"Et cetera": Obscenity and Textual Play in the Hengwrt Manuscript.

Author / Editor
Flannery, Mary C.

Title
"Et cetera": Obscenity and Textual Play in the Hengwrt Manuscript.

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42 (2020): 1-25.

Description
Challenges scribal and editorial choices to use "swyve" at ManT, 256, where the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts (and two others) have some form of "et cetera," arguing that the latter is "likely an example of authorial play." Gauges the meanings, contexts, and degrees of obscenity in the variants, focusing on usage in Hengwrt and a marginal comment in Ellesmere; shows that the theme of proper speech in ManT functions as a "set-up for the joke," and discourages the emendation.

Chaucer Subjects
Manciple and His Tale
Language and Word Studies
Manuscripts and Textual Studies