The Reception of Chaucer's Eighteenth-Century Editors

Author / Editor
Dane, Joseph A.

Title
The Reception of Chaucer's Eighteenth-Century Editors

Published
Text: Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship 4 (1988): 217-36.

Description
Examining past editions of Chaucer--Urry's 1721 edition (commonly considered the "worst" edition), Tyrwhitt's 1775 five-volume edition (the first "modern" edition), and Thomas Morell's 1727 "open" edition--illuminates current editorial practices. Urry's techniques of emendation and normalization, though berated by some, are used by modern editors, while Tyrwhitt concentrated on making an erudite work available in convenient, accessible form, and Morell aimed his edition at a new set of readers.

Chaucer Subjects
Manuscripts and Textual Studies.
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations.