Second Stage of the "Getting to Know Some Old Things Very Well" Project: optional extra credit work in Special Collections

        To participate in this extra credit project, whose points will be added to the class-participation portion (20%) of your final grade, first read this "over-view" web page that explains the project's purposes and provides important training links.  Then, contact me by email after you have made an appointment with Tara Olivero, the Curator of Special Collections and Archives, or her assistant, to examine and respond to one of the rare books below.  There are two main "threads" of research at this stage, the Renaissance readers' reception of Chaucer's works, and the Renaissance readers' reception of legendary English history, including the pagan kings such as "Lear," and the Arthurian romances alluded to in the "Wife of Bath's Tale" (MS 1385-1400 / first printed by Caxton in 1478) and translated by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte Darthur (MS 1469-70/ first printed by Caxton in 1485).

I.  Chaucer reception thread:

        1)  Geoffrey Chaucer (trans. Sir Francis Kinnaston), Amorvm Troili et Cresidae.  Libri duo priores Anglico-Latini, 1635

• Why would anyone bother to translate Chaucer's Middle English poem into Latin in 1635?  Read the dedicatory poems, most of which are written in Early Modern English.
• What does the translation say about Chaucer's status and the way Seventeenth-Century English readers understood their own literary past?
• Where was this book printed, and what might that have to do with the readers' response to Kinnaston's labors?
• One of the dedicatory poems differs from all the others in its word choice and syntax.  Which one, why, and how good a job do you think its author is doing at what he attempts to do?

Chaucer, trans. Kinnaston, Amorvm Troili et Creseidae, 1635, images.

        2)  Richard Brathwait, A comment upon the two tales of our ancient, renovvned, and ever-living poet, Sr. Jeffray Chavcer, Knight . . . , 1665

• What kinds of "comments" does Brathwait make on Chaucer, and what kind of critic/interpreter/scholar do you make him out to be?
• What portions of the tales does Brathwait choose for his "comments"?  Pick a portion of the "Miller's Tale" or the "Wife of Bath's Prologue" or "Wife of Bath's Tale" that you know well (consult your Norton Anthology or the Riverside Chaucer), and see what he has to say about it.  What is this guy up to?
• Look up Brathwait's surviving editions that are for sale on www.abe.com and notice what else he writes for sale?  How does his "comment" upon these two Canterbury Tales fit into his agenda as a writer?  What does this tell you about the social consequences of being familiar with Chaucer's work in the mid-Seventeenth-Century, and what does it tell you about readers' linguistic skills?
• Brathwait calls Chaucer "Sir Jeffray" and makes the formal "addition," "Knight," to his name.  This is a significant gesture.  Compare Sir Thomas Malory's "signatures" when he names himself in the explicits or scribal ending-notes of his Morte Darthur at the end of the Grail Quest, at the end of the section Vinaver calls "Launcelot and Guenivere," and at the end of the "Morte" or "hoole boke."  Refresh your memory of Chaucer's biography from the Riveside--was Chaucer ever knighted?  What's Brathwait up to?
• Brathwait's title page is followed by a dedication page invoking the praise and protection of his literary patron.  To whom does he dedicate the book?  What was the patron's rank and status?
• If you are interested in reading Brathwait's original work, the library also has a 1640 edition of his Lancashire Lovers.

Brathwait, A comment upon the two tales of our ancient, renovvvned, and ever-living poet Sr. Jeffray Chavcer, Knight, 1665, images

3)  John Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern: Translated into English from Homer, Ovid, Boccacce, and Chaucer . . . , 1713

• Dryden's selection of a specific Canterbury Tale, his translation of it into late-C18 Modern English, and his juxtaposition of the tale with translations from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio does correspond to what many modern fiction anthologists do.  How does Dryden's decision to "modernize" Chaucer reflect his readers' likely interests, reading skills, and limitations? 
• What other major English poets from the period between 1400 (Chaucer's death) and 1700 (Dryden's death) used Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, or Chaucer as sources of material for original compositions, and how does Dryden's translation relate to the uses they made of those poets? 
• Note that Dryden chooses the "Knight's Tale" from among the Canterbury Tales to be translated beside the works by Ovid.  The titles appear similar.  Is there also a similarity in the themes of each story?  Feel free to use the Oxford or Cambridge Companions and Guides to aid your analysis.
• What significance might Dryden be intending by associating Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio with Chaucer in this Modern English translation?
• What might Dryden's vocabulary and the book's "front matter" mean about the way Middle English now seemed to English readers' eyes and ears?
• If you know "Knight's Tale," compare some passages from Dryden's translation with the original and see how good Dryden is as a translator.  Most critics would call such a translation of one poet's work by another a "reading" or "interpretation" or even a "rewriting" of the original.  Is Dryden taking creative liberties with his subject, and if so, where, when, and why?

II.  English legendary history reception thread:

        1)  John Hardyng, The Chronicle of Ihon Hardyng, (1543)  [Both front and back boards have separated from the binding, and a few initial blank pages are loose, but the remaining binding is firm and the pages are not brittle.  Take care--it's very rare in this edition.]

• Hardyng's Chronicle, then circulating in manuscript form, supplied Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur with the Pentecostal "Round Table Oath" which closes the episodes editor Eugene Vinaver gives the title "Torre and Pellinor" (75-6 in Vinaver's Oxford paper back edition).  It also may have affected Malory's attitude toward the historicity of Arthur, and his importance to the continuity and legitimacy of English hereditary kingship.  Hardyng compiled the work, and created a series of forged "charters" purporting to show Scots lords had sworn homage to English kings, as part of his campaign to support the English king's claims to Scotland, and his own pleas for courtly patronage.  What evidence do you see in the section surtitled "Arthur" that Hardyng saw Arthur as Malory did?
• This volume bears written signs of a former owner's interest specifically in the Arthurian portion of its chronicle.  What do you see this prior reader paying attention to and what does that tell you about the reader's interests?
• Paying attention to the handwriting, instead of what it says, roughly in what century do you think the reader lived, read, and wrote?  What does that tell you, especially in combination with the reader's interests as suggested by what the reader paid special attention to?
• If you are interested in pursuing this subject further, you might be interested in one or more of these studies, especially Lesley Coote's, about the reception of the Arthurian narrative in Early Modern England:

        2)  [John Higgins], The First parte of the Mirour for magistrates (1574) [Rebound, C19--excellent condition.]

• Shakespeare used the "Mirrour" (probably in this edition or the 1576 reprint) to help build his conception of the play which became King Lear.  What part of the text does he draw upon?  Hint: it's not a section called "King Lear," but it does bear the name (differently spelled) of an important character we encounter in the play.  What is different about the way "Mirrour" represents the events and, especially, this character's life and death?
• Look at the author's preface (folio 1 verso) and figure out what circumstances he says led to the creation of this narrative.  What kind of genre is it, and how does it relate to some Medieval works we are reading this semester?  You should be able to make some interesting comparisons, particularly with the introductions of some works by Chaucer.
• Do you detect any signs of owners' inscriptions, or any other clues to their use of the book?
• How can we tell the book was rebound? 
• If you are interested in doing further work with this book, consult Lily Campbell's scholarly edition of the Huntington Library's copy (826.3 M67 1946).     

Imaging for Goucher's copy of Higgins, The First parte of the Mirour for magistrates : containing the falles of the first infortunate princes of this lande : from the comming of Brute to the incarnation of our sauiour and redemer Iesu Christe.  Imprinted at London by Thomas Marshe. Anno. 1574. Cum Priuilegio  PR2199 .M57 1574      Title page;  "The contentes of the Booke" with "Cordila" chapter 10 in context.