Browse Items (16346 total)

Referring to "The Wife of Bath's Prologue on CD-ROM" (Studies In the Age Of Chaucer 20 [1998], no.11), Blake concludes that Hengwrt should be used as the base text for the "Canterbury Tales" Project. He proposes three areas in which Hengwrt might be…

Describes uncertainties related to the manuscripts of CT and surveys critical efforts to resolve them--uncertainties about the state of Chaucer's papers at the time of his death and the circulation of tales before his death, the order and…

Assesses the northernisms in RvT and the speech of the bastard in Shakespeare's King John as examples of "nonstandard" language in a time when a standard was only developing. In both pronunciation and lexicon, the northernisms of RvT "should perhaps…

Variants among pragmatic markers-"items which add to the feel of the line or to the organization of the text rather than directly to the sense of the passage"-in the manuscripts of WBP indicate that scribes changed them freely, even subconsciously.…

Summarizes the aims and methods of the Canterbury Tales Project, describes recent improvements in the analytic programs affiliated with the Project's data (SplitsTree rather than PAUP), and suggests ways the data may help to clarify manuscript…

Concludes that either the virgule replicates Chaucer's own mark, or its rather uniform placement signals a scribal practice not yet fully understood.

Critiques Thomas F. Dunn's analysis of Cx2 and extends it, describing the book's composition and comparing Cx2 with Cx1. Suggests a possible scenario for the preparation of Cx2, discussing the role of the unknown manuscript (designated Y by Dunn) and…

The realism of fabliaux (and some drama) makes them valuable in studying the history of colloquial language, especially sexual colloquialisms. Blake draws examples from "Dame Sirith," MilT, RvT, WBP, and MerT, remarking on Chaucer's…

Blake examines the spelling variants of terminal -n and -m in a variety of words in WBP to show that fro/from was relatively erratic. Similar analysis indicates that final -e was obsolescent as a plural marker and in weak adjectives. Blake suggests…

Considers the inclusion of Gamelyn in early manuscripts of CT and the relative confidence with which scribes placed the tale. Given the possibility that some manuscripts predate Chaucer's death, he may have experimented with including the tale, even…

Considers textual issues that pertain to the "Host stanza" at the end of ClT (4.1212a-g) and several passages in MkT and NPT: the "Adam stanza" (7.2007-14), the "Modern Instances" (7.2375-2462), and the short versus long versions of NPP. Discusses…

Argues for new attention to the complexities of textual issues in critical discussions of CT, suggesting that many recent studies ignore or only gesture toward such complexities.

Comparison of manuscripts of CT enables inferential conclusions about their exemplar (which does not survive), but the complexity of these conclusions justifies reliance on the Hengwrt manuscript. Blake considers the likelihood that the manuscripts…

Illustrates the difficulties editors face in dealing with literary representations of regional or non-standard dialects, citing scribal variations of northern features of RvT before examining at greater length examples of dialects in Shakespeare's…

Argues that in late medieval English poetry (including Chaucer's) tone is "more likely to be found in the disposition" of rhetorical units larger than individual words and phrases. Draws illustrative examples from CT, TC, and "Sir Gawain and the…

Considers evidence from ParsP (10.42-44), KnT (1.2605-16), and LGW (635-58) that Chaucer may have been familiar with Middle English alliterative romances, arguing that the proposition is unlikely. While he may have known alliterative religious…

Gauges William Caxton's appreciation of Chaucer's literature by exploring why Caxton printed the works of Chaucer that he did, how he treated the texts, and to what extent his decisions reflect his own tastes or those of patrons, poets, and the likes…

A preface and five essays describe the goals and methods of the "Canterbury Tales" Project, an endeavor to replace Manly and Rickert's textual analysis of CT (Chicago, 1940). Long-range goals include facsimile reproduction of portions of the…

Chapters by various authors treat phonology and morphology, syntax, dialectology, lexis and semantics, literary language, and onomastics. Includes an introduction by Blake, a bibliography, an index, and a glossary of linguistic terms. The chapter…

Following Manly and Rickert, Blake sees Hengwrt as the most reliable early manuscript, but omits links for fragments E-F, which Blake believes were added by someone other than Chaucer--i.e., those links joining SqT to MerT and MerT to FranT. Blake…

Nine essays by various authors and a preface by the editors, all of which pertain to textual issues of CT or to the principles and practices of the "Canterbury Tales" Project. For individual essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Canterbury…

Examines HF and other medieval dream-visions from a stand-point of performance theory, while considering the role of the narrator/dreamer as perceiver and creator of meaning, with ramifications for how narrative may be viewed as process, rather than…

Proposes that Chaucer probably started with a provisional notion of the overall order of CT, which he experimented with, adjusted, and had not completely sorted out before he died. The scribes copied the text in stints as the best way to adapt…

A comprehensive concordance to CT based on Blake's text from the Hengwrt manuscript. Includes an alphabetical and frequency word list; describes spellings, words, syntax, and metrics.

Evaluating two CT manuscripts--Christ Church, Oxford, MS 152 (single exemplar) and British Library MS Harley 7334 (two exemplars)--the authors contend that analysis of spelling can be used to determine changes in exemplars in textual study. Because…