L.13.192KD.13.190 Ac þe wille of þe wye · and þe wille folke hereL.13.192: This b-verse caused scribes some trouble. LBCR omit of, and it is added above the line in M.
M.13.191KD.13.190Ac þe wille ofM.13.191:M alone among B manuscripts lacks a determiner for wye. Most B manuscripts read þe; CB read þat. wye . and þe wille ofM.13.191:M's original reading without of agreed with CBLR. folke here .
Cr1.13.192KD.13.190 And the wyll of the wye , and the wyll of folke here
C.13.193KD.13.190 And the wille of that wye · and ye wille folk here
O.13.192KD.13.190Ac þe wille of þe wye & ȝe wolenO.13.192: O alone has the form wolen; variants include wille (CHmBmBoLM), wull (C2), wol (YCot), and wil (WCrGRF). of folk here
R.13.198KD.13.190 Ac þe wille of þe weyeR.13.198:
Weye, "person, being, man." and þe wilR.13.198: R's apparent omission of the preposition of before
folk is not reflected in F but is shared with several key beta
manuscripts. It is quite likely here that R is accurately representing an earlier textual
transmission error, not merely creating one of his own. The most salient clue lies in the
fact that of is also omitted by L (the best beta copy) as well as by M, C
and B. The preposition is later inserted into M above the line by Hand2 (a scribe trying to
re-work M's text to match that of the CrW sub-family). These facts suggest that of was either completely omitted or interlinear in Bx, that it
was inserted (or remained obscurely interlinear) in beta, and was overlooked by alpha. Then
F, who is more attentive to the need for such tidying than is the R scribe, and who has a
variety of collational sources at his disposal, simply resupplied it. Cf. this textual
situation to that found at R.13.124:. On the other
hand, Burrow and Turville-Petre prefer simply defending the reading found in R and L as a
"harder reading," by glossing wil as an adjective (= "errant"). As is
frequently the case with such suggestions, one must decide whether the reading proposed is
merely "harder" or in fact metrically awkward and semantically unlikely. folk here
.