'The House of Fame', 26: A Chaucer Reading Restored

Author / Editor
Matheson, Lister M.

Title
'The House of Fame', 26: A Chaucer Reading Restored

Published
Notes and Queries 232 (1987): 289-91.

Description
The favored manuscript reading "Prison, stewe, of gret distress" appears in CX1 and TH "Pryson, stryfe, or grete dystress." "Stryfe" was often spelled "striue," and "stewe" can be derived from abbreviated "striue" and not vice versa. The sense of strife is also found in the collocation in RR 18405-418. Hence, it seems probable that the CX1 reading is the original.

Chaucer Subjects
House of Fame.