Souldre, ‘ pay

14-29. These two stanzas, winch are chiefly paraphrased from two passages of the Bible (Eccles. xi. g, 10, and Job vii. 6), hâve been much altered in different éditions, and the text and exact sense are both to a certain extent conjectural. It is sufficient to say that ‘n’en puis mais,’ a very common idiom in Old French and not wholly obsolète, means, ‘ I cannot but do it,

‘ cannot help it,’ and that this meaning may be connected with the sense of mais lower down, which simply =plus\ that ‘sers bien d’un autre mets’ is a metaphor for ‘change your conduct,’ and that the second stanza substitutes for the ‘clipping’ of the Vulgate and the passage of the shuttle in our version, the image of singeing the nap.

6. 15. The point of this reference to the great sea boots and leg

swathings of oyster dredgers is that the monks should hâve gone barefoot or at most sandalled.