at ye set you most
soverainly
my suster to gete.
Gawaine and the Green Knight
Moreover, slaked never, I think, means drunken. The general sense of
the verb slake is to let loose, lessen, cease. Cf. lines 411-2,
where sloke, another form of slake, occurs with a similar meaning:
-- layt no fyrre;
bot slokes.
-- seek no further,
but stop (cease).
Sir F. Madden suggests blows as the explanation of slokes. It
is, however, a verb in the imperative mood.
286 Brayn. Matzner suggests brayn-wod.
296 barlay mar loi. This word is exceedingly common in the T. Book
(see l. 3391).
I bid you now, barlay, with besines at all
?
at ye set you most soverainly my suster to gete. --T. B. l. 2780.
394 siker. Sir F. Madden reads swer.
440 bluk. Sir F. Madden suggests blunk (horse). I am inclined to keep to
the reading of the MS. , and explain bluk as {ulk hrunk. Cf. the
use of the word Blok in "Early English Alliterative Poems,"
p. 100, l.
