Volume 1

Poetical works of Geoffrey Chaucer : with poems formerly printed with his or attributed to him / Ed., with a memoir, by Robert Bell.

  • Geoffrey Chaucer
Date:
1878-1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Poetical works of Geoffrey Chaucer : with poems formerly printed with his or attributed to him / Ed., with a memoir, by Robert Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    results I shall give below, excepting such as have imbibed wrong notions from various text-books, and prefer to cling to them instead of looking at the questions for themselves. way of convenience, I first give here the brief list of the early editions of Chaucer, which I have already printed once before, in my edition of Chaucer’s ‘ Treatise on the Astrolabe,’ p. xxvi. 1. Edition by Wm. Thynne, London, 1532. Folio. 2. Reprinted, wilh additional matter, London, 1542. Folio. 3. Reprinted, loitli the matter re-arranged, London, no date, about 1551. Folio. 4. Reprinted, tcith large additions by^ John Stowe, London, 1561. Folio. 5. Reprinted, icith additions and alterations by Thomas Speght, London, 1598. Folio. 6. Reprinted, with further additions and alterations by Thomas Speglit, London, 1602. Folio. 7. Reprinted, vxith slight additions, London, 1687. Folio. 8. Reprinted, icith additions and great alterations in spelling, &c., by John Uny, London, 1721. Folio. The above list shows, at a glance, how Chaucer has grown, and suggests, at the same time, that the simplest way of ascertaining which poems are l eally Chaucer’s is to consider each poem separately (1) by the external evidence other than the fact of its ap- pearance in an old edition ; and (2) by the internal evidence critically applied; one qualification for the critic being an intimate knowledge of Middle-English grammar. There is one piece which I shall dispose of at once, viz., the long prose piece known as ‘ The Testament of Love,’ from which “ a tissue of romantic ad- venture has been drafted into the life of the poet.” The fact is, simply, that it is, on the face of it, not Chaucer’s, and, consequently, that the various par- ticulars in his biography, which are founded upon it, are really particulars in the biography of .somebody else; if, indeed, they be not purposely fictitious,
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