POETICAL WORKS ΟΥ GEOFFREY CHAUCER; WITH POEMS FORMERLY PRINTED WITH HIS EDITED, WITH A MEMOIR, BY ROBERT BELL. REVISED EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. WITH A PRELIMINARY ESSAY BY REV. W. W. SKEAT, M.A. VOLUME I. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1878. RGINIA The notes signed S., T., and W., are respectively from Speght's and Tyrwhitt's editions of Chaucer, and Mr. T. Wright's edition of the Harleian MS. (7334) of The Canterbury Tales. Those added to this edition are included in brackets. PRELIMINARY ESSAY. BY THE REV. W. W. SKEAT, M.A. 66 I IN preparing a reprint of the edition of Chaucer's works, usually known as Bell's edition, and originally included in the series of Bell's annotated editions of the English Poets, it seemed advisable to consider what improvements could best be made in order to add to the convenience and value of the work. have ventured to suggest, in particular, that many of the poems might be re-arranged, so as to show more clearly which are the genuine works of the poet, and which are the poems that are probably, and in most cases decidedly, spurious. The Advertisement to the former issue contained the following notice: This edition of Chaucer's works includes all the poems which appear entitled, from internal or external evidence, to be considered genuine;" but it includes, as a fact, a considerable number which are now positively known to be spurious. It did not seem advisable, however, to omit these, because several of them are of considerable interest and value, and are worth having in an accessible form; besides which, they have so frequently been cited as Chaucer's, that their absence would be a practical inconvenience. Indeed, a little consideration will show that many of them crept into the old editions of Chaucer's works because they seemed to be worth preserving, and because to include them in those editions was the easiest way of doing so. To such VOL. I. B |