XI. 



Observations on the Language of Gown's Confessio Amantis 



(A Supplement to Observations on the Language of Ghauci m, Memoirs of tab Acadkmt 



New Series, Vol. V1IL Anr. XVI 1.) 



Bt F. J. CHILI), 



PROFESSOR IN HARVARD COLLEGE 



(Communicated January 9, 1806.) 



In a paper communicated to the Academy five years ago, 1 examinee], with more thor- 



(Highness than has usually been thought necessary, certain question relating to the 

 Language of Chaucer. The chief point sought to be determined waa the number of 



syllables in words. A laborious study of the Canterbury Tales, in the only text available 



for the purpose (Harleian MS. No. 7334), led to results on the whole unsatisfactory. 



The reasons why better results were not to be expected are sufficiently Bet forth in that 

 paper. The difficulty arises from that " diversity in English," in Chaucer's time, which 

 makes him put up an earnest prayer (toward the end of Troilus and On nda) that 

 his verses may not be spoiled by the miswriting of copyists and the mismetiing of 

 readers. It was natural that repeated transcriptions, executed while the langcage was 

 changing, should greatly add to the confusion produced by the original diversity, and the 



le outlay of much time and labor; and 

 • until several of the best texts of one 



of the tangled web will now require 



o "* ~ — ~ — n 



not of time and labor only, but also of money ; for until several 

 of the longer poems are furnished, in print, for comparison, no stable conclusion can be 

 reached. Little progress has been made in this direction during the last five years. 

 We have indeed had a new edition* of Chaucer, with new texts of some of the poems, 

 but this edition gives us the already printed Harleian version of the Canterbury 

 Tales over again, so that we do not as yet possess two good texts of any of Chaucer's 



D 



poems 



In the lack of any other means of pushing further the investigation into Ch 





* By Mr. Morris, in Bell & Daldy'a Aldine Toets. Though communicated in 186G, this paper ha* been 



revised, :md may be considered as dating from >.ov., 186i. 



VOL. IX. 



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