Cr1.11.123KD.11.121 And badde hem sonkesouke for sinne , safely at hys breast
C.11.124KD.11.121 And bad hem souk for synne · saufly at is breste
R.11.121KD.11.121 And bad hem souke for synne saueR.11.121: RF here read saue against beta's saufly. At first glance, the occurrence of saue appears to be an
alpha error, either for safly, or for Kane-Donaldson's conjectured saufte. However, saue is also found at this point in the X
family of C manuscripts (the P family = sauete). As
evidenced by MED, save can have nominal, adjectival, or
adverbial senses. See s. v.
saue, (n. 1) and sauf (adj. and adv.). Moreover,
Russell and Kane seem to have recanted their emendation, since their edition now offers saue as the original C reading. In light of the shared
witness of the X family of C, and the ample evidence that SWMidlands
phonology treated /v/ and /f/ as allophonic, R's reading probably is equivalent to "safe" and
directly mirrors Bx while beta represents an attempt at glossing the
harder reading. at his breste .