'Superfluous Ribaldry': Spurious Lines in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Author / Editor
Field, Rosalind.

Title
'Superfluous Ribaldry': Spurious Lines in the 'Merchant's Tale'

Published
Chaucer Review 28 (1994): 353-67.

Description
Certain ribald but spurious lines added to the pear-tree episode and printed by Caxton in 1478 helped to shape readers' attitudes toward Chaucer for three centuries, until Tyrwhitt removed them in 1775. The lines are probably the work of a scribe who had read Chaucer attentively (for they have a "Chaucerian" flavor), acting as "tabloid journalist" and providing a coarse and stereotypical ending to a dark tale.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.
Chaucerian Apocrypha.