[265]. Comp. ‘behoueð ðe ðat ðu bie well warr ꝥ tu luuiȝe ðine nexte, ðat is, aurich mann ðe berð ðin anlicnesse,’ VV 39/13: a translation of proximus, S. Luke x. 29. þe: comp. 22/141, 25/217: ‘Au besoing voit on qui amis est’, Li Proverbe au Vilain, no. 72.
[266]. Comp. 188/378; ‘Vrom mulne ⁊ from cheping, from smiðe ⁊ from ancre huse, me tiðinge bringeð,’ AR 88/26; ‘At chireche and at chepyng | hwanne heo to-gadere come,’ OEM 189/57; Böddeker, AE. Dicht. 112/82.
[270]. sytte: comp. 22/144: rest in contentment; ‘sit soft.’
[271]. Skeat takes lond le as a mere scribal error for londe which T reads. I think it points to an original londe ⁊ se: comp. 40/194; ‘Mid mede man mai ouer water faren And mid weldede of giue; frend wuerche,’ OEH ii. 41/20 (possibly a reminiscence of this place). For the proverb comp. ‘Mieux vaut amis en voie, ke deniers en corroie. Melius valet amicus in via quam denarius in corrigia,’ Hauréau, Notices et Extraits, ii. 283.
[274]-6. Comp. 22/133-5. mixe: T has nocht.
[280]. holde, maintain: ‘vpholde,’ 21/113.
[285]. Comp. 18/9-11.
[288]. Comp. generally 32/39-65; 29/20-24. Perhaps the allusion is to ‘In timore Domini esto [tuum cor] tota die: Quia habebis spem in novissimo, et praestolatio tua non auferetur,’ Prov. xxiii. 17, 18.
[289]. lyen: comp. ‘ꝥ sind þa gecostan cempan þa þam cyninge þeowað | se næfre þa lean alegeð þam þe his lufan adreogeð,’ Exeter Book, ed. Gollancz, 108/91. See 32/64 note.
[293]. gabbe, talk mockingly or derisively: the meaning of Fr. gaber, to talk boastingly, would suit well here, but it lacks support. schotte is difficult: the obvious sense is, to pay scot, to take part in convivial assemblies, but this does not go well with gabbe. Borgström thinks that it may be schoute, to shout, or possibly to scout, sneer, modified for the sake of the rhyme. If that principle may be admitted, stroute, to swagger (Havelok, 1779), would be preferable.