ENGL 511: Textual Variants in Chaucer

Activity 1: Learning to read Adam Pinkhurst's hand

Activity 2: Understanding the nature of edited texts. Here is your question: What do editors do when the textual tradition is not supported by the manuscripts?

Click here to see the end of the Parson's Prologue from the Hengwrt Manuscript.
Click here to see a transcription of this page from Hengwrt.
Click here to see the end of the Parson's Prologue from the Ellesmere Manuscript.
Click here to see a transcription of this page from Ellesmere.
Click here to see the text and notes in the Riverside Chaucer, the standard critical edition.

Activity 3: Understanding the textual authority for critical claims. Here is your question: What do scholars do when the readings of a text vary substantively?

Click here to see the contested passage from the Wife of Bath's Prologue in Hengwrt.
Click here to see the transcript of the contested passage from Hengwrt.
Click here to see the contested passage from the Wife of Bath's Prologue in Ellesmere.
Click here to see the transcript of the contested passage from Ellesmere.

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