stinken = stinkende, stinking. [1166] him reu. The verb rewe is used impersonally in O.E. [1167] suðen = southwards. (See Gen. xx. 1.) [1171]-2 Erewhile as first Pharaoh her took, now taketh Abimelech her also. [1177] wif-kinnes, womankind. [1178] wið-helð = wið-held. [1179]-80 In dream to him came tidings why he suffered and underwent that misfortune. [1180] untiming is literally that which is unseasonable. We have the same notion expressed in O.E. unhap (mishap), misfortune; E. happen, happy, and E. hap, happen, etc. Cp. untime, in Ancren Riwle, p. 344. [1184] ðat il sel, that same time, immediately.

[1186]

And his yuel sort was ouer-gon,

And his evil lot was passed.

[1188]

ða ðe swinacie gan him nunmor deren,

When the quinsy did him no more vex (annoy).

Our author or his transcriber is certainly wrong about the "swinacie;" for the punishment of "lecher-craft" was meselry (leprosy), the quinsy being the penalty for gluttony. The seven deadly sins were thus to be punished in Purgatory:—

1. Pride,by a daily fever.
2. Covetousness, " the dropsy.
3. Sloth, " the gout.
4. Envy, " boils, ulcers, and blains.
5. Wrath, " the palsy.
6. Gluttony, " the quinsy.
7. Lechery, " meselry or leprosy.

[1192] ðat faire blod, that fair woman. blod in O.E. was used as a term of the common gender, as also were such words as girl, maid, etc. See Gloss. to Allit. Poems, s.v. blod.