Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/213

 Beowulf Notes 207 Chambers do) we may also retain meoto in 489 as a scribal variation, not necessarily a slip of the pen, from the normal form in -a. 5 II ac he lust wiget* (599b) Recent editors have abandoned Kemble's emendation on lust and interpret lust wiged as "lasst sich wol sein" (Traut- mann), "ftihlt sich wohl" (Schucking), "feels joy" (Sedgefield), "tragt lust, lasst sich wohl sein" (Holthausen 3), "feels pleasure" (Chambers). 6 This interpretation is supported by numerous passages in which wegan is used with objects like sorg, mod-cearu, etc., in the sense of "feel, experience. " But the verb is also used with other more or less abstract objects in the sense of "have, possess. " We may cite, for example, Sume him f>aes hades hlisan willao* wegan on wordum & pa weorc ne dot5 (Guthlac 31 f.); tir tmbrzecne wegan on gewitte wuldres pegnas (Fates of the Apostles 86 f.); Mod pryfo [ne] waeg, fremu folces cwen, firen ondrysne. (Beouwlf 1931 f.); Fela bitS on foldan forSgesynra geongra geofona, pa pa gsestberend wegaS on gewitte (Der Menschen Gaben 1 ff.). Moreover, lust means not only "pleasure" and "desire" but also "object of one's desire," as in: naenne mon ne lyst paes fringes pe hine lyst ne paes pe he deft, ac paes pe he mid Saem earnacS; forSaemSe he wenS, gif he ponne lust begite & HBt fmrhtio >*/ and disregard the editor's italics and brackets). This is a free transla- tion of "Cuius uero causa quid expetitur, id maxime uidetur optari" (Boetn Philosophiae Consolationis Libri Quinque, ed. Peiper, III, Prose X, p. 76).