Browse Items (16473 total)

Comments on the possible influence of CT on the frame-tale structure of Erdrich's "Tales of Burning Love" and considers to what extent parallels between the Wife of Bath and Lulu Nanapush ("Love Medicine") indicate that Chaucer's work is a source for…

Offers "a detailed textual analysis" of Prov, furnishing "a text based on four authorities," and, while not affirming or denying attribution to Chaucer, setting "the record straight, perhaps, on certain matters connected with authenticity."

Shows that the first printed version of ABC (in Thomas Speght's 1602 edition of Chaucer's works) is essentially a copy of the version found in Cambridge University Library MS Gg.4.27. Also considers Speght's treatment of his source, the "significance…

Stowe's edition of the 'Craft of Lovers', in the 1561 edition of Chaucer, derives from Trinity College Cambridge R.3.19.

Transcriptions of previously unpublished manuscript versions of three minor poems: "ABC" from Melbourne MS.; "Truth" from Nottinghame ME LM I; "Wom Unc" from Bodleian Fairfax 16.

Though only three of the twenty-four poems attributed to the poet in John Stowe's "Chaucer" of 1561 are now accepted as genuine, comparative study of the mss used reveals remarkable substantive accuracy in the text of this early edition.

Though it has been universally assumed that de Worde's CT of 1498 merely followed the text of Caxton's second edition (c. 1484), recent work for the "Variorum" reveals important differences between the two. Instead, de Worde seems to have used an…

Statistical analysis shows CT MSS Hengwrt and Ellesmere as the work of two scribes of closely similar hands, who possibly trained under the same master. The Ellesmere scribe himself is probably "the source of much of the editing" in that MS.

Antiquary Samuel Pegge, writing in "Gentlemen's Magazine" of June, 1758, quotes LGW MS in his possession. The text is close to that in British Library Additional MS 9832, but Pegge's was probably a different, now lost, MS.

The description of the manuscript in Manly-Rickert is not wholly dependable; there were two scribes, not three; it was produced by independent craftsmen, not in a shop. The originally intended order of CT is uncertain.

William Thynne used manuscripts in addition to printed texts for his edition of SqT. Evidence suggests at least two manuscripts very similar to extant texts, a fact that reinforces Thynne's claim to being "editor" as well as "printer" of CT.

Arthur Sherbo's suggestion that Samuel Pegge did not own MS 9832 is probably mistaken.

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)…

The textual problems of Bo are more complex than they seem. Chaucer used several source texts, including commentaries and French translations; his chief interest was to translate the "'Consolatione' tradition," not just the "Consolatione" itself. …

Robinson's first edition (1933) is founded on unsound editorial practices, most notably an overreliance on Skeat (Robinson's true base text, not Ellesmere as usually claimed). Even in his second edition (1957), Robinson failed to profit from the…

R. K. Root's theory of how the text of TC underwent authorial revision, thus resulting in a number of significant variants between the manuscript groups, has been challenged by Barry A. Windeatt (1984) and Ralph Hanna (1986).

Thynne's text of HF is derived not from Caxton, as generally believed, but from Pynson (1562).

Blake's catalogue of his 1809 exhibition describes his famous painting of the Canterbury pilgrims and includes modernized quotations from Chaucer. Blake probably used Speght's 1687 edition.

Examines the use and misuse of W. W. Greg's term "copy-text" in recent editions of Chaucer and in the Kane-Donaldson Piers Plowman. Confusions among "copy-text," "base text," and "best text" will be alleviated only when editors use the terms…

Three important omissions (including omission of ClP) strip the HM140 text of ClT of its "Canterbury" context. Whether these were deliberate excisions or a consequence of problems in production cannot be demonstrated conclusively.

Argues that the printer's copy for most of Thomas Speght's 1602 edition of Chaucer's works was not only a copy of the 1561 edition but "the same copy as was previously marked up to serve as printer's copy for the 1598 edition."

Working from the editions by Thynne and Skeat, Middleton seeks to correct the text of Usk's "Testament of Love" (first printed by Thynne as Chaucer's), particularly its misplaced portions in Book 3. Makes several suggestions about the nature of the…

Reviews the theories and practices that underlie several works: George Russell and George Kane's edition of the C text of Piers Plowman (1997), Kane and Janet Cowen's edition of LGW (1995), Ralph Hanna's Pursuing History (1996), and A. V. C.…

Transcribes and comments on two handwritten copies of the tomb inscription: one very close transcription by Richard Wilbraham (d. 1612) in his copy of the ca. 1550 Workes and a looser version (apparently copied from a manuscript rather than directly…

Proposes quire structures for four paper manuscripts, focusing on watermarks and commenting on implications of the proposed structures. Assesses British Library MS Arundel 140 (Ar); British Library MS Harley 2382 (Hl3); Magdalene College, Cambridge…