’ Bede, 54/8, = ‘vires animosque resumere.’ halde to, inclined to: OE. hieldan: its use elsewhere in L is quite different; ‘þa hæðene hundes; hælden to grunde,’ L 19558, is typical.
[291]. Comp. ‘þe wurse him wes ful neh,’ L 13284, 16636; ‘þe wurs him wes on heorte,’ id. 9215; ‘þe scucke wes bi-tweonen,’ id. 276; ‘Tant l’a diables cimoné | Qui maint homme a à mal torné,’ W 7159. For ælche, swilce should perhaps be read.
[292]. mæingde, troubled, lit. mingled: the verb is mostly passive in L, as ‘his mod him gon mengen; he morȝnede swiðe,’ 3407; comp. ‘Almast menged him his mode,’ CM 8804.
[293]. murnede, said of painful longing.
[295]. leoden to hærme, to his people’s hurt: comp. ‘Twenti ȝer he heold þis lond; þa leoden al to hærme,’ L 2580; 176/24 note: folk in O is dative.
[298]. funde—ræd, thought it advisable: comp. ‘he uunde on his ræde; to don þat heo hine beden,’ L 21933; ‘Hit is on mine rede; to don þat þu bede,’ id. 31106; 12/5 in piece v. But W says he took the advice of his brother and friends, ‘Loë li ont et consillié | Que il li doint délivrement,’ W 7172.