[5]. starc: comp. ‘þat fiht was swiþe strong; swiþe starc and swiþe lang,’ L 4170, MS. O.
[6]. among, at intervals, at times: comp. 152/81; ‘þar was weping strong; þar was gredinge among,’ L 23563, MS. O, and see KH 1527 note. Similarly ‘bitweonen’, 132/28; ‘And also cussed his feet amyd’, CM 14015, MS. T.
[7]. sval, was puffed out with anger, like L. tumeo. Rare in this absolute use; for a common expression comp. ‘þin heorte in wið þe swelleð of sar grome,’ HM 31/27: see also 155/101.
[11]. hure and hure: see [15/91 note].
J 13. þo speke, then to speak: the scribe had before him þo speche, the speech, þo representing OE. þā, s. acc. f. of se, usually þe in these texts. Mistaking þo for the adverb, meaning then, he altered speche into speke, spoiling the rhyme. (Breier, 125.)
[14]. breche probably represents OE. bræc, brec, which occurs in the boundaries of charters and appears to mean land left untilled among cultivated fields, such as would be covered with underwood; it would go well with hurne in its dialectal meaning of ‘a nook of land projecting into another parish, district or field.’ The phrase would then mean, in a corner of a spinney, just the position where the nightingale would feel safe; see 153/59, 60. Mätzner takes the word to mean fallowland; there is a dialectic breck, mostly northern and not recorded for the south and a literary word break, given in NED under date 1674, with that meaning. beche in J is generally identified with Layamon’s bach, bæch, valley, but Kenyon holds that it represents OE. bēce, beech, if so, hurne must have its secondary sense of hiding place.
J 16. þat: a scribe’s mistake for þar.
[17]. ore: OE. ānre, s. d. f.: hegge is descended from a strong fem. *hecg, but it is treated as masc. at l. 59, perhaps by confusion with OE. hege. waste: written for vaste, that is, faste (comp. ON, J 796), which Breier takes for an adverb qualifying þicke, very thick. But there is no evidence in ME. for the adverb, except with verbs and participles. It is an adjective, secure, safe, as in ‘wel he makede his castles; treowe ⁊ swiðe uæste,’ L 11897; comp. 153/53, 56-60, 157/130, 131, or possibly, dense.
[18]. Tall grasses and green flag plants grew up through the hedge.
[19]. rise, boughs; comp. ‘blisse was among þe rise,’ ON 1664.