2Godes wenche. “God’s handmaid.” Compare Luke 1:38: “And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” Although there are some positive usages of the term wenche, it is not a word commonly applied to Mary; see MED, wench(e) (n.).↩back to note source4Bidde we. In the Jesus sequence of poems, many closing stanzas open with this phrase, which signal a final prayer. Because the first letter B is always a red colored capital, these standard endings are quite noticeable to a reader of the manuscript. Compare The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), line 547; Poema Morale (art. 3), line 389; The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 349; Doomsday (art. 13), line 41; and Fire and Ice (art. 21), line 2.↩back to note sourcewende hwer we wende. “going where we go.” Even in an Annunciation lyric, we encounter the eschatological thread so prominent in the Jesus 29 lyrics: the worrying uncertainty of one’s destination after death and at Doomsday. Compare Poema Morale (art. 3), line 85; Three Sorrowful Tidings (art. 23), lines 5–6; The Proverbs of Alfred (art. 24), lines 109–110; and A Homily on Sooth Love (art. 26), lines 16, 22. On the tradition, see Woolf, pp. 86–87.↩back to note source
2Godes wenche. “God’s handmaid.” Compare Luke 1:38: “And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” Although there are some positive usages of the term wenche, it is not a word commonly applied to Mary; see MED, wench(e) (n.).↩back to note source4Bidde we. In the Jesus sequence of poems, many closing stanzas open with this phrase, which signal a final prayer. Because the first letter B is always a red colored capital, these standard endings are quite noticeable to a reader of the manuscript. Compare The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), line 547; Poema Morale (art. 3), line 389; The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 349; Doomsday (art. 13), line 41; and Fire and Ice (art. 21), line 2.↩back to note sourcewende hwer we wende. “going where we go.” Even in an Annunciation lyric, we encounter the eschatological thread so prominent in the Jesus 29 lyrics: the worrying uncertainty of one’s destination after death and at Doomsday. Compare Poema Morale (art. 3), line 85; Three Sorrowful Tidings (art. 23), lines 5–6; The Proverbs of Alfred (art. 24), lines 109–110; and A Homily on Sooth Love (art. 26), lines 16, 22. On the tradition, see Woolf, pp. 86–87.↩back to note source