Page images
PDF
EPUB

warriangles, dan Burnell the Asse, wine Ape, the lords son of Windsor, dulcarnon, heysugge, etc. These Annotations fill eight pages, and are accompanied by corrections upon the text, which include a passage from the Rime of Sir Thopas omitted from the body of the book.

One of two explanations from the glossary are of interest. The words lollards, londles are explained together as "breakers of fasting daies & runnagates"; the word floyting is annotated, perhaps by guess, as "whistling”; rade vore is interpreted as "tapistry, or loome work.", Observe the explanation of floyting as whistling.

Before the appearance of Speght's second edition in 1602 Francis Thynne had written his Animadversions; and the glossary of that edition incorporates some of his suggestions thus offered, and shows other differences which may or may not be due to his advice. The words hoppesteres and ruell bone are now both annotated; the former is explained as "(gubernaculum tenentes) pilotes"; the latter is assigned a derivation from French "riole, diversely coloured." The notes on autentike, dulcarnon, harrolds, etc., are adopted or emended from Thynne's suggestions; and some additions are made, cp. the word iape and the eight lines of verse there quoted as being written in a lady's Chaucer from which the work had been erased. This is found, we may remark, in the MS Rawl. Poet. 149, see Section III p. 186 here. A long note on peruise is also added, but without any connection with the Paradisus or mention of the church porch. Otherwise, the differences in the 1602 glossary are the incorporation of the annotations of 1598, and a more exact alphabetical arrangement. The 1602 glossary fills 221⁄2 pages, in triple columns.

Skinner. Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae, seu Explicatio vocum Anglicarum Etymologica ex propriis fontibus, etc. Lond. 1671. By Stephen Skinner.

[ocr errors]

To the General Glossary are added four appendices, one of botanical terms, one "vocum Forensium tum antiquarum & jam obsoletarum Etymologica expositio"; another “Originationes omnium vocum antiquarum Anglicarum quae usque a Wilhelmo Victore invaluerunt" . . . etc.; the last of proper names. The third appendix includes many Chaucerian words, for about 350 of which reference is made to his works, these "works" comprising poems now rejected as spurious, but printed as his in the Speght editions. Gower, Piers Plowman, and Juliana Berners are also frequently referred to. Errors are many, especially those arising from attempts to explain misprinted words, cp. for example clenge for elynge.

Thomas: The glossary to the Urry Chaucer of 1721 was by Timothy Thomas; according to Corser's Collectanea IV : 329, its preparation delayed the work more than two years. It is of about 6000 words, with frequent citations from the Speght glossary, a few notes from Kynaston, and some guesswork-interpretations borrowed from Skinner; e. g. belle Isaude, ferne yere, blackburied, thombe of golde. Some errors of its own it also has, cp. heved, scholeie; but as a whole it is remarkable with what care and success Thomas examined MSS and earlier editions and contended with the distorted text of Urry. Note some of his conjectures as to pronunciation, under alouth as to Rome, and under sone; and observe how clearly he is aware of the kind of errors possible to scribes, see under afine, agre, cry, etc. He occasionally uses Lydgate to throw light on a passage.

Junius: Francis Junius, 1589-1677, was born in Germany, brought up in Holland, lived many years in England, and bequeathed his valuable philological library to the Bodleian library at Oxford. His Chaucer interest is evinced not only by his mass of collections for an edition-see Liddell in Athen. 1897 I:779 -but by the great number of Chaucerian citations in his Etymologicum Linguae Anglicanae, ed. by Lye in 1743. There are 468 references to Chaucer in this work, 79 of which were added by Lye; and most are accompanied by extracts, frequently lengthy, printed in blackletter. Chaucer and Gawain Douglas are the only English authors freely cited; note the remark in Liddell's letter as above, that Junius had also made collections based upon Douglas' version of the Aeneid; Lydgate is mentioned a half-dozen times. The notes are still of value, and the work easily obtained.

Tyrwhitt. The glossary appended to Tyrwhitt's Canterbury Tales. of 1775-8 is, with the annotations, the most valuable portion of Tyrwhitt's work. The notes, often extensive and always acute, are about 640 in number; there are about 4300 words in the Glossary, which includes not only words in the Cant. Tales, but in the other poems of Chaucer. Some errors by Skinner and Urry are corrected, e. g., belle Isaude, heved, nale; some words insufficiently annotated are more fully treated, e. g., clum, hoppesteres, parvis; and oversights are very rare, cp. minoresse for moveresse, Rom. of the Rose, line 149. This had been corrected by Thynne in his Animadversions on Speght's 1598 Chaucer, and altered by Speght in the 1602 edition; Skeat's note on the passage is insufficient. Todd, in his Illustrations, points out Tyrwhitt's oversight. Tyrwhitt, with admirable frankness, appended to his Glossary a list of 57 "words and phrases not understood."

In the Retrospective Review 14: 307 (1826) and in the Lowndes-Bohn Bibliographer's Manual, s. v. Chaucer, is the statement that Tyrwhitt "conspicuously availed himself” of Morell's work in his notes and glossary. This is repeated in the Bell Chaucer of 1854, I: 59, but is rejected by Lounsbury, Studies I: 297, and see ibid. p. 302. A comparison of the annotations upon the Prologue and Knight's Tale, as made by Morell, by Tyrwhitt, and by Skeat, would yield interesting results.

Tyrwhitt's glossary has been often reprinted, sometimes at the close of an edition of the Works, as by Bell in 1782, sometimes condensed and arranged at the foot of the page, as in the "Routledge" editions of the Canterbury Tales.

The 1778 volume V of the Cant. Tales, which contained the Glossary only, may sometimes be picked up separately secondhand for a very small price.

Todd. The last section of Todd's Illustrations is a Glossary covering the extracts from Gower and Chaucer which he prints. It comprises about 560 words; Todd says on pp. xlv-vi of his introduction that his work is founded on Tyrwhitt's, "with occasional but respectful difference of opinion and with some augmentation." The "augmentations” are very slight; for the occasional differences see e. g. under catel, dub. Todd points out that Thynne had explained minoresse,—see ante under Tyrwhitt's glossary-and that Brathwait, in 1665, had explained gnoffe, a word not understood by Tyrwhitt. See also Todd's remarks on the words gat-toothed, goliardeys, etc.

Bell Robert Bell appended to his edition of Chaucer, 1854-56, a glossary which, he there states, was prepared entirely new, and not derived from that of Tyrwhitt; his improved text, he says, rendered this necessary. Bell has not added much to Tyrwhitt's annotations; he has a conjecture to offer on wyntermyte or vitremyte, and his note on leveselle is clear as far as it goes; but some explanations, e. g: on goliardeys, radevore, poudremarchant, are evasive. His list of words numbers about 4600.

Skeat. The glossary appended by Skeat to his Oxford Chaucer, q. v., may be obtained separately, Oxford 1899.

Flügel. A concordance to the works of Chaucer, by Professor Ewald Flügel, is nearing completion for the Chaucer Society.

SECTION VII.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

A. Some English Libraries

See: the article on Libraries in the Encyclopedia Britannica; Edwards' Memoirs of Libraries, London 1859; Madan, Books in Manuscript, London 1893; Rye's Records and Record-Searching, London 1897; Garnett's Essays in Librarianship and Bibliography, London 1899; Fletcher's English Book-Collectors, London 1902; Quaritch's Dictionary of English Book-Collectors, in progress; Macray's Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford 1890; Bradshaw's Collected Papers, Cambridge 1889; Sinker's Library of Trinity College, Cambridge 1891.

Catalogues of MSS and printed books, where of value to Chaucerian students, are mentioned below or under the sections on manuscripts, III B and IV A here.

Photographic reproductions may be arranged for in Oxford through the Photographic Department of the Oxford University Press. The latest mode of reproduction, the Rotary Bromide (white on black), is less expensive than the usual print or than the employment of copyists; it costs, for work done in Oxford, a single page or opening 11 by 9 inches, one and fourpence; for same 81⁄2 by 534 inches, eightpence. The University Press can also execute work at the British Museum or in Cambridge, for which special arrangement must be made; or photographs can be taken, at the Museum, by artists known to the administration. In all cases permission must be obtained by written application, which must specify the page or pages to be reproduced. For further notes on photography in foreign libraries see Nation 1908 I: 214, 258. Admission to the various libraries is discussed below.

The Library of the British Museum. This library, belonging to the nation, and housed in the Museum building in Great Russell Street, London, West Central District, is the growth partly of individual gift, partly of purchase made by Parliamentary grant, partly of material accruing under the Copyright Act of 1842. To the first of these sources it owes the oldest and most valuable portion of its collections; the four libraries which constitute the nucleus of the Museum library are those called respectively the Royal, the Cotton, the Harley, and the Sloane, from their former owners or donors the Hanoverian Kings, Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, Robert Harley Earl of Oxford, and Sir Hans Sloane. Although these and other libraries, the Arundel, Egerton, Lansdowne, etc., are now an integral part of

510

the national collection, the books and manuscripts are still known, both for deference' and for convenience' sake, by the names of their original owners; and a volume is marked Lansdowne 851, Harley 7333, etc., indicating the collection of which it once formed a part. The classification Adds. (Additionals) indicates a MS acquired by purchase.

Royal. It was not until the accession of the Georges that the purchasing of books became a matter of personal interest to the Sovereign. When George II, in 1757, transferred his library to the nation, it numbered about 12,000 volumes, 2,000 of which were in manuscript.

The characteristic mark of a MS of this collection is Royal or Reg. (Regum) followed by an Arabic numeral, a letter of the alphabet, and a Roman numeral, indicating case and shelfmarks. Thus, Royal 18 D ii. Catalogue by Casley, London 1734.

Cotton. The Cottonian library far surpasses in value and interest that collected by the English Kings. Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1570-1631, who claimed descent from the Bruce of Scotland and cousinship with King James I of England, became involved in political difficulties, and was deprived of his collection by government; the books were however restored to his son, and in 1700 his great-grandson, Sir John Cotton, presented them to the nation. There was at that time no public repository for the collection, and it was stored first in one palace, then in another. In 1731, while it was lying at Ashburnham House, London, along with the King's own volumes, there occurred the famous fire which so seriously injured many of the manuscripts, and destroyed not a few. The unique and priceless copy of the Beowulf, for example, was scorched and mutilated.

The shelfmark of a Cotton MS is noteworthy. The first owner of the MSS kept them in fourteen cases, upon the tops of which were busts of the twelve Caesars and of Faustina and Cleopatra. The volumes were marked accordingly: Cotton Julius B iv, Cotton Cleopatra D vii, Cotton Vitellius A xv, etc. A catalogue of the MSS, by Planta, was published London 1802 folio.

Harley. Robert Harley Earl of Oxford began purchasing in 1705; ten years later he owned 2,500 MSS, and at his death he possessed 6,000, a large part of them valuable for English history. His son the second earl continued the collection, but after his death without issue the first Earl's daughter sold the collection to the nation for £10,000.

The shelfmark is Harley followed by a numeral, Harley 372, Harley 2255, etc.

« PreviousContinue »