M.3.103KD.3.102And of-sen..te hire alsswytheals swythe with sergeauntz manye
Cr1.3.104KD.3.102 And sent for her aa[s] swith with sargeantes manie
C.3.103KD.3.102 And of-sente hir as swithe · with sergeantes manye
R.3.94KD.3.102
And ofsent hire alswitheR.3.94: Only L (= alswythe) and M (= alsswythe) agree precisely with R in attesting this exact phrase and writing it as a
single word (cf. manuscript O = als wythe, WC = as
swiþe, and F = swyþe). However, both OED2
s. v.
alswith and MED in a quotation from the early
fourteenth-century King Alexander
s. v.
certe and smert(e), attest the phrase's occurrence in
this merged form in the fourteenth century, the former in Kyng Alisaunder (He þonked Kyng Alisaundre þerof, certe, And starf alswiþe,
wiþouten smerte) and the latter in Barbour's Bruce (His ansuer he tald alswith VIII. 153). The same a-verse occurs in the A version, where the archetypal reading appears to be that found in manuscripts WC of
B, but one of the oldest of the A copies, Vernon,
merges the words, reading aswiþe. The LMR form is likely to be that
of Bx. with seriantes manye .