Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey
General
Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales
Chaucer, Geoffrey
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500
throughout, so that the
text really depends on a comparison of these MSS.; if MS. C. had been made
the basis, the result would have been much the same. It was convenient to
take F. as the basis, because it agrees, very nearly, with all previous
editions of the poem. Unfortunately, leaf 469 of MS. C. has been cut out of
it; and, in consequence, ll. 1836-1907 are missing. The scribe has missed
ll. 1922, 1923, 2506, 2507, in the process of copying.
ADDIT. 9832. This is an imperfect MS., ending at l. 1985, no more leaves of
the MS. being left after that line. Besides this, the scribe has omitted
several lines, viz. ll. 166, 233, 234, 332, 333, 351, 865-872, 960, 961,
1255, 1517, 1744-1746, 1783, 1895, 1945. It belongs to the first class of
the MSS., but is an unsatisfactory copy, and I have not fully collated it.
It confirms, however, several of the readings of this edition, as
distinguished from former editions.
ADDIT. 12524. This also is only a fragment. The first leaf begins at l.
1640 of the poem, from which point it is complete to the end, though ll.
2454-2461 are partially effaced. It belongs to the first class of MSS., but
is a late copy, and I have not fully collated it. It confirms several of my
readings.
T.--MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19. Denoted by the symbol 'Trin.' in my
edition of the Minor Poems, and described in vol. i., Introd. p. 56. It is
of rather late date, about 1500, but belongs to the first class of MSS. The
scribe has omitted the following lines, viz. 233, 234, 332, 333, 489, 960,
961, 1627, 2202, 2203, 2287-2292, and 2569.
A.--MS. Arch. Selden B. 24 (Bodley). Denoted by the symbol 'Ar.' in my
edition of the Minor Poems, and described in vol. i., Introd. p. 54. A
Scottish copy, written about 1472. It belongs to the first class of MSS.,
but the Scottish scribe sometimes takes liberties, and gives us a reading
of his own. For example, l. 714 becomes:--'As in grete townis the maner is
and wone.' But its readings, on the whole, are good. It alone preserves the
word 'almychti' in l. 1538, which in all the rest is too short; this may
not have been the original reading, but it gives a fair line, and furnishes
as good an emendation as we are likely to get. The scribe has omitted ll.
860, 861, 960, 961, 1568-1571, 2226, and 2227; besides which, one leaf of
the MS. is missing, causing the loss of ll. 2551-2616.
P.--Pepys 2006, Magd. Coll., Cambridge. Denoted by 'P.' in my edition of
the Minor Poems, of which it contains ten. It belongs, on the whole, to the
first class of MSS. The scribe has omitted ll. 232, 437, 623, and 1275.
Besides this, it has lost at least one leaf, causing the complete loss of
ll. 706-776, whilst ll. 777-845 are in a different handwriting. At l. 1377
it breaks off altogether, so that it is only a fragment. It gives l. 1377
in the following extraordinary form:--'And thow wer not fals to oon, but
thow wer fals to twoo'; giving six feet at least to the line, and a
syllable over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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