[144]. sitte: comp. 26/270. The recurrence of þe—vere at l. 148 and the divergence of T which gives for the last half of this line, and hwo hem mide senden, preserving the alliteration, shows that something is wrong here. A rearrangement in the order 143, 147, 148, 144, reading syker he may sitte ⁊ þat him mide syndon, 145, 146, 149 gives a good sense.
[151], 2. Comp. ‘Tel þou neuer þy fo þat þy fot akeþ,’ Hendyng 93; Kneuer, 29. arewe, apparently found only here, malicious person, enemy: OE. earg, earh.
[153]. þe, an ethical dative; see [13/34 note].
[154]. The subject of wile is the clause þet—con, he who is not acquainted with your circumstances. With 155 comp. 21/88.
[158]. teleþ, derides, makes sport of.
[159]. swych mon þat, &c., such a man as wishes you very well, said ironically: þat is not conjunction, but relative pronoun, and the construction is parallel to, ‘talem igitur te esse oportet qui primum te ab impiorum civium . . . societate seiungas,’ Cic. Fam. x. 6. 3; just as so . . . þat, 24/184, 5 is matched by, ‘Quis est tam lynceus qui in tantis tenebris nihil offendat?’ id. ix. 2; and similarly ‘nec tamen ego sum ille ferreus, qui fratris maerore non movear,’ Cic. Cat. iv. 3. Where the expression is generic, the dependent verb should be subjunctive, as is the case with segge, and probably here the original had monne—onne. Comp. ‘ic bidde . . . swælc monn seðe to minum ærfe foe,’ Thorpe, Diplom. 471/16; ‘Nes þo non so hardy · þat on me leyde honde,’ OEM 43/209; ‘þat na man ne wurðe swa wod; ne witte bi-dæled, | þat in his hirede breke grið,’ L 10282; ‘þat na mon on worlde; swa wod no iwurðe, | no swa ær witte gume; þat his grið bræke,’ id. 22069, 787. With on comp. ‘ne beo he no swa luðer mon; þat his freond him wel ne on,’ L 22963: Skeat’s insertion of hit spoils the meaning. Swyhc mon = such a one: swillc an appears for the first time in Orm 11595.
[166]. bywite: þenkeþ T.
[169]. Comp. ‘Uxorem fuge ne ducas sub nomine dotis,’ Cato 228/12: ‘Monimon for londe wyueþ to shonde,’ Hendyng 280; Kneuer, 57.
[170]. custe, qualities, virtuous or otherwise.
[171]. vuele iauhteþ, estimates falsely, makes a bad bargain.