[61]. If his beak were not crooked; not ‘unzuverlässig,’ Mätzner, but as artificers still use true, noun and verb, in various expressions, as ‘out of true,’ ‘to true up,’ &c.
[62]. biforn, in front, the upper mandible has curved over the lower, as S. Augustine explains, iv. 1. 839: it is mostly used with verbs of motion, as at 76/10.
[64]. tilen, procure; comp. 179/103, 182/199; ‘In swinc ðu salt tilen ði mete,’ GE 363.
[65]. with any benefit to himself. Comp. ‘Mare hit hem deð to herme þenne to gode,’ OEH i. 27/12; ‘hi þonne ne mihtan nawþer ne him sylfum, ne þære heorde . . . nænige gode beon,’ BH 45/14. ‘Vix valet ex aliquo sumere pauca cibo,’ T.
[67]. billeð: comp. 186/316, 334, 338; ‘ad petram elidit, immo comminuit et conterit,’ Neckam, De Naturis Rerum, 72.
[69]. wrengðe, distortion: derivative of wrong; apparently here only: see Archiv cxxvii. 47. Add al before forloren.
[70]. rigte, straightened.
[75]. sinnes dern would in any other context mean sins done in secret, but T. has ‘Est homo peccatis que sunt ab origine matris | Qualis adest (a. l. idem est) aquila, sed renovatur ita,’ which requires the sense of original sin not manifest in word or deed. This is clearer in Philippe de Thaün, ‘Pur general pechié (i.e. the universal sin of the human race) | Est enfes baptizié, | E quant il est levez | Cum aigle est renuvez; | Quant il est baptiziez | Dunc est rejuveigniez: | Vertu e veement | En baptisteire prent,’ 78/2115-22. The infant is old in inherited sin, in baptism he renounces Satan and becomes a Christian, then he learns priest’s lore, pater noster and creed: ll. 93-102 are simply variations on the preceding. ‘Nubes transcendit solisque incendia sentit. | Mundum cum pompis despiciendo suis. | Fit novus in Christo ter mersus gurgite vivo. | . . . | Os terit obliquum per verba precancia Christum,’ T.
[78]. nimeð: see 213/539.
[79] goes with l. 78, he must betake himself to the Church, before he can find repentance; his eyes were previously too dim to see his guilt.