[70]. æure umwile, at regularly recurring times; it became a regular tax. tenserie, protection money. Round, 215, quotes from a letter of Pope Lucius to Archbishop Theobald, ‘Quidam etiam sub nomine tenseriarum villas et homines suos spoliant.’ LL. tensare means, to protect, and, through extortion of money on pretence of protection, to rob. See Round, 414 and NED s.v. Other references for tenserie, tenser are Wistasse le Moine, 2112; Roman de Rou, 9554.
[71]. Worcester was burnt in 1139, Nottingham in 1140 and 1153, Winchester in 1141, Oxford in 1142, Cambridge by Geoffrey in 1144.
[72]. Comp. ‘Ærst aswond þat corn here; ȝeond al þas kineriche. | þer after hit wes swa deore; & al folc gon to deȝen. | swa þat þu mihtes fare; fulle seouen nihte | ꝥ no mihtest þu þurh nene chep; finde neouwer na bred. | an burȝe and on londe,’ L 31793-31801; ‘ꝥ folc ut of londe; flah on ælche ænde. | monie hundred tunen; bi-læued weoren of monnen. | þat lut me uinde mihte; men uaren ȝeond londe,’ L 31845-50.
[75]. ieden on, ‘went about asking,’ Norgate. This meaning requires the verbal subst.; rather, ‘subsisted on,’ with on of manner.
[78]. ouer sithon is usually taken as, everywhere subsequently, which is not suitable here. Earle equates it with OE. ofer sīþum, as meaning times past reckoning, but ofer in the sense of surpassing requires an acc., and the phrase is without parallel. Perhaps sithon is a weak acc. sing. of sīþ, which is often weak in ME.; the phrase might then mean, contrary to experience. For ofer in that sense, comp. ‘ofer aþas ⁊ treowe’ = ‘contra fidem iurisiurandi,’ Bede, 148/10. William of Ypres burnt Wherwell, plundered Abingdon, and tried to burn S. Albans. Geoffrey de Mandeville sacked Ramsey in 1143; ‘nec ecclesiis nec coemiteriis parcebant,’ Ann. de Wintonia, 52; Malmesbury, ii. 540. forbaren, abstained from injuring; comp. ‘That the pore is thus i-piled, and the riche forborn,’ Pol. Songs, 337/312.
[81]. ouer, written for ower, anywhere. OE. āhwær. Gif, &c.: comp. ‘Ubicunque alter alterum in itinere conspicebatur, totus protinus contremiscere, meticulose visum effugere, vel prope in silva vel in divortio aliquo latere, usquequo, resumpto tandem spiritu, viam coeptam tutior carperet, et audacior,’ Gesta, 41.
[83]. leredmen: see 4/20.
[84]. oc—þarof, lit. but to them was nothing concerning that; it concerned them not at all. Comp. 46/292; ‘ne beo ham nawt of’ = let them be unconcerned, 70/167; ‘þe dead (d.) nis nout of, þauh he ligge unburied’ = the dead does not mind, AR 352/5; ‘þe deade nis nan more of scheome þen of menke,’ AR 352/29 (in both places Morton wrongly takes nis as ne wis); ‘Wha summ itt iss þatt mann, þatt niss | Nohht off to wurrþenn fullhtnedd,’ Orm 140/4074. Similarly 180/131; ‘lutel me is of ower luue, leasse of ower laððe,’ SJ 27/14. With of comp. 44/260, 164/256.
[86]. xpist slep. Said by the wicked, H. of Huntingdon, 277; by the good, W. of Newbury, i. 45. See Norgate, i. 335 note, and comp. ‘Sed . . . unicum mihi consilium superest, Deum hominem . . . exorare: qui velut in navi dormiens, fidelium precibus excitandus est, ut procellam componat naufragantis Ecclesiae,’ John of Salisbury, Metalogicus, 206.
[89]. suinc: ‘cum maximo labore abbatiam tenuit, sed adiuvabant eum monachi sui, et tamen invenit eis abbas, et hospitibus, quicquid necessarium fuit, et erat caritas magna in domo illa,’ Hugo, 76.