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
B.--Bodley 638. Closely related to MS. F., and almost a duplicate of it,
both being derived from a common source. B. is sometimes right where F. is
wrong; thus in l. 1196 it has _houyn_, where F. has _heuen_. See Introd. to
the Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 53. Of course this MS. belongs, like F., to the
second class. It preserves l. 1693 (missing in F.); otherwise it omits all
the lines that are omitted in F., as well as ll. 157, 262, 623, 1345, 1866;
all of which F. retains. Like F., it has a spurious line in place of l.
2338.
TN.--Tanner 346 (Bodley). This is a MS. of the second class, strongly
resembling F.; see Introd. to the Minor Poems, vol. i. p. 54. It preserves
ll. 1693, 2193, 2475; otherwise it omits all the lines omitted in F., as
well as the latter half of l. 1378 and the former half of l. 1379. It has a
spurious line in place of l. 2338. It is clear that F., B., and Tn. are all
from a common source, which was an older MS. not now known.
§ 13. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINTED EDITIONS. TH.--Thynne's edition; A.D.
1532. This follows, mainly, the MSS. of the second class; its alliance with
F., B., and Tn. is shewn by its containing the spurious form of l. 2338.
But it gives the genuine form also, so that in this place _three_ lines
rime together. It is more complete than any of those MSS., preserving the
lines which they omit (excepting ll. 960, 961), save that it omits ll.
1326, 1327 (doubtless by oversight), which are found in these three MSS.,
and indeed in all the copies. Probably Thynne used more than one MS., as he
sometimes agrees with the MSS. of the first class. Thus, in l. 1163, he
reads _vpreysed had_, as in C., T., A., P., instead of _vp-reyseth hath_,
as in F., Tn., B. He might, however, have corrected this by the light of
nature. In ll. 1902, 1923, Thynne alone gives the right reading _Alcathoe_;
unfortunately, both these lines are missing in MS. C. The chief faults of
Thynne's edition are its omission of ll. 960, 961, 1326, 1327, and its
spurious l. 2338. Thynne was also unfortunate in following, in general, the
authority of a MS. of the second class.
SOME LATER EDITIONS.--Later editions appeared in the collected editions of
Chaucer's Works, viz. in 1542, (about) 1550, 1561, 1598, 1602, 1687; after
which came Urry's useless edition of 1721. Excepting the last, I suppose
the editions are all mere reprints; each being worse than its predecessor,
as is almost always the case. At any rate, the edition of 1561 is a close
reprint of Thynne, with a few later spellings, such as _guide_ in place of
Thynne's _gyde_ in l. 969. This edition of course omits ll. 960, 961, 1326,
1327; and gives the spurious l. 2338.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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