[63]. lawe, rule of conduct, practice: at 176/15, habit. In spite of the consensus of the MSS., the reading of the original was probably lare.
[64]. Let the knight see that it thrive, i.e. be well kept.
[65]-71. Comp. ‘Disce puer, dum tempus habes, euo puerili, | Ne te nil didicisse fleas etate senili,’ Flor. Gott. 98: ‘Qui vacat in iuventute turbatur in senectute,’ Wipo 63; Cato 231/12; ‘He ꝥ in ȝouþe no vertu vsiþ, | In Age Alle honure hym refusiþ,’ ES xli. 262/27. See Kneuer, p. 19.
[69]. lorþeu: see 1/19.
[72]. elde . . . vnhelþe: for this combination, see 40/197, where unhelðe rhymes with uniselðe.
[75]. wroþe, pl. adj. agreeing with wene, to which latter heo and hi, variant forms of the pl. n., refer. When age and ill-health come, then the expectations of the improvident man are in experience found to be utterly perverse: not only are they cheated, but they actually vanish, i.e., he is left without hope at all. There is a play on wene and wenliche, l. 68.
[78]. Comp. ‘Melior est sapientia, quam secularis potentia | Plus unicus sensus quam multiplex census,’ Wipo 7.
[82]. furþer. T has wrþere, more worthy, which is, no doubt, original, as it alliterates with weole. noht wurþ, RJ.
[83]. of frumþe, from the beginning, betimes: comp. 65/59; ‘þah þu liuedest of adames frumðe,’ OEH i. 33/31. RJ reads of fremðe, but T fremede, and Skeat adding [of] translates, out of a stranger. But the point is not the making friends early or out of strangers, but the having wisdom along with your gold. Stanza xiii. is a weak echo of vii. and l. 144 is the key to l. 83. Read hine to freme for him of frumþe, with the meaning, Unless he make Wisdom his friend to his profit. See 15/110; 176/24 note.
[87-92]. Comp. ‘ȝif þou be visite[d] with pouerte, | take it not to hevyle, | for he ꝥ sende þe Aduersite, | may turne þe Aȝen to wele,’ ES xli. 261/5: Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 133.