5 rauht. “stretched (on the cross).” See MED, rechen (v.(1)), sense 8c.↩back to note source

6 duthe. “people, retainers.” See MED, douth(e) (n.), a word derived from OE duguþ. Compare line 15; and The Proverbs of Alfred (art. 24), line 111: “dowethes Louerd” (Lord of hosts).↩back to note source

8 faht. “resisted.” The word, past participle of fighten, refers to Christ’s passivity on the cross. It is an appropriate descriptor of God in the context of human resistance to God’s will. Morris retains faht but notes (p. 251; glossary, s.v. Faht) that the word could be an error for saht, “reconciled, accorded,” which would make us the subject of the clause (compare line 1). There is no need to accept that reading as better, however. A syntax that describes God’s attributes in a long line’s second clause, set at a distance from the referent, is very common in the verse of Jesus 29.↩back to note source

10 asyen. “decline, collapse.” This rare verb denotes downward movement, as with the setting sun; see MED, asien, sense 1b, where this line is cited. ↩back to note source

19 Nis so wlonk under Crist ridynde on stede. This line begins with a colored capital, marking lines 19–24 as separate from lines 9–18, but the rhyme continues as if all sixteen lines are one laisse.↩back to note source

25–28 Ther is the sunfulle . . . and gryslich gle. These lines describe the terror of Doomsday (the end of the world), when Christ will appear before every trembling soul, living and dead, and assign one of three paths to each: everlasting heaven; everlasting hell; or purgatory, where one dwells in pain with a glimmer of hope that eventually he or she will attain heaven. This three-way division of souls is the meaning of line 27, where the heirs of Adam will be parted on thre. Compare the idea of these fates as forms of “eternal life” in The Homily on Sooth Love (art. 26), line 24 (note).↩back to note source

38 hethene-hode. “heathen belief or practices.” This word is recorded only in this line and three times in the later Middle English religious work Cursor Mundi. See MED, hethenhede (n.), sense 1a.↩back to note source

39–40 Seynte Peter . . . thet he stode. The naming of Saint Peter, Jesus’s apostle and the founder of Holy Church, occurs at the center of On Serving Christ. As in Love Rune (art. 19), a cross is figured in the poem’s central line. As the first model of heroic martyrdom in On Serving Christ, Saint Peter stands for the Church’s ideal stance against secular powers. His martyrdom by upside-down crucifixion was a well-known feature of his legend. See Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. Ryan, 1:345; and, for an Anglo-Norman version, see CHMS, 1:420–23. Elsewhere in Jesus 29, the narrative of Peter’s denial of Christ prior to the Crucifixion is dramatically recounted in The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), lines 137–300.↩back to note source

46 dute his dede. “undergo or perform his death.” The verb is don, “to do, perform,” not douten, “to be in doubt of, to fear.” See MED, don (v.(1)), senses 1a and 1d.↩back to note source

44–47 Hw Seynte Laurence . . . horyen and schede. Saint Lawrence, martyred December 31, 225, was an early deacon of Rome, in charge of the Church’s treasury. Before his execution, he distributed the Church’s wealth to the poor, and then presented the poor people themselves before the prefect as the embodiment of Church riches. His legend attests that he was martyred by a slow, painful roasting over hot coals. On how his passion was considered especially heroic, see Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. Ryan, 2:64–74. Jacobus ascribes Lawrence’s persecution to Decius Caesar (2:67), a Roman ruler also named in The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), line 686.↩back to note source

47 schede. “waste, destroy.” See MED, sheden (v.), sense 6e, where this line is cited.↩back to note source

48 hirdsype. This instance of the word is the only one recorded in Middle English. See MED, hirdshipe (n.): “?Life or service in a household.”↩back to note source

51–56 Seynte Johan . . . byterluker ibouht. Like those of the other martyred saints, the poet’s narrative of John the Baptist stresses the saint’s determination to follow God over man. John the Baptist’s strength of will seems to mirror God’s own purposeful creation of the world “myd his thouht” (line 52). Herod’s beheading of John the Baptist is recounted in Matthew 14:3–11 and Mark 6:17–28. Perhaps the emphasis on “thoht” in the rhyme is meant to reflect John the Baptist’s martyrdom by beheading.↩back to note source

63 the dute of the Dom. “in awe of Doomsday.” The poet indulges in alliterative variation and wordplay, seen in how this phrase reshapes tholede dom vor his duthe (“suffered judgment for his people,” line 6) said about Jesus, and dute his dede (“performed his death,” line 46) said about Saint Lawrence. On the meaning of dute, see MED, doute (n.), sense 3b, “awe, reverence, respect, fear (of God).”↩back to note source

solde. See MED, sellen (v.), sense 1d, “to give up (one’s life), deliver up.”↩back to note source

57–64 Seynt Thomas . . . beon in holde. The inclusion of Thomas of Canterbury brings the narrative of four martyrdoms to a climax by clear design, moving from biblical and early Church martyrs to the most famous of modern English martyrs (d. December 29, 1170). Again, the narrative emphasizes the saint’s Christlike nonresistance to persecution. The preceding Antiphon of Saint Thomas the Martyr (art. 17) seems therefore to be the preface for On Serving Christ. It asserts that Thomas is equal to all the apostles and of particular intercessory help to English people.↩back to note source

64 beon in holde. “to resist, to be restrained”; see MED, hold (n.(2)), sense 5. The scribe does not write the final word of this line, leaving a blank. Alliteration, rhyme, and sense point to the missing word being holde — not wolde, as Morris suggests (p. 92). The word accords with the poem’s general theme of how sinful men stupidly resist being faithful to God, although it would save them, and how specific martyrs model heroic conformity to God’s will.↩back to note source

69 no grene ne no scarlat non. Bright colors refer to the rich clothing of wealthy laypeople, contrasted to drab colors worn by laborers or men in religious orders (line 70). Rhetorically, this line completes the argument about the futility of beautiful clothes (lines 18–24). Compare Doomsday (art. 13), line 14; and Death (art. 14), line 5. In The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 134, these colors appear to denote gowns worn by lawyers.↩back to note source

70 of russet ne of rencyan. “of gray wool or mottled brown.” The line draws a contrast to the bright colors worn by aristocrats in line 69 (see note, above). The reference is to either clothes worn by lower classes or robes worn by friars or monks. See MED, russet (n.), sense 1a, “gray or dull red, brown, suitable for working clothes,” and MED, rencian (n.), “a kind of cloth made in or associated with Reims.” In the mid-thirteenth century, the wealthy baron Simon de Montfort reportedly wore simple clothes of coarse russet as a private act of humility, doing so in emulation of friars; at the same time, friars warned against the wearing of rich scarlet (Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 88–92). It is of particular interest that the word rencian is recorded only twice in Middle English: here and in Love Rune (art. 19), line 53 (the work that directly follows). The verbal correspondence and physical juxtaposition may be clues that Thomas authored both poems. Compare also the note to lines 39–40, above.↩back to note source

71 that ruskit the ron. “that startle (game) in the thicket.” See MED, rusken (v.), sense 1a, “to start (game),” a rare word of Old Norse origin; and ron (n.3), sense 1b, “a thicket, bush, shrubbery.” The word ron is also mistakenly cited in the MED under ro (n.(1)), as a plural form of roe, “deer.” ↩back to note source

69–72 no grene ne no scarlet . . . body and the bon! The evocation of a noble hunt alongside the mention of beautiful clothes hints of the classic ubi sunt topos (“where are they now?”), as found in Poema Morale (art. 3), line 358 (note); Death (art. 14), lines 49–56; and Love Rune (art. 19), lines 33–36. On the ubi sunt tradition, see Woolf, pp. 95–96.↩back to note source