Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/209

 n s. i. MAR. 12, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1910.

CONTENTS. No. 11.

NOTES : Chaucer : a Curious Misplacement, 201 " Wim- ple" as applied to Running Water, 202 Public School Registers, 203 Sir Roger de Coverley's Portrait Gallery Shakespeare and the Mountjoys Shakespeare Allusions

Catalogues of MSS., 204 Monumental Inscriptions

Alderman Atkins and the Thomason Tracts Tattooed Heads Olney in the Fifteenth Century "Cleric" and the 'N.E.D.' "Rose" in the 'N.E.D.,' 205 "Speculative Glasses" Dr. William Harvey " Punjaub or Burmah head" Making One's Parish, 206.

QUERIES: Cyprus Epitaph H. Hoverlock Place-Names "Raske," 206 George Borrow Queries Chinese Gallery in London Authors Wanted, 207 Scheffelde in Corn Cantite Hole-Silver Guildhall : Old Statues Guildhall MS. on City Churches Schultz's ' My Life as an Indian ' "Literary Gossip" Handley Cross "Bush Inn" at Staines "Cuckoos to clear the mud away" Witham Family La Jeunesse, 208 'The British Chronologist ' "Ljus" Christopher Gale Caxton and Edward IV. "Second Chamber" "Tarnish," 209.

REPLIES : Solly Collection of Pictures, 209 Mrs. Sarah Trimmer Nelson among his Intimates Elizabethan Heraldic Manuscripts, 210 Amphillis Hyde and Charles II. Latin Quotations S. C. T. Demainbray Spare Family Alfred and the Cakes, 211 Rokeby House St. Gratian's Nut 'Abbey of Kilkhampton '" Proud Preston" Clothes and their Influence Penzance Market Cross, 212 John Dyer Capt. Brooke Cpsnahan Family ' Macmillan's Magazine,' 213 Col. Vincent Potter- Strawberry Hill Catalogue, 214 'Alonzo the Brave' Petersfleld Inns, 215 Authors Wanted Sowing by Hand, 216 " Purpose," a Dance, 217.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Chesterton on Thackeray Reviews

and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues, English and Scottish. Notices to Correspondents.

CHAUCER : A CURIOUS MISPLACEMENT.

ONE of the strangest stories with respect to the text of Chaucer is the following.

Near the end of 'The Friar's Prologue* (in ' The Canterbury Tales ' ), after the line now usually called 1. 1294 of Group D, two lines are often wrongly inserted which are quite irrelevant, and present the text in the following form. :

I shal him tellen which a greet honour It is to be a flatering limitour, 1294

And eek of many another maner cryme Which nedeth nat rehercen at this tyme, And his offyce I shal him telle, y-wis. The lines italicized come in here very unhappily, as they have a serious air, whereas the context is highly ironical. The occurrence of the word " of " after ' ' And eek " is also very awkward.

The fact is that, as was first pointed out by Dr. Furnivall in 1885, these two lines should come in a dozen lines below, after

1. 1306 (being the eighth line of ' The Friar's Tale ' ), where they form part of a long sen- tence, of which it suffices to quote the follow- ing :

Of chirche-reves, and of testaments, Of contractes, and of lakke of sacraments, 1306 And eek of many another maner cryme Which nedeth nat rehercen at this tyme ; Of usure, and of symonye also.

The interruption in the former passage is not, however, extreme ; so that there is nothing highly remarkable in the misplace- ment of the lines as such. But when we come to study the history of this misplace- ment, it assumes a most important aspect ; and, unless I am much mistaken, will be considered by future students as furnishing a searching test of the relative value of MSS. of ' The Canterbury Tales. 1

The mere recital of the story is sufficiently startling. It is as follows.

1. The misplacement occurs (i.e., the text is wrong) in Thynne's edition of the ' Tales,'- and in every other printed edition down to 1847, including even the edition by Tyrwhitt, who has no note on the passage.

2. But in 1847-51 Mr. Thomas Wright printed an edition based (for the first time) on the celebrated Harleian MS. 7334, in which the displacement does not occur. Consequently, this edition is here correct, but the editor passes over the fact in silence, though giving many notes.

3. Bell, in 1855, and Dr. Morris, in 1866, follow the same MS., and are here (uncon- sciously) correct.

4. In 1872 Dr. Furnivall printed a " Six- Text " edition of ' The Friar's Tale l (with others). But all the six MSS. are here again wrong. The lines are counted as if they were right.

5. In 1885 Dr. Furnivall printed the Harl. MS. 7334, just as it stands. But, as the paging was made to correspond with that of the Six-Text edition, the fact came out, definitely noticed for the first time, that this MS. is here correct. The lines were renumbered accordingly, so that 11. 1295- 1308 (fortunately, only fourteen lines) do not correspond, as to numbering, with the other six texts. The later editions, by Mr. Pollard and myself, follow this new number- ing, as a matter of course.

6. In 1901 Dr. Furnivall printed, as his eighth text, MS. Dd. 4. 24 in the Cambridge University Library. This MS. goes wrong again as to this point.

Surely the result is startling enough. We see clearly that, of all the MSS. that have as yet been consulted or printed, the Harleian