A44. 
Observations on the Language of Chaucer. 
(BaseD ox WkrIGHT'S EDITION or THE CANTERBURY Tares, Harreran MS. No. 7334.) 
Bx F. J. CHILD, 
PROFESSOR IN HARVARD COLLEGE. 
(Communicated June 3, 1862.) 
Tue object of this paper is to do something towards ascertaining the forms of 
words used by Chaucer. This is a matter which is entirely unsettled, though a 
right understanding of it is of great importance for the history of English, and 
an indispensable preliminary to the constructing of an accurate text of the poet. 
In seeking to throw some light upon the many questions involved, some of which 
I have not the least expectation, and do not make the slightest pretence, of decid- 
ing at present, I shall not go beyond Wright’s edition of the Canterbury Tales, 
which I have reason to believe a substantially correct reproduction of one of the 
best manuscripts. The Canterbury Tales do not indeed comprise the half of all 
Chaucer’s poetry, but they extend to more than seventeen thousand verses, in the 
course of which it is clear that all the most important grammatical forms must 
repeatedly occur. The utility, for our purpose, of an examination of the rest of 
the poems would therefore not be great, even were they accessible in a trustworthy 
shape: and this is not the case. On the other hand, a comparison of several, 
if not all, of the best manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, is of the greatest conse- 
quence, and since such a comparison, under existing circumstances, cannot be made, 
many difficulties, as will soon be seen, must be left undecided. Still, a careful and 
minute inspection of one good text of the Canterbury Tales cannot fail to yield re- 
sults of some value; for, should no other purpose be answered, the points in the 
subject of inquiry that most need elucidation will at any rate be strongly brought out. 
It must perhaps be acknowledged to be an extraordinary thing, and to English- 
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