[354]. fordon: ‘Futurum est enim ut Herodes quaerat puerum ad perdendum eum,’ S. Matt. ii. 15.
[356]. Seftes &c.: comp. 2/2. sene—werlde, it is seen in the case of the world; parenthetic; but Mätzner takes ðing as subject of is. With on comp. ‘þat was on Tristrem sene,’ Sir Tristrem 1205; ‘On þe hit is wel eþ sene,’ OEH ii. 255/5; ‘Ful soth it was apon vs sene,’ CM 24333.
[357]. leiðe, hateful: OWScand. leiðr = OE. lāð: lodlike, OE. lāðlic is synonymous. ðus: either, as has already been said, that the Creator made these loathly things, or, as follows, that He made them to this end, for the instruction of men generally. The latter is a common medieval idea; men, says Gilbert of Hoyland, contemplate God ‘in speculo creaturarum et scripturarum aenigmate,’ S. Bernardi Opera, ii. 170.
[358]. manikines: see [81/80 note].
[359]. manne: dat.; see [176/24 note].
[360]. Holthausen supplied web (see l. 363), and swiðe or wide. ‘Plurima fila net (a. l. nectit) assiduus,’ T.
[361]. Transpose, atte hus rof festeð. festeð, binds. fodredes, plans, means of securing food: a word found here only.
[362]. so—elde, so it is for her in age, is senseless in this context: read, hire is so on felde, it is for her as if on a field, that is, she moves on a ceiling as if she were on the ground. so, as if; comp. 194/583 with 195/625; ‘His brunie he gan lace | So he scholde in to place,’ KH 717.
[363]. werpeð, throws, with perhaps a reference to the specific meaning of warp, OE. wearp, stamen.
[364]. Transpose, al idigt haueð. With driueð comp. 176/8.