These include some of the very best.
40. The ‘Ellesmere’ MS., in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere;
denoted by E. It formerly belonged to the Duke of Bridgewater, and
afterwards to the Marquis of Stafford. The finest and best of all the MSS.
now extant. Of the A-type; printed as the first of the MSS. in the
Six-text, and taken as the basis of the present edition.
It contains the curious coloured drawings of 23 of the Canterbury
Pilgrims which have been reproduced for the Chaucer Society. At the end
of the MS. is a valuable copy of Chaucer’s Balade of ‘Truth’; see vol.
i. At the beginning of the MS., in a later hand, are written two poems
printed in Todd’s Illustrations of Gower, &c., pp. 295-309, which Todd
absurdly attributed to Chaucer! They are of slight value or interest.
It may suffice to say that, at the beginning of the former poem, we
find _revyved_ rimed with _meved_, and many of the lines in it are too
long; e.g.—‘I supposed yt to have been some noxiall fantasy.’ In the
latter poem, a compliment to the family of Vere, _by_ rimes with
_auncestrye_, and _quarter_ with _hereafter_; and the lines are of
similar over-length, e.g.—‘Of whom prophesyes of antiquite makyth
mencion.’
41. The ‘Hengwrt’ MS., no. 154, belonging to Mr. Wm. W. E. Wynne, of
Peniarth; denoted by HN. A valuable MS.; [xiv] it is really of the A-type,
though the Tales are strangely misplaced, and the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale is
missing. The readings frequently agree so closely with those of E. (no. 40)
that it is, to some extent, almost a duplicate of it. Printed as the second
MS. in the Six-text. It also contains Chaucer’s Boethius (imperfect).
42. The ‘Petworth’ MS., belonging to Lord Leconfield; denoted by PT. A
folio MS., on vellum, of high value. Formerly in the possession of the Earl
of Egremont (Todd’s Illustrations, p. 118). Of the D-type, including
Gamelyn; but the Shipman and Prioress wrongly precede the Man of Law.
Printed as the fifth MS. in the Six-text.
43. The ‘Holkham’ MS., noted by Todd (Illustrations, p. 127) as then
belonging to Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, and now belonging to the Earl of
Leicester. The Tales are out of order; perhaps the leaves are misarranged.
Imperfect in various places; has no Parson’s Tale.
44. The ‘Helmingham’ MS., at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, belonging to Lord
Tollemache. On paper and vellum; about 1460 A.D. For a specimen, see the
Shipman’s Prologue, printed in the Six-text, in the Preface, p. ix*. Either
of the C-type or the D-type.
45-48. Four MSS. in the collection of the late Sir Thos. Phillipps, at
Cheltenham, viz. nos. 6570, 8136, 8137, 8299.
Two of these are mentioned in Todd’s Illustrations, p. 127, as being
‘now [in 1810] in the collection of John P. Kemble, Esq., and in that
belonging to the late Duke of Roxburghe; the latter is remarkably
beautiful, and is believed to have been once the property of Sir Henry
Spelman.’ No. 8299 contains the Clerk’s Tale only.
49-52. Four MSS. belonging to the Earl of Ashburnham; numbered 124-127 in
the Appendix. Of these, no. 124 wants the end of the Man of Law’s Tale and
the beginning of the Squire’s, and therefore belongs to either the C-type
or D-type. Nos. 125 and 126 are imperfect. No. 127 seems to be complete.
53. A MS. belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth; and formerly
to Sir N. L’Estrange. (Of the A-type.)
54. A MS. belonging to Sir Henry Ingilby, of Ripley Castle, Yorkshire. (Of
the A-type.)
55. A MS. belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, at Alnwick; and formerly
to Mrs. Thynne. (Of the A-type.)
[xv] 56. A MS. now (in 1891) in the possession of Lady Cardigan.
57-59. Tyrwhitt uses the symbol ‘Ask. 1’ to denote a MS. lent to him by the
late Dr. Askew. He also uses the symbols ‘Ch.’ and ‘N.’ to denote ‘two MSS.
described in the Preface to Urry’s edition, the one as belonging to Chas.
Cholmondeley, Esq. of Vale Royal, in Cheshire, and the other to Mr. Norton,
of Southwick, in Hampshire.’ Of these, ‘Ch.’ is now Lord Delamere’s MS.,
described by Dr. Furnivall in Notes and Queries, 4 Ser. ix. 353. The others
I cannot trace.
§ 3. THE PRINTED EDITIONS.
In the first five editions, the Canterbury Tales were published separately.
1. Caxton; about 1477-8, from a poor MS. Copies are in the British Museum,
Merton College, and in the Pepysian Library (no. 2053).
2. Caxton; about 1483, from a better MS. A perfect copy exists in St.
John’s College Library, Oxford. Caxton bravely issued this new edition
because he had found that his former one was faulty.