[Accidence:] The def. article is s. n. neut. þet 17, 19; s. a. f. þa 5; pl. n. þeo 3, 17; pl. d. þen 19; pl. a. þeo 4. Noteworthy nouns are the mutation pl. bec 7; diȝelnesse, s. a. 5; leoden, pl. n. 3, 18, leodan, pl. a. 15 (weak forms); leore, pl. n. 17. The relatives are þe, þeo 18 (as in L 257, 2999), þet 3: the demonstrative þis, pl. n. neut. 22, þeos, pl. n. m. 15, pl. a. m. 9 (properly a sing. form): possessives, ure 9, 15, 18; heore 16. Glod 16 is a weak preterite beside strong glēow, but the cognate forms in other languages are weak, and this may be a borrowing from the Norse (NED s.v.).
French are questiuns, probably its first appearance, and feþ 23, with its peculiar monophthong (OF. feid in which d was the spirant [ð]); comp. 8/91 note.
[Dialect:] Middle or Western South.
[Metre:] Alliterative long line, of somewhat rude construction, without transitional rhymes or assonances. The alliteration extends mostly to two consonants, sometimes to three, as 5, 17; l. 16 is pure syllabic verse. The scribe sometimes misplaced the pause stop, as at 9, and sometimes omitted it.
[Introduction:] In this scrap, some English patriot laments the wholesale substitution of foreign prelates for English under William the Conqueror. At the end of 1070 A.D. there were only two native bishops, Wulfstan at Worcester and Siward at Rochester. This may point roughly to the time, as the preponderance of names connected with Winchester to the place, of the composition. The absence of the names of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (1002-1016 A.D.) and Archbishop of York (1002-1023), the author of the Homilies; of Wærferth, Bishop of Worcester (872-915), translator of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues; of the later Wulfstan (1062-1095), under whose rule there was great activity in the collection and transcription of Homilies and other literature in English (Keller, W., Die litterarischen Bestrebungen von Worcester in AS. Zeit, p. 64); together with the writer’s ignorance of the North, shows that it was not composed at Worcester. And the mistakes in Sipum 1/11 and heoueshame 1/12 would hardly be made by a Worcester transcriber.
The heading is from Numbers xxvii. 17.
[2]. ⁊ = and: ond apparently does not occur in the twelfth century. [writen]: Varnhagen supplies bec. Comp. ‘þa writen me beoð to icume,’ L 9131. awende. Bede translated into English the Gospel of S. John and some extracts from Isidore (Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummer, i. pp. lxxv, clxii).
[3]. ꝥ . . . þurh, by which. The preposition separated from its relative and placed with the verb is common in ME. See Anklam, Das Englische Relativ im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert, pp. 15-19, 44-6. Comp. in these texts, þet . . . bi, 72/182; inne, 84/45, 131/104; of, 38/155, 66/96, 116, 117/8, 139/11, 211/476; on, 96/53, 179/112; to, 142/75, 79, 143/98; þe . . . embe, 81/77; inne, 11/3, 4; mide, 81/79; offe, 85/84; one, 83/9, 119/73; to, 96/54; uppe, 84/71; þer . . . in, 7/59, 54/1, 147/148; of, 64/61; on, 106/210; to, 89/32; wið, 48/300. Similarly hem . . . to, 193/564; þa . . . to, 96/58.
[4]. C[not]ten: completed by Holthausen, Archiv, cvi. 347. Comp. ‘siȝewulf . . hine befran . . be ȝehwylcum cnottum þe he sylf ne cuþe,’ Interrogationes Sigewulfi, ed. MacLean, 58/12; ‘Ich habbe uncnut summe | of þeos cnotti cnotten,’ SK 1150, 1; and 202/168. With unwreih, comp. ‘Ac Augustinus se wisa us onwreah þas deopnysse,’ AS. Homilien, ed. Assmann, 5/103; ‘him þa toweardæn þing unwreah ⁊ swytelode,’ Twelfth Cent. Hom. 98/17; Cursor, 22445. questiuns: probably Bede’s In Libros Regum Quaestiones Triginta, answering questions put by Nothelm (Plummer, p. cli). But there appears to have been a work known as Bedae Quaestiones in utrumque Testamentum (Plummer, clv note), and there may be a reference to such of his commentaries as were replies to the queries of Acca, Bishop of Hexham. hoteþ: Wright supplies we after þe as in 6, but hoteþ may mean here ‘are called,’ though the passive sense is commoner in Central than in Early ME.
[5]. derne diȝelnesse. Comp. ‘Þatt dærne diȝhellnesse | Þatt writenn wass þurrh Moysæn,’ Orm 12945; and 125/296.