Adventures in Criticism | Page 5

Stratford-le-Bow, where she had
been educated, rather than of Paris.'" So there you have a fact.
And, now you have it, doesn't it look rather like Bitzer's horse?
"Bitzer," said Thomas Gradgrind. "Your definition of a horse?"
"Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders,
four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy
countries sheds hoofs too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with
iron. Age known by marks in mouth." Thus (and much more) Bitzer.
* * * * *
March 30, 1895. The Texts of the "Canterbury Tales."
It follows, I hope, from what I said last week, that by far the most
important service an editor can render to Chaucer and to us is to give us
a pure text, through which the native beauty of the poetry may best
shine. Such a text Professor Skeat has been able to prepare, in part by
his own great industry, in part because he has entered into the fruit of
other men's labors. The epoch-making event in the history of the
Canterbury Tales (with which alone we are concerned here) was Dr.

Furnivall's publication for the Chaucer Society of the famous "Six-Text
Edition." Dr. Furnivall set to work upon this in 1868.
The Six Texts were these:--
1. The great "Ellesmere" MS. (so called after its owner, the Earl of
Ellesmere). "The finest and best of all the MSS. now extant."
2. The "Hengwrt" MS., belonging to Mr. William W.E. Wynne, of
Peniarth; very closely agreeing with the "Ellesmere."
3. The "Cambridge" MS. Gg 4.27, in the University Library. The best
copy in any public library. This also follows the "Ellesmere" closely.
4. The "Corpus" MS., in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
5. The "Petworth" MS., belonging to Lord Leconfield.
6. The "Lansdowne" MS. in the British Museum. "Not a good MS.,
being certainly the worst of the six; but worth reprinting owing to the
frequent use that has been made of it by editors."
In his Introduction, Professor Skeat enumerates no fewer than fifty-nine
MSS. of the Tales: but of these the above six (and a seventh to be
mentioned presently) are the most important. The most important of all
is the "Ellesmere"--the great "find" of the Six-Text Edition. "The best
in nearly every respect," says Professor Skeat. "It not only gives good
lines and good sense, but is also (usually) grammatically accurate and
thoroughly well spelt. The publication of it has been a great boon to all
Chaucer students, for which Dr. Furnivall will be ever gratefully
remembered.... This splendid MS. has also the great merit of being
complete, requiring no supplement from any other source, except in a
few cases when a line or two has been missed."
Professor Skeat has therefore chiefly employed the Six-Text Edition,
supplemented by a seventh famous MS., the "Harleian 7334"--printed
in full for the Chaucer Society in 1885--a MS. of great importance,
differing considerably from the "Ellesmere." But the Professor judges it

"a most dangerous MS. to trust to, unless constantly corrected by others,
and not at all fitted to be taken as the basis of a text." For the basis of
his text, then, he takes the Ellesmere MS., correcting it freely by the
other seven MSS. mentioned.
Now, as fate would have it, in the year 1888 Dr. Furnivall invited Mr.
Alfred W. Pollard to collaborate with him in an edition of Chaucer
which he had for many years promised to bring out for Messrs.
Macmillan. The basis of their text of the Tales was almost precisely
that chosen by Professor Skeat, i.e. a careful collation of the Six Texts
and the Harleian 7334, due preponderance being given to the Ellesmere
MS., and all variations from it stated in the notes. "A beginning was
made," says Mr. Pollard, "but the giant in the partnership had been used
for a quarter of a century to doing, for nothing, all the hard work for
other people, and could not spare from his pioneering the time
necessary to enter into the fruit of his own Chaucer labors. Thus the
partner who was not a giant was left to go on pretty much by himself.
When I had made some progress, Professor Skeat informed us that the
notes which he had been for years accumulating encouraged him to
undertake an edition on a large scale, and I gladly abandoned, in favor
of an editor of so much greater width of reading, the Library Edition
which had been arranged for in the original agreement of Dr. Furnivall
and myself with Messrs. Macmillan. I thought, however, that the work
which I had done might fairly be used for an edition on a less extensive
plan and intended for a less stalwart class of readers, and of this the
present issue