[The following notes are abridged from the notes in Sir F. Madden’s excellent edition, the abridgement being effected almost entirely by occasional omissions, and with but very slight unimportant changes of a few words, chiefly in the case of references to later editions of various works than were existing in 1828. I have added one or two short notes upon difficult constructions, but these are distinguished by being enclosed within square brackets. —W. W. S.]
He was the wicteste man at nede
That thurte riden on ani stede.
This appears to have been a favourite expression of the poet, and to have comprehended, in his idea, the perfection of those qualifications required in a knight and hero. He repeats it, with some slight variation, no less than five times, viz. in ll. 25, 87, 345, 1757, and 1970. The lines, however, are by no means original, but the common property of all our early poetical writers. We find them in Laȝamon:
þis wes þe feiruste mon
þe æuere æhte ær þusne kinedom,
þa he mihte beren wepnen,
& his hors wel awilden.
Laȝamon, vol. i. p. 174.