[151]. beswapen, clothed: ‘et induit maledictionem sicut vestimentum,’ Ps. cviii. 18; ‘Qui oderunt te, induentur confusione,’ Job viii. 22.
[152]. an himselfe, concerning himself: comp. ‘Eft ne mot nan mann . . . secgan on hine sylfne,’ Ælf. Lives, i. 274/177.
[153]. ecenesse is strangely said of man’s earthly existence. Perhaps recelesnesse.
[158]. esten, dainties: comp. 50/359; metaphorically, it means delight, at 159. Delicie &c.: Prov. viii. 31; sunt is not in the Vulgate.
[160]. litl her, a little time ago.
[161]. Ego &c.: S. John vi. 51; in Vulgate, descendi.
[162]. astah: OE. astīgan is a neutral word the direction of which is indicated by an adverb. When alone, it is generally used of rising; but comp. ‘Ah crist . . . asteh of heuene riche,’ OEH i. 17/25; ‘he (Christ) asteh to þisse liue,’ id. 19/7.
[164]. alswa se, not, ‘as he also,’ Morris, but, just as, even as, 17/173: so alswa alse, 17/169; alse, 13/42, alswa, 17/170 = as.
[165]. ⁊ c.: ‘cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet,’ S. John xii. 24. was ȝesawen, at the Annunciation. The fanciful comparison is common in mediaeval writers: comp. ‘Elegit autem sibi quasi granum tritici Deus corpus de Spiritu sancto in utero virginali conceptum . . . in cruce illa [grana] moluit, in resurrectione cribravit,’ Petri Cellensis Sermones (Migne, P. L. ccii), 808.
[167]. com, sprang up; a common use in mod. dialects. ꝥ cweð us of breade is translated in Specimens, ‘which speaketh to us by bread.’ It means, of course, that is called house of bread: comp. ‘Bethleem is gereht “Hlaf-hús,” and on hire wæs Crist, se soða hlaf, acenned, þe be him sylfum cwæð, “Ic eom se liflica hláf,”’ Ælf. Hom. Cath. i. 34/14; ‘In coelis erat panis angelorum, set in bethleem factus est panis hominum. Merito igitur locus iste domus dicebatur panis, unde angelorum et hominum carnaliter fuerat oriundus panis,’ H. de Losinga, ii. 12; Orm 121/3528-35.