[223]. rede: dative.
[225]. me . . . of, about me; comp. 1/3. Þet in J is a mistake for ȝet.
[227]. woning: comp. 159/176, 182.
[228]. to ihire, to be heard, to listen to; comp. 159/180.
[229]. efne, uniformly, without trillings; comp. 153/48.
[230]. Mid fulle dreme, with good round volume of sound, in contrast with the nightingale’s thin shrill pipe, ll. 235, 236.
[236]. weode unripe, half-grown weed, like Milton’s ‘scrannel pipes of wretched straw.’
[239]-246. a riȝte time. The owl takes credit for singing, not all night like the nightingale, l. 247, but only to call the religious to their hours, an eue, Vespers (æfen-sang); bedtime, Compline (niht-sang); ad middelniȝte, Mattins with Lauds (ūht-sang); dairim, Prime (prīm-sang), ‘þærrihte upasprungenum dægriman dægredsang sy begunnen,’ Benedictine Rule, ed. Schröer, 32/22. S. Brendan in his wanderings came to the bird’s paradise where ‘þe foweles sunge ek here matyns: wel riȝt, þo hit was tyme, | ⁊ of þe sauter seide þe uers: ⁊ siþþe also prime, | ⁊ vnderne siþþe ⁊ middai: ⁊ afterwardes non, | ⁊ eche tyde songen of þe dai: as cristene men scholde don,’ Legendary, ed. Horstman, 225/223. note, employment, here divine service; comp. 74/210. The nightingale claims her share in this at ll. 347-353.
[248]. fort: see [72/179 note].
[251]. crei: found here only; it has been explained as crowing, or crying, it can hardly be connected with F. cri, but it may possibly be, as Breier suggests, connected with OE. crāwan. More likely it is an imitative word invented by the writer.