[643]. For him, hin, shortened form of hine, may be read: comp. ‘fleges kin sal hin ouer-gon,’ GE 3004.
[644]. For fin read afin or in fin; the meaning will be, into his divine presence at our ending. The original has ‘Celos ascendens, ubi regnat cum patre presens, | Quem gentes cuncte sunt sic credendo secute:’ the parallel passage in the description is l. 620. godcundnesse properly means, divinity, divine nature, here apparently, the manifestation of that divinity in heaven. For fin, death, comp. ‘Alle ðhe olde deden ðor fin,’ GE 3852.
[645]. ‘Serpens antiquus qui nobis est inimicus,’ T.
[646]. dine, sound, preaching: suggested by ‘rem,’ 195/611, and possibly by S. Paul’s use of Psalm xviii. 5, ‘in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum,’ Rom. x. 18.
[648]. ðer wile, whilst, so long as; comp. 198/37, 205/288, 446/59, ‘And mete quorbi ðei migten liuen, | ðor quiles he woren on water driuen,’ GE 573; ‘Therwhile, sire, that I tolde this tale | Thi sone mighte tholie dethes bale,’ Seuyn Sages, 701. he—beren, they maintain obedience and cherish love: he refers to noman: beren goes naturally with luue, with lage it stands for lage halden, to keep the commandments (of God).
[649]. Thetbald ends with the Panther, and this section is generally said to be taken from Neckam’s De Naturis Rerum, c. xlvi. His dove has eight ‘natures,’ three of which are wanting in our author’s seven, and lacks two of those given here (ll. 656, 657; ll. 660, 661), while Neckam’s explanation of the fifth, ll. 662, 663, is quite different. The matter is common to the Fathers and medieval writers, and our author may have drawn from more than one, but Hugh of S. Victor, De Bestiis et aliis Rebus, lib. i. c. 11, most nearly resembles him. His dove has ten qualities, six of which are here, and there is something resembling the seventh: each of them is quoted.
[651]. wes, we them. hauen in mode, keep in mind: so, ‘ben us minde,’ l. 653: see 184/263.
[653]. Mätzner takes alle it together as, all of them, comparing 190/450, where he says it = them, but see [1/10 note]: the construction is similar here, it is a mere introductory word like there: the order is, it ogen alle &c., and the meaning, they ought all to be present in thought to us.
[654]. ‘Caret felle, id est, irascibilitatis amaritudine,’ V. Comp. ‘Loke nu þet tu, þet he cleopeð kulure, habbe kulure kunde, þet is wiðuten galle,’ AR 292/19; ‘Forr cullfre iss milde ⁊ meoc ⁊ swet, | ⁊ all wiþþutenn galle,’ Orm 1258; ‘Lauedi scho es o leuedis all, | Mild and mek witouten gall,’ CM 101.
[655]. simple: Comp. ‘Estote simplices sicut columbe · buð admode alse duue,’ OEH ii. 49/25, that is, humble. softe, gentle.