Geoffrey Chaucer

“ The notion that Chaucer's lines run smoothly, and can be scanned, is quite a modern notion, largely due to Tyrwhitt's common sense. The editors of the sixteenth century did not know that Chaucer's lines ran smoothly, and did not often attempt to mend them, but generally gave them up as hopeless; and we ought to be much obliged to them for doing so. Whenever they actually make amendments here and there, the patching is usually plain enough. ”

“ For further remarks on the pronunciation, see vol. vi.
§ 23. The feeble suggestion is sometimes made that Chaucer's spelling ought to be modernised, like that of Shakespeare. This betrays a total ignorance of the history of English spelling. It is not strictly the case, that Shakespeare's spelling has been modernised; for the fact is the other way, viz. that in all that is most essential, it is the spelling of Shakespeare's time that has been adopted in modern English. ”

“ The editions by Wright and Morris do not repeat the above amendments by Tyrwhitt; but strictly conform to the Harleian MS. Even so, they are not wholly correct; for this MS. blunders over two lines out of the seven. It gives l. 247 in this extraordinary form:—'For to delen with such poraile'; where the omission of no renders all scansion hopeless. And again, it gives l. 371 in the form:—'Euery man for the wisdom that he can'; which is hardly pleasing. And in a great many places, the faithful following of this treacherous MS. has led the editors into sad trouble. ”

“ As a rule, however, the scribes not only omit to mention names, but they frequently omit the very title of the poem, and thus withhold such help as, in many cases, they might easily have afforded.
The celebrated first edition of 'Chaucer's Works,' edited by William Thynne in 1532, made no attempt to establish any canon. Thynne simply put together such a book as he believed would be generally acceptable; and deliberately inserted poems which he knew to be by other authors. Some of these poems bear the name of Lydgate; one has the name of Gower ”

“ Sometimes a poem is claimed for Chaucer because it occurs 'in a Chaucer MS.' There is a certain force in this plea in a few cases, as I have already pointed out. But it commonly happens that such MSS. (as, for example, MS. Fairfax 16, MS. Bodley 638, and others) are mere collections of poetry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, from which nothing can safely be inferred as to the authorship of the poems which they contain, unless the scribe distinctly gives the author's name [1] . ”

“ Consequently, those points only have, for the most part, been considered where the expressions used are for any reason difficult, obscure, or likely to be misunderstood; for it frequently happens that, by a change in meaning, the modern form or use of a word suggests a wrong impression.
A considerable number of words and phrases which occur in Chaucer have already been explained by me in the Notes to Piers the Plowman. Hence, in many cases, additional illustrations and references can easily be had by consulting the 'Index to the Explanations in the Notes' printed in P. Plowman, vol. iv. pp. ”

“ Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales, and especially the Prologue, are so full of allusions and expressions that either require or invite illustrations, that no commentary upon them can be considered exhaustive. ”

“ The so-called 'modern' spelling is really a survival, and is sadly unfit, as we all know to our cost, for representing modern English sounds. By 'modernising,' such critics usually mean the cutting off of final e in places where it was just as little required in Elizabethan English as it is now ”

“ Internally, we observe the great peculiarity of the rhythm. Not only is the poem arranged in nine-line stanzas, but the whole is a tour de force. In the course of 33 lines, there are but 3 rime-endings; and we may particularly notice the repetition of the first two lines at the end of the poem, just as in the Complaint of Anelida, which likewise begins and ends with a line in which remembraunce is the last word. We have here a specimen of the kind of nine-line stanza (examples of which are very scarce) which Hoccleve endeavoured to imitate in his Balade to my Lord of York [11] ”

“ The stop after the word 'Glossary' should have been a comma only. The difference in sense is something startling. The title-page was meant to convey that the volume contains, (1) The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (comprising Tyrwhitt's text of the Canterbury Tales, the remaining poems being anonymously re-edited) ; and that it also contains, (2) an Essay, a Discourse, Notes, and a Glossary, all by Thomas Tyrwhitt. Such are the facts; and such would have been the (possible) sense of the title-page, if the comma after 'Glossary' had not been misprinted as a full stop. ”

“ Again, pp. 441-502 are all due to Tyrwhitt, and contain an Advertisement to the Glossary, an Account of Chaucer's Works (as above) , and a Glossary. Moreover, this Glossary contains a large number of words from most of Chaucer's Works, including even his prose treatises; besides a handful of words from spurious works such as 'Chaucer's Dream.'
In this way, all the former part and all the latter part of the volume are due to Tyrwhitt; it is the middle part that is wholly independent of him. ”

“ It is needless to proceed; it is obvious that Stowe was not the man who would care to eke out a line by filling it up with convenient monosyllables. And it is just because these old editors usually let the text alone, that the old black-letter editions still retain a certain value, and represent some lost manuscript.
§ 18. One editor, apparently Speght, actually had an inkling of the truth; but he was promptly put down by Dryden (Pref. to the Fables) . 'The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us; ... ”

“ He also implied that the following had no claim to be Chaucer's, as he did not insert them in his final list; viz. no. 6 (A goodlie balade of Chaucer) ; and 38 (Two stanzas—Go foorthe, kyng) ; and here he was again quite right. It is also obvious that no. 41 (A balade in the Praise of Master Geffray Chauser) was written by another hand; and indeed, the first line says that Chaucer 'now lith in grave.' It will at once be seen that Tyrwhitt did excellent service; for, in fact, he eliminated from Thynne's edition no less than nineteen pieces out of forty-one ”

“ Zupitza's notes to Guy of Warwick (l. 8667) ; &c. The curious thing is that Chaucer understood himself literally: 'It fel that in the seventhe yeer, in May'; A. 1462.
A. 2749. Some further illustration of the word expulsive as a technical term may be found in old treatises. Thus Brunetto Latini, in his Livres dou Tresor, livre i. part iii. chap. 103, says that the four virtues which sustain life are the appetitive (due to the element of fire) , the retentive (due to earth) , the digestive (due to air) , and the expulsive (due to water) . Hence we have an appetite for food; we retain it ”

“ Cf. the Somnours Tale; especially D. 1315, 1317, and the notes.
A. 1155. For par amour, see all the instances referred to in the Glossary. The fact that it sometimes means 'with all affection,' or 'affectionately,' is well illustrated by a passage in the Coventry Mysteries, p. 50, where it is put into the mouth of Abraham, when addressing Isaac. 'Thu art my suete childe, and par amoure Ful wele in herte do I the loue.'
A. 1452. Seven yeer is an old proverbial expression for a long time; see Seven-year in Halliwell; P. Plowman, C. vii. 214, xi. 73 ”

“ This edition due to Tyrwhitt's suggestions. § 9. Later work; results arrived at by Prof. Lounsbnry. § 10. Some of The Minor Poems in The present edition. § 11. The Poem no. XXIV. § 12. Poems numbered XXIII, XXV, and XXVI. § 13. The text of the Canterbury Tales; lines 'clipped' at The beginning. § 14. The Harleian MS. § 15. The Ellesmere MS. § 16. The old black-letter editions. § 17. Stowe's edition in 1561. § 18. Dryden's remarks on Chaucer's verse. § 19. Brief rules for scansion. § 20. Accentuation. § 21. Examples. § 22. Old pronunciation. § 23. Modernising of spelling. § 24. ”