AN ECLECTIC LIBRARY.

English Poets, C.

Richard Owen Cambridge.

The Scribleriad: An Heroic Poem. In six books. London: Printed for R. Dosley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-noster-row. 1751.

Chaucer.

The Canterbury Tales. A manuscript from about 1425–1450. We quote the librarian: “The Rosenbach, Free Library of Philadelphia, MS 1084/1. England, 1425-1450. This manuscript, written by two scribes in 199 vellum leaves with illuminated initials and border ornament, contains complete versions of fifteen of the tales: Man of Law, Shipman, Prioress, Rime of Sir Thopas, Melibeus, Monk, Nun's Priest, Doctor, Pardoner, Wife of Bath, Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Second Nun and Canon's Yeoman. It lacks the Prologue, the tales of the Miller, Reeve, and Cook and contains incomplete tales of the Knight, Merchant, Squire, Parson, and Gamelyn. One of 57 major surviving 15th century manuscripts of the tales, it is textually related to the Petworth Ms. and Cambridge Ms. Mm 2.5 (Manly and Rickert's group D).”

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited, from numerous manuscripts, by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D., Ll.D., M.A. Dr. Skeat has sometimes been criticized for his liberal emendations, but he spoke Middle English like a native, and no one was better qualified to correct Chaucer's text. The result is Chaucer's works spelled the way they would have been spelled if all the scribes had been uniformly careful.

Although the volumes are not numbered on the title pages, this is the order given in the General Introduction in the first volume listed here:

Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems. Second edition, 1899.
(Another copy.)

Boethius and Troilus. 1894.
(Another copy.)
(Another copy.)

The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; With an Account of the Sources of the Canterbury Tales. Second Edition, 1900 (reprinted 1926).
(Another copy.)
First edition, 1894.

The Canterbury Tales: Text. Second edition, 1900.
First edition, 1894.

Notes to the Canterbury Tales. 1894.

Introduction, Glossary, and Indexes. 1894.
(Another copy.)
(Another copy.)

Supplement: Chaucerian and Other Pieces. 1897.
(Another copy.)

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Edited from numerous manuscripts by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D., LL.D., Ph.D., M.A. (One-volume edition, without notes.)

Chaucer: The Minor Poems. Edited by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat. Second and enlarged edition. Oxford, 1896.

The Workes of our Ancient and learned English Poet, Geffrey Chaucer, newly Printed. London, Printed by Adam Islip. 1602. —A blackletter folio. The text of the poems is not reliable; syllables are left out, so that the lines do not scan (which poets of the seventeenth century thought was owing to the primitive state of poetry in Chaucer’s day). But it is a beautiful book, and interesting as a document of Chaucer’s reputation two hundred years after his death. There is a very good appreciation of Chaucer by Frauncis Beaumont, who surely learned something from our ancient and learned poet.

Thomas Churchyard

The Worthines of Wales: wherein are more then a thousand seuerall things rehearsed: some set out in prose to the pleasure of the reader, and with such varietie of verse for the beautifying of the Book, as no doubt shall delight thousands to understand. Imprinted at London, by G. Robinson, for Thomas Cadman. 1587. —A good photographic facsimile.