[35], 36. ‘Nel feron mie, | ce sereit desverie,’ Joseph 273.
[37]. drempte: impersonal with two accusatives, Quatso and him; so too at 200/103, 202/170, and probably at 201/149: more commonly the thing dreamt takes of, or is a clause, 200/113, 120, 201/132. ðor quiles, whilst: see 196/648.
[38]. cisternesse: the MS. has ðisternesse here (it occurs correctly at GE 58), and ‘ðis ðhisternesse’ at GE 66, where ‘ðis’ is in excess, and cisternesse at l. 56. The original had, no doubt, cisterne or cistern in both places, and in this line probably In cisterne ðise, imitating ‘proiicite eum in cisternam hanc,’ Gen. xxxvii. 22 (comp. ‘He ðrowede and ðolede untiming ðat,’ GE 1180): having blundered here, the scribe altered cistern l. 56 in conformity, spoiling the metre.
[39]. Get, still, in spite of his dreams. Above e of wurðe a small he is added in the MS.
[40]. The phrase owen a wold means, to have in one’s power, like its synonym hauen a wolde (see [52/387 note]); it occurs in its literal sense at 200/108, distressing dreams were responsible for that, and in ‘Luue wel michil it agte a wold, | Swilc seruise and so longe told,’ GE 1671, very strong love was capable of such hard service and so protracted. Here it has the derived sense of import, mean, like power, force used for meaning expressed by letter or phrase: comp. ‘Quat oget nu ðat for-bode o wold,’ GE 324, what now was the import of that prohibition; ‘And vndernam him ðat it agte awold,’ id. 2727, and questioned him as to what it meant; ‘ðor is writen quat agte awold, | ðat ðis werld was water wold,’ id. 525, therein is written what it signified that this world was destroyed by water.
[41]. wid herte sor, presumably on Reuben’s part.
[42]-44. ‘et recessit Ruben meliora querens pascua,’ C. lewse, so again at GE 1576: OE. lǣs, g. lǣswe.
[45]. dor quiles, meanwhile; comp. 204/265, and see 196/648.
[46]. ‘that was carried out in secret haste,’ Morris, who proposes derue for derne. But the meaning is, advice that was filled full of secret gain. For of comp. 217/91, 94, for sped, ‘of euerilc sed, | Was erðe mad moder of sped,’ GE 121. In the OF. Joseph, it is said of Judas, ‘mult iert escientous | et auques coveitous,’ ll. 347, 348, and he makes a speech to his brothers, ‘Touz temps somes berchier, | onc n’ëumes denier. | Ore en porrons aveir | senz vendre nostre aveir,’ ll. 365-368.
[48]. spices ware: ‘aromata & resinam & stacten .i. myrram,’ C.