[49]. acht, acc. used as adv., in any wise, at all: comp. ‘Ne mihte he neuere finden mon; þe him oht wolde fulsten,’ L 6601. moder: comp. ‘Sed et tu, Jesu, bone Domine, nonne et tu mater? Annon es mater qui tanquam gallina congregat sub alas pullos suos?’ Anselmi Opera, 300.
[50]. chereð. The MS. reading cheteð is explained, console, cheer, as possibly from OWScand. kǣta, but this is rejected by Björkman, 260. There is no other instance of the word. be = mid, l. 52, with.
[52]. All this doth your lord.
[53]. Comp. ‘Est autem noctis umbra mortalibus ad requiem corporis data, ne operis avida continuato labore deficeret ac periret humanitas,’ Bedae Opera, ed. Giles, vi. 158.
[55]. ȝewold, for omission of subject see [6/18 note].
[56]. hares unþances, see [10/167 note].
[57]. word: Morris reads worden, in wonderful words, which may be right: the same scribe writes wordon once, wordum twice elsewhere. Numquid &c. The Vulgate has ‘Numquid oblivisci potest mulier . . . ut non misereatur filio?’ Isaiah xlix. 15.
[59]. la lief, O beloved: comp. ‘Eala men þa leofoston,’ BH 165/32; ‘La leof ic bidde eow,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 522/580; ‘Eala, leof hlaford’ = O mi domine, Thorpe, Analecta, 19. his: OE. wīmman is masculine.
[61]. be — is, as regards his being father.
[62]. In the Vulgate, ‘Si ergo Pater ego sum ubi . . . et si Dominus ego sum’ &c., Malachi i. 6.