Edwards, A. S. G.
Modern Language Quarterly 51 (1990): 409-26.
Surveys earlier responses to MerT and argues that the problems they identify cannot be solved; the "moral vacuum" of the tale leaves no criteria for moral evaluation. MerT is Chaucer's "bleakest" view of the relationship between poetry and morality.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Chaucer Review 25 (1990): 76-77.
By emending Constance's plea to the constable from "The lyf out of hir body for to twynne" to "The lyf not of hir body for to twynne," an emendation that has no support from the variant readings of the manuscripts, we can bring the line into harmony…
Edwards, A. S. G.
C. David Benson and Elizabeth Robertson, eds. Chaucer's Religious Tales (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 85-94.
Noting that MLT has often been apologized for or ignored, Edwards surveys critical approaches to the tale: the date of its composition, its place in the Canterbury sequence, source study, biography, narrative voice, the problem of Constance,…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Studies in Bibliography 41 (1988): 177-88.
Examination of the twelve manuscripts of Anel suggests that the work is not incomplete but rather two separate poems. Only the Complaint (lines 211-350 in modern texts) is Chaucerian; the narrative (which follows the Complaint in some manuscripts)…
Edwards, A. S. G.
English Language Notes 26:1 (1988): 1-3.
The emendation of HF texts F and B, line 1709, to "for no fame nor (MSS "for") such renoun" may be preferable to Skeat's now-standard reading, "For fame ne for such renoun." Similarly, emendation of MSS "loo" (line 1909) to "looth" gives the line…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 10 (1985): 175-82.
Early in his career Lydgate borrowed from Chaucer for particular effects: echoes of GP appear in "The Siege of Thebes." In his later career Lydgate tried to create a Latin-derived poetic language linked to Chaucer.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Chaucer Review 28 (1993): 146-47.
The word "prayere' in FrT D 1489 might have been intended to read "pray," as it appears in nineteen of the manuscripts. Such a reading would reinforce the "prey" imagery in the "Tale" and would suggest that God allows fiends to harm only the…
Edwards, A. S. G.
English Manuscript Studies, 1100-1700 4 (1993): 268-71.
Argues that the portrait of Chaucer in Rosenbach MS 1083/30 was most likely copied from Harley MS 4866 in the early eighteenth century for John Murray. Both manuscripts are of Hoccleve's "Regement of Princes."
Edwards surveys pre-twentieth-century editions of Chaucer to see how their editorial goals anticipate and differ from those of the "modern critical edition." Print technology enforced a "single monolithic conception of text" that differs from the…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Stephen G. Nichols and Siegfried Wenzel, eds. The Whole Book: Cultural Perspectives on the Medieval Miscellany (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp. 53-67.
Examines various aspects of late-medieval manuscript compilation in light of Selden B.24, a "transitional collection" that extends the Chaucerian canon and connects with the emerging print culture.
Edwards, A. S. G.
Evelyn Mullally and John Thompson, eds. The Court and Cultural Diversity: Selected Papers from the Eighth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, The Queen's University of Belfast, 26 July-1 August 1995 (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N. Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 309-17.
John Shirley lived on the "fringes of the aristocracy," and aspects of the manuscripts he produced suggest that he desired to emulate courtliness in his book production.
Although both were Londoners, Chaucer and Langland did not share a common readership. Chaucer was acknowledged as a founder of a literary tradition; Langland was appropriated less often and more in ideological than aesthetic terms. Ownership of…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Martin Davies, ed. Incunabula: Studies in Fifteenth-Century Books Presented to Lotte Hellinga. (London: British Library, 1999), pp. 493-506
Surveys the quantity and quality of decoration in books printed by Caxton, including works by Chaucer. Speculates why there is less decoration in Caxton's printed books than in those produced on the Continent. Includes four black-and-white…
Edwards, A. S. G.
A. S. G. Edwards, Vincent Gillespie, and Ralph Hanna, eds. The English Medieval Book: Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 2000), 101-12.
Evidence from late-medieval English verse collections indicates that the conception of an individual author's corpus was slow developing, not crystalizing until the 1532 printing of Chaucer's Works. Earlier manuscript collections of Chaucer (and…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Derek Pearsall, ed. New Directions in Later Medieval Manuscript Studies: Essays from the 1998 Harvard Conference (York; and Rochester, N.Y.: York Medieval Press, in association with Boydell and Brewer, 2000), pp. 65-79.
Edwards surveys attempts to "historicize" the representation of Middle English texts, from black letter type to computer transcription, focusing on the nineteenth-century efforts of Frederic Madden. Includes recurrent references representing the…
British Library MS Additional 37049 contains a variant of the third stanza of Sted. The most striking feature is the translation from rhyme royal into couplets. The stanza suggests memorial transmission.
