[592]. briche: see 185/293.
[593]. on geuelike: see 182/214.
[594]. Omit men. his loðe, those hateful to him.
[598]-600. ‘Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato,’ T. bro, eyebrow: OWScand. brá: see Björkman 231. Mätzner sees in the whale’s brow an expression for whalebone: Pliny says ‘ora ballaenae habent in frontibus, ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbos efflant,’ N. H. ix. 6, 16. The explanation is not convincing. Such comparisons are generally made with familiar objects, so ‘colblake,’ 153/75; ‘And worth al black sum ani cole,’ CM 22489; ‘Al blak so cole-brond,’ King Alisaunder 6260. Perhaps, so brond of cole: the scribe is given to leaving out the end of his words, and the rhyme cole : al is no worse than fel : al, 190/465. In other Bestiaries the panther is of many colours.
[600]. trendled &c., rounded as a wheel.
[601]. And it sets him off, adorns him, exceedingly: an early instance of this meaning. Comp. ‘þe kirtel bicom him swiþe wel,’ Guy of Warwick, Auch. MS. 14/210.
[602]. he: see [119/77 note].
[603]. der: T. has ‘Diversis pastus venatibus et saciatus,’ but the Bestiaries generally avoid making him carnivorous; ‘Divers mangiers manjue,’ P. de Thaün, 474; ‘Saoulee . . . De boenes viandes plusors,’ Guillaume, 1958, 1960; ‘diversis herbis vescitur,’ Honorius Augustod. (Migne), 887.
[604]. cul, rump: the earliest appearance of this French word in English. Mätzner explains it as cowl, fell.
[607]. After dages insert al: comp. 195/635.