27 wrothere helle. “destruction, ruin, disaster, harm.” See MED, wrother hele (phr. & n.), sense 1a.↩back to note source

38 won. “woes,” a plural of wo. The form is not listed at MED, wo (n.), but see Morris, p. 305 (glossary, s.v. Woh).↩back to note source

33–40 Erest, ther beoth bernynde treon . . . in wynter stal. Pain 1 is a place of burning trees with souls hung upon them; the souls number more than there are bees in hives. A large colored capital opens line 33 in Jesus 29, but not in Digby 86.↩back to note source

40 in wynter stal. “in winter’s hive.” See MED, winter (n.), sense 3c, from OE winter-steall, “a dwelling (residence, hive, an enclosure, etc.) providing protection, shelter, comfort, etc. during the cold part of the year.”↩back to note source

47 lyvred blod. “clotted blood.” See MED, livered (ppl. adj.), sense 1a.↩back to note source

48 for wod. “fiercely.” For the phrase, see MED, wode (n.(3)), sense 2b, the only instance with this definition cited. The phrase usually denotes intensity, frenzy, panic, or madness.↩back to note source

56 fleysse to gal. “flesh too lascivious.” The definition of gal is drawn from the context and provided in Morris’s glossary (p. 256; s.v. Gal (adj.)), but the adjective is not cited in the MED. Compare MED, gal(e) (n.(1)), sense 1d, “joy, merriment” — a word occurring in Love Rune (art. 19), line 63 (note); and see also the comic coinage galegale in The Owl and the Nightingale (art. 2), line 256 (note).↩back to note source

59 wondrawen. “state of misery, wretchedness.” See MED, wandrawe (n.), where this line is the only cited occurrence.↩back to note source

41–66 Seththen, ther is on ouen . . . never more. Pain 2 features a huge hot furnace into which demons toss souls. The punished souls number more than all the fish in the sea or birds in the air. The setting also contains the terrors of snow, ice, blood, and snakes. On the hellish combination of extreme heat and extreme cold in hell, compare Pain 6, lines 149–50; and also Poema Morale (art. 3), lines 228–30, and The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 49. A large colored capital opens line 41 in both versions.↩back to note source

72 That her arereden unryhte lawe. This line repeats line 60.↩back to note source

67–74 A hwel of stele . . . in the snowe. Pain 3 features a gigantic wheel of steel with burning hot spikes, upon which souls are torn. The souls here number more than every snowflake. A large colored capital opens line 67 (Digby line 63) in both versions.↩back to note source

85 Heo hire awarieth al athrep. “They strangle them in flocks.” See MED, awurien (v.), where the only citations are this line and three occurrences in Ancrene Wisse; and MED, a-þrep (adv.), “as a horde or gang,” with this line being the only occurrence cited.↩back to note source

92 al fornon. “again and again.” See MED, forn (adv.), sense 1a, “henceforth, ahead (in time).”↩back to note source

103 copynere. “paramours, illicit lovers.” See MED, copenere (n.); and compare The Owl and the Nightingale (art. 2), line 1342.↩back to note source

75–118 Further, ther is a water . . . pyne ilesteth o. Pain 4 features a stinking river of boiling black pitch, where demons strangle the souls. The sinners stand at different depths, according to their crimes. The backbiters are up to their knees; lechers are up to their necks; adulterers are up to their mouths; and so on. For the catalogue of sinners and the display of contrapasso, compare The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), lines 91–174 (note). A large colored capital opens line 75 in Jesus 29, but not in Digby 86 (line 73). Jesus Pains 3–4 are combined in the Digby version.↩back to note source

131 Thenne beoth the wymmen further idon. This line marks the beginning of Digby Pain 5, headed with a large capital not found in the Jesus version.↩back to note source

141 And furduden heore istreon. “And destroyed their offspring.” See MED, istreon (n.), sense 1c. On the special punishment for women who kill unwanted infants, compare Audelay’s Vision of Saint Paul, lines 139–44 (Audelay, Poems and Carols, ed. Fein, p. 130).↩back to note source

119–44 Vurthur, is a ful deop fen . . . tholieth thar such pyn. Pain 5 features a deep swamp where there are women who transgressed sexually and their wooers, plus (a bit incongruously) usurers. Demons chew their tongues in two, and, for the usurers, they draw out their brains. Women who rejected their illegitimate babies are basted in pitch with adders sucking their breasts. And there are also hellhounds and snakes. A large colored capital opens line 119 (Digby line 117) in both versions. Audelay’s Vision of Saint Paul, lines 139–44 (Audelay, Poems and Carols, ed. Fein, p. 130).↩back to note source

145 Vurther, ther beoth wimmen and wapmen bo. See MED, wepman (n.); the collocation wepmen and wommen is common. The reversal here advertises how Pain 6 afflicts many female souls.↩back to note source

145–62 Vurther, ther beoth wimmen . . . myd such sol. Pain 6 is a place for those who dispossessed the poor, where demons mutilate souls by splitting them in two and where vultures devour their stomachs. Half the sinners dwell in fire, and half dwell in a frozen marsh; compare note to lines 41–66, above. A large colored capital opens line 145 (Digby line 143) in both versions.↩back to note source

162 Forthi, hi drayeth myd such sol. “For that, they are gutted so filthily.” For the verb drayeth, see MED, drauen (v.), sense 1a(g), the torture of being “drawn,” that is, dragged or gutted (compare dreyeth, line 146). For sol, see MED, soile (n.(1)), where the usages are later, but compare soilen (v.(1)), sense 1a, “to make (something) dirty, soil,” where instances include Ancrene Wisse. See also Morris, p. 289 (glossary, s.v. Sol = ?filth). The MED lists this line under sol (n.(4)), “rope,” but the resulting sense is unlikely. The stylistic similarity of this line to line 174 (the end of Pain 7) is notable.↩back to note source

163–74 Vurther, ther is o wateres . . . myd such bal. Pain 7 features a flaming bloody river, and the sinners there (commandment-breakers) are very hungry and thirsty. A large colored capital opens line 163 (Digby line 163) in both versions.↩back to note source

174 Forthi, hi pleyeth myd such bal. The similarity of this line to line 162 (the end of Pain 6) is stylistically notable. It is possible that the line also contains a sarcastic pun: “For that, they suffer such bale” and “For that, they play such ball (i.e., a baleful game).”↩back to note source

189 For heo nolden beon ischriven. “For they wouldn’t be shriven.” On the vital importance of confession for salvation, a preacherly imperative throughout the lyrics of Jesus 29, compare The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), lines 547–52; and see the headnotes to Poema Morale and A Homily on Sooth Love (arts. 3, 26).↩back to note source

207–08 Ac trichurs and lyeres, and les / That weren her — wo is ham thes! “But these traitors and liars, who / Were false here — woe to them!” Compare The Owl and the Nightingale (art. 2), line 882: “That beoth her, wo is hom thes.”↩back to note source

175–218 Vurther, ther beoth olde men . . . hit moste iseon. Pain 8 is a place filled with adders and snakes, where bones of sinners (the unshriven) fall apart and then rejoin. The poet interpolates here some moral comment: why didn’t these sinners know, understand, and take proper precautions when they were alive? Their neglect has put them in the same state as nonbelievers. A large colored capital opens line 175 (Digby line 174) in both versions.↩back to note source

224 atdareth. This line is the only attested instance of this verb; see MED, atdaren (v.), “escape by hiding.”↩back to note source

219–32 In helle is a deop gayhol . . . ever furlore. The movement seems to head downward from this point on, and maybe all the Pains are to be visualized, as in Dante’s Inferno, as a downward progression. Pain 9 features a deep dungeon having a hot pool, where demons tear the souls (those who falsely judged Jesus) with sharp awls. A large colored capital opens line 219 in Jesus 29, but not its equivalent in Digby 86 (Digby line 230). Digby lines 212–29 are unique, and at Digby lines 222–23 the sinners are described as more plentiful than the drops of wine in France.↩back to note source

229–32 An heyh tofore . . . beoth ever furlore. The names of those in the deepest pit of hell, those who judged Jesus, will never again be uttered, and no saint dares to intercede for them. These lines express the medieval belief in saintly intercession, that is, the notion that holy Christians who led exemplary lives and were canonized as saints now have the posthumous power to respond to prayers directed to them by the living, and thus to petition efficaciously for God’s mercy on their behalf. The poet avers that the sufferers of Pain 9 have no redress in saintly aid, and these sinners — the ones who wickedly judged and condemned Jesus, as recounted in The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1) — will be forever lost and nameless.↩back to note source

233–50 Vurther, ther his onother put . . . Cristes holy passyun. Pain 10 features another hot pit, this one having seven doors and filled with hellhounds plus one lion, which seems to be the Devil (line 247). Here the sinners number more than leaves on a branch. No specific sin is named. A large colored capital opens line 233 (Digby line 244) in both versions.↩back to note source

259 mansed bi nome. “excommunicated by name.” The Digby MS reads “acursed bi nome.” It is possible that “bi nome” should be read as the part participle binome; see MED, binimen (v.), senses 3a (“ruined”) and 4 (“seized, beset”).↩back to note source

251–60 Therunder, is of iren a wal . . . Godes grome. Pain 11, the deepest part of hell, features an iron-walled enclosure where sinners are restrained in hot iron fetters. They are named as those who were beheaded (perhaps as traitors), thieves, and excommunicants. A large colored capital opens line 251 (Digby line 262) in both versions. The speech of the revived sinner appears to end at line 260.↩back to note source

260 grome. “anger, rage, hatred, hostility.” See MED, gram(e) (n.), sense 1a.↩back to note source

261 Ich wile segge eu a soth. This line does not open with a colored initial, but a transition is indicated by the narrator’s shift from Pain 11 to a concluding exhortation. There is also no transition here in the Digby version (Digby line 274).↩back to note source

266 Kaym. Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve, hence, the first human conceived naturally. He slew his brother Abel and for that deed was cursed by God (Genesis 4:1–16).↩back to note source

265–70 Theyh on hundred . . . a thusend mo! This statement ends the poet’s inexpressibility topos (his enumerations by simile) with a full-scale hyperbole: even though a hundred men had stayed awake since the birth of Cain, using teeth and tongues of steel (so they would not wear out), speaking always of hell’s pains, still there would be more pains to tell! The hyperbole works somewhat against the premise of a poem about eleven pains precisely. However, concluding with a hyperbole like this is part of the tradition. Compare Audelay’s Vision of Saint Paul, lines 318–21: “And hunder men thagh ther were truly / Fro the bekynyng of world ay spekyng, / And uche a hundred tungis had, sothly, / Thai myght not tel the payns in hel duryng” (Even if there were truly a hundred men / From the beginning of the world always speaking, / And each had a hundred tongues, truly, / They might not express the pains being endured in hell) (Audelay, Poems and Carols, ed. Fein, p. 124; translation mine). This statement comes immediately after Paul asks Michael to tell him the number of pains, and Michael provides him with a biblical answer: 144,000 pains (Apocalypse 7:4). Compare also Poema Morale (art. 3), lines 143–44, 271–88; The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 38; and Death (art. 14), lines 29–30.↩back to note source

274 Ne helph heom wurth o slo. “not worth a sloe (the fruit of a blackthorn tree),” that is, worthless. Compare An Orison to Our Lady (art. 8): “nys wurth a slo” (line 28, emended from MS Cotton Caligula A.ix).↩back to note source

275 Ac bidde we Crist that is us buve. The Digby version has a large initial at the beginning of this line (Digby line 286).↩back to note source

281–82 Ki ces .xi. peynes . . . ly avendra. This couplet, a seemingly original explict, does not open with a colored initial, but a transition is indicated by the shift to French. French verses thus frame the poem (compare lines 1–6). The final lines are likely a scribal addition.↩back to note source

290 Thi. “For that, therefore.” See Morris, p. 295 (glossary, s.v. Þe), and compare Forthi, line 162. The scribe inserts a punctus after this word.↩back to note source

283–91 Hwoso wrot these pynen ellevene . . . Amen. This passage asks that the scribe (or poet), identified by name as “Hug’,” be granted heaven, for he is virtuous (“curteys and hendy,” line 289). The four couplets and Latin explicit seem appended to an original French explicit (lines 281–82). They are not set off with a colored initial, and they do not appear in the Digby version, which closes with four unique lines: “For þilke þat beþ Iboureuen, Iwis / hoe wendeþ into paradis; / So wolle god þat we mote / hounder-fongen heueriche bote” (For those who are obedient, indeed / they enter into paradise; / So may God grant that we may / receive heavenly reward) (Horstmann, ed., “Nachträge zu den Legenden,” p. 405; translation mine). In Digby, what follows next (without break) is a fragment from the lyric Swete Jesus. Digby thus presents a different, scribe-composed ending — a soothing prayer after an account of hard pains; see Fein, “The Middle English Poetry of MS Digby 86,” p. 169. Compare the prayers for writers that appear at the end of The Passion for Jesus Christ (art. 1), lines 697–702, and Poema Morale (art. 3), lines 389–90; and see the discussion of this passage in the General Introduction, pp. 9–10.↩back to note source