May 18, 2004

Caxton's Chaucer: View the Original Canterbury Tales. British Library site.
posted by plep 20 years ago
  • I've heard that Chantecleer had a very gentil cock.
  • Rooster, that is. ;)
  • I never knew how much editing must have gone into my Wordsworth Chaucer - thanks!
  • Wonderful how many manuscripts have come online in the past year. Thanks, plep!
  • homunculus: Nope. Sorry to disappoint. great post, plep!
  • ooh! oohh!! medieval lit boner...I mean banana! thanks!!!
  • The Caxton link is a great one, but it's not the original Canterbury Tales. We don't, probably, have the "original" CT. What we have are, (she says, going from memory) about sixty four manuscripts, some complete, but most partial. The two best known CT mss. are the Ellesmere Chaucer, famous for it's illustrations of the pilgrims, and owned by the Huntington Library. Here's an image from the Ellesmere, showing the Wife of Bath's bit from the General Prologue. The other best known ms. of CT, and like the Ellesmere, usually the source for editions, is the Hengwrt Chaucer now in the National Library of Wales. There are Chaucer mss. as well, like Oxford's Corpus Christ MS. 198.