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 ><Kt he ponne getiohhad haefS, Tpcet he ponne haebbe fulle gesaelSa, 7 6 medo was cited in this connection by Korner. The recent currency of this interpretation is due to Trautmann's note in Banner Beitrage, II, 158, but the glossary to Grein's edition (1867) gives as the meaning of lust wiged "tragt, hat lust, freude." 7 King Alfred's Boethius, ed. Sedgefield, 88, 15 ff. (I expand the contraction for/>*/ 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).
