freten by sowe

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/2/2008 02:28 PM, William Salmon wrote:
>>>>There's a horrifying line in The Knight's Tale about a pig eating a
>>>>child.
>>>>
>>>>The sowe freten the child right in the cradel...
>>>
>>>I assume "freten" (fressen) rather than (?) "eten" (essen) to make
>>>it more horrifying?
>
>I think with 'fressen' that line might mean 'The sow refreshed the child
>right in the cradle', at least in middle English :-)

Well, it worked (with a different animal species) for Romulus and Remus.

Joel

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