[318] dreue = trouble, disturb. Cf. O.E. drove, to trouble, droving, tribulation. "Þa Herodes þæt gehyrde, þa wearð he gedrefed,[[397]] & eal Hierosolim-waru mid him."—Matt. ii. 3.
"& for-þi þatt he sahh þatt ȝho
Was dræfedd of his spæche
He toc to froffrenn hire anann."—(Orm. i. p. 74.)
"And because that he saw that she was troubled at his word, he took to comfort her anon." Southern writers, by metathesis, formed from dreuen (dreue) the vb. deruen (derue), thereby confounding it with another vb. deruen or derue, pret. dorue, p.p. doruen (A.Sax. deorfan, pret. dearf, p.p. dorfen), to labour, perish, be in trouble. Dreue is a transitive vb. of the weak conjugation, while derue is intransitive and of the strong conjugation, nevertheless we find derue (pret. dorue), taking the signification of dreue. "Stute nu earme steorue ant swic nuðe lanhure swikele swarte deouel, þat tu ne derue me na mare."—(Seinte Marherete, p. 12.) "Stop now, poor stern one, and cease now at once, deceitful swart devil, that thou harm me no more." In Laȝamon we find not only pret. drof = distressed, but derfde, and the p.p. iderued. In the Owl and Nightingale (ed. Wright), p. 40, we find the p.p. idorve = troubled, injured.
"Other thou bodest cualm of oreve (orve),
Other that lond-folc wurth i-dorve."
And senkede hire hure aldre bale
= And poured out to her the bale of us all,