Alexander and Dindimus (Ms Bodley 264), Line 537: a New Reading and Interpretation

The Middle English alliterative poem Alexander and Dindimus, probably a poetic translation of the Latin Collatio Alexandri per litteras facta, tells the epistolary struggle between the representatives of two antithetical philosophies: Alexander's cynicism and materialism is opposed to Dindimus' spiritual and ascetic life. In one of Dindimus' verbal attacks, the Macedonian is accused to consider himself so astute that he would be able to put Tricerberus to sleep, if only he wanted. The description of the mythological guardian of hell made by the poet is the object of this article. Particular attention will be devoted to line 537, where the term tope, 'tooth', originally found in the manuscript was (unconsciously?) interpreted as bope, 'both', in both Skeat's (1878) and Magoun's (1929) editions. The analysis here proposed aims to demonstrate that tope is semantically and syntactically coherent in the context of the line where it is found, thus discarding the two editors' reading.