[472]. xiiij: The Vulgate and C. say seventeen.
[474]. Quilc time, at what time, when.
[476]. One thing whereof he should be right mindful. Mätzner inserts he after ðat: Schumann suggested the division of offe. But the line is still unmetrical, and the subjunctive mune for should remember is very doubtful; probably og has dropped out after off: comp. ‘And for hise sinne oc (= og) he to munen,’ GE 197, for the infinitive without to, ‘Cristene men ogen ben so fagen,’ id. 15 and for the infinitive in e, ‘fare’ 210/443 in rhyme as here.
[477]. wurð—don, was finished with him: NED quotes ‘He knewe well that it was doon of him,’ Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 56.
[479]. witterlike, definitely; that is, not merely in Hebron, but in the cave where Abraham was laid; ‘in sepulchro maiorum suorum quod abraamium dicitur,’ C.
[482]. stille, in secret: comp. ‘And stille he dalf him [in] ðe sond,’ GE 2718.
[483]. fer ear biforen, very long beforehand: comp. ‘ðe was of hin fer ear biforen | Or ani werldes time boren,’ GE 47; ‘ear fear biforn,’ id. 253. See 202/187.
[484]-486. hem: Jacob’s ancestors, as in the frequent ‘dormivit cum patribus suis.’ C. has ‘Cura fuit sanctis sepeliri in terra qua sciebant Christum resurrecturum · ut cum eo resurgerent’ (in Zainer’s text the last clause is ‘vbi cum eo multa corpora sanctorum surrexerunt cum eo’). Accordingly Kölbing proposed to read for hem, him, referring to Christ, of whom our author says that he ‘restede him after ðe ded,’ GE 257. A further change of reste to arist would make the correspondence with C. complete, but it is more probable that the author omitted the clause.
[489]. This line appears to represent ‘Cumque videret diem obitus sui imminere · vocauit Joseph,’ C. which comes in the narrative before l. 415. There is a mixture of constructions, (1) when he felt his departure at hand, and (2) Before his departure. Mätzner proposed to substitute migte for wiste.
[491]. And prophesied of their future: Gen. xlix.