[17]. þreting, menace, or possibly upbraiding: B has weping. The nouns þreting, bene, Mede, &c., are subjects of may, l. 16.
[18]. Mede, bribery: B reads, ne listes ne leches drench.
[21]. Possibly a reference to the advice given at 27/288.
[23]. Do as He who bringeth thee to thy end taught thee and said. Comp. 27/282-286.
[25]. mysdo, misfare. B leaves out þenne and the whole of the following line, which means, But thou hast good reason to live in fear and trembling. ‘A peyne joie avra un sul jur | Ke de sa fyn bien pensera,’ MS. Lambeth 522, Archiv lxiii. 76/23.
[27]. such, such and such a man, indefinitely.
[29]. luteþ, lurkeþ. Comp. ‘Ja n’ert tant prus ne tant vaillanz, | Ne tant de richesces en avra, | Ke tuit nel perde a un launz: | Kar mort tapit enmi sun gaunt, | Kant meyns quide | Chescun,’ Archiv lxiii. 76/33; ‘within the hollow crown | That rounds the mortal temples of a king | Keeps Death his court,’ Shakspere, K. Richard II, iii. ii. 160. The reading of B, ‘deþ him ledes on his sóó,’ apparently means, death on his shoes (OE. scōum) directs his footsteps.
[33]. fule fulþe: comp. 134/94. ‘Cum faex, cum limus, cum res vilissima simus, | Unde superbimus? Ad terram terra redimus,’ Hauréau, Notices, vi. 124.
[37]. Comp. ‘Quor deades strenge warp him dun,’ GE 21/714.
[38]. Comp. 21/110; ‘Quen þu best wenis to haf all, | Fra al þan sal þou titest fall,’ CM 21939; ‘þenne þu wenest ꝥ þu scalt libben alre best · þenne gest þu forð,’ OEH i. 7/23; ‘quant mielz quidet vivre | e estre a delivre, | la mort li cort sore,’ Reimpredigt 32/16.