Page:Alexander and Dindimus (Skeat 1878).djvu/102

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NOTES TO ALEXANDER; B. 1064.

1064. Salonienus, Salmoneus. See note to ll. 1042-1071, where the Larin original is given. Of Salmoneus we know that "his presumption and arrogance were so great that he deemed himself equal to Zeus, and ordered sacrifices to be offered to himself; nay, he even imitated the thunder and lightning of Zeus, but the father of the gods killed him with his thunderbolt, destroyed his town, and punished him in the lower world;' Smith's Classical Dictionary.

1068. For-þi boþe, wherefore both of them, i.e. Salmoneus and Enceladus. But the scribe has omitted the mention of Enceladus by name; see note above.

1084. By-kenneþ, makes known to.

1085. The MS. has "His a fledde sonde;" but the correction is easy, by help of the alliteration and l. 286.

1088. By-set in an yle; one here thinks of England! On reason why Englishmen "allow their lives and land" is, apparently, because they cannot easily get away! The Latin text has an especially satirical look about it; as if we are all said to be undergoing penal servitude in a prisn. 1108. Most to be-wepe, most to be mourned for. Cf. l. 1059.

1124-1126. 'Ye are cursed in your life; for, men, I warn you that that which ye so esteem here to be a wholesome course of action is really freat and woful penury and wretched pain.' Note þat = that which, in l. 1125.

1131. Romme riden, (who had) extensively travelled. Romme is here an adverb, and riden a past participle; the whole phrase forming an epithet.

1136. Wrouhten, should make. Writen, should write.

1137. According to Palladius de Bragmanibus (ed. Bisse, p. 2), the inscription was as follows: ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ. Ο. ΤΩΝ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝ. ΕΦΘΑΣΑ. ΜΕΧΡΙ. ΤΟΥ. ΤΟΠΟΥ. ΤΟΥΤΟΥ.