Spies, from whom
an edition is eventually to be expected.
an edition is eventually to be expected.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v02
No MS authority.
There is an entry Ye Buke
of Syr Gologruss and Syr Gawane in the old index to the Asloan MS,
but the text is lost. Editions by (1) Chepman and Myllar (Edinburgh,
1508); (2) Pinkerton, J. , in vol. III of Scotish Poems (1792 as above);
(3) Laing, D. , in The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane and
other Ancient Poems (1827); (4) Madden, Sir F. , in Syr Gawayne
(1839); (5) Trautmann, M. , in Anglia, 11 (1879), pp. 395-440; (6) Amours,
F. J. (S. T. S. as above).
The statement in the text as to the origin of this tale requires some
further explanation. Sir Frederick Madden in Syr Gawayne (p. 338)
identified the theme as occurring in a prose version of the Roman de Perceval
first printed in 1530. A prose version of the same tale is printed from the
Mons MS in Potvin's edition of Chrétien's Perceval le Gallois. The story is
contained in the continuation of Chrétien's poem, but, according to most
authorities, not in the part attributed to Gautier de Doulens, Gaucher de
Dourdan or Wauchier de Denain as he is variously called. According to
these authorities the author of this part is unknown. The text of Chrétien
differs greatly in the MSS and it is much to be regretted that at present
there is no satisfactory edition, Potvin's MS being one of the least satisfactory.
Much material dealing with the Gawain story will be found in vol. I of
Miss J. L. Weston's Legend of Sir Perceval (1906). Miss Weston is of
opinion (p. 214) that Chrétien and his continuators had a literary source in
the Gawain episodes. The writer of that part of the continuation (who,
## p. 451 (#469) ############################################
Chapter 7
451
à
according to Miss Weston, was Wauchier), as she points ont (p. 241) attributes
the tale to a certain Bleheris of Wales whom she identifies in Romania, XXXIII,
p. 233, and Perceval, p. 289, with the Bledhericus referred to by Giraldus
Cambrensis as famosus ille fabulator, and, following Gaston Paris, with the
Breri quoted by Thomas as authority for his Tristan. This person she is
inclined further to identify with a Bledri who was bishop of Llandaff between
983 and 1023 A. D. For the story, compare also Gaston Paris in Histoire
littéraire de France, xxx. 41, and Gröber in Grundriss der romanischen
Philologie, 11, i, pp. 506 ff.
The history and nationality of Huchoun have led to much controversy,
and definite conclusions have not yet been reached. (See Athenaeum,
12 Dec. 1900, and many letters between January and June 1901; G. Neil-
son's numerous contributions are summarised in the work mentioned below.
See also Gollancz's paper to the Philological Society, 3 Nov. 1901, on
6 recent theories concerning Huchoun and others,' summarised in Athenaeum,
23 Nov. 1901). Such as seem probable are given in the text. The opinion
here held is that Neilson goes too far in assigning many other poems to
Huchoun in Sir Hew of Eglintoun and Huchown off the Awle Ryale: a
biographical calendar and literary estimate (Philosophical Society of Glasgow,
1900-1), and Huchown of the Awle Ryale, the Alliterative Poet: A
Historical Criticism of Fourteenth Century Poems ascribed to Sir Hew of
Eglintoun (Glasgow, 1902), in which references to other literature will be
found. Amours's introduction is most valuable for all the poems edited
by him in the two volumes for the Scottish Text Society.
Rauf Coilzear.
No MS authority exists. Though given in the index to the Asloan MS, the text
is lost. Editions by (1) Lekprenik, Robert (Imprentit at Sanctandrois be
R. L. , Anno, 1572); (2) Laing, D. , 1822 (with reprints as above); (3) Herr-
tage, S. J. (E. E. T. S. ), 1882; (4) Tonndorf, M. , Berlin, 1894; (5) Amours,
F. J. (S. T. S. as above); (6) Browne, W. H. (Johns Hopkins Press, Balti-
more, U. S. A. 1903). Cf. later cognate legends, such as The King and
the Barber, etc. (Hazlitt, W. C. , Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of
Eng. ); The King and the Miller of Mansfield, and see also bibliography
of chapters XIII and xiv in vol. 1 of the present work.
I
Chronicles. (a) Sir Thomas Gray.
Scalacronica. Unique MS, a vellum folio in the Library of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. The portion from A. D. MLxvI to A. D. MCCCLXII was
edited by Joseph Stevenson for the Maitland Club (1836). The reigns
of Edward I, Edward II and Edward III have been translated by
Sir Herbert Maxwell, Baronet, Glasgow, 1907.
:
(6) Fordun and Bower.
Scotichronicon. The MSS are numerous (see Skene's edition in Historians
of Scotland, vol. 1). (1) The complete work edited by Walter Goodall
(Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon cum supplementis et continuatione
Walteri Boweri, Insulae Sancti Columbae Abbatis : E codicibus MSS
editum, cum notis et variantibus lectionibus. Praefixa est ad historiam
Scotorum introductio brevis cura W. G. , Edinburgi, MDCCLIX); (2)
Fordun's part of Scotichronicon and Gesta Annalia for 1153 to 1385
were edited by Skene, W. F. , in the Historians of Scotland (vol. 1,
Latin text, with critical introduction on MSS, etc. Johannis de Fordun
29-2
## p. 452 (#470) ############################################
452
Bibliography
Chronica Gentis Scotorum, Edinburgh, 1871; vol. rv in same series
contains Historical Introduction by Skene, W. F. , and translation of
vol. 1 by Skene, F. J. H. ).
Wyntoun.
Eight MSS are known (see Amours's edition S. T. S. , vol. 11, pp. v ff. ). Editions
by (1) Macpherson, David (only of the part concerning Great Britain),
1795; (2) Laing, D. (Historians of Scotland as above, vols. II, III, IX);
(3) Amours, F. J. , for Scottish Text Society (vols. II, III, IV, v contain-
ing the text of books I-VIII, chap. xxiv already published).
W. A. Craigie shows (Anglia, xx, 1898, p. 368) that there were three
recensions of Wyntoun's chronicle: (1) with seven books and ending with the
accession of Robert III in 1390 (Wemyss and Harleian MSS); (2) with nine
books and ending at 1408 (Royal MS, from which Macpherson's and Laing's
editions are printed); (3) the 8th and 19th chapters of Book iv are rewritten,
and the new matter in (2) is better fitted on to the earlier portion by recasting
and omitting some lines. The best representatives of (3) are the Cottonian
and First Edinburgh MSS. In the S. T. S. edition both the Wemyss and the
Cottonian MSS are printed. (1) and (2) have different rubrics, and the
chapters are sometimes differently divided. Craigie corrects here and in
the Scottish Review for July 1897 some serious misstatements of Laing
regarding the MSS.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN GOWER
MANUSCRIPTS.
There is good evidence, derived from the original manuscripts which
we possess of Gower's works, that he had a regularly organised scriptorium,
for the reproduction of his works under his own superintendence. As a
result, the text of his books has come down to us in a remarkably correct
state, though Confessio Amantis has suffered the usual fate of being printed
from inferior manuscripts. The following copies may be regarded as baving
been prepared under the author's own supervision:
Mirour de l'Omme, the unique MS in the Camb. Univ. Libr. Add. 3035.
Vox Clamantis and other Latin poems: All Souls Coll. 98; Glasgow,
Hunterian Museum, T. 2. 17; Cotton, Tib. A. IV; and Harleian 6291.
Confessio Amantis: the Bodleian MS, Fairfax 3, and the so-called
Stafford MS, in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere.
The French ballades, both those on Marriage and the Cinkante Balades,
together with the English poem In Praise of Peace: the MS belong-
ing to the duke of Sutherland, which was, till lately, at Trentham
Hall. Original texts of the ballades on Marriage are also found in
the Fairfax, All Souls and Glasgow MSS.
Besides these original MSS, there are six copies of Vox Clamantis, of
which two give us the text which underlies the erasures of the author's copies
mentioned above; at least thirty-seven of Confessio Amantis, of which twenty-
four give the earliest form of the text; and six of the ballades on Marriage
## p. 453 (#471) ############################################
Chapter VI
453
a
(Traitié pour essa
ssampler les Amantz Marietz). Of the Cinkante Balades
and the poem In Praise of Peace, no other copies are known except those
found in the Trentham MS.
The original copies of Vox Clamantis had, at the beginning, a picture of
the author with a bow in hand, shooting arrows at the globe of the world, Ad
mundum mitto mea iacula, and this is still found in the Glasgow and Cotton
MSS. The All Souls MS, which has lost this leaf, has a miniature of abp
Arundel attached to the epistle addressed to him, this being, no doubt, the
actual presentation copy.
Confessio Amantis had, originally, two miniatures, one in the prologue,
of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, and one near the beginning of the
first book, of the confession. These are reproduced in many of the manu-
scripts. A few, also, of the later copies had illustrations throughout, as, for
example, the New College MS 266, and the Fountaine MS, which has recently
been sold.
There is a record of a translation into Portuguese of Confessio Amantis,
made in the author's own life-time or very near it, which is represented by a
prose version in Castilian existing in the library of the Escurial (g. ii. 19).
EDITIONS OF SEPARATE WORKS.
Confessio Amantis was published by Caxton in 1483. His text is a com-
posite one, taken from at least three MSS, all rather inferior. Berthelette's
edition of 1532 was printed from a copy which, in form of text, resembled
MS Bodley 294, but was inferior to it in correctness: he supplied from
Caxton's edition what he found wanting in his own text, and gave the two
alternative forms of the introductory lines, Prol. 24-92. His text is, on the
whole, decidedly better than Caxton's. In 1554, Berthelette published a
second edition, a reprint of the first in different type, with a few errors
corrected. The text given by Chalmers in his collection of British Poets,
1810, is that of Berthelette's second edition. Reinhold Pauli, in 1857,
published a handsomely printed edition, professing to follow Berthelette's
first edition, with some collation of MSS. No critical judgment, however, is
shown in the selection of authorities for the text, and the result is that most
of the errors of Berthelette's edition remain uncorrected, and, though the
conclusion of the author's first recension is partly given (for the first time),
it is left incomplete. H. Morley, 1889, followed Pauli's text with conjectural
alterations of his own. His edition is imperfect, many passages being omitted.
The poem In Praise of Peace was printed in Thynne's edition of Chaucer,
1532, and reprinted in the subsequent folio editions of Chaucer, Gower being
always named as the author. It has also been published by Wright, T. ,
Political Poems (Rolls Series), and by Skeat, W. W. , Chaucerian and other
Pieces.
The two series of French ballades were printed in 1818 from the Trentham
MS by the Roxburghe Club. An edition has also appeared in Germany in
the series of Ausgaben und Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der romanischen
Philologie, ed. Stengel, 1886.
The Roxburghe Club also published Vox Clamantis, Cronica Tripertita
and some other Latin pieces, in 1850, edited by H. 0. Coxe. This edition
follows the text of the All Souls MS, the deficiencies of which are, unfor-
tunately, supplied from the inferior Digby MS. Cronica Tripertita and other
Latin pieces were printed in Wright's Political Poems (Rolls Series).
A small poem attributed in one MS, Ashmole 59, to Gower, beginning
Passe forth, thou pilgrim,' has been printed by Kuno Meyer and Max Förster,
but it is certainly not Gower's.
## p. 454 (#472) ############################################
454
Bibliography
COLLECTED EDITION.
An edition of the whole of Gower's works, edited by G. C. Macaulay,
was published by the Clarendon Press, 1899-1902, in four volumes, of which
the first contains the French, the second and third the English (these being
also issued by the E. E. T. S. to its subscribers) and the fourth the Latin,
works, with introductions, notes and glossaries. In this edition the Mirour
de l'Omme was printed for the first time (see also Academy, xLvIII, 71
and 91), and Confessio Amantis was, for the first time, published from a
trustworthy manuscript, with sufficient collation of other copies to display
the original variations of text.
A full account of the MSS and of the condition of the text of all Gower's
works is to be found in the introductions to these volumes, and reference may
also be made with regard to the text of Confessio Amantis to Easton's
Readings in Gower, 1895, and to the papers published in Englische Studien,
XXVIII, 161-208, XXXII, 251-275 and xxxiv, 169-181, by H.
Spies, from whom
an edition is eventually to be expected.
CRITICAL WORKS.
On the relations of the Mirour de l'Omme to possible French sources
and also to Gower's other works, see the dissertation of Miss:R. E. Fowler,
Une Source française des poèmes de Gower, 1905; and for the connections
between Chaucer's work and Confessio Amantis refer to L. Beck in Anglia, V,
313 ff. , and to Lücke in Anglia, xiv.
For the bearing of the Mirour de l'Omme on the social conditions of the
time, see E. Flügel in Anglia, xxiv, 437–508.
The language of Confessio Amantis has been illustrated by F. J. Child in
his Observations on the Language of Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1868 (see
also Ellis, A. J. , Early English Pronunciation, pt. 111, 726-739), by G. Tiete in
his dissertation on Gower's vocabulary, Breslan, 1889 and by Fahrenberg in
Herrig's Archiv, cxxxix, 392 ff. ; and the metre is dealt with by Schipper in his
Englische Metrik, I, 279 ff. , and by Saintsbury in his History of English
Prosody.
For literary appreciations, see Warton's History of English Poetry (he
was the first to call attention to the ballades); Ellis, G. , Specimens of Early
English Poets, 1, 169-200; the British Quarterly Review, XXVII,1; Morley, H. ,
English Writers, iv, 150 ff. ; Ten Brink, History of English Literature, 11,
99-103 and 132-8 (authorised translation); Courthope's History of English
Poetry, 1, 302-320 and Ker, W. P. , Essays on Medieval Literature, 101-134.
All the above subjects are also dealt with, more or less fully, in the
introductions, notes and glossaries of Macaulay's edition.
For biography, the reader may be referred to Leland, Script. Brit. 1, 414 f. ;
Thynne's Animadversions; Todd, Illustrations of the lives and writings of
Gower and Chancer, 1810; H. N. Nicolas in the Retrospective Review, 2nd
series, 11, 103-117, 1828; the introductory essay of Pauli's edition of the Con-
fessio Amantis; K. Meyer's dissertation, John Gower's Beziehungen zu
Chaucer und King Richard II, 1889 and the biographical matter in the
fourth volume of the Clarendon Press edition. For Gower's tomb, reference
may be made to the preface of Berthelette's edition of Confessio Amantis,
to Stow, Survey of London, p. 450 (ed. 1633), to Gough's Sepulchral Monu-
ments, 11, 24 and to Macaulay's edition, vol. iv, pp. xix-xxiv.
## p. 455 (#473) ############################################
Chapter VII
455
CHAPTER VII
CHAUCER
(Bibliography by A. C. Paues. )
I. MANUSCRIPTS OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.
The Chaucer Society (1868- ) has published diplomatic reprints and auto-
type specimens of a great number of the Chaucerian MSS. A systematic
list of these has been worked out by Koch, J. , Anglia, iv, Anz. 112. Cf.
further critical accounts by him in Anglia, 11, 532, III, 179, iv, 93, vi, Anz.
80, 93, VIII, Anz. 154; Literaturbl. f. germ. u. rom. Phil. 1882, col. 224;
1885, col. 324.
II. COLLECTED WORKS.
Lounsbury, T. R. Complete Works. 2 vols. New York. 1901.
Nicolas, Sir H. Poetical works. Aldine Edition. 6 vols. 1845. 2nd ed. by
Morris, R. 1866.
Pollard, A. W. , Heath, H. F. , Liddell, M. H. , McCormick, W. S. Works.
Globe Edition. 1897. [Contains a long and useful introduction sum-
marising sources and relations of MSS to each other; follows, in the
main, the Ellesmere MS. )
Skeat, W. W. Complete Works. 6 vols. Oxford, 1894. With supplem.
vol. 1897. [The standard edition. ]
The Student's C. , being a complete edition of his Works. Oxford, 1895.
[Orthography, as a rule, made uniform. ]
Glossarial index to the works of C. Oxford, 1899.
[Speght, T. ] The workes of our ancient and lerned English poet, G. C.
newly printed. In this impression you shall find these Additions: 1. His
Portraiture and Progenie shewed. 2. His Life collected. 3. Arguments
to every Booke gathered. 4. Old and obscure Words explained.
5. Authors by him cited, declared. 6. Difficulties opened. 7. Two
Bookes of his never before printed. Impensis G. Bishop: Londini, 1598.
The workes of our Ancient and learned English Poet G. C. newly
printed. To that which was done in the former Impression, thus much
is now added. 1. In the life of 0. many things inserted. 2. The
whole worke by old copies reformed. 3. Sentences and Proverbs noted.
4. The Signification of the old and obscure words prooved, also Caracters,
shewing from what tongue or dialect they be derived. 5. The Latine
and French, not Englished by C. , translated. 6. The treatise, called
Jacke Upland, against Friers: and C. 's A. B. C. called, La priere de
nostre dame, at this impression added: A. Islip, London, 1602. Another
edition, 1687 (to which is adjoyn'd the story of the Siege of Thebes by
John Lidgate. Together with the life of C. ).
[John Stow. ] The workes of G. O. newlie printed, with divers addicions,
whiche were never in print before: with the siege and destruccion
of the worthy citee of Thebes, compiled by J. Lidgate, monke of Berie.
J. Kyngston, for J. Wight: London, 1561.
Thynne, W. The workes of Geffroy C. newly printed, with dyvers workes
whiche were never in print before, etc. T. Godfray: Lõdon, 1532.
Of. Skeat, W. W. , The works of G. C. and others. Being a reproduction
## p. 456 (#474) ############################################
456
Bibliography
in facsimile of the first collected edition, 1532, from the copy in the
British Museum. With an introduction. 1905.
Tyrwhitt, T. Poetical Works. With an essay on his language and versifica-
tion, and an introductory discourse; together with notes and a glossary,
1775-8. Last edition, 1843.
Urry, J. The works of G. C. compared with the former editions, and
many valuable MSS, out of which three tales are added which were never
before printed: By J. Urry, student of Christ Church, Oxon. ; together
with a glossary by a student of the same college (T. Thomas). To the
whole is prefixed the author's life [by – Dart; corrected and enlarged
by W. Thomas), and a preface, giving an account of this edition (by
T. Thomas). B. Lintot: London, 1721.
III. A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
Brae, A. E. The Treatise on the Astrolabe, with notes and illustrations
1870.
Skeat, W. W. A Treatise on the Astrolabe; addressed to his son Lowys by
G. C. , A. D. 1391. C. S.
of Syr Gologruss and Syr Gawane in the old index to the Asloan MS,
but the text is lost. Editions by (1) Chepman and Myllar (Edinburgh,
1508); (2) Pinkerton, J. , in vol. III of Scotish Poems (1792 as above);
(3) Laing, D. , in The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane and
other Ancient Poems (1827); (4) Madden, Sir F. , in Syr Gawayne
(1839); (5) Trautmann, M. , in Anglia, 11 (1879), pp. 395-440; (6) Amours,
F. J. (S. T. S. as above).
The statement in the text as to the origin of this tale requires some
further explanation. Sir Frederick Madden in Syr Gawayne (p. 338)
identified the theme as occurring in a prose version of the Roman de Perceval
first printed in 1530. A prose version of the same tale is printed from the
Mons MS in Potvin's edition of Chrétien's Perceval le Gallois. The story is
contained in the continuation of Chrétien's poem, but, according to most
authorities, not in the part attributed to Gautier de Doulens, Gaucher de
Dourdan or Wauchier de Denain as he is variously called. According to
these authorities the author of this part is unknown. The text of Chrétien
differs greatly in the MSS and it is much to be regretted that at present
there is no satisfactory edition, Potvin's MS being one of the least satisfactory.
Much material dealing with the Gawain story will be found in vol. I of
Miss J. L. Weston's Legend of Sir Perceval (1906). Miss Weston is of
opinion (p. 214) that Chrétien and his continuators had a literary source in
the Gawain episodes. The writer of that part of the continuation (who,
## p. 451 (#469) ############################################
Chapter 7
451
à
according to Miss Weston, was Wauchier), as she points ont (p. 241) attributes
the tale to a certain Bleheris of Wales whom she identifies in Romania, XXXIII,
p. 233, and Perceval, p. 289, with the Bledhericus referred to by Giraldus
Cambrensis as famosus ille fabulator, and, following Gaston Paris, with the
Breri quoted by Thomas as authority for his Tristan. This person she is
inclined further to identify with a Bledri who was bishop of Llandaff between
983 and 1023 A. D. For the story, compare also Gaston Paris in Histoire
littéraire de France, xxx. 41, and Gröber in Grundriss der romanischen
Philologie, 11, i, pp. 506 ff.
The history and nationality of Huchoun have led to much controversy,
and definite conclusions have not yet been reached. (See Athenaeum,
12 Dec. 1900, and many letters between January and June 1901; G. Neil-
son's numerous contributions are summarised in the work mentioned below.
See also Gollancz's paper to the Philological Society, 3 Nov. 1901, on
6 recent theories concerning Huchoun and others,' summarised in Athenaeum,
23 Nov. 1901). Such as seem probable are given in the text. The opinion
here held is that Neilson goes too far in assigning many other poems to
Huchoun in Sir Hew of Eglintoun and Huchown off the Awle Ryale: a
biographical calendar and literary estimate (Philosophical Society of Glasgow,
1900-1), and Huchown of the Awle Ryale, the Alliterative Poet: A
Historical Criticism of Fourteenth Century Poems ascribed to Sir Hew of
Eglintoun (Glasgow, 1902), in which references to other literature will be
found. Amours's introduction is most valuable for all the poems edited
by him in the two volumes for the Scottish Text Society.
Rauf Coilzear.
No MS authority exists. Though given in the index to the Asloan MS, the text
is lost. Editions by (1) Lekprenik, Robert (Imprentit at Sanctandrois be
R. L. , Anno, 1572); (2) Laing, D. , 1822 (with reprints as above); (3) Herr-
tage, S. J. (E. E. T. S. ), 1882; (4) Tonndorf, M. , Berlin, 1894; (5) Amours,
F. J. (S. T. S. as above); (6) Browne, W. H. (Johns Hopkins Press, Balti-
more, U. S. A. 1903). Cf. later cognate legends, such as The King and
the Barber, etc. (Hazlitt, W. C. , Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of
Eng. ); The King and the Miller of Mansfield, and see also bibliography
of chapters XIII and xiv in vol. 1 of the present work.
I
Chronicles. (a) Sir Thomas Gray.
Scalacronica. Unique MS, a vellum folio in the Library of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. The portion from A. D. MLxvI to A. D. MCCCLXII was
edited by Joseph Stevenson for the Maitland Club (1836). The reigns
of Edward I, Edward II and Edward III have been translated by
Sir Herbert Maxwell, Baronet, Glasgow, 1907.
:
(6) Fordun and Bower.
Scotichronicon. The MSS are numerous (see Skene's edition in Historians
of Scotland, vol. 1). (1) The complete work edited by Walter Goodall
(Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon cum supplementis et continuatione
Walteri Boweri, Insulae Sancti Columbae Abbatis : E codicibus MSS
editum, cum notis et variantibus lectionibus. Praefixa est ad historiam
Scotorum introductio brevis cura W. G. , Edinburgi, MDCCLIX); (2)
Fordun's part of Scotichronicon and Gesta Annalia for 1153 to 1385
were edited by Skene, W. F. , in the Historians of Scotland (vol. 1,
Latin text, with critical introduction on MSS, etc. Johannis de Fordun
29-2
## p. 452 (#470) ############################################
452
Bibliography
Chronica Gentis Scotorum, Edinburgh, 1871; vol. rv in same series
contains Historical Introduction by Skene, W. F. , and translation of
vol. 1 by Skene, F. J. H. ).
Wyntoun.
Eight MSS are known (see Amours's edition S. T. S. , vol. 11, pp. v ff. ). Editions
by (1) Macpherson, David (only of the part concerning Great Britain),
1795; (2) Laing, D. (Historians of Scotland as above, vols. II, III, IX);
(3) Amours, F. J. , for Scottish Text Society (vols. II, III, IV, v contain-
ing the text of books I-VIII, chap. xxiv already published).
W. A. Craigie shows (Anglia, xx, 1898, p. 368) that there were three
recensions of Wyntoun's chronicle: (1) with seven books and ending with the
accession of Robert III in 1390 (Wemyss and Harleian MSS); (2) with nine
books and ending at 1408 (Royal MS, from which Macpherson's and Laing's
editions are printed); (3) the 8th and 19th chapters of Book iv are rewritten,
and the new matter in (2) is better fitted on to the earlier portion by recasting
and omitting some lines. The best representatives of (3) are the Cottonian
and First Edinburgh MSS. In the S. T. S. edition both the Wemyss and the
Cottonian MSS are printed. (1) and (2) have different rubrics, and the
chapters are sometimes differently divided. Craigie corrects here and in
the Scottish Review for July 1897 some serious misstatements of Laing
regarding the MSS.
CHAPTER VI
JOHN GOWER
MANUSCRIPTS.
There is good evidence, derived from the original manuscripts which
we possess of Gower's works, that he had a regularly organised scriptorium,
for the reproduction of his works under his own superintendence. As a
result, the text of his books has come down to us in a remarkably correct
state, though Confessio Amantis has suffered the usual fate of being printed
from inferior manuscripts. The following copies may be regarded as baving
been prepared under the author's own supervision:
Mirour de l'Omme, the unique MS in the Camb. Univ. Libr. Add. 3035.
Vox Clamantis and other Latin poems: All Souls Coll. 98; Glasgow,
Hunterian Museum, T. 2. 17; Cotton, Tib. A. IV; and Harleian 6291.
Confessio Amantis: the Bodleian MS, Fairfax 3, and the so-called
Stafford MS, in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere.
The French ballades, both those on Marriage and the Cinkante Balades,
together with the English poem In Praise of Peace: the MS belong-
ing to the duke of Sutherland, which was, till lately, at Trentham
Hall. Original texts of the ballades on Marriage are also found in
the Fairfax, All Souls and Glasgow MSS.
Besides these original MSS, there are six copies of Vox Clamantis, of
which two give us the text which underlies the erasures of the author's copies
mentioned above; at least thirty-seven of Confessio Amantis, of which twenty-
four give the earliest form of the text; and six of the ballades on Marriage
## p. 453 (#471) ############################################
Chapter VI
453
a
(Traitié pour essa
ssampler les Amantz Marietz). Of the Cinkante Balades
and the poem In Praise of Peace, no other copies are known except those
found in the Trentham MS.
The original copies of Vox Clamantis had, at the beginning, a picture of
the author with a bow in hand, shooting arrows at the globe of the world, Ad
mundum mitto mea iacula, and this is still found in the Glasgow and Cotton
MSS. The All Souls MS, which has lost this leaf, has a miniature of abp
Arundel attached to the epistle addressed to him, this being, no doubt, the
actual presentation copy.
Confessio Amantis had, originally, two miniatures, one in the prologue,
of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, and one near the beginning of the
first book, of the confession. These are reproduced in many of the manu-
scripts. A few, also, of the later copies had illustrations throughout, as, for
example, the New College MS 266, and the Fountaine MS, which has recently
been sold.
There is a record of a translation into Portuguese of Confessio Amantis,
made in the author's own life-time or very near it, which is represented by a
prose version in Castilian existing in the library of the Escurial (g. ii. 19).
EDITIONS OF SEPARATE WORKS.
Confessio Amantis was published by Caxton in 1483. His text is a com-
posite one, taken from at least three MSS, all rather inferior. Berthelette's
edition of 1532 was printed from a copy which, in form of text, resembled
MS Bodley 294, but was inferior to it in correctness: he supplied from
Caxton's edition what he found wanting in his own text, and gave the two
alternative forms of the introductory lines, Prol. 24-92. His text is, on the
whole, decidedly better than Caxton's. In 1554, Berthelette published a
second edition, a reprint of the first in different type, with a few errors
corrected. The text given by Chalmers in his collection of British Poets,
1810, is that of Berthelette's second edition. Reinhold Pauli, in 1857,
published a handsomely printed edition, professing to follow Berthelette's
first edition, with some collation of MSS. No critical judgment, however, is
shown in the selection of authorities for the text, and the result is that most
of the errors of Berthelette's edition remain uncorrected, and, though the
conclusion of the author's first recension is partly given (for the first time),
it is left incomplete. H. Morley, 1889, followed Pauli's text with conjectural
alterations of his own. His edition is imperfect, many passages being omitted.
The poem In Praise of Peace was printed in Thynne's edition of Chaucer,
1532, and reprinted in the subsequent folio editions of Chaucer, Gower being
always named as the author. It has also been published by Wright, T. ,
Political Poems (Rolls Series), and by Skeat, W. W. , Chaucerian and other
Pieces.
The two series of French ballades were printed in 1818 from the Trentham
MS by the Roxburghe Club. An edition has also appeared in Germany in
the series of Ausgaben und Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der romanischen
Philologie, ed. Stengel, 1886.
The Roxburghe Club also published Vox Clamantis, Cronica Tripertita
and some other Latin pieces, in 1850, edited by H. 0. Coxe. This edition
follows the text of the All Souls MS, the deficiencies of which are, unfor-
tunately, supplied from the inferior Digby MS. Cronica Tripertita and other
Latin pieces were printed in Wright's Political Poems (Rolls Series).
A small poem attributed in one MS, Ashmole 59, to Gower, beginning
Passe forth, thou pilgrim,' has been printed by Kuno Meyer and Max Förster,
but it is certainly not Gower's.
## p. 454 (#472) ############################################
454
Bibliography
COLLECTED EDITION.
An edition of the whole of Gower's works, edited by G. C. Macaulay,
was published by the Clarendon Press, 1899-1902, in four volumes, of which
the first contains the French, the second and third the English (these being
also issued by the E. E. T. S. to its subscribers) and the fourth the Latin,
works, with introductions, notes and glossaries. In this edition the Mirour
de l'Omme was printed for the first time (see also Academy, xLvIII, 71
and 91), and Confessio Amantis was, for the first time, published from a
trustworthy manuscript, with sufficient collation of other copies to display
the original variations of text.
A full account of the MSS and of the condition of the text of all Gower's
works is to be found in the introductions to these volumes, and reference may
also be made with regard to the text of Confessio Amantis to Easton's
Readings in Gower, 1895, and to the papers published in Englische Studien,
XXVIII, 161-208, XXXII, 251-275 and xxxiv, 169-181, by H.
Spies, from whom
an edition is eventually to be expected.
CRITICAL WORKS.
On the relations of the Mirour de l'Omme to possible French sources
and also to Gower's other works, see the dissertation of Miss:R. E. Fowler,
Une Source française des poèmes de Gower, 1905; and for the connections
between Chaucer's work and Confessio Amantis refer to L. Beck in Anglia, V,
313 ff. , and to Lücke in Anglia, xiv.
For the bearing of the Mirour de l'Omme on the social conditions of the
time, see E. Flügel in Anglia, xxiv, 437–508.
The language of Confessio Amantis has been illustrated by F. J. Child in
his Observations on the Language of Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1868 (see
also Ellis, A. J. , Early English Pronunciation, pt. 111, 726-739), by G. Tiete in
his dissertation on Gower's vocabulary, Breslan, 1889 and by Fahrenberg in
Herrig's Archiv, cxxxix, 392 ff. ; and the metre is dealt with by Schipper in his
Englische Metrik, I, 279 ff. , and by Saintsbury in his History of English
Prosody.
For literary appreciations, see Warton's History of English Poetry (he
was the first to call attention to the ballades); Ellis, G. , Specimens of Early
English Poets, 1, 169-200; the British Quarterly Review, XXVII,1; Morley, H. ,
English Writers, iv, 150 ff. ; Ten Brink, History of English Literature, 11,
99-103 and 132-8 (authorised translation); Courthope's History of English
Poetry, 1, 302-320 and Ker, W. P. , Essays on Medieval Literature, 101-134.
All the above subjects are also dealt with, more or less fully, in the
introductions, notes and glossaries of Macaulay's edition.
For biography, the reader may be referred to Leland, Script. Brit. 1, 414 f. ;
Thynne's Animadversions; Todd, Illustrations of the lives and writings of
Gower and Chancer, 1810; H. N. Nicolas in the Retrospective Review, 2nd
series, 11, 103-117, 1828; the introductory essay of Pauli's edition of the Con-
fessio Amantis; K. Meyer's dissertation, John Gower's Beziehungen zu
Chaucer und King Richard II, 1889 and the biographical matter in the
fourth volume of the Clarendon Press edition. For Gower's tomb, reference
may be made to the preface of Berthelette's edition of Confessio Amantis,
to Stow, Survey of London, p. 450 (ed. 1633), to Gough's Sepulchral Monu-
ments, 11, 24 and to Macaulay's edition, vol. iv, pp. xix-xxiv.
## p. 455 (#473) ############################################
Chapter VII
455
CHAPTER VII
CHAUCER
(Bibliography by A. C. Paues. )
I. MANUSCRIPTS OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.
The Chaucer Society (1868- ) has published diplomatic reprints and auto-
type specimens of a great number of the Chaucerian MSS. A systematic
list of these has been worked out by Koch, J. , Anglia, iv, Anz. 112. Cf.
further critical accounts by him in Anglia, 11, 532, III, 179, iv, 93, vi, Anz.
80, 93, VIII, Anz. 154; Literaturbl. f. germ. u. rom. Phil. 1882, col. 224;
1885, col. 324.
II. COLLECTED WORKS.
Lounsbury, T. R. Complete Works. 2 vols. New York. 1901.
Nicolas, Sir H. Poetical works. Aldine Edition. 6 vols. 1845. 2nd ed. by
Morris, R. 1866.
Pollard, A. W. , Heath, H. F. , Liddell, M. H. , McCormick, W. S. Works.
Globe Edition. 1897. [Contains a long and useful introduction sum-
marising sources and relations of MSS to each other; follows, in the
main, the Ellesmere MS. )
Skeat, W. W. Complete Works. 6 vols. Oxford, 1894. With supplem.
vol. 1897. [The standard edition. ]
The Student's C. , being a complete edition of his Works. Oxford, 1895.
[Orthography, as a rule, made uniform. ]
Glossarial index to the works of C. Oxford, 1899.
[Speght, T. ] The workes of our ancient and lerned English poet, G. C.
newly printed. In this impression you shall find these Additions: 1. His
Portraiture and Progenie shewed. 2. His Life collected. 3. Arguments
to every Booke gathered. 4. Old and obscure Words explained.
5. Authors by him cited, declared. 6. Difficulties opened. 7. Two
Bookes of his never before printed. Impensis G. Bishop: Londini, 1598.
The workes of our Ancient and learned English Poet G. C. newly
printed. To that which was done in the former Impression, thus much
is now added. 1. In the life of 0. many things inserted. 2. The
whole worke by old copies reformed. 3. Sentences and Proverbs noted.
4. The Signification of the old and obscure words prooved, also Caracters,
shewing from what tongue or dialect they be derived. 5. The Latine
and French, not Englished by C. , translated. 6. The treatise, called
Jacke Upland, against Friers: and C. 's A. B. C. called, La priere de
nostre dame, at this impression added: A. Islip, London, 1602. Another
edition, 1687 (to which is adjoyn'd the story of the Siege of Thebes by
John Lidgate. Together with the life of C. ).
[John Stow. ] The workes of G. O. newlie printed, with divers addicions,
whiche were never in print before: with the siege and destruccion
of the worthy citee of Thebes, compiled by J. Lidgate, monke of Berie.
J. Kyngston, for J. Wight: London, 1561.
Thynne, W. The workes of Geffroy C. newly printed, with dyvers workes
whiche were never in print before, etc. T. Godfray: Lõdon, 1532.
Of. Skeat, W. W. , The works of G. C. and others. Being a reproduction
## p. 456 (#474) ############################################
456
Bibliography
in facsimile of the first collected edition, 1532, from the copy in the
British Museum. With an introduction. 1905.
Tyrwhitt, T. Poetical Works. With an essay on his language and versifica-
tion, and an introductory discourse; together with notes and a glossary,
1775-8. Last edition, 1843.
Urry, J. The works of G. C. compared with the former editions, and
many valuable MSS, out of which three tales are added which were never
before printed: By J. Urry, student of Christ Church, Oxon. ; together
with a glossary by a student of the same college (T. Thomas). To the
whole is prefixed the author's life [by – Dart; corrected and enlarged
by W. Thomas), and a preface, giving an account of this edition (by
T. Thomas). B. Lintot: London, 1721.
III. A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
Brae, A. E. The Treatise on the Astrolabe, with notes and illustrations
1870.
Skeat, W. W. A Treatise on the Astrolabe; addressed to his son Lowys by
G. C. , A. D. 1391. C. S.
