[52]. xxx plates: all the early MSS. of the Vulgate have ‘viginti argenteis,’ but ‘triginta’ C., ‘deniers treis feiz dis,’ Joseph 414; the change is due to the desire to perfect the parallel with Christ. plates, silver coins: comp. ‘I nul sulle my Loverd [for] nones cunnes eiste, | bote hit be for the thritti platen that he me bitaiste,’ Rel. Ant. i. 144/25. The metrical stress requires ðo for ðe.
[53], 54. ‘Melius est ut venundetur Ismaelitis, et manus nostrae non polluantur,’ Gen. xxxvii. 27. dan, than that. in here wold, in their power, at their hands.
[57]. ðhogte swem, felt sorrow, as in ‘Of paradis hem ðinkeð swem,’ GE 391, if so, the verb is impersonal and him must be supplied from he: or perhaps, experienced a feeling of faintness: the OF. poem has ‘Quant l’enfant ne trouva, | par poi ne forsena. | Il ne set que il face, | pasmez chiet en la place,’ ll. 433-436.
[58]. set up, raised: ‘credens eum interemptum scissis vestibus eiulabat,’ C. Comp. ‘ðis folc ðo sette up grot and gred,’ GE 3717.
[59]. him cliued: the MS. reading is meaningless; that in the text is Mätzner’s, who explains, cleaves to him. But in view of, ‘And atter on is tunge cliuen,’ GE 372; ‘Al egipte in his wil cliueð,’ 210/438, it is doubtful whether even the pronoun can be used in this sense without a preposition. Now cleave is associated with cling in ‘My hert doth clynge and cleve as clay,’ Coventry Mysteries (54), where cling, wither up, is used metaphorically for, shrink in fear (see [3/32 note] and comp. ‘I clynge as cleyȝ, icauȝt in care,’ Horstmann, S. A. Legenden, 178/388), and it is also used transitively. Is it not probable that cleave had also some such metaphorical meaning which would be suitable here?
[62]. If in is right, it goes with ðe, in which. But its absence would improve the verse, and ðe alone can mean with which: see 46/292. In any case prud is adj., splendid; comp. 209/422; ‘Wið gold and siluer and wið srud, | ðis sonde made ðe mayden prud,’ GE 1413.
[63]. wenten, turned it round and round, rather than, altered it; although the Latin, ‘tinxerunt,’ favours the latter.
[64]. an rewli lit, a pitiable dye.
[65]. Sondere men, messengers; sing. ‘sonder man,’ GE 2871; ‘sanderrmann,’ Orm 19383; ‘sondes man,’ L 13615.
[73]. in haigre srid, clad in a hair, a hair shirt; see 62/31.