Browse Items (16470 total)

Despite Tolkien's praise of Chaucer's "accurate observation" of dialects in RvT, examination of the mss of CT reveals that Chaucer's knowledge of northern dialect was in no way exceptional and that many of the northern speech characteristics of the…

The lines (1.4087 and 4187) in RvT suggest the reading of "god" without the inflectional ending. Tolkien objects on grounds of meter, but we do not know enough about Chaucer's meter to emend on these grounds alone.

The "Roman de Renart" has been overemphasized as a source for NPT and for other Middle English works; English animal fables, perhaps influenced in part by the "Roman," are more likely sources and should be explored more thoroughly.

Surveys textual issues that confront editors of CT, presenting the issues as background to the "Canterbury Tales" Project. Considers problems of lineation, the incompleteness of the text, the role of the links, questions of early circulation,glosses,…

Since the text of the Ellesmere manuscript is highly edited, Hengwrt is superior to it and should be used as the basis for standard editions of CT.

Surveys interrelations between speech and writing in the history of English, drawing on KnT and RvT to illustrate features of late-medieval lexis and syntax. Features of KnT may reflect "oral residue," while dialect features of RvT are better seen…

A report on the history and the goals of the "Canterbury Tales" Project.

Describes a system of lineation for consistent citation of all materials relating to the textual history of CT, not only lines generally accepted as genuine but also all spurious and contested lines, including spurious tales. Explains the need for…

Fifteenth-century scribal additions and changes to manuscripts of CT indicate the "linguistic and stylistic prejudices and attitudes" of scribes and their audiences. Treats Hengwrt as a base text and explores how changes in Ellesmere, British…

Computer-assisted analysis of forms of Chancery English in manuscripts of WBP indicates a drift toward standardizaiton, most striking in the change from "swich" to "such." Yet, the pull to the Chancery Standard is not always clear.

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…