[42]. This interpretation of the gifts is as old as Irenaeus and is a medieval commonplace. Comp. ‘Monstrant auro regem esse, | praesulem designant thure, | mirram signum tumuli | tribuere domino,’ MSD i. 41/28-30.
[43]. Gostliche: ‘esperitielment.’
[44]. glareth: ‘resplendist.’
[46]. licht, lights, lightens.
[48]. he is: an addition, not in the French.
[50]. werkes: D has, ‘Li encens signefie bon oure . (ure A) ⁊ bone preiere;’ Boucherie, ‘bone ovre e bone prière.’ Our writer has translated ‘ovre,’ but not ‘preiere,’ on the other hand in l. 52 he mentions prayer, ‘biddinge,’ but not good works. ido—ueréé: ‘mis el fu del encensier,’ D, but A has only ‘mis el fuz.’
[55]. ihende, near: OE. gehende.
[56]. is: due to the French, ‘la bon oure . ki est amiere.’ to þo yemernesse, to the wretchedness: ‘a la chiche ⁊ a la maluoistie de nostre char,’ to the stinginess and the evil disposition of our flesh.
[57]. uastinge &c.: ‘ieuner pur deu . ueiller . alier en pelerinage.’
[59]. so, in the same way as myrrh is bitter to the taste: ‘Jces choses si sunt ameres a nostre malueise char,’ A.