[3]. turneþ: went, BA.
[4]. makeþ: hit makeð, C; the subject is weder, neut.: turneþ he, B; i.e. reyne (OE. regn, m.). Comp. ‘Hope maketh fol man ofte blenkes,’ Havelok 307; ‘þenne þe kyng of þe kyth a counsayl hym takes, | Wyth þe best of his burnes, a blench for to make,’ Cleanness 1201, 2.
[6]. falwy: falewi, BC: comp. 133/39, ‘faleweþ so doþ medewe gres,’ OEM 93/16.
[8]. deþes drench: comp. ‘Þær Cristess mennisscnesse | Drannc dæþess drinnch o rodetreo,’ Orm 45/1373.
[9]. bench implies feasting: comp. ‘Ne schaltu neuer sytten · on bolstre ne on benche | Ne neuer in none halle · þar me wyn schenche,’ OEM 175/89; ‘Ye þat weryeþ þat riche schrud · and sytteþ on eure benche,’ id. 169/3; ‘Ac þu sete on þine benche, underleid mid þine bolstre,’ Worcester Frag. C, 26; L 9693.
[10]. With aquench, comp. ‘Her-of we owe þenche. | And vre sunnen aquenche. | Mid beden and myd almesse,’ OEM 79/217.
[12]. B reads, þat may agein deaþes wiþer clench, that has power against death’s hostile grip: wiþer-clench appears to be without parallel. In our text, Morris takes ago for agon, escape, but, as Zupitza points out, it is probably for agon = agein, which is also found as age, aȝe. Stratmann-Bradley translates wiþer-blench, attack, quoting this place only: more probably it means sly, treacherous attack.
[14]. ryueþ, rakes: Icel. rifja, to rake hay into rows: ‘Ryvyn, or rakyn,’ Prompt. Parvul. ed. Mayhew, col. 386. on o streng: so B, but C in one strench, which would represent OE. strenc, a by-form of streng, recorded in Funiculus, modicum funus, rap uel strenc, Wright, Vocabularies 245/6, just as drench, wrench represent drenc, wrenc. If that be the case here, then C agrees with BJ, save in the preposition in. For Death armed with a rake comp. ‘Hwen he com to arudden | of deaðes rake oðre, | hwi deide he him seoluen?’ SK 1137: Satan is often so represented, ‘Þer is sathanas þe qued · | redi wyþ his rake,’ OEM 181/213; SM 11/11; SK, MS. C 917. Death sweeps in his victims with his rope; ‘Ded has vs wit-sett vr strete, | · | All sal we rin into his rape,’ CM 23727; ‘Ded sal rug us til his rape,’ CM 21920; ‘Deþ shal take vs al in rape,’ id. MS. T. The conception then is that of Death sweeping in all sorts and conditions with the same rope. It is just possible that the reading of C, strench, is meant for strech, i.e. stretch, the word still used in Dorsetshire for ‘the space taken in at one stretch of the rake,’ EDD. v. 813. Streche is not common at this period, but comp. 42/231; ‘on his modes streche,’ OEH i. 111/25, in the sweep, or compass, of his mind.
[15]. fox, adj.: comp. 187/351; ‘fox of fyl’ (read wil), Horst., S.A.L. 12/251; Orm 230/6646: for wrench, comp. ‘Alse þe fox þe mid his wrenches walt oðer deor; ⁊ haueð his wille þerof,’ OEH ii. 195/7.
[16]. B has, ne mai him noman to yenes.