Part 31 (2/2)

[_The rest is wanting._]

NOTES.

[It may be observed, once for all, that the expression _in to_ repeatedly occurs where we should simply use _in_; and _one to_ is in like manner put for _unto_. The ending _-ith_ (for _-ed_) is frequent in the past tense, and _-it_ (also for _-ed_) in the past participle, though this distinction is not always observed. A still more noticeable ending is _-ing_ (for _-en_) in the infinitive. Observe further that the letters _v_, _u_, and _w_ are perfectly convertible, and used quite indiscriminately; so that _wpone_ means _upon_; _vthir_ means _uthir_, i.e., _other_: _our_ is put for _over_; _vounde_ signifies _wound_, etc.]

Page 1, line 1. _The soft morow._ This nominative case has no verb.

A similar construction occurs in the first lines of Books II. and III.

4. _Uprisith--his hot courss_, Upriseth in his hot course; _chare_, chariot.

6. _sent_, sendeth; so also _stant_, standeth, l. 326.

8. _valkyne_, waken.

10. _gyrss_, gra.s.s.

11. _a.s.say_, a.s.sault.

13. _wox_, voice.

17. _frome I can_, from the time that I did.

18. _It deuit me_, it availed me. Jamieson gives ”_Dow_, 1. to be able; A.S. _dugan_ (_valere_), to be able. 2. to avail; Teut. _doogen_.”

P. 2, l. 23. _hewy ?erys_, heavy years.

24. ”Until that Phbus had thrice gone through his full circuits” (lit.

spheres). See the peculiar use of ”pas” in other places.

26. ”So, by such a manner, was my lot fated;” see l. 41.

28. _carving can_, did cut.

30. _be the morow_, by the morn.

36. _neulyngis_, newly, anew.

43. _walkith_, walked.

50. _I-clede_, y-clad, clad. Ch. has _clede_.

54. ”No one within thought he could be seen by any wight outside.”

P. 3, l. 56. _clos it_, enclose it; the MS. has _closit_.

57. _alphest._ This reading of the MS. is an error for _alcest_. See Chaucer, Prologue to Legend of good women, l. 511:

”The gret{e} goodnesse of the quene Alceste, That turned was into a dayesye,”

Alceste being the contracted form of Alcestis.

59. _Wnclosing gane_, did unclose.

60. ”The bright sun had illumined the spray, and had updrawn (upwarped) into the l.u.s.ty air the night's soft (sober) and moist showers; and had made the morning soft, pleasant, and fair.” With this difficult pa.s.sage we should compare l. 2477.

66. _Quhill_, until.

<script>