Animadversions on the Text of Chaucer, 1988

Author / Editor
Fisher, John H.

Title
Animadversions on the Text of Chaucer, 1988

Published
Speculum 63 (1988): 779-93.

Description
The absence of holographs and of other early manuscripts, along with other evidence, suggests that Chaucer left only "foul papers" or copies of his works, especially CT and TC, in a state of more or less continual revision, from which different scribes elicited different versions after his death. Both Ellesmere and Hengwrt are edited texts; each appeals to editors of different preconceptions; neither is a "privileged text."
Reprinted in The Emergence of Standard English (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1996), pp. 84-98.

Alternative Title
Emergence of Standard English.

Chaucer Subjects
Manuscripts and Textual Studies.