p. 5, l. [160]. unneth, O.E. unêaðe, “uneasily, scarcely.” Chaucer has unnethë, the final e being almost always sounded. See Introduction, p. xxxix.
p. 5, l. [163]. gydoure evidently means “guide, conductor, commander.”
p. 5, l. [164]. houne = hounde. On the elition of final d, see Skeat, Specimens of Early English, 320/261, and Preface to Havelok, p. xxxvii.
p. 5, l. [165]. Ifreȝ. There is no person of this name in any other version. Perhaps this Ifres may be identical with Jeffroi, mentioned as a senator of Rome in the Destruction (ll. 1122, 1139, 1367).
p. 6, l. [170]. About the phrase “douce France” compare Léon Gautier’s note to l. 15 of his Edition critique de la Chanson de Roland.
p. 6, l. [171]. Savaris. The author has found this name in the Destruction, l. 540.
p. 6, l. [173]. Kinge : thinge. In my dissertation on the language and the sources of the Sowdan of Babylon, p. 4, bottom, I have shown [‹p102›] that i or y, which corresponds to O.E. y, the umlaut of u, rhymed with original i in this poem, which proves that the author wrote in the East Midland dialect. But among the examples collected there (p. 5), I ought not to have cited kinge, because this word is not peculiar to the East Midland speech, but occurs with the same form in all dialects. See Introduction, p. xxxv.
p. 6, ll. [175–6] are imitated from the Destruction, ll. 546–7. See Introduction, p. xxiii.
p. 6, l. [176]. ner, the common form for nor (267, 1633) in this poem. “Polaynes are knee-pieces in a suit of armour. This term for genouilleres is found in the household book of Edward I.” (Morris, Glossary on Sir Gawayne, s. v. polaynes).
p. 6, l. [181]. tyte, “soon, quick.” The editor of the Roxburghe Club edition of the Sowdan curiously confounds tyte with tightly = “adroitly,” occurring in Shakespeare, Merry Wives, I. 3. Tyte is derived from O.Icel. tîðr, “creber,” the neuter of which tîtt, used adverbially means “crebro, celeriter.” See Stratmann, p. 561, s. v. tîd.