Chaucer's Meter and the Myth of the Ellesmere Editor of The Canterbury Tales
- Author / Editor
- Mann, Jill.
Chaucer's Meter and the Myth of the Ellesmere Editor of The Canterbury Tales
- Published
- Studies in the Age of Chaucer 23: 71-107, 2001.
- Description
- Recent editors have privileged the Hengwrt (Hg) manuscript by attributing metrical and morphosyntactic features of Ellesmere (El) to editorial intervention rather than to scribal error. Mann traces the development of the "myth of the El editor," especially in Manly-Rickert and Norman Blake, and shows where editorial policy has depended on this myth. Mann argues for attention to stress (rather than syllable counting) in assessing Chaucer's meter and tabulates instances in which El/Hg variants reflect common patterns of scribal variation. Mann also comments on tale order in Hg and El.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
- Style and Versification
- Canterbury Tales--General